American Airlines flight 2558 from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas took an hour-long mechanical delay on Thursday morning. On Facebook, a flight attendant shared that “naturally everyone has a connection in Dallas.” However one lady in particular approached for help, looking “very distraught.”
Apparently her whole family was traveling on to Guadalajara, Mexico for a funeral and it wasn’t looking like they were going to make it.
Video is circulating of the owner of the Crown Choice Inn & Suites in Mackinaw City, Michigan kicking a woman out of his hotel with her family late at night, after she complains about flooding in her room. A police report is involved.
In video taken by the hotel guest, a man who identifies himself as part of the family that owns the property tells her she’s a “dumb Democrat” for not realizing she becomes responsible for her room’s plumbing once she stays there:
Starting today, Alaska Airlines MVP Gold 75K members and a companion are eligible for same day space available complimentary upgrades on “500-Mile eligible short haul markets.” That is, most domestic, Canada, Mexico, Central America and Caribbean flights. Up until now they’ve been offered ‘day of departure upgrades’ at check-in, if those are available, but not added to the airport upgrade standby list.
Here’s full detail on how these upgrades work for Alaska’s top tier elite frequent flyers.
For years members have been able to take advantage of a very generous Marriott policy that allows locking in awards in unlimited quantity just in case you want them later. They’ve tamped down on this a little bit over time, but not a lot. And since booking awards at hotels where there’s limited space hurts other members by keeping them from redeeming awards, I don’t have a real problem with their clamping down further.
In a video going viral in social media, an American Airlines passenger being confronted by law enforcement demands to see “the manager of the airport!” The woman says her name is Teri Ann, but we all know her as Karen.
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American Airlines refers to its premium long haul and cross country product as ‘Flagship’ and even calls its business class lounges Flagship. Delta used the term Flagship in releases – in its ordinary sense of the term, describing something as being premier – when talking about its Atlanta Sky Club, its business class suite, and its Airbus A350. American sued. The case has settled on the eve of trial.
The FAA usually sees 100 – 150 cases of bad inflight behavior filed with them each year. Already this year there have been 2500, 1900 of which have deal with refusal to wear a mask. Most inflight disturbances don’t make it to the FAA.
We’ve seen a real increase in inflight conflicts, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. There are generally five reasons why we’re heading towards a new peak.
On Tuesday I wrote about the American Airlines plan to reduce labor costs with ‘single agent boarding’. Airline CFO Derek Kerr brought up the plan at an investment conference after saying that employees just “have to work harder in certain areas.”
This is going to be a disaster for customers, and tough on employees.
Reciprocal mileage and status-earning on all flights operated by either airline is now available to members of both the TrueBlue and AAdvantage programs. Codeshares – which can be challenging for consumers – are no longer required.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
