American Airlines flight AA60 from Tokyo Narita to Dallas-Fort Worth diverted to Seattle on Wednesday after declaring a ‘level 3 security alert’ which the FAA defines as “life-threatening behavior.”
There was loud screaming in the cabin as well as “approximately 10 loud bangs” and three flight attendants were punched and kicked.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Marriott and Hyatt no longer require vaccinated guests to wear masks indoors at U.S. properties, except where required by law. Employees will still wear masks. Hilton, though, still requires indoor masking.
In the midst of the worst storm Texas has seen in many decades in Februry, the state’s junior Senator Ted Cruz took his family out of the country. Amidst a backlash he changed his plans and returned home. He blamed his family for the mishap, saying he was just escorting the kids and always planned to return but that story turned out to be… less than accurate.
Now Cruz is poking fun at himself, with Houston media touting low fares to Cancun on Sun Country Airlines. Naturally he’s getting roasted on social media for it.
Greece is already open to Americans. France says it is opening June 9. Spain has said it is opening. Now the European Union has come to an agreement to accept vaccinated visitors this summer, and this is expectted to be passed by member states. The specific re-opening date when Americans will be able to enter without a Covid-19 test or quarantine remains to be set, as countries determine how they plan to verify vaccination.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – the same people who brought you millimeter wave scanners at TSA checkpoints – are developing a new scanner so you won’t have to take off your shoes at airport security.
This project blasts these same millimeter waves at your feet, cutting down on the shoe carnival for flyers who lack precheck and reducing the time in line for passengers that no longer have to take their shoes off and put them back on.
15 properties that were not included in Marriott’s list of changes for 2021 went up or down in category.
They went up some time between the list’s publication and now, with 11 of the 15 going up in category (charging more points for hotels despite the pandemic’s historic blow to travel) and 4 hotels going down in category.
American Airlines reports they are “investigating” a pilot for his comments on social media and on a podcast about a diversity curriculum for his local Dallas-area school district.
The pilot has blasted the curriculum online, and the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition which supports it. They, in turn, went to American Airlines claiming their employee is harassing them and sought to cancel him.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
At the beginning of the month I reported that Hilton had raised the top price of an award night to 150,000 points and that this applies only to the Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives. Some redemption nights there are 120,000 points, however.
When this was discovered there were no redemption nights available at all. Even with the higher pricing it wasn’t possible to spend Hilton points for a standard room, and could only use ‘points as money’ to book rooms based on the prevailing room rate (which can cost over a million points per night). All of a sudden that’s changed so act fast.
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 »
