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.
While conflict with Israel gets the most press in the U.S., the primary conflict in the Mideast is between Saudi Arabia (along with Turkey) seeking Sunni influence in the region and working to counter Shia Iran. The conflict in Syria, for instance, is largely a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Saudis have fought Iran-backed rebels in Yemen over the past several years.
Part of this conflict is a 3.5 year old blocked of Qatar by the UAE and Saudi Arabia which ended Tuesday, and the first Qatar Airways flight has just flown through Saudi airspace.
I’ve gone ahead and booked a couple more sets of 3 business class award roundtrips for later in 2021 thanks to United opening up award seats across the board on many of its toughest to get routes like Houston – Sydney and San Francisco – Singapore. There are even dates where you’ll find 9 or more business class award seats available.
Other open destinations include San Francisco – Bangalore, San Francisco – Tel Aviv, and Newark – Venice (albeit this last with only modest availability).
Air Canada and Virgin Australia are now partners. Aeroplan redemptions on Virgin Australia are even available for online booking already.
iThe woman sort of seems to be claiming self defense arguing she was ‘hit on her shoulder’ but no other passenger saw this and she didn’t contemporaneously inform a flight attendant, she just went all Stand Your Ground on the kids’ mother instead. She says that’s because her “first reaction was to fight,” which is everything you hope for in an airline passenger. “You do what you got to do,” she says.
Love and Hip Hop star Chinese Kitty got into a fight with Instagram model Baddy Gi on board a United Airlines flight – and wound up banned from United.
In video taken on the plane you can see a man standing between the two attention-hounds trying to keep them apart. Chinese Kitty, born Taylor Hing, is known for her work on the Miami version of the television series. She attacks “Baddy Gi” and then starts to leave the aircraft – only to realize she left her Birkin bag on the plane. She’s carrying a bag that can run $12,000 to $200,000 while flying coach.
Several conflicts happened on planes with passengers heading to DC ahead of Congress counting electoral votes and declaring Joe Biden the next President of the United States.
Whether it was heckling Mitt Romney on Delta or a maskless party on Southwest, the incidents weren’t limited to any single airline. But American Airlines is by far the largest carrier at close-in Washington National airport.
Howard Altman, the Managing Editor for Military Times, documented his Southwest Airlines flight to DC on Tuesday filled with “Fight For Trump” cheers.
Southwest Airlines for its part takes to twitter to note they have mask policies. Here, on this flight, those weren’t enforced. But Southwest found itself in a difficult position.
On an American Airlines flight from Dallas to DC yesterday a passenger projected “Trump 2020” onto the ceiling of the aircraft. I’ve finally found the video.
A year after the U.S. assassinated Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Irans troops responsible for clandestine operations against other nations, a digitally altered voice was broadcast to New York air traffic controllers announcing that a plane would be flown into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
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 »
