Stephen McIntyre called himself the ‘Tampa Gift Card King’ and after $10 million in volume faces five years and three months behind bars for “conspiracy to commit money laundering.”
Last Saturday evening a Puerto Rico National Guard soldier was attacked by an arriving passenger after the guardsman asked the man to wear a mask and fill out a Covid-19 health declaration. The man, who reportedly smelled of alcohol, objected to the mask and health form requirement – and other passengers and local health care workers in protective gear dove for cover to stay out of the way of his objections.
When the man was arrested he yelled, “It’s gonna be all on social media.” That’s true, but perhaps not in the exculpatory way he’d hoped.
A London Heathrow-based flight attendant for British Airways has deleted most of her social media accounts as an airline investigation is underway to uncover her identity, after the a U.K. newspaper revealed that she offered illicit onboard entertainment to passengers for a fee.
On Tuesday the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report on the perimeter rule at Washington National airport. Limits are placed on the distance flights can operate from the airport in order to limit congestion and noise and to protect Dulles airport for longer haul traffic.
The Boeing 737 MAX is officially allowed to fly again in commercial service. A lot of things need to take place before that happens, but while Southwest Airlines plans to take 4-5 months to get the plane back in the air, American Airlines is far more aggressive – planning to fly it again on December 29th.
Employees of American Airlines and its wholly-owned regional carriers (Enjoy, Piedmont, and PSA) and of the American Airlines Credit Union are being invited to take one of five ‘flights to nowhere’ on the Boeing 737 MAX before it re-enters commercial service at the end of December.
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.
The Department of Transportation is the primary avenue passengers have to see redress when being treated unfairly or otherwise harmed by an airline. Since airlines can’t be as heavily regulated as other industries elsewhere, and lawsuits against them are harder too, DOT was granted broad latitude to combat “unfair and deceptive” practices by airlines.
A new DOT rule defines unfair and deceptive more narrowly than in the past, and these new definitions will have to be used going forward when the considering consumer protections.
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.
After contracting disputes, the government walked away from private contracts to build the airport in 2003, and instead handed out 30-40 contracts to smaller companies and decided to oversee the project itself – which they lacked the expertise to do – instead of hiring an experienced design-build firm responsible for delivering on a budget. The airport didn’t just take 23 years, it came in at triple the cost too.
Effective 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, December 2 visitors to the Hawaiian island of Kauai will have to quarantine for 14 days on arrival. Pre-travel testing for Covid-19 will no longer excuse arriving passengers from this requirement, as the Governor of Hawaii approved a request by the Mayor of Kauai to opt out of the state’s testing program.
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 »
