Tag Archives for lax.
An American Airlines Airbus A321 without passengers on board collided with a shuttle bus in Los Angeles on Friday evening. The plane was being pulled by a tug to park in a remote location, and the shuttle was carrying passengers between the American terminal and the remote ‘Eagles Nest’ building for regional flights.
The fire department treated five people at the scene. Four people were hospitalized.
When the Marriott LAX rolled out this extra charge ‘to protect their workers’ it was $10.72 per night. Two months later they’ve already increased the fee to $13.87 per night – a 29% increase.
At 1004 rooms, this hotel has the potential to generate $5,082,800 per year with their new Worker Protection charge. They aren’t required to spend the money on worker protection (indeed they won’t). Even at 80% occupancy that’s $4 million a year, most of which goes to the hotel’s bottom-line.
American Airlines dropped Los Angeles as its gateway to Asia. The remaining long haul flights American operates from LAX are to joint venture partner hubs – Tokyo, Sydney, and London.
American Airlines was losing money on it’s Los Angeles – Asia flying before the pandemic because, they believe, these markets were too competitive. And South America doesn’t work for them out of LA, either. So they’re focused on domestic flying. That makes their LA-based pilots, who don’t have the opportunities to fly widebodies, unhappy.
Surcharges have exploded at Marriott hotels, as well as other chains. Whether it’s fees to cover the light bulbs in your room, extra charges to cover a hotel’s property tax or gotcha charges for paying a bill by credit card (even Marriott’s own credit card).
Still a fee per night that guests now have to pay to protect housekeepers at the Marriott LAX still surprised me.
Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time reviewed the Hyatt House/Hyatt Place LAX and offered “I wouldn’t stay again, because I have issues supporting the owner and developer of the property (Aaron Schock).” He did not explain further, so I thought I would offer ‘the rest of the story.’
Schock is a former Illinois Republican Congressman who was indicted (but paid a fine as part of a deferred-prosecution agreement) for misappropriation of campaign funds. He came out as gay in 2020, but had a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign.
A woman waiting to check in with Southwest Airlines in Los Angeles tells another passenger, an African American man, that he’s entitled – while a Southwest employee asks her to move up in line. It seems like he’d asked her to move forward when there was plenty of room in front of her, she didn’t, and she got mad over having been asked – although exactly what transpired before the video was filmed isn’t clear.
This passenger, dubbed “LAX Karen,” yells and makes a fist at the agent who asked her to move up. That puts her on the verge of being “escorted out” of the check-in area. That’s when another agent jumps into the chat.
There is “nothing planned” for re-opening LAX Flagship First Dining, but American is very close to re-opening the main Charlotte Admirals Club.
The American Express Centurion lounge at LAX wasn’t open long, thanks to the pandemic and need for repairs. But the exact nature and timeline of these repairs has remained a mystery until now.
American Airlines pilots, as a group, aren’t happy. Their union advises people not to come work for the airline. Usually unions want.. more members, not fewer.
In Los Angeles, though, their pilots have a special beef: they don’t get to fly as many places as they used to. In particular, widebody pilots have almost nowhere to go.
Delta held a ribbon-cutting for the terminal 2-3 headhouse at LAX today. It opens to passengers April 20.
There was something striking about the event. The audience was well-masked, per federal regulations. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Delta CEO Ed Bastian? Not so much.
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 »
