Tag Archives for trump.
With United’s Oscar Munoz, Marriott’s Arne Sorneson, and the CEOs of Carnvial Cruise Lines, Hilton Hotels, and Starwood Capital on the important panel to bring back the economy, here are the steps we can expect the country to take.
In December New York State law began allowing undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses and stopped sharing applicant information with immigration enforcement agencies.
Wednesday evening the Trump administration announced that because New York passed this law, “New York residents are no longer eligible to enroll in these Trusted Traveler Programs” including Global Entry.
Three years ago, shortly after President Trump entered office, he issued an executive order that, among other things, banned visas for people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — even for those who have been living in the U.S. in valid employment or student status but who need new visas for re-entry.
Now the Trump administration is considering an expanded travel ban that targets additional countries.
This is much better than the olden days when everyone on a plane watched the same thing because there were just overhead monitors, and one thing playing on all of them. On an American Airlines flight from Sydney to Honolulu to Dallas back in 1991 they kept playing John Goodman’s King Ralph over and over – and I wanted to impeach the airline’s Vice President of Inflight.
he President’s personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, was fired on Thursday. On Friday the story came out that she had made comments at an off-the-record dinner with reporters August 17th hosted by deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley which got back to the White House.
Apparently Ms. Westerhout, after “a couple drinks and in an uncharacteristically unguarded moment,” made comments which – once reported back to the White House – made her continued employment untenable. That’s not the part of the story I’m interested in.
The meeting lasted an hour, during which “there was a lot of yelling.” I think my favorite part has to be that “the president ribbed American Airlines CEO Doug Parker over his company’s flagging stock price, asking why it’s so low at a time when the stock market is surging.”
In the end American, Delta, and United were told by the President to follow the legal process they’ve so far in their 4 year saga been unwilling to follow, knowing that their case would fail on the merits at the Department of Transportation.
Donald Trump used to own a whole airline. He purchased the Eastern Shuttle in 1989 and renamed it the Trump Shuttle. He lost $100 million on the deal, and also lost big in a takeover attempt of American Airlines the same year. The Trump Shuttle is now the American Airlines shuttle.
Trump does still own a Boeing 757 (as well as a Cessna). He acquired the jet in 2011.
They were both on American Airlines regional flights. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the son of the President, or if you have an unlimited scope and the full resources of the federal government at your disposal to investigate that President. Everyone is brought down to size at Gate 35X. Truly, it is the most humbling aviation experience in the country.
I’ve written before that the previous administration could have closed the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and just moved terrorism suspects to this gate.
Transportation committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Airlines for America) gave up on reform at the end of February. Just weeks before “word had been passed quietly to supporters that Shuster finally believed he had enough votes to bring the FAA reauthorization bill (which included the ATC corporation section) to the House floor the week of March 12th” yet the idea quickly died.
Here’s why.
The aviation world was apoplectic this week at the suggestion that President Trump’s personal pilot John Dunkin could be named to head the FAA. It may have just been payback for the FAA eliminating navigation waypoints named for Trump in 2015. However Trump has been on record for awhile saying the agency should be headed by a pilot.
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 »
