View from the Wing Archives.
Palm Beach airport has officially been renamed for President Trump, with its code changing from PBI to DJT by the FAA (but not by IATA until next month). Airline systems are updating unevenly, leaving passengers seeing both codes during the transition – or still just PBI.
Hotels aren’t selling you a 24-hour stay—they’re selling a shrinking window, and long-haul travelers feel it most. Arrive early, check in late; depart overnight, check out hours before you leave—so you end up paying for nights you can’t use.
Police in Raipur arrested serial hotel scammer Bingson John after he allegedly skipped out on a Hyatt Raipur bill and took a hotel-provided laptop. Authorities say he has spent more than 30 years duping hundreds of luxury hotels across India, presenting himself as a tour guide, teacher, or yoga instructor, treating jail as “home” and high-end hotels as vacation.
All-business class airline Beond is two months behind paying staff, according to an internal memo, while asking crew to keep flying charters so it can secure funding and cover back pay. The airline has paused scheduled Maldives service for the summer and says Middle East conditions have made cash management difficult.
Smugglers keep hiding Dubai gold in aircraft lavatories because India’s high import taxes create a lucrative arbitrage, especially on routes from the Gulf. Also: a United speakerphone meltdown, fish slime on a checked bag, forced gate-checking despite empty bins, a Citi-to-Accor transfer bonus, and a Wizz Air pop song.
The UK is developing a disruptive passenger blacklist that could let one airline’s ban follow a traveler across other carriers. That may sound appealing when someone assaults crew or forces a diversion, but without clear standards, due process, fixed limits, and meaningful appeal rights, it risks turning airline customer-service disputes into government-coordinated travel bans by private companies.
Milan may open its close-in Linate airport to long-haul flights for the first time — but only if every seat is business class. The draft carveout would let premium passengers skip faraway Malpensa for all-business narrowbody flights, with New York the obvious first target, while economy passengers remain shut out of the city’s most convenient airport.
GHA Discovery now lets you earn hotel elite status without staying a single night. The program’s new Blacklane partnership awards status and credits based on chauffeur rides — up to Titanium after 11 rides — and the benefits can stack with Blacklane rebates, vouchers and Citi Strata Elite’s $200 annual Blacklane credit.
Spirit Airlines’ collapse has become a political Rorschach test: one side says blocked mergers killed it, another says deregulation and Wall Street did, and some are using it to argue for nationalizing the airlines entirely. They are all reaching too hard. Spirit’s failure says less about capitalism failing than about what happens when policy tries to over-engineer an industry.
United’s economy seats are tight enough that some tray tables now have cutouts for passenger bellies — which is either bleak or oddly pragmatic. Also: American admits broken seats mean passengers aren’t getting the product they paid for, the 50-day London-to-Calcutta bus makes Landline look easy, and the Philadelphia Centurion Lounge wine list gets more interesting.
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 »
