Delta Quietly Ends Fixed Price Mileage Upgrades

by Gary Leff

first class seats
Feb 16 2019

Back in December Delta introduced the ability to upgrade with miles any time — from purchase leading up to travel. Your miles are worth only about a penny apiece and they charge you the difference in fare between what you bought and the price of the more premium option.

At the time, and leading up to when this was launched, I suggested that this could replace traditional mileage awards — where there are capacity controls, the airline makes seats available for upgrade they don’t expect to sell, and you pay a fixed (discounted) mileage price for those seats.

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US Border Officer Detained Two Women for Speaking Spanish – at a Montana Convenience Store

by Gary Leff

Feb 16 2019

Coming back into the US frequent flyers know the drill. We clear immigration, pick up our checked bags and walk them through customs, and drop them back off if we’re connecting. Don’t take photos. You -have very few rights here.

But did you know that most Americans can be stopped and questioned about their reasonable presence when they’re grocery shopping, going to the gym, or walking their dogs?

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How to Check if Your Personal Information Was Part of the Massive Marriott Data Breach

by Gary Leff

passport
Feb 15 2019

There’s a new website managed by OneTrust that lets you check if your information was part of the Marriott data breach.

In all 383 million records were hacked including 5.25 million unencrypted passport numbers, 8.6 million payment cards (most expired). Marriott has not revealed whether the notes they’ve taken on you were revealed.

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Starting in June US Airlines Will Offer New Gender Options When Booking Tickets

by Gary Leff

Feb 15 2019

US airline trade group Airlines 4 American confirms that it has “approved a new international standard that will allow for ‘unspecified’ and ‘undisclosed’ in addition to ‘male’ or ‘female.’”

Effective June 1, 2019 this accommodates passengers who have an ‘X’ on their IDs for gender. This is currently an option for state IDs from Arkansas, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington, D.C.

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Great Business Class Award Availability to Tahiti

by Gary Leff

Feb 15 2019

French Polynesia is one of the toughest awards to book, because service is limited. There aren’t a lot of options for getting there, even if you’re willing to connect. The major carrier is Air Tahiti Nui, which serves Los Angeles – Papeete. Air France also operates that route three times a week. United flies three days a week from San Francisco and has good award space in coach. Hawaiian flies Saturday service from Honolulu.

Whether or not business class awards are possible is a yes/no proposition (usually no). There’s not a lot of tricks to make it happen. Although right now Air Tahiti Nui which is an American Airlines and Delta partner is making great business class award space available for two passengers between Los Angeles and Papeete, Tahiti for October through December.

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