SEC filings on the Alaska Airlines acquisition of Virgin America show that there were actually four airlines interested in Virgin America. Alaska was potentially interested at $44.75 a share….and finally agreeing to pay $57 a share.
The Mileage Plan program is said to be key to the merger’s success. Alaska’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Harrison who shares the carrier’s thinking on sticking with a miles-based frequent flyer program.
Silvercar is opening at Newark May 9 at Wally Park. I never rent cars in New York, but if I were headed somewhere other than Manhattan I probably would. I love Silvercar and am always thrilled to see them expanding to key markets.
First time Silvercar users get $25 when referred by someone (for a limited time the referrer gets $50 — double the previous amount). This is my referral link, feel free to leave yours in the comments if you’d like.
JetBlue had a passenger choose to urinate at their seat. So did an Air India passenger. Now that it’s happened a third time in eight months this is officially a thing.
On Saturday night’s later of two San Francisco – Charlotte redeyes, American Airlines flight AA1944, a passenger urinated on the floor of the aircraft.
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.
I tend to avoid the ultra low cost carriers in the U.S. If an airline doesn’t participate in PreCheck I’m going to have to spend more time in transit, getting to the airport earlier. If they don’t have inflight internet I won’t be as productive. And without a redundant route network, it can be difficult ensuring I get where I’m going in the event something goes wrong.
One other unique feature of low cost carrier life, though, is that it enables people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to fly to travel more efficiently. That’s great from a societal standpoint, but it can also create culture clash. The profile of an ultra low cost carrier traveler isn’t the same as that of a business traveler.
Goodness knows Americans behave badly at the airport especially when flights are delayed or they find themselves pitted against other passengers over scarce room onboard. But Americans have no monopoly on bad behavior.
And passengers behaving badly has become almost a cliche in China, like opening the aircraft door and popping the slide while looking for the bathroom or using one airline ticket to eat in an airport lounge for a year.
I have an unlocked Mifi hotspot. I can stick any sim card in it I want. So if I’m going to be in a country for awhile and need mobile data, I can stick a local sim card in it for the best rates.
But if I’m going to be there just a short time, I’ve been using Gigsky. Their sim card lets me buy a local plan for a fixed amount of data through their app. I get better data rates than roaming and faster speeds than T-mobile (3G/4G versus 2G). I have to buy a new prepaid plan for each country I visit, though.
Via ScottC there may be an even better solution.
There’s a new BBC documentary exploring alternate theories of what happened to the Malaysia Airlines MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that crashed on July 17, 2014 after being shot down. The Boeing 777-200ER was carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew. All were killed.
It’s fairly settled that the plane was shot down by a surface to air missile filed from within Ukraine, in an area controlled by pro-Russian forces (the “Donbass People’s Militia”). However, this new BBC documentary explores alternate — pro-Russian — theories of the event.
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.
Rosalind “Roz” Cole was an agent who represented several celebrities including Andy Warhol, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland. She owed $1 million to the Waldorf Astoria in New York when she died.
She stopped paying years ago and refused to leave. Her family doesn’t want her estate – worth more than $2 million – to pay because the property should have “resolved [this] while Cole was alive.”
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 »
