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.
Delta Air Lines just announced a 5% across-the-board pay increase for its non-union workforce. It’s the third year in a row of pay increases, and follows February’s $1.4 billion profit-sharing payout.
The airline is also instituting a new $19 per hour minimum starting wage. Both changes go into effect June 1, and combine for an annualized expected cost of $500 million in increased wages. Minimum starting wage employees will earn $5,000 more per year than they currently do.
You can usually hold a reservation – preserving its price, though technically not guaranteed until ticketing – for 24 hours. But customers could pay a fee to extend this to 3, 5, or 7 days. Those paid extended hold options are no longer being sold.
A bipartisan California bill would ban CLEAR in the state’s airports. Sponsors view the service, which identifies passengers through their biometrics and escorts them to the front of security queues in exchange, as anti-egalitarian.
A New York City-based family filmed the start of their vacation flight, departing Newark on United Airlines. They brought their Yorkshire Terriers alone, buying each of the two dogs a seat in business class. The dogs, Amy and Emily, are “task-trained service animals” according to their owner. Do you believe them?
American Express drops SiriusXM from eligibility for its $20 per month ‘digital entertainment credit’. I’ve been using that credit for my New York Times digital subscription and for SiriusXM. However, SiriusXM charges will only be rebated through May 7th.
At what point does fighting over $11 stop being worth it? I’m going to spend more than $11 worth of my time getting this addressed. Yet it will bother me more than $11’s worth for Marriott to keep the $11.
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.
Passengers arriving into the country at Miami International Airport faced immigration lines stretching up to six hours long on Saturday evening. Video shows the line just to get into the immigration hall.
Delta Air Lines is working with the U.S. government so that connecting passengers arriving off of international flights won’t have to collect their checked baggage and drag it through customs themselves. Starting with flights arriving from Tokyo Haneda, and potentially by the end of the year, passengers will be able to check bags through to their final connecting destinations in the United States. Update: the pilot of this program will begin at Seoul Incheon airport, not Tokyo Haneda.
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 »
