Delta and JetBlue have quietly begun charging passengers to check bags curbside at some airports, turning what used to be a convenience into yet another fee. The change looks small at $3.50, but it is part of a bigger shift: outsourcing a once-premium service, lowering labor costs, and monetizing the airport curb instead of treating it as part of the ticket.
United mechanics say their own union let United turn a contract wage-reset formula into a black box, leaving employees short of raises that were supposed to keep them ahead of peers at American and Delta. A judge just threw out most of the case, but the ruling still leaves mechanics one narrow path to challenge the pay process through a grievance on their own.
Airlines keep pointing to higher fuel costs when they raise bag fees, and that is rhetorically powerful because passengers understandably expect lower costs to mean lower prices. But that is not how airline pricing really works: fees are one tool carriers use to manage total revenue, and they have no reason to promise those fees will fall just because one input cost does.
A passenger boarded a flight with a boarding pass for seat 27E, only to discover that there was no 27E on the aircraft at all. The most likely explanation is a last-minute aircraft swap that changed the seat map without giving the traveler a new boarding pass.
A Priority Pass member says Minute Suites at BWI charged a mandatory $5.30 “cleaning fee” just to enter, and Priority Pass’s response suggested lounges and airport services can tack on extra charges outside its policy. it’s a warning that undisclosed lounge add-ons could turn access into drip pricing.
Citi has its best-ever offer for the AAdvantage Business World Elite Mastercard — 75,000 miles after $5,000 spend and no annual fee the first year. Lots of approvals reported.
American Airlines delayed a flight because its pilot was stuck in line at Starbucks, which says less about the pilot than it does about the airline’s coffee. For years, cheap onboard coffee has had a hidden operational cost: when crews go hunting for something better in the terminal, passengers wait.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says one of his most important work habits is closing the office door for a daily nap, because tired people should not be making big decisions. Also Hyatt’s May 7 award devaluation, Delta’s AI dreams for air traffic control, bag fee hikes spread again, and a the Seats.aero trial grinds forward.
United flight attendants are finally getting a raise after more than five years without one, and this tentative deal will likely pass after last summer’s overwhelming rejection. But the new agreement also shows the cost of delay: compared to the deal they turned down, each crewmember is effectively giving up thousands in retro pay and lost boarding pay gains while just getting back to industry-standard wages overall.
A software company promised employees a tropical, Survivor-style retreat in Honduras, but the trip started collapsing before most people even arrived. What followed was a week of resignations, food safety problems, brutal team-building drills, and a stranded island group — the sort of corporate offsite disaster that should have been called off long before anyone boarded a plane.
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 »
