United Airlines will increase capacity 4 to 6% each year, thru 2020. Is this a wise strategy or a fool’s errand that will inevitably trigger a price war? We know what the market thinks. In response to the capacity increase...
Flight Attendants Ordered to Pay Model $100K for Spilling Soup on Her
Nearly four years later, a fashion model has prevailed in her battle for restitution from Asiana Airlines and the FAs who scalded her with soup. It was March 17, 2014 and the model, who is only known as Chang, was...
Review: Delta 767-300 Business Class Honolulu to Los Angeles
Delta offers a daily 767 widebody service between Los Angeles and Honolulu, featuring fully lie-flat beds in business class. This was the primary reason I chose this particular flight to travel home from Honolulu to LA. I outline the...
How Much is Too Much for a Hotel Room?
An open-ended question: do you have an absolute dollar limit on what you’ll spend on a hotel room or does it always vary by location and date? I realize this limits me from most higher end hotels like the...
United Airlines Adds Special Super Bowl Flights to MSP
United Airlines is adding several flights to and from Minneapolis for Super Bowl LII early next month. United already flies into Minneapolis 26 times each day from its hubs around the country. Just for the “Big Game” weekend, United...
Airline Ramp Handlers Caught Stealing Hundreds of Computers
Greed causes people to do horrible things…like steal laptops and mobile phones from rural school children. But justice is now being served. Six ramp handlers for Ravn Air, an Alaska Airlines partner and regional airlines in Alaska, used their trusted...
Virgin Atlantic Shows How to Be Honest
I give airlines a lot of flak on Live and Let’s Fly for the duplicitous double standards many engage in. Most center around consumer-unfriendly polices like waiting to days or weeks to cancel so-called “mistake fares” while strictly penalizing...
How to Tell What Hotel you are Getting on Hotwire BEFORE Paying
Those shopping for great quality and a great value often turn to Hotwire for cut-rate prices at fine hotels. Now you can know exactly which hotel you’ll receive before making your blind purchase…at least in some cities. Hotwire offers...
Charlatan Kenneth Copeland Flaunts His New Private Jet
Charlatan televangelist Kenneth Copeland has purchased a new private jet with the financial gifts of desperate and confused dupes. How’s that for an unbiased opener? Why not live and let live? Why not just let this go? If people...
Finally, a Suite Upgrade at Hyatt Regency Mainz!
For years I have been a regular guest at Hyatt Regency Mainz, located just 20-minutes from Frankfurt Airport. But in all these years and in all these stays, I’ve never received a suite upgrade…until my stay last week. The...
First Impressions of Vietnam Airlines A350 Business Class
I’m back in Europe after a 13hr flight onboard a brand-new Vietnam Airlines A350 aircraft. What is Vietnam Airlines like in long-haul business class? Vietnam Airlines has taken delivery of 10 A350 aircraft since 2015. The first five were...
Review: American Express Centurion Lounge Hong Kong (HKG)
The beautiful new American Express Centurion Lounge in Hong Kong represents an excellent new addition to the AMEX lounge network. I arrived at the airport nearly 2.5 hours before my flight to Chicago and thus had plenty of time...
How Does the “Serial Stowaway” Sneak Past Security Checkpoints and Onto Airplanes?
Marilyn Hartman, who has become a folk hero for slipping past TSA checkpoints and onto airplanes undetected, has struck again. This time she not only bypassed security at Chicago O’Hare, but managed to sneak onto a British Airways flight...
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: January 21, 2018
Hello from Zurich. I’m in the midst of an extended business trip, anxious to get home, but trying to appreciate the time in one of my favorite countries. I’ve already been to Qatar, Vietnam, Germany, and Malta. Austria, Italy,...
Video: Passengers Brace for Emergency Landing
An American Airlines flight operated by Mesa Airlines on January 17th, departed Phoenix, Arizona and made an emergency landing in Dallas/Ft.Worth. The mechanical issue stemmed from a broken fan which caused smoke in the cockpit. Footage A video taken...
Hilton Award Hack Or Bad Tech?
During a period of maintenance to the Hilton Honors website I was able to secure prices that beat the Dynamic Pricing engine. Was this a case of luck, a new award pricing hack, or just bad technology? If you...
United Airlines’ Limited Global Services Challenge
Status challenges exist to steal business from competing airlines and hotel chains. United Airlines offers their Global Services with unpublished requirements and does not allow status matches to the exclusive tier, but it appears they now offer a challenge...
Will Qatar Airways Buy 25% Stake in JetBlue?
Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, has hinted at plans to buy a 25% stake in a U.S. “startup” airline. If I’m a betting man, I’d say that is JetBlue. Speaking to reporters at an air show in...
Do You Ever “Waste” a Flight Watching Movies?
It had all the ingredients of an ideal flight for sleeping. The flight left at 2am. I had just worked for 8 hours. Lie-flat beds were available. And I was tried. But I did not sleep a wink. After...
Qatar Airways Shines in the Dark of Night
My final segment on my Qatar Airways “Golden Ticket” was a flight from Doha to Ho Chi Minh City aboard an A330 that departed at 2am. You might think catering would be more limited on an overnight flight departing...
