Jun
15
2025
The Aria Las Vegas charges guests so much for water that it strikes down a fundamental precept in economics that has held for 150 years. As one guest writes to me, a bottle of water in the room there costs $26!
Jun
15
2025
Delta Air Lines has been slowly rolling out Shake Shack burgers as a pre-order meal choice in domestic first class since late fall. I finally had a chance to try it and was seriously impressed.
Jun
15
2025
I FOIA’d the airport for correspondence with airlines and potential other lounge operators to see what interest there is, matching the airport’s internal plans that I was first to reveal. Here is their responsive material.
Jun
15
2025
United Airlines passengers were greeted with a stark message on their seat back entertainment screens when they boarded a recent flight to Chicago O’Hare. The airline’s message to its customers: BITE ME, or rather every seat back screen showed the greeting: “Welcome aboard flight BITEME1 to Chicago.”
Jun
15
2025
Marriott is eliminating single use plastics when it saves them money toiletries, but they’re placing larger plastic bottles of water that have been shipped using fossil fuels from literally Fiji in every room because those sell for $9. You didn’t believe any of this was really about the environment though, did you?
Jun
15
2025
I was through Philadelphia on a domestic itinerary, so I decided to redeem a Flagship Lounge single visit pass at the new Flagship lounge there to see what American had launched first-hand over in terminal A West between gates 15 and 16.
Jun
15
2025
Chase’s Phoenix airport lounge will begin taking reservations starting June 23. This is their smallest club at 3,500 square feet and regularly has 30 – 60 minute waits to get in, even with many cardmembers not bothering to try given the crowding and the wait.
Jun
14
2025
Recently, Hilton set standard fees for late checkout. The goal is to upsell guests – including elite guests – for something that used to be offered to all Honors members for free. Increasingly, the free benefit for elites is disappearing from Hilton’s promotional materials, too.
Jun
14
2025
A drunk United Airlines passenger decided to ‘self-deport’ from their flight prior to pushback, when flight attendants wouldn’t serve him a predeparture cocktail.
Jun
14
2025
Frontier Airlines tied to remove a miscreant passenger from a flight heading to Florida, only he wouldn’t go. That delayed the flight and all of the passengers on it. One woman wasn’t having that – and she decided to take it upon herself to eject the man. She got up in the aisle and confronted him, telling him – in the foulest language imaginable – that he needed to get off the plane because he was holding everyone up.