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Wait, when did this happen? (Illustration by Dustin Elliott)
✈️ Two airlines just stopped being themselves — Southwest checked your bags at no charge and let you sit wherever you wanted. JetBlue gave everyone in coach more legroom than anybody else and put a TV in every seatback. But times are changing. You can read the full story today.
On Backchannel, Mark Rumizen has a tight connection at Amsterdam Schiphol in two weeks, right as Europe's new exit checks lose their safety valve.
Members Only: I have a last-minute security checklist for your Labor Day trip that will get you to your destination safely. — Christopher Elliott
FEATURED ARTICLE
A week that changed everything for air travelers
For 25 years, if you wanted to know what was wrong with the airline business, you could point at the two carriers that refused to play along. Not anymore. On Sept. 1, JetBlue announced a domestic first class cabin with seven more inches of legroom than a Main seat. The next morning, Southwest said it's opening its first airport lounges in Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu and Nashville. What did the rest of us just lose?
OUR UNDERWRITER
Travel Leaders Group is transforming travel through its progressive approach toward each unique travel experience. Travel Leaders Group assists millions of travelers through its leisure, business and network travel operations under a variety of diversified divisions and brands, including All Aboard Travel, Andrew Harper Travel, Colletts Travel, Corporate Travel Services, CruCon Cruise Outlet, Cruise Specialists, Nexion, Protravel International, SinglesCruise.com, Travel Leaders Corporate, Travel Leaders Network and Tzell Travel Group, and its merger with ALTOUR. With more than 7,000 agency locations and 52,000 travel advisors, Travel Leaders Group ranks as one of the industry's largest retail travel agency companies.
📌 Here’s what you missed this week
Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report
JetBlue, Southwest and a week that changed everything
JetBlue announced a domestic first class cabin on Sept. 1, and the next morning Southwest said it’s opening airport lounges in four cities. For 25 years these were the two airlines that did it differently, and that ended in about 24 hours.
How to find $4,762 when Comcast says it’s gone
A San Francisco reader meant to pay her credit card and sent $4,762 to Comcast by mistake. The refund came back on a prepaid debit card, and by the time she checked the balance it read $82, with no transaction list anyone could produce to explain it.
Banned by JetBlue after booking through the wrong website
A caregiver who flies Hartford to Fort Lauderdale twice a month paid $468 through a site called Farehub. JetBlue’s records show the ticket was bought with someone else’s travel voucher, and an agent stopped her at the gate.
Do you have a high travel IQ? Here’s how you can tell
A behavioral researcher watched one traveler come apart over a gate change in Tokyo while another passenger walked away and solved it. Travel IQ is the gap between what you think you know and how the world works, and there are seven signs yours needs work.
Americans are tearing down surveillance cameras. Then they’re lining up for one at the airport.
Americans spent the summer packing city council meetings and cutting down license plate cameras, and last week the company behind them rewrote its privacy rules. A lot of those same people drove to the airport, walked up to a checkpoint and let a machine photograph their face.
Can you turn tourists into conservationists? How one tour operator is trying to close the “say-do” gap
RealNZ raised $270,000 for predator control and replaced invasive pines with about 30,000 native trees across the lake from Queenstown. Its chief executive says the hard part is getting visitors to care once they start comparing prices.
The Bruno Mars ticket glitch that only affected fans with disabilities
A Chicago reader filtered Ticketmaster for ADA seating and watched every seat he selected come back unavailable. The next day the same seats were available through resellers, at a markup.
OUR UNDERWRITER
Surf Air Mobility is a California-based air mobility platform. With its AI-enabled SurfOS software and electrification programs, Surf Air Mobility provides technology designed to support the modernization of air operations and the adoption of next-generation aircraft. Surf Air Mobility currently operates one of the largest commuter airlines in the United States by scheduled departures, which provides operational scale and real-world operating data to validate and deploy its software.
💬 What you’re saying
Are we there yet?
Mark Rumizen has a 75-minute layover at Amsterdam Schiphol in two weeks, changing to a Delta Air Lines flight home to Boston. It’s a non-Schengen departure, so he’ll clear outbound passport control on the way to his gate, about two weeks after the temporary permission that let border police switch off biometric capture during a rush is set to expire. Is 75 minutes enough? Here’s what our team told him on Backchannel.
OUR UNDERWRITER
Southwest Airlines is dedicated to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. We are committed to providing our employees with a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth.
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