Welcome to The Morning Shave. We read a ton of travel articles each day for our research to share the best travel tips, tricks, and news with you. Here are the articles for Thursday, April 13, 2023, that we think you should read.
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The Morning Shave
Breeze axes key New York-to-Los Angeles flight.
Once an airline starts cutting service unexpectedly, it makes you start asking questions. The airline has expanded quickly across regional airports. Maybe transcontinental flights were a bridge too far for them? Maybe they’re having financial difficulties? Who knows. I hope that they stay in business and keep flying. They offer excellent deals and put pressure on other airlines to keep fares lower.
American AAdvantage Gives Up Award Chart for Good.
Award charts, we’ll miss you. And American is also getting rid of Anytime and MileSAAver awards. Knowing how much a flight costs in advance helps travelers figure out how many miles to save up for. For travelers who don’t travel much, it can take a year or longer to save up that many miles. With dynamic pricing, you’ll never know how many miles it takes until you go to book the flight. And, if you don’t book it right away, the price could change when you come back. While dynamic pricing makes financial sense, it is the wrong business decision to build loyalty with your members.
FBI warns of public charger hacking at airports and hotels; use these tips to protect yourself when you travel.
Apparently, hackers can infect your phone or tablet with a virus if you plug into the wrong ports. Always use your power adapter & cord or a portable battery pack. I really like this one that includes built-in cords for three types of devices (affiliate link). If you must plug into a public charging port, use a USB Data Blocker (affiliate link) to protect your device.
Alaska Airlines eliminates boarding pass kiosks at Portland International Airport.
When flying through Portland International Airport, you’ll need to print your boarding passes at home or use the airline’s mobile app. You can no longer print boarding passes at the airport. I typically print them at home to avoid issues with cell service or battery life. This move is good for the environment and should reduce some of the traffic in the airport lobby. However, this could be a problem for people in a rush or those who are technologically challenged. And it may cause more people to wait in line to get their tickets from a counter agent, which will affect others who actually need counter service. If this is a test run for a possible roll-out, are you happy or mad with this change?
Zipair Launches New U.S.-Tokyo Flight for Just $91.
Although the airline doesn’t offer daily service, this $91 deal from San Francisco is incredible and too good to pass up. Japan is lifting all vaccine and testing requirements on May 8th for international visitors, so there’s no reason not to book a trip. Flights start on June 2nd, with flights operating five days a week. Of course, carry-on bag sizes are limited, there are fees for checking bags, and in-flight drinks & snacks cost money. But, it is still worth it.
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Breeze needs to stay in their lane. NY-LA isn’t what they need to try and compete on. They need routes like STL-DEN or MCI-FLL or SNA-DAL.
The gate agents at Portland must be thrilled to have every 10th person not be able to get their phone app to work and also the lines of people getting printed boarding passes from them at the gates. This is like the opposite of self-service bag tags. Stupid.
Yeah, Breeze and other smaller airlines should focus on neglected/overpriced routes between second-tier airports (like those you mentioned). Taking on the big boys is a recipe for disaster.
And I agree about Portland. I understand the desire to move away from having these machines when it’s so easy to print at home or use your mobile phone. However, unless Alaska is going to have dedicated staff helping passengers download the app and get their mobile boarding passes created, it’s just going to tie up the line for everyone that truly needs help. This seems like a huge step backward.