Fares For a $1 and Reminiscing About Titans. Best of the Rest For September 6, 2015

The Best of the Rest is my effort to summarize all the travel/miles & points stories that interested me on a daily basis but didn’t have time to write about in length.  On a daily basis, I try to keep track of roughly 100 different blogs (try being the operative word) that have interesting things for you and I to learn from.  Some are passed along without comment, while I add my analysis to others.   This is your shortcut to find out what’s going on in the travel world without having to read dozens of travel blogs to get all the best info.

Here’s what I’m reading about today:

Cheap Flight(s) of The Day: Dollar fares if your schedule is free in September!  And, if you’re looking for places to hunt down cheap fares, here’s another resource.

Terry Maxon, the legendary (if you’re a geek like me) Dallas Morning news aviation reporter, is retiring at the end of the week.  That’s a sad thing.  Before he heads out, he’s recapping some of the best stories from his time on the beat.  I woke up yesterday morning to a great piece on Herb Kelleher.  This morning he’s out with a piece on another of the most colorful characters of that era, Bob Crandall.

I feel sorry for whoever replaces Terry. Even if they have the chops, nobody will believe they have the depth of knowledge Terry departs with.

United Airlines is closing call centers in Honolulu and Detroit.  And, if people want to keep their job, they can work from home and only take a 15% pay cut.  Oh, and supply their own computer.  There aren’t a ton of other job options in either place that are equivalent, I would imagine.  United is already saving a bunch of money by closing the call centers.  They could at least keep employees with good performance records at an equivalent pay rate.  I highly doubt most employees spend 15% of their gross check on transportation to and from work.  It’s a good thing they finally figured out how to be profitable, but man, changes like this are sure to keep them from having happy employees anytime soon.

If you’re an exercise junkie (I’m not, but my wife is), here’s a great giveaway.

I didn’t know this, but apparently you can get really cheap tickets to attend Wimbledon if you have some extra time.

American Airlines has opened up Executive Platinum challenges again. Jump on this!

Strategies for getting an empty seat next you on a future flight.