News and notes from around the interweb:
- 2000 bonus United miles for shopping portal purchases
- With the elimination of slot controls at Newark, Alaska Airlines will add several flights:
- Portland to start in November
- San Diego to start in November
- San Jose to start in March
- Third Seattle flight to start in May
- Portland to start in November
- First class caviar compared
- Southwest’s Chief Operating Officer explains the airline’s tech meltdown this week. (HT: Cranky Flier)
- Amtrak has a new more punitive refund policy going into effect August 15.
[T]he Refund Fee will change from 10% to 20%. Reserved Coach or Acela Business will require cancellation 48 hours prior to departure for a full refund instead of the current 24 hours.
…The new policy will affect both existing reservations already made and all new reservations as of August 15, 2016.
- Air New Zealand’s new safety video.
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@Gary, thanks for mentioning our article. It was a lot of fun! We’ll keep up our research and updates.
Speaking of customized on board luxury, I just received an email from United plugging their new POLARIS business cabin, which is to launch beginning in December. The promo is a virtual reality demo of the premium cabin’s “look and feel.”. Sort of cool, actually.
The question: Is POLARIS at long last the coming of a true, world class, customized on board luxury in a US carrier and a game changer?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggyqAZaFtY0&w=1380&h=700%5D
@DCS no, it isn’t, the cabin is too dense — which I like for awards and upgrades, not seat comfort
@Gary — I am not sure what you mean by “the cabin is too dense” and why “density” should even be an issue when the seats are “individualized” into easily accessible “cubicles”. If by “dense” you mean that there are too many seats, I believe that it is actually a good compromise in transitioning from two premium cabins (UnitedFirst and BusinessFirst) to a single premium cabin.
I found the VR demo to be very impressive…
@DCS seat width. Less generous than Delta/American. (I’ve sat in the seats.)
“(I’ve sat in the seats.)” Hardly a valid basis on which to conclude that the width of a seat would be too small for the AVERAGE passenger’s frame 😉
In short, I am still waiting for an OBJECTIVE, rather than subjective, negative against Polaris….