This morning’s roundup: Just Another Points Traveler flags 100 free American Airlines miles on Facebook with a chance to win 100,000. Loyalty Traveler reports that Starwood Preferred Guest will now give elite stay credit for up to three rooms in a night, if the member is present and pays for all three. So book rooms for your family, you not only get the points but also elite credit. Even if they’re award nights, since awards now count towards status. And if you’re mattress running at a nearby hotel on a cheap rate, book (3) concurrent stays for triple the credit. Joe knows that I’m considering the Samsung Galaxy SIII phone that debuts in the U.S. in a couple of days, and emails to let me know that in addition to whatever rebates my purchase comes…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for June 2012.
Join the Live Chat with the President of American’s Frequent Flyer Program – Tonight!
Milepoint.com is hosting a live online chat with Suzanne Rubin, the President of the American AAdvantage frequent flyer program, tonight. The chat will be held at: 6pm Pacific 7pm Mountain 8pm Central 9pm Eastern You can pre-submit questions in this Milepoint thread or ask them live during tonight’s chat.
Thank You British Airways! The American Airlines JFK Flagship Lounge
American Airlines first class lounges are called “Flagship Lounges.” There are currently four Flagship lounges, in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and London. There used to be one in Miami, renovations closed it and they never brought it back. It’s always struck me odd that they don’t have one in Dallas. American is seriously revamping and improving its business class product (though the rollout will take awhile), and in the process is removing first class from much of its fleet over the next few years. Eventually only their Boeing 777-300 aircraft will offer three cabins in international service. So I don’t expect an expansion of the Flagship Lounge product. Currently in order to access a Flagship Lounge, you need to: Be flying first class on an American Airlines or oneworld international flight in first class…
The National Association of Railroad Passengers Responds to Yesterday’s Post
I received an email from Amtrak yesterday introducing me to an ‘advocacy organization’ that was ‘involved in launching Amtrak’ and telling me that if I paid to become a member of this advocacy organization I could have a discount on future train travel. It struck me as problematic that an entity 100% owned by the government would give discounts to people paying to support lobbying for more subsidies of its product. And ask whether others felt the same way. The comments mostly strayed from that topic, turning into a good-versus-bad of Amtrak or subsidies generally, a worthwhile topic but one I had hoped would be for another day. I took the train up to New York on Friday. The train was on time. The on-board internet was virtually non-existent. It was fine. Though of course…
If You Support Government Subsidies for Amtrak, You Can Pay Less to Ride the Train
I received an email this morning offering bonus points and a 10% discount on train travel when you join the National Association of Railroad Passengers. Now, the National Association of Railroad Passengers is an advocacy organization founded to lobby for train subsidies. And Amtrak is owned by the federal government. Whatever you think of government funding for train travel in the United States, is it problematic that a government corporation will give people discounts if they pay to join an organization that will lobby the government for more subsidies? Put another way, Americans who pay to support more subsidies get charged less to travel on subsidized trains than those who oppose the subsidies. Two classes of citizens, based on political beliefs, when riding the train? What do you think?
Eating Around Lower Manhattan
I usually prefer to be in Midtown, but I found myself staying in the Financial District over the weekend. And there’s plenty to eat in Lower Manhattan. First stop of the day for lunch was Lam Zhou Homemade Noodle, on the outskirts of Chinatown. They don’t speak much (any?) English. There’s no air conditioning. If you want a soda you take it from the refrigerator sitting outside. Soup is about $5, a dozen dumplings ~ $3. They’ll sell you 50 frozen dumplings for $8.50. Cash only. Somehow Michael Bloomberg allows them to remain open (perhaps because the refrigerator has only 16 ounce cans of soda?), despite a “B” rating from the health department, is anyone’s guess. This is not a pretty restaurant. No water or tea if you do not ask. But outstanding soup, I…
Confusing Room Types, Breakfast, and Room Service at an Otherwise Nice Andaz Wall Street
I spent the weekend up in New York and stayed at the Andaz Wall Street. I was looking for New York hotel prices in the middle of the week and found a great rate at the Wall Street property. It’s usually quite reasonable on weekends, since the primary function of the hotel is for business travelers wanting to stay in the financial district. Although it remains surprisingly busy on the weeknds, there were apparently 3 wedding parties at the hotel while I was there. It’s just that most of the area isn’t especially vibrant once the business week ends. “Andaz suite” rooms were pricing the same as base-level rooms, and the weekend rate was especially low, so I booked it In fact, I made a couple of bookings. By the time I completed that, and…
TSA PreCheck is Both Amazing and Useless at the Same Time
As the TSA rolls out PreCheck to more and more airports I’m enjoying the opportunity to use it — shoes don’t have to come off, freedom baggie doesn’t have to come out (though liquid rules apply, and this isn’t a huge benefit since I’ve only been given a hard time about my liquids bag in my carryon on average about once a year for the past three years). Mostly, though, there’s no nude-o-scope (and thus no opting out) and there aren’t that many people in the program yet. Usually there’s no line at all, just a bunch of TSA employees standing around by an unused checkpoint waiting for me to come through. It’s a far more civilized checkpoint experience than what we’ve grown accustomed to over the past decade. It’s almost like… security used to…
Be Careful How You Phone Home During Your Addis Ababa Stopover
Ever since Ethiopian Airlines joined the Star Alliance in December, there’s been great business class award availability to members of United and US Airways frequent flyer programs on Ethiopian’s direct service from Washington Dulles (via Rome) to Addis Ababa, with easy connections from there to the rest of Africa (it serves more destinations in Africa than any other carrier). The government-owned airline ferries plenty more Americans to Ethiopia for stopovers at a minimum than they did before joining the alliance. But Americans may not be aware that they’d better be careful how they call home– since the government there has banned Skype and other voice over internet services, according to al Jazeera. The penalty is up to 15 years of jail time for users. Prime Minister Meles Zenaw says the move is meant to ensure…
Philadelphia TSA Agents Fired for Bribery and Falsifying Results on Proficiency Exams
15% of the Ft. Myers airport TSA workforce were disciplined for failing to actually do screenings they were supposed to perform. Only five were actually fired. Now the TSA is now firing 7 Philadelphia employees involved in a bribery scandal where a supervisor demanded money for passing grades on an annual proficiency exam. TSA management at the Philadelphia airport removed 10 employees from security duties in November pending results of an investigation of bribery by the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General. So it took them 7 months to actually decide to fire these individuals. Instead of, you know, just firing them. That’s not how it works at my place of employment… I certainly wouldn’t be paid for seven months ‘pending results of an investigation’ of my paying bribes to have my proficiency results…
