The American Express Centurion Lounge at Dallas-Fort-Worth Airport has had a couple of recent changes. It’s been six months since the last menu refresh there. And they’ve added new items to the menu. In fact, the lounge’s website menu isn’t up to date. I love the DFW Centurion lounge. It’s my all-around favorite, even featuring a spa and showers.LaGuardia is the newest and I think I like their food best. (Here’s their menu.) With new items, though, the DFW lounge is sort of ‘new again’ to me. I think my body was about 5% brisket, so time for a refresh. They still have the old menu, and will at least until the full changeover. But for now they’ve added several items. There’s a new pasta dish and a chicken dish, the staff seem to prefer…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2014.
Your Award Ticket May Be Messed Up, Plink is Definitely Messed Up, and So Is Spirit Airlines
News and notes from around the interweb: Plink Rewards, which was a great double dipping tool, for instance earning an extra rebate at office supply stores, has shut down. I speculated something could be amiss six months ago but was wrong at the time. Sadly there is no more earning or redeeming, even of accumulated points. Travel With Grant eulogizes. Aeroplan has a glitch booking tickets with Air China and isn’t booking any at the moment. Some tickets issued over the past month remain in pending status, so if you have an Air China award booked with Aeroplan points be sure to check whether you are travel-ready. Understanding Spirit Airlines fees. The $16.99 usage fee for buying a ticket on their website is absurd (you can spend the time going to the airport and queuing…
Being Bad By Doing Good: How An Airline Can Be TOO On-Time
I’ve heard American Airlines CEO Doug Parker say that the most important thing, and almost the only thing, that matters for an airline is to run a safe on-time operation. US Airways has a tendency to start boarding early, and over the past six weeks or so I’ve noticed that American has started to do the same thing. I’ll show up at the gate 30 minutes out and they will already have started the boarding process. My flight this morning boarded a few minutes early. Boarding was complete more than 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure. And we pushed back early. That’s awesome, right? Not really, at least to me. I want an airline to run on its schedule, to do what it says it is going to do, to be predictable — not to…
What Do You Do When You Have a Reservation But It’s Not Honored?
I was tweeted this morning with a question about rental cars. [A] friend trying to drive to her wedding this weekend is getting a shrug & “what can you do?” from @Hertz, but no car. Advice? You’re less likely to have this happen to you if you’re a member of the rental car company’s frequency program, but it’s not a guarantee of protection. There are no new problems in travel of course, and it’s even happened to famous comedians on TV. There’s a Seinfeld meme for almost everything, for those old enough to remember. At the very end of the series, Elaine Benes declared her love for… United Airlines (and the next day United issued a press release “we love you, too.”). There was even one for an Orbitz discount. But no Seinfeld meme in…
Amtrak Doesn’t Know the Definition of “Fall” (But Does Know Double Points)
Amtrak is offering double points system wide. Registration required. They claim the offer is for the entire fall. But it ends November 14. So I do not think ‘Fall’ means what they think it means. (HT: Free Frequent Flyer Miles) You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
IHG Will Seriously Close Your Account for Signing Up for Bonus Offers
IHG Rewards (formerly Priority Club) used to be one of the absolutely most generous programs for free nights because you could sign up for tons of promotions, earn them all on the same stays, and wind up with a windfall of points. Basically IHG Rewards would send out different kinds of offers, and anyone who wished could register for them. See, for instance, this list from early in the year. You might earn points on your next stay, for your next stay within 90 days, for a weekend stay, and for being an elite member. And you might earn them all on a single stay! Then again, you might not, and if they didn’t automatically post you couldn’t usually go chase after them. This year the program started cracking down on members who were doing…
Here’s How Travel Insurance Works With Award Tickets
I’m not generally a fan of travel insurance. I do think it is advisable: To be certain that your health coverage is adequate. Many robust private insurance plans in the US will cover medically necessary coverage abroad, but this is not universally true or always the case for citizens of other countries. If traveling to remote areas or places without advanced medical care, that ‘medical evacuation coverage’ be considered. More generally, you insure against really big (and generally low probability) costs which if incurred would be catastrophic to absorb. This is in stark contrast to the sorts of tickets you buy online, where Orbitz or your airline may offer you travel insurance. You’re insuring a relatively small amount of money most of the time. There’s lots of fine print, you may not be as ‘covered’…
See Who Travelers Really Owe Our Appreciation To (And Those We Don’t)
Today we honor the flight crews that died 13 years ago today. Reader Alan H. is a one-man clipping service and today he passes along several articles, which I take as being along the theme of people who take care of us during our travels… and those who don’t. There are people who truly add value to our travels every single say. Pilots are super cool. And while flight attendants shouldn’t be there strictly or even primarily for our safety, goodness knows they’ve saved travelers’ bacon many times. It’s genuinely striking to me how many people we rely on when we travel — to move us on our way, to comfort and feed us, and to get us ready to do business or just relax and enjoy a break from everyday reality. We mostly take…
A Simple Lesson on How Not to Get Taken When Making Big Purchases
This isn’t a post about the best value for a cell phone, and in fact I’m not suggesting that the cell phone I just upgraded to (a Samsung Galaxy S5 replacing my S3 that after more than two years stopped charging properly and unfortunately it wasn’t the battery). Instead, it’s a post about how to think about and compare deals and how to approach making a financial decision. It’s one simple lesson: give yourself the time you need to think and compare and don’t be pressured to act in the moment even if you think you understand a deal’s terms. Dealing with this cell phone my mind was working slowly and somehow I realized this. I wasn’t making calculations clearly enough in my mind. It’s always ok to walk away. Don’t feel pressure to agree…
The End of Amazon Payments: No More Sending Other People Money Effective October 13
I got notice of updated terms from Amazon Payments by email today. Amazon Payments will stop allowing person-to-person transfers after October 12. The email said, Additionally, we have updated the terms and conditions of our User Agreement (https://payments.amazon.com/help/Personal-Accounts/User-Agreement-Policies/User-Agreement) that apply to your use of the products and services provided by Amazon Payments. Our updated User Agreement revises certain terms (including, among other things, the elimination of person-to-person payments). Our new User Agreement will become effective on October 13, 2014, which is more than 30 days from when we first posted our updated User Agreement. By continuing to use our services after October 13, 2014, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions of our new User Agreement. (Emphasis mine.) The great thing about Amazon payments is that nobody had ever heard of…
