Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for October 2019.

The Other Shoe Drops on American Express Centurion: New $5000 Annual Fee

Oct 31 2019

Earlier today I wrote about new benefits for the American Express Centurion Card, also known as the Black Card. They need to offer strong benefits for a product with a $7500 initiation fee and that has had a $2500 annual fee.

Most of what’s new strikes me as fluff – and doesn’t come close to making up for the other changes happening to the card including a new $5000 annual fee and loss of key benefits.

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Qantas Selling Access to LAX First Class Lounge

Oct 31 2019

There was a time I would have argued that the Qantas first class lounge at LAX was the best lounge in the United States. That was before United opened its Polaris lounges, and American opened its Flagship First Class dining rooms.
While I prefer the ambiance of the Star Alliance business class lounge’s outdoor deck with fire pits at LAX, the sit down dining of the Qantas lounge makes it the most desirable place to spend time in the Tom Bradley international terminal prior to a flight.

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New American AAvantage Award Calendar is Live

Oct 30 2019

Back in January when American Airlines introduced award redemption for premium economy they did it through a new award search tool. That new tool was not ready for prime time. After half a year that tool still lacked the ability to filter results, and the availability calendar still hadn’t been launched.

American has a new availability calendar. It still isn’t as useful as the old one. Here’s what to watch out for to get the best award deals.

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American AAdvantage New Award Option: Premium Economy Airline Partner Redemption

plane tails
Oct 30 2019

American Airlines was first among U.S. airlines to offer premium economy and expand it across their fleet. They introduced premium economy awards on their own flights back in January.

Now British Airways premium economy awards can be booked using AAdvantage miles. We can expect American to expand premium economy award redemptions further on other partner airlines as well, though they haven’t given a timeline for when to expect this.

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