I was staying at my most frequent Hyatt hotel recently. I arrived at the property around 3:40 p.m. Their standard check-in time is 3:00 p.m., which is published on confirmation e-mails.
The front desk let me know that my assigned room wasn’t ready yet.
I read through the 112 page Department of Transportation approval for renovations at New York JFK terminal 8, which will facilitate the British Airways co-location with American, and learned several interesting things about the project.
The most significant new information I gleaned from the document is that American and British Airways will operate a shared lounge and that there will be a dedicated premium passenger path directly to the lounge. I don’t think I had realized though that the total number of gates in the terminal would actually decrease with this work to accommodate more widebodies.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
American Airlines has sent out its annual gift to its Concierge Key customers. Reader Alex shared his. A year ago the chocolate company that provided the Concierge Key gift published that American AIrlines had ordered 11,300 of them. That’s consistent with the 10,000 to 15,000 estimate I’ve been using since 2014. The first thing to note is that this year’s chocolates are provided ‘in partnership with Barclays’. That means American made Barclays pay for the chocolates. The chocolates have artistic packaging featuring various cities. There’s also a drawing Concierge Key members can enter to win (1) 100,000 AAdvantage miles, and (2) an Admirals Club membership they can gift (Concierge Key members receive complimentary Admirals Club for themselves). There are (5) prizes, and only residents of the 48 contiguous U.S. states and the District of Columbia…
Starting March 29 United will run 13 daily flights between the two cities. Ten of those flights will be using the airline’s new premium-heavy regional jet they’ve dubbed the ‘CRJ-550’ and 3 flights will be on larger Embraer 175s.
United can offer more flights – frequency is attractive to business travelers – offering fewer seats per flight on average. And they’re offering a product on 10 of the flights where they’re putting just 50 seats on the plane that’s designed for 40% more than that. Plenty of space per passenger is attractive, too.
American Airlines has 9 hubs: Dallas Fort-Worth, Chicago O’Hare, Charlotte, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, New York JFK, and Washington National. Given recent service changes perhaps they should drop New York JFK and add Boston.
Currently flights are available from New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco to Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Madrid starting at just $255 roundtrip. These are available on American Airlines joint venture partners Iberia and Finnair as well as codeshare travel on American.
United Airlines will remove bag sizers from boarding gates by January 23. They say they will be more aggressive at check-in and that sizers will remain at security checkpoints, but that at the gate agents are supposed to ‘use their judgment’.
United has been inviting its business class customers to contract lounges in about 30 cities, and they’ve extended this option to Star Alliance members are well even though they aren’t required to.
Now United has mostly eliminated the practice. Except at two airports United no longer invites Star Alliance Gold members (who aren’t flying business class) to use contract lounges. This move (naturally) follows one made a few years ago by Delta.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
