Jul 09 2015

American Express has been building out its own lounge network, and they’re at a much higher standard than US airline lounges.

There are currently lounges in Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York LaGuardia, Dallas, Miami, and Seattle (“Studio”). No additional lounges have been announced.

However I’ve confirmed with airport officials that American Express is in discussions with Denver International Airport to open a new Centurion lounge in terminal B which houses United Airlines.

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Jul 08 2015

I’ve been answering a lot in the comments, on twitter, and over email — British Airways is able to book award travel on American Airlines flights presently.. they just can’t do it on their website. You have to call. If you search online you just get back that there’s no availability.

British Airways should put a bolded notice on their website that American Airlines awards aren’t bookable, and that members should call if they’re interested in those awards. It would save a great deal of confusion.

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Jul 08 2015

I recently asked readers for questions and I’ve been working through several with standalone posts.

There were also questions with fairly straightforward answers, and so just like yesterday I thought I would combine a few of them into a single post.

You asked these questions, so here are some more answers.

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Jul 08 2015

This morning’s computer outage at United caused delays for about 5000 flights. With planes out of position, and some crew likely to hit maximum duty hours, the effects will last through tomorrow.

…This morning I told the Associated Press‘ Scott Mayerowitz,

“We don’t know everything behind this morning’s issues yet, but today’s incident underscores the sense that something is very wrong at United,” said Gary Leff, co-founder of frequent-flier website MilePoint.

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Jul 08 2015

A collection of the most interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.

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Jul 08 2015

Ryanair is sooooo 2009. They’ve just launched a Facebook page and they have a promotion where they’ll put the names and faces of 30 people on 30 of their planes.

It can’t hurt to enter, and could be fun to play with their Facebook feature where you can download a plane with you on it as well.

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Jul 08 2015

Air France KLM’s Flying Blue has increased the cost of its ‘flex awards’ in business and first class by 25% without advance notice.

The changes to the cost of extra availability awards were effective July 1, the same date those changes were published online, and only apply to premium cabin awards. The price of economy awards and the price of premium cabin saver awards stay the same at this time.

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Jul 07 2015

US Airways pioneered the ‘reverse herringbone’ business class seat, which is one of the best in the sky. As a result their business class hard product on Airbus A330s is really up there compared to some of the best airlines in the world. Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, and American among others have followed suit with their own versions of the seat.

And US Airways has unprecedented international upgrade availability right now. I don’t expect it to last.

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Jul 07 2015

Resort fees are offensive. They are not optional charges, so they are part of the room rate. Not including them in the room rate is disingenuous.

Consumers and the government get up in arms and regulate over airfare displays when already those are pretty clear and clean, it’s hotels where the worst behavior happens.

But the Federal Government has just said they’re perfectly legal.

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Jul 07 2015

Last month I wrote about the man who had his life savings confiscated at the airport because his carry on bag smelled like pot.

There were over 90 seizures alone at the Cincinnati airport in 2013 where this happened. So the seizure of $44,000 from a nail salon owner at New York JFK shouldn’t be surprising.

The salon owner, who says he “has never used, bought, or sold illegal drugs” saved the money over two decades and was bringing it to California to load to his two brothers there.

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