American Express’ first ‘Centurion Studio’ has opened at Seattle’s international airport, across from gate B3. Hours are 5am to 10pm.
The ‘studio’ concept is that American Express wants lounges in major airports and will take smaller spaces if that’s all that’s available, though that requires a scaled-down experience. There won’t be a spa, for instance.
IHG Rewards Club – the loyalty program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and related brands — is offering a 100% bonus on purchased points. This means you can buy points at $0.00575 apiece. The offer ends today.
JetBlue has introduced a new fare structure that includes first checked bag fees. That leaves Southwest as the only major US airline without checked bag fees.
They had announced in the fall that they’d be adding seats and giving customers less legroom. And let’s not forget that with checked bag fees JetBlue should see some tax benefits. Apparently all that kept them from launching this to date was the IT.
I usually stay at the Hyatt in Coral Gables but spent a couple of days recently at the Westin Colonnade nearby instead.
I like both hotels. Both physical plants are older, but are well kept up, and both have excellent staff.
I was delayed out of Miami yesterday first by a catering issue …My connection time in Dallas was reduced down to 25 minutes initially and I was going to be changing terminals. In fact I would have to go from terminal D to terminal C on the other side of the airport.
While inflight I tweeted about the tight connection.
After checking in with Delta and obtaining my boarding pass, I decided to lounge hop since I had access to at least three different lounges in the international terminal.. My first stop would be the American Express lounge.
Former President George W. Bush says “I miss some things about being President. I miss having a shower on an airplane.” (HT: @tarheeljason) There are some things that are unique about Air Force One. Electronic countermeasures and the ability to jam enemy radar Flares hidden in the wings A fuselage that can withstand a nuclear blast on the ground A gym But a shower just isn’t one of those unique things. Etihad’s Airbus A380 has a private shower for passengers in ‘The Residence’ and a shower for passengers in the First Apartments. You can book First Apartments using American AAdvantage miles. I have several bookings for when the New York JFK – Abu Dhabi flight starts operating with an A380. They fly London – Abu Dhabi and Sydney – Abu Dhabi with the plane as…
American has eliminated courtesy cancellations of tickets booked within 7 days of travel (they only offer 24 hour ‘holds’ of reservations that are booked at least a week in advance). American may think this encourages booking full fare refundable tickets. It actually just encourages booking American flights through an Online Travel Agency. Here’s why.
Reader Barry writes, “In the midst of living at [a hotel and] I happened to notice if you book a series of one-day award reservations, you get a new fruit plate and bottle of wine each day. By the time I leave I’ll have a fully-stocked cellar.”
I’ve been able to use Silvercar several times recently, largely because they’ve run some great promotions — from specific discount codes for renting at a new location, to discount codes (like ‘FTU50’) which while usable only once aren’t limited to first time customers.
For a rental this week I discovered that Silvercar offers one-way rentals even though there’s no option for it on the website or through their app.
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 »
