The Wall Street Journal reports on the shifting business focus of American Express and the rise of Bluebird. American Express was traditionally an issuer of charge (not credit) cards and its customer base especially affluent. That’s changing. “I always figured AmEx was for more well-off people, but if they are extending their hand to people who are less well off, it’s OK by me,” says Mr. Rodriguez, who lives in Denton, Texas, about 40 miles from Fort Worth. AmEx once boasted a customer base that was the envy of the industry, with its iconic green charge cards and lavish perks. But growing competition for affluent customers from issuers like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is driving the New York company to court consumers with a card it pitches as an alternative to checking accounts for…
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Confirmed: American to Reduce the Size of New 777-200 Business Class Cabin
I’m really looking forward to American reconfiguring their international fleet with new business class. I love the new product on their Boeing 777-300ER and they’re finally getting started on the 767s and the 777-200s. Here’s what we’ve seen with the 777-200 seat. American’s new 777-200 retrofit revealed Details of American’s new 777-200 refurbishment revealed American’s new 767 Business Class Seat Revealed From what I’ve heard about the new 777-200 seat, it’s even better than the 777-300ER seat. It has more space. There are both forward and rear-facing seats, and from what I’ve been told the rear seats are better with substantially increased work space. But it’s not clear that I’ll ever fly these seats or at least I may fly them when the planes are first getting reconfigured, but it turns out they are going…
Another Program Flushes its Award Chart and More!
News and notes from around the interweb: Yesterday I wrote about a new $1000 gift card you can buy with a credit card. The Points Traveler walks through the steps for buying it, some notions on liquidating it, and summarizes reports so far (Chase and Bank of America coding these as purchases, Citi and US Bank as cash advances which is bad). JetBlue’s apology to the child forced to pee in her seat. Take a ride on Lyft and if you can get your driver to sign up for and drive with UberX you can get a $250 credit and they’ll get $500. This appears to be available in Atlanta, Chicago and Nashville. No more shopping portal payouts for gift cards purchased at Staples.com Military coups are bad for frequent flyer programs? Thai Airways Royal…
American Express Platinum Grows its Lounge Network: San Diego
Even though American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders lost access to American and US Airways lounges at the end of March and lost guest privileges at Delta lounges May 1 (of course many people were cool with this because of credits up to $500 American Express handed out), I continue to find the card very useful for lounge status. American Express has a growing network of their own lounges, which are generally better than airline offerings. The cards lets you request a Priority Pass Select, which provides access to a variety of airline lounges (such as Alaska Airlines lounges in the U.S.) and independent lounges. American Express also has direct relationships with Airspace lounges There are at least 5 known US domestic Centurion lounges expected to be open by the end of the year —…
Was There a Riot at Newark Airport This Week, and Did United Cause It?
Have a look at this video from Newark airport, apparently after United cancelled a flight to Barcelona this week. Here’s the video’s description. I’m skeptical about the claim that “United airlines cancelled the same flight #2096 3 days in a row.” The normal Newark-Barcelona flight is UA120. According to Flight Aware only the Newark-Barcelona flight on June 15 was cancelled (and after a lengthy delay). Other flights appear to have operated normally in the preceding days. It also appears that United 2096 was a separate section run to accomodate that cancellation. So passengers appear to have been given the opportunity to get out the next day. Now, this is not a route on which I’d depend on on-time performance. I have no doubt that United customer service in Newark performed poorly. The very existence of…
Another Airline Decides to Light Money on Fire With All-Business Class Service to Paris
The old joke is still true: Q: How do you become a millionaire quickly? A: Start out a billionaire and invest in an airline. La Compangie will offer all business class flights between New York and Paris. When they invited me out to their launch announcement (I couldn’t go), my first thought was “because that always works.” There’s always an aviation executive who things “there’s a really big market, and if we just got 1% of it we’d be profitable…” But getting that 1% is a challenge With limited frequencies Without corporate contracts Without an existing customer base or brand recognition Without a major frequent flyer program for support Eos, Maxjet, and Silverjet didn’t make it. British Airways’ OpenSkies has had the support of a major airline but didn’t stick with a true all business…
Why Kuala Lumpur Is One of My Favorite Food Cities
Previous trip report installments Introduction: Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost Etihad Lounge and First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi Premier Inn Abu Dhabi International Airport Etihad’s Abu Dhabi first class lounge, and business class Abu Dhabi – Male Maldivian Domestic Lounge, Flight, and Boat Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Boat Transfer, Maldivian Domestic Flight Kooddoo – Male, and Malaysia Airlines Business Class, Male – Kuala Lumpur Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur When I was in Kuala Lumpur a year and a half ago, I had a fantastic food tour put together by Farah at Food Tour Malaysia. So I decided to look them, and Farah, up again. The full day for a guide and vehicle (all food included for two) was ~…
The New Pattern for Finding 2 First Class Seats on American’s Premium Transcon Flights
As a follow on to my discussion of how tough it is to get premium domestic cross country award flights in business class except at the last minute, a word about first class is in order. American is the only airline offering a separate cabin 3-class first class product. You can read up on it here and also here. A good reminder that every rule about award availability works until it doesn’t anymore, I had pretty much internalized that American only releases one first class seat at a time on its New York JFK – Los Angeles and San Francisco new premium cabin A321T flights. Here’s the new pattern for finding first class award availability ofr two passengers on the premium transcon flights.
Buy $1000 gift cards online and earn miles, 15% off Virgin America, $31 Million for London flights and a Giraffe
News and notes from around the interweb: Delta tweets an image of a giraffe in honor of the US World Cup win over Ghana. Because all African countries have giraffes. They deleted the tweet, apologized, and then deleted the apology due to a misspelling, and apologized again. But their tweet didn’t include an image of an unnatural act with a plane. An afternoon long haul slot pair (right to takeoff and land) at London’s Heathrow airport is worth $31 million. That’s down 55% in 7 years. And it’s the price American Airlines is paying for the slots from Cyprus Airways, which will presumably cease service to Heathrow when the slots transfer in September. $1000 gift card you can buy online with a credit card. Definitely file this under ‘developing’. It appears but I will want…
The Trick to Booking British Airways Avios Awards With $0 in Taxes and Fees
The best uses of British Airways Avios are for short haul non-stop flights, because their distance based chart is very cheap for short distances — starting at 4500 points each way — but gets astronomically expensive for business (2x) and first class (3x) as distances get longer. And it’s even better when you can fly on airlines or routes with no or low fuel surcharges, since British Airways passes along those costs when booking an award ticket whenever they would be part of a paid ticket. The classic ways to avoid fuel surcharges are: Fly Air Berlin (no fuel surcharges) or Aer Lingus (low fuel surcharges) transatlantic Transfer BA Avios into an active Iberia Avios account, and redeem those points for Iberia flights (low fuel surcharges) Redeem for US domestic flights and trips to South…
