Austrian Airlines has introduced per-order paid meals in coach from Vienna-based caterer DO & CO, the company which caters Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal and Lounges in Frankfurt (and First Class Lounge at New York JFK). My favorite thing about the First Class Terminal — besides the Mercedes or Porsche ride across the tarmac to the plane,, of course — is the wiener schnitzel. Now, at the fifteen euro price point and served within the constraints of onboard catering, subject to the reheating skill of flight attendants, and packaged to be provided at 30,000 feet I’m not sure what the implementation will ultimately be like. But the pictures sure look good. The menu is available on international flights to and from Vienna, except for Budapest, Prague, and Zagreb. And some will consider it a downgrade, as…
About Gary Leff
Priority Club 3rd Quarter Promotion “Stay X Nights, Earn Y Points”
Priority Club’s third quarter “stay x, earn y” bonuses are now out. As usual, there are three different levels — earn 5000, 10,000, or 15,000 points depending on how much you stay during the promotion period of July 1 through September 30. Pick the promotion that you’re most likely to successfully hit. Register here with the code of the offer you want. Code 4871, Stay 3 Nights – Earn 5,000 Points Code 4872, Stay 4 Nights – Earn 5,000 Points Code 4873, Stay 7 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4874, Stay 8 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4875, Stay 10 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4876, Stay 12 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4877, Stay 15 Nights – Earn 15,000 Points Code 4878, Stay 18 Nights – Earn 15,000 Points Of…
Is a US Airways Acquisition of American Becoming More Likely? (I Still Hope Not)
Two years ago I called American a bankruptcy waiting to happen. Their costs were too high. Sure, their revenue was too low also and bankruptcy wasn’t necessarily going to solve that. But their major competitors had been through the bankruptcy court cost-cutting exercise. Staying out of Chapter 11 was both noble and a preservation strategy for existing management. (The day American did file Chapter 11 their CEO resigned…) When American filed for bankruptcy I said that AAdvantage miles were safe. And that a bankruptcy could even be good for American’s frequent flyers at least in the short term, as the airline could use the mileage program to drum up revenue and traffic, awarding bonus miles, all the while not wanting to rock the boat with its customers through any sort of devaluation. In the long-run,…
TSA Screeners Disciplined for Not Doing Their Jobs, But Since Their Jobs Don’t Affect Security, Nothing Was Harmed
5 TSA workers were fired and 38 suspended for failing to perform random screenings last year at the Ft. Myers airport. The 43, a combination of front-line screeners and supervisors, represent about 15 percent of the roughly 280 TSA employees at the airport. .. “It’s the random secondary [check] that did not happen,” he said. “At no time was a traveler’s safety at risk and there was no impact on flight operations.” Rather boggles the mind. A few bad apples who in no way undermine the hard work that thousands of men and women at the TSA do to keep us safe, day in and day out. It takes a lot to reach the disciplinary stage, and that happened with 15% of the workforce at this airport. In how many other cases did they simply…
My Johnny Jet ‘Travel Style’ Interview
JohnnyJet was an internet travel superstar before there was any such thing, he started a website that was a collection of links, everything you’d find online about travel, and grew it from there including television specials. He has a series where he interviews famous (Peter Greenberg, Pauline Frommer) and ‘almost famous’ travelers. And I’m really humbled to be the latest of his ‘Travel Style’ interviews, though I don’t quite fit the almost famous category even. You can read about my favorite US city, my favorite World Heritage site, favorite restaurants both fancy and hole in the wall, my favorite airports, what I carry on, and what I’m reading now. As well as my favorite travel websites. And he gave me the chance to boil my travel advice down to a single tip, so I offered…
50% Off Accor Hotel Properties
Usually when I see hotel sales, discounts are off of rack rate which means that they usually aren’t discounted relative to the best rate you’d normally get. And the sales usually are prepaid/non-changeable and certainly aren’t discounted much relative to otherwise-available prepaid rates. There may be 10% or so savings but the hype is much greater. One exception to this rule is the semi-regular Accor hotels sales. They’re running their 50% off sale through June 22nd, prepaid room nights for stays July 6 through September 2. The 50% off sale is for Leclub Accorhotels members only (of course, if you’re going to stay at one of their properties you should be joining their loyalty program anyway), non-members only get 40% off. The discount “applies to the public rate at the time of booking” and appears…
Ebay for Upgrades – an Airline Starts Auctioning Off Upgrade Seats
Upgrades aren’t just for elites anymore (or, on US airlines in premium cabins, for employees). For several years US domestic carriers have offered buyups at the airport. With unlimited complimentary upgrades it might have been rare for a general member to receive a buy up offer, though on some routes they’re quite common such as the US Airways ‘shuttle’ in the Northeast corridor. United has been perhaps the most aggressive with buyup offers to first class. They offer two kinds of upgrades — offers to allow customers to pay the difference between their fare and a coach fare with confirmed upgrade without paying a change fee, and inexpensive options that are supposed to only be made when all elites on the upgrade list are expected to be cleared. This latter has become known as “Tens…
A Pedestrian Trip, the Marriott Boca Raton
One of my frequent destinations is Boca Raton, Florida. Unfortunately there’s no Hyatt nearby. There’s no Starwood, either. And other than the Boca Raton Resort & Club, there’s nothing in town that purports to be especially nice. I’ve schlepped from the Hyatt Pier 66 when I’ve had competing reasons to be closer to Ft. Lauderdale along with trips up to Boca on multiple occasions, and my old go to used to be the Westin Diplomat for these trips but I’ve tired of 45 minute drives each way when I can stay mere blocks from where I need to be. Naturally to the North there are plenty of nice properties in Palm Beach. But you do have to go to Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach to broaden out options for a ncie hotel. Starting in July…
Is ExpertFlyer.com the Right Tool for You?
Expertflyer review: Expert Flyer is a collection of tools for the frequent flyer, some of which duplicate offerings found elsewhere and some of which are really unique and that I find absolutely worth paying for. They offer a 5-day free trial, otherwise it’s $5 (for limited access) or $10 (for unlimited access) a month, the $10 a month plan can be purchased for $100 a year. There’s also a free account that allows you to access only “seat alerts,” which I’ll describe below. The site offers the ability to search for award and upgrade seats on some airlines, plus flight availability similar to FlightStats.com but that doesn’t exclude American Airlines, flight status, seat maps, fare rules (including “maximum permitted mileage” for a route), and the ability to set up e-mail alerts for seats to open…
Bits ‘n Pieces for June 9, 2012
Here’s what’s going on: Frequent Miler gives a lot of good reasons to make Kiva loans (and by the way you can use them to meet minimum spend requirements on a mileage-earning credit card, withdrawing the funds when the loans are paid back), and also explains how to make a $25 loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world that won’t cost you a thing. Mommy Points asks you to do this as well, and to smile. Deals We Like is on board, too. This one is becoming an avalanche, you’re gonna need to join all the cool kids, c’mon and make this happen… The Points Guy flags a bonus for signing up for Delta’s business program, SkyBonus – register and take a qualifying flight by August 7 for 25,000 SkyBonus points. I wrote about…
