The best benefit here is lounge access. oneworld sapphire members of frequent flyer programs other than American AAdvantage and Alaska’s Mileage Plan get access not just to American Airlines Admirals Clubs and Alaska Lounges but also to American Airlines Flagship lounges even when traveling domestically. That means nice bar setups and buffets at New York JFK, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and in a few weeks once again at Chicago O’Hare.
Turkish Airlines offers one of the very best business class lounges at its home airport in Instanbul, complete with library, billiards area, and golf simulator. Now they have a new feature: virtual flight simulator. It’s called the “Hezarfen Flight Simulator Experience” after the first person in Turkish aviation history to take flight.
Delta held a ribbon-cutting for the terminal 2-3 headhouse at LAX today. It opens to passengers April 20.
There was something striking about the event. The audience was well-masked, per federal regulations. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Delta CEO Ed Bastian? Not so much.
It’s particularly galling to send flight attendants to collections and threaten termination over their dues within days of reporting to those same flight attendants that their former union president misappropriated their dues for personal gain. And doubly so since the union flight attendants are paying for is so weak.
Air Tahiti Nui is launching non-stop Papeete – Seattle service and a new partnership with Alaska Airlines. This is in addition to its partnership with American AAdvantage.
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Southwest Airlines is running an award sale offering 20% off all flight redemptions – but you have to book by Thursday, March 31 to take advantage of the discount. This promotion will apply to all awards booked using promo code SAVE20NOW for travel through May 25, 2021.
Qantas business class awards are broadly available in November and December between Los Angeles and Melbourne. Getting business class awards US – Australia can be catch as catch can at best, and Qantas is notoriously stingy with space. That’s doubly true during the November – March period.
The Bilt launch event was a lot of fun – and very cool to be there with Wyclef Jean, A$AP Rocky, Mayor Adams and Dr. Oz – but even cooler is that Wells Fargo has a genuine top travel card and has entered the co-brand space with some thunder.
While Bilt is a product that gives consumers something they cannot get anywhere else (free points-earning for their biggest expense) in a no annual fee top travel card to boot.
People were abandoning rental cars and walking to the terminal in order to make their flights. PreCheck lines extended outside the terminal. And the airport warned airlines to bring extra fuel.
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 »
