American Airlines is known for being particularly stingy with international business class award space on its own flights. I redeem AAdvantage miles more than any other airline currency, but almost always for flights on their partners. So when there’s good space for valuable awards on American Airlines itself, I try to highlight it.
Golds and Diamonds will be notified of enhanced room’ upgrades 72 hours in advance and will be able to select a room from the new upgraded room category through the chain’s mobile app.
They’re also adding key sharing to their digital room key feature, so that a guest can give their key to (for instance) someone sharing their room.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
At a town hall event in Miami on Thursday, American Airlines President Robert Isom took questions from employees. If video of the event was posted internally, it was apparently taken down quickly. However I’ve been able to review the discussion, and every single question and challenge was on the pending vaccination requirement for employees of federal contractors.
My impression watching Isom matches what I’ve heard elsewhere: that management is clearly scared for their operation, knowing that they have so many thousands of unvaccinated employees and that passions are running so hot.
The new Texas Monthly Top 50 Barbecue Places is out. It’s often referred to as ‘the bible’ of Texas barbecue, although I find its picks especially controversial this year.
Here’s what you should know to start. The most correct – and best – barbecue is Central Texas barbecue. The focus is on meat, especially beef. You may get onions, peppers or pickle slices, and white bread as an accompaniment. Put your meat on the bread between bites. It’s all served on butcher paper.
When you build a nice airport lounge it’s going to be busier than you expect even after accounting for the knowledge that it’s going to be busier than you expect. People come to the airport earlier. They stay longer. They go out of their way to reach the lounge by changing terminals. Add in that the food and drink is actually pretty good in American Express Centurion lounges and they’ve become so busy nobody goes there anymore.
Qantas announced the release of ‘millions’ of award seats as Australia re-opens. So far Australians are expected to be able to leave their country next month (and return!) with rules for what they must do on arrival varying by state. There’s no announced timeline for visitors to come to Australia, but there’s reason to be hopeful.
A major water main break has deprived the Charlotte airport of water. Restaurants have to close. People can’t use the restrooms, let alone wash their hands (I seem to remember something about needing to do this frequently and for 20 seconds).
American Airlines is telling passengers that they should use lavatories on board their aircraft prior to deplaning.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The American Airlines flight attendants union is telling employees that unlike United, American will offer a way for those who obtain a religious or medical exemption to vaccination to continue working.
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 »
