Category Archives for Lounges.
Last week I ate the worst lobster roll I’ve ever had in my life. This shouldn’t surprise anyone – least of which me – because I ate it in an airport.
Let’s back up a bit. I flew to Boston, and it took around 14 hours because American Airlines….
American Airlines rolled out a new wine program this month, with new complimentary and paid premium glasses of wine in its Admirals Clubs and updated selections in its business class Flagship lounges and first class Flagship Dining rooms inside of those lounges.
I tasted their new complimentary wines and scoured the lists of paid club wines as well as bottles on offer in their business class Flagship lounges and first class Flagship First Dining facilities. Here are the best ones to choose.
The new Delta Sky Club has a gorgeous bar, and the best feature is an outdoor ‘Sky Deck’ overlooking the East runway. But what if you combined the two features? One of the very best uses of Delta SkyMiles is redeeming small numbers of miles for premium drinks.
The VIP lounge in the B terminal of the Punta Cana airport in the Dominican Republic has a swimming pool overlooking the runway, and they take Priority Pass. If you’re flying American or Delta — or British Airways or Air France — this is your go-to.
At the very end of the terminal by gates 1 and 2, the new wing of the airport that just opened, is a Delta SkyClub. It’s a fantastic space. But maybe the best secret of the airport is that if you head up the elevator or walk up the stairs to the SkyClub there’s also a public space that any passenger can use.
There’s indoor seating, sort of a public use lounge, that’s outside of the club entrance. And just like the new SkyClub has an outdoor deck, the airport has a public use deck as well that’s even larger. Facing the east runway, it’s a Central Texas aviation geek’s dream.
If you’ve never missed a flight you’re spending too much time in airports. Non-stops are nearly always better than connecting, though on the longest flights the time a connection adds to your overall journey is relatively smaller (if everything goes as planned).
Passengers prefer non-stop travel over connections, but at what margin? How much are people willing to spend to avoid a connection and does it depend on how long of a connection they’d have to take?
Some people have made truly gluttonous use of Priority Pass lounge access like bringing 19 guests into a lounge in Quito, Ecuador and bringing 35 guests into a single lounge with just one Priority Pass card in Kigali, Rwanda.
Now that you can use Priority Pass cards to get $28 credits at a variety of airport restaurants around the world you can do a lot of eating for free.
Washington Dulles airport plans to open up an interesting lounge opportunity for bidding that would make a perfect (albeit slightly too-small) Centurion lounge or Plaza Premium lounge.
What’s on offer is 9100 square feet at the base of the Historic Control Tower.
Several United Airlines customers have noticed that the airline seems to be tracking their lounge usage more closely than in the past — specifically noting when a customer has used more than one of their lounges at an airport in the same day.
Currently both Star Alliance and SkyTeam run their own lounges at some major airports.. This is a different management model rather than a new customer benefit, although it may lead to there being a single larger lounge in a major airport where alliance member airlines co-locate in the same terminal, versus multiple smaller lounges operated by individual carriers.
oneworld hasn’t done this to date but that’s changing.
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 »
