Category Archives for Lounges.
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.
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.
British Airways really should invest in re-doing their first class lounge. Recognize that British Airways is never going to provide exceptional service, but they offer decent booze. It seems to me the lounge would be better with more cabanas, and a better process to manage them, at a bare minimum.
American Express Centurion lounges seem to me to be so crowded no one goes there anymore. The lounges are nice, an improvement on their US airline lounge alternatives. They’re stylish spaces with decent food and beverage programs.
And whenever you have a nice lounge demand for the lounge is greater than you expect, even knowing that the lounges are going to face heavy demand because people are going to want to use them.
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 »
