American Express and American Airlines have announced a deal where Amex Platinum and Centurion cardholders can access American Admiral’s Club lounges (along with immediate family or up to 2 guests) prior to boarding American flights. This adds American to Continental, Northwest, and Delta in the stable of airline lounges accessible with a U.S.-based Amex Platinum card.With Continental, Northwest, and Delta all in the same alliance the Amex Plat was a slightly expensive way to get lounce access compared to buying a membership in one of those programs (which gets you access to all three programs’ lounges, without the limitation of flying on the carrier whose lounge youre using. So getting the card had to be justified by other benefits, such as the Fine Hotels and Resorts program… a valuable feature for those likely to make…
Uncategorized
Category Archives for Uncategorized.
A New Take on Immigration
A colleague writes* I am on a Continental flight from Houston to Washington and — in the first class cabin — the majority language is Spanish. I am one of only four English speakers. Forget taking our jobs — they’re taking our upgrades! * for the uninitiated I suppose I must point out the tongue-in-cheeck nature of the missive.
Free Southwest Ticket for Credit Card Signup
The Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa now has an offer of 16 credits with signup ($59 annual fee). The signup bonus is enough for a free roundtrip ticket. The Small Business version of the card also offers 16 credits as a signup bonus and a $59 annual fee. I believe — though have not verified this myself — that the Southwest Visa can be churned (along with the British Airways Visa, Marriott Visa, and Priority Club Visa). Used to be that all Chase products could be signed up for multiple times, earning the signup bonus each time. That’s no longer the case with the United co-branded cards. But I don’t believe a lockdown on this has taken place with the other Chase products such as this one. Anyone with recent experience, please share in the comments.…
TSA Director Interviewed and Asked Real Questions
Via Upgrade: Travel Better, Bruce Schneier has a multi-part interview with TSA Director Kip Hawley that makes for a fascinating (though not in my view confidence-inspiring) read. Start with Part One then continue with Two and Three. I’ll be checking back tomorrow and Thursday for parts Four and Five.
What Transportation Used to Cost
Tyler Cowen points to what the cost of transportation used to be, from The Pursuit of Glory, Europe 1648-1815 In England it was calculated that one horse was needed for every mile of a journey on a well-maintained turnpike road. So, for the 185 miles from Manchester to London, 185 horses had to be kept stabled and fed to deal with the seventeen changes required by the stagecoaches which traveled the route. Those horses in turn required an army of coachmen, postillions, guards, grooms, ostlers and stable-boys to keep them running. …A journey from Augsburg to Innsbruck by stagecoach, although little more than 60 miles as the crow flies, would have cost an unskilled laborer more than a month’s wages just for the fare. Kinda puts gripes about airfare in perspective.
More Thai Culinary Blogging
This past weekend I cooked some more of the Thai food I learned to make in a cooking class earlier in the month in Khao Lak. This time, in addition to remaking the soup and chicken dishes previously mentioned, I made duck in red curry. Gaeng Phet Ped Yang (Roasted Duck in Red Curry) roast duck red curry paste veggie oil coconut milk light coconut milk baby eggplant cherry tomato kaffir lime leaf lychee diced pineapple sugar palm fish sauce Heat the oil, add chili paste, then add and saute thinly sliced duck. Add coconut milk, light coconut milk, tomato, eggplant, kaffir lime leaf, sugar palm, salt, and fish sauce. Serve with rice. Yum!
3-cabin Planes Sold as Two Class
I have a hard time understanding why Thai Airways runs their updated 3-class 747s with angled lay flat business seats and true flat first class seats on a short run like Bangkok-Phuket. Seems like poor fleet planning at first glance, though I haven’t looked at whether the planes also fly internationally and this is just a way to get a few extra hours’ of flying time out of them. Asiana does something similar, flying 3-class planes sold as 2-class. (I flew Hong Kong-Seoul earlier this month, and an old style 747 was running the route on the day I traveled.) Trick is just to request the first rows of the plane when traveling on a business class ticket. Worked no problem for me on both carriers.Of course, American still does the same thing on certain…
Freudian Slip Fare Basis Codes
Cranky Flier used to work in revenue management for America West (which has since acquired USAirways and took their name). He points to the fare basis code for a USAirways one-way B fare codeshare from LAX to Sydney. Hint: it’s not family friendly. He speculates that this one was inadvertant, though I do occasionally see fare basis codes designed to telegraph competitive intentions or otherwise send messages to competing carriers (the occasional ‘FU’ in the up to eight letter designation). In this case, the fare Cranky Flier refers to is likely not sending a message… just a funny confluence of designators. I verified this myself, pulling up one-way USAirways fares using the KVS Availability Tool: [KVS Availability Tool 2.8.5/Platinum – Sabre: Fares/ZUJ/SG/USD] LAX Los Angeles Int’l CA US [KLAX] SYD Sydney Kingsford Smith NS AU…
Bic Lighters Still Dangerous for a Few More Days
We have to take off our shoes walking through TSA security checkpoints, because Richard Reid’s shoes had wires coming out of them and nobody noticed. And lighters were banned because if Richard Reid had had a lighter he might have been able to light his shoes on fire. But even the TSA now admits the lighter part is silly. Lighters are safe. At least they will be on August 4th. But as Mike Boyd points out, until midnight on August 3rd they are apparently still dangerous.At least at some point in the future shampoo may no longer be dangerous. But I won’t count on it. Update: Upgrade: Travel Better points out just how surreal it is that lighters carrying fluid that’s flammable are ok.. but water is still somehow a security threat.
Should Priceline like, um, book hotels for its own guests on Priceline?
According to HotelChatter, when Priceline books rooms for out of town guests to its corporate headquarters, they reserve the nearby Doubletree… they don’t actually name their own price on Priceline.
