News and notes from around the interweb:
- 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards for a Mazda car loan it’s interesting to see Chase selling their currency to third parties more the way that airlines do. (Update: the loans Mazda is selling apparently are actually made through Chase, this is more like half a step.)
- Recently Washington National got its first Priority Pass restaurant, The Bracket Room, by gate B12 — accessible to Alaska, Delta, and United passengers.
American Tap Room, on the C pier at Washington National airport, is now a Priority Pass restaurant. This is a convenient stop for American Airlines passengers flying out of the far gates, and accessible by airside shuttle from the center pier gates which American shares with JetBlue. (HT: One Mile at a Time) Here’s the menu, pick up your burger, steak sandwich or salad and a beer or cocktail with your $28 cocktail prior to flight.
Eventually security will be moved closer to the airport entrance so that all of the airport’s piers will be accessible to each other inside security rather than having checkpoints for each. Then we’ll just need to keep Ben’s Chili Bowl out of Priority Pass.
- The Oakland Airport Inn was the first airport hotel. Amelia Earhart stayed there. (HT: Cranky Flier)
- Aimia, which is selling Aeroplan back to Air Canada, has settled a class action lawsuit over new mileage expiration rules put in place in 2006 which will see some members get some miles.
- Today American Airlines has a “lounge space highlighting the faster Wi-Fi and entertainment options coming to our aircraft” at the Made in America Festival in Philadelphia that isn’t open to the public but they’re live-streaming the concert on Viasat equipped aircraft which currently totals 137 (including all Airbus A321Ts).
Customers can enjoy the festival in real-time, they just need to download the American Airlines app before their flight, connect to the inflight Wi-Fi and launch their browser. They’ll see in the entertainment section the option to view the concert.
The preshow starts at Noon eastern and the concerts run from 1 p.m. to midnight and the concert runs both Saturday and Sunday.
- Primera Air will launch New York, Boston, and Toronto – Berlin in June 2019
- Singapore Airlines could become 40% owner of Virgin Australia by buying out the 19.8% stake of China’s HNA Group which is rapidly trying to sell everything, deleverage, and raise cash.
Ben’s Chili Bowl, huh? I wonder why it’s empty.
A big thanks on the heads up re: Priority Pass at DCA. I’d missed the news on BR a couple months ago, and frankly had written off any hopes for PP at DCA (heck, in the U.S. in general, for that matter…save for the times when I can squeeze into the TK lounge at IAD).
As a UA/AA flyer this is quite nice – both the BR and ATR airport outposts are actually to some extent nicer than their actual standalone locations (not saying much), and they beat the UA/AA clubs for sure!
Whew, “Washington National”? Do you fly out of “New York International”? Or do you just like playing the liberal game to hide Ronald Reagan?
@Xander I lived in DC long before the airport was given the name Reagan so I still call it what I always called it. Regular readers aren’t likely to call me liberal?
@Xander – It’s been called Washington National for many decades. Do you call Atlanta airport by the full name with the recent change? It’s an awful lot of syllables.
On the political front, Gary is all over the place. It’s not a criticism, just an observation. He gets skewered by the left for being a reactionary stooge, then the right attacks him for being a liberal shill. Since both sides are taking potshots at him, he must be doing something right.