News and notes from around the interweb:
- American’s decision to sunset the AAirpass program is linked to this
"There’s a general sense that American will lose business to Delta and United. It’s a test of corporates’ and TMCs’ ability to move share post-pandemic."
— Ross Feinstein (@RossFeinstein) December 1, 2022
- The Austin airport signed a 40 year lease with a private company to develop a second terminal. The South Terminal, which has been open for 5 years, is occupied by Frontier and Allegiant. Now the airport wants to tear down the terminal for its new expansion plan. Instead of buying out the developer they want to use eminent domain to… take land they already own. They just want to cancel the lease they signed. But if a city government does that, no lease the city signed can be trusted since they can always just cancel it – after the developer has spent 8 figures developing the property.
The city has allocated $3 million of airport funds to the effort. That’s money that won’t go into improving the passenger experience.
- Elvis Presley’s private plane up for auction
- The cheapest 5 star hotel in every state
- This is Salt Lake City, not even New York JFK terminal 4… Delta’s decision to drop the hammer on Sky Club access makes some sense! The lounges need to be a respite from the terminal to be valuable (and not just have customers be able to get in).
However they go too far with Diamond customers, and indeed even Platinums on basic economy fares. Not everyone can get a premium Amex card. And at new club pricing costumers should be able to use the club any time – a real members club! – not just on certain airlines and fares.
I know this change @Delta will probably negatively affect me but a line 60 ppl deep to get into B concourse l-ATL sky lounge is awful! Too many ppl given access with no addtl capacity… pic.twitter.com/ysDiiy9aPd
— J. D. (@ddaniels1906) December 1, 2022
- Rock, paper, scissors and… shoot.
My son playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with the @AmericanAir baggage handler from the plane . ✈️ pic.twitter.com/nJJZ2C9o2n
— Yossi Lazaroff 👍 (@AggieRabbi) December 1, 2022
- The Austin airport signed a 40 year lease with a private company to develop a second terminal. The South Terminal, which has been open for 5 years, is occupied by Frontier and Allegiant. Now the airport wants to tear down the terminal for its new expansion plan. Instead of buying out the developer they want to use eminent domain to… take land they already own. They just want to cancel the lease they signed. But if a city government does that, no lease the city signed can be trusted since they can always just cancel it – after the developer has spent 8 figures developing the property.
That image is from ATL, not SLC…the SLC flight departs from B18 🙂
Doubletree and 5 star don’t match.
@Gary I just want to see Amex do something similar at Centurion clubs. The benefit is worthless due to overcrowding by large groups. I probably will let my Platinum card go away next renewal.
I’ve gotten to the point where I despise club lounges.The poor attire, the lousy food, the cramped seating and folks gobbling down slop like it’s their last chance to consume food.
They attract everyone and anyone including their fake emotional support animal
I do anything to avoid them now except in situations like the Qantas First Class lounge in Sydney or similar which keeps most of the riff raff is filtered out and feels private enough to escape the masses.
I have no issue with the eminent domain claim if they compensate the developer for the money they invested. I think it’s good for the government to always be able to claim property, provided they provide fair compensation – I don’t think that significantly disturbs the capitalist incentives that are important for our economy.
@Dwondermeant: So, if the riff raff is filtered out, that leaves jerks like you.
Hah hah someone has Riff Raff inferiority anxiety under their anger :):)
The difference is for the most part I was happy to exit the lounges since Covid and only use them when flying premium Int carriers.So they are all yours now Sir Riff Enjoy!
SirJerk
@Ben: I do not believe it is fair for them to cancel the contract they themselves signed. If you believe that they should be able to cancel the contract then the fair compensation should include all the capital they have invested in the project plus compensation for 40 years (or however many left on the 40 year contract) of estimated profits on the contract. Not surprisingly, the City of Austin does not want to buy out the contract, they want to steal it back. I have no vested interest either way but I hope the legal system denies this injustice.
Cities have been stealing land for decades to build stadiums for billionaires. Now it’s the corporations turn to have their land stolen.
There is a lesson here: never sign a contract with a Democrat or Democrat-leaning company or organization as a counter party. The student loan bailout has given Dems cover to abrogate contract law. In out real estate development business we do forensics to assure counterparties are not engaged in partisan Democrat politics. Or we simply ask them up front.
The latte liberals will have to sit with all the proles again.
Imagine making armchair politics your entire identity, to where you can’t even comment on an article about airport lounges without losing your mind. Must be exhausting.