News and notes from around the interweb:
- Virgin America already has the best domestic first class product on routes outside of premium transcons (where major carriers generally offer flat bed seats). In about 18 months they’ll retrofit to an even better product across their whole fleet. No dedicated subfleet for San Francisco – New York and similar, no flat beds, but the gap between Virgin America and other airlines in domestic first will grow. (And their food is better, too.)
- Hyatt’s IT woes continue. I’m pretty sure I am not currently in the midst of a 187 year stay at the Grand Hyatt Bangkok.
- Seattle’s airport expansion plans: “We are growing like a weed, basically” which is an odd way to put it since weeds are usually undesirable and you want to yank them out or use weed-suppressing mulch…
- The free simulator app that teaches you how to deal with airplane emergencies (HT: Paul H.)
- What airplane toilets do with your waste (HT: Paul H.)
- Time lapse of Houston Hobby’s international terminal construction.
I want to know the secret to getting enough Hyatt points for an award stay that long!
Free stay for life!
Hmm, does the stay at Grand Hyatt Bangkok transfer to your kids and their kids?
Re: Hyatt IT Woes. I recently booked a free night online using the Chase Hyatt anniversary free night certificate which automatically gets listed as “redeemed” when you make a booking that it applies to. However, when I cancelled that booking, the award night never went back to “available” and in fact the agents could also not make it “available”. Best they could do was say that even though it says it isn’t available, it really is but you now have to call to make a booking with it.
Two weeks ago I spent hours at a Hyatt trying to get things straightened out with complete screwups on my points and awards. The hotel screwed it up and then Gold Passport made it worse. Not only did points simply go missing, but I suddenly had no stays for the past except for one night in Austin, TX–I’ve never been to Austin, but all my real stays were gone. Now the real stays are back, but some are missing and Austin is still there. I am finally giving up.