Head to Head: United Polaris Burger vs. American Flagship Burger

by Gary Leff

breakfast burger
Aug 23 2018

A really great burger starts with quality beef. It should have processed cheese that melts well. And it should be inside of a potato bun.

Don’t give me ciabatta bread for a bun. Don’t give me a kaiser roll. As good as brioche can be, it’s not well-matched to a burger. The bun is a delivery vehicle for the burger. It needs to be big enough to contain the burger, but shouldn’t be so large that it overwhelms the burger.

Everything you put on the burger needs to fit inside of the bun. You don’t want the burger to fall apart when you eat it.

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The World’s 15 Best First Class Products, Ranked

by Gary Leff

inside airliner
Aug 23 2018

The key to these rankings is subjective weight that goes into different components of the product. I value personal space more than anythnig else, so a first class configuration that’s four seats across isn’t going to rate as well for me as one that’s two or three seats across.

I’d never rate Air France or Garuda as highly as others — despite phenomenal ground service and attentiveness — because of the lack of real estate each first class passenger gets in the cabin.

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Review: United Polaris Lounge Houston

by Gary Leff

lounge
Aug 22 2018

The staff here are friendly. The lounge is gorgeous. Tarmac views are fantastic. Everything about the Polaris lounge Houston is well designed.

There are showers and nap rooms, an extensive buffet and a sit down restaurant. What’s more even though the lounge is small most of the day it doesn’t seem to be crowded, since the airline’s flights are better space throughout the day rather than clustering solely around 5 o’clock.

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Delta Award Alert: 4+ Business Class Saver Seats to Europe, New York/Boston – London

by Gary Leff

flight chart
Aug 22 2018

It’s still possible to get value out of the SkyMiles program and it’s worth highlighting when you’re able to get saver business class award space using those miles.

The bizarre thing is that the price of even saver space varies widely on Delta, although sometimes that rebounds to your benefit. Virgin Atlantic saver award space is cheaper than Delta saver award space, and both are available for four or more passengers in business class.

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8 Things I Just Learned About American Airlines Plans for Routes and Passenger Experience

by Gary Leff

graph
Aug 22 2018

After each earnings call American Airlines hosts a ‘state of the airline’ meeting with employees. Not everyone gets to ask all of their questions live, so the airline collects additional questions and follows up with answers.

Those responses tend to be much more anodyne that the live ones given by top executives. Nonetheless they can sometimes reveal useful tidbits that either confirm things I thought I knew or tell me something I wasn’t already aware of. Here are some of the things that were shared with me and seemed worth passing on.

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United Airlines Will Put Lie Flat Seats on Boeing 737s

by Gary Leff

airline cabin with bed
Aug 22 2018

United Airlines President spoke at the Boyd Aviation Forecast Summit and shared that they’re planning to offer lie flat seats on new Boeing 737 MAX 10s.

United would use these planes to replace the current Boeing 757s operating domestically with lie flat seats which are deployed on routes like Newark – Los Angeles and San Francisco, and also to expand the number of domestic routes offering a premium service.

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American is Redesigning the Appearance of the Upgrade List

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Aug 21 2018

The airline has shared with employees that they “are currently collaborating with various teams to redesign the customer-facing upgrade list.” To be clear this does not sound like any change to upgrades, just to how the upgrade list appears to the customer. This change seems to focus on “which product/cabin each person is waiting for and who has been cleared.”

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