Lifetime Admirals Club Members Can Continue to Access Lounges Without a Same Day American Airlines Ticket

by Gary Leff

world map in lounge
Oct 12 2019

Last month I reported that American Airlines was still considering whether to allow lifetime club members to keep accessing Admirals Clubs when not flying American or its partners same day.

According to spokesperson Leslie Scott, they’ve made the decision to honor access for lifetime members. She tells me, “We are making an exception for lifetime members, we will not require them to have a same-day ticket on American or partner airline in order to access the Admirals Club.”

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Should a Man Wearing a T-Shirt Threatening to Kill Journalists Have Been Kicked Off a United Flight Yesterday?

by Gary Leff

Oct 12 2019

While Snopes actually has an entry debunking whether United Airlines has an ‘armed seating and apparel division’ the airline is now coming under fire for doing nothing over a passenger’s t-shirt.

On yesterday’s United flight UA824 from Los Angeles to Boston a passenger was wearing a t-shirt advocating hanging of journalists.

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British Airways CEO’s Boss Publicly Blames Him for Failing to Get a Pilot Deal Done

by Gary Leff

plane tails
Oct 11 2019

Willie Walsh, the former CEO of British Airways and now head of IAG, parent company of BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Vueling, has gone public that he’d do a better job than current BA CEO Alex Cruz at resolving the airline’s contract dispute with pilots.

Public efforts to throw his handpicked British Airways CEO over the side and lay blame at his feet for the failure to get a deal done aside Alex Cruz doesn’t even outsource a single IT job without Willie Walsh blessing it first.

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American Airlines in Talks to Partner With Brazil’s Gol Airlines

by Gary Leff

Oct 11 2019

Make no mistake, a Gol partnership is a second best. Remember that when Delta announced its deal with LATAM American’s response was to claim a LATAM joint venture wouldn’t have been that valuable to them anyway because it wouldn’t be permitted to include Chile. What mattered when making excuses for losing LATAM was Chile. Was matters when promoting a deal with Gol is Brazil. The narrative changes with the opportunity.

However it’s certainly better than giving up connecting feed in Brazil entirely. And if they could put together a secondary deal, and grow their own presence in the region, they could fight back effectively after losing LATAM. They just need to get control of the narrative quickly.

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11 Takeaways From United’s New $18,000 Elite Status

by Gary Leff

Oct 11 2019

United Airlines has declared that miles no longer matter at all – a strange position for MileagePlus to take. Distance flown no longer matters for earning miles. Redeeming miles is more revenue-based with the elimination of award charts. And now even qualifying for elite status will be based on spending starting next year.

You can earn status by spending more than before and counting up the number of flights you take, or just based on spending alone. Here are 11 takeaways from this historic change.

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Starting Next Year United Elite Status Will No Longer Be Earned Based on Distance Flown

by Gary Leff

united plane
Oct 11 2019

United will stop counting how far you fly for earning elite status. United will no longer have 25,000 mile, 50,000 mile, 75,000 mile and 100,000 mile status.

Instead – starting in 2020 for customers earning status for the 2021 program year – United will count how many flights you take and how much you spend. And if you want to earn status without taking a lot of flights, just spend more.

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Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach Plays Games With Award Availability, and Hyatt is Powerless to Stop It

by Gary Leff

Oct 10 2019

The Hyatt Centric Waikiki says they have ‘fewer than 20’ standard rooms, which means that less than 9% of their rooms are standard rooms and eligible for World of Hyatt redemption. However I couldn’t find a single date where they were making rooms available at all.

I reached out to Hyatt to see whether the property was in compliance with program rules for making standard rooms available on points whenever they were offered on cash. I also asked whether Hyatt has rules for any minimum percentage of rooms that must be considered standard?

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