Back in December I wrote that based on local documents that had been uncovered the current The Club space at the Phoenix airport’s terminal 4 B concourse would be expanded and turned into two lounges, an Escape Lounge and an American Express Centurion lounge. I’ve been tracking progress on this project for over a year.
American Express is now confirming details of the Phoenix lounges, and providing renderings.
American Airlines is reportedly spending $1 billion on their new corporate campus and that’s apparently up from a previously-reported $350 million. It’s possible that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. American has been tight-lipped about the project’s costs. However it fairly clearly represents a project that’s grown substantially more expensive.
Just keep that number in mind for a moment as we walk through the economics of American’s decision not to offer seat back entertainment for domestic passengers, instead streaming content to passenger phones.
In the movie Up in the Air Sam Elliott plays the chief pilot at American Airlines. He appears in their advertising, and meets customers on board when they hit ten million frequent flyer miles. My own lifetime counter at AAdvantage is only rounding towards 4 million, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t really happen in real life. One way to see the chief pilot, though, is to retire after a career flying for American.
On May 26, Captain Fred Swaffer flew his last flight for American after 33 years with the airline.
Earlier I wrote that tons of Hilton Honors redemptions appeared to go up 10,000 points per night indeed the bulk of 10,000 Honors point per night properties have become 20,000 points.
Under Hilton’s system they do not tell members that this is happening. I asked Hilton about it.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The Doha airport features a giant Teddy Bear sculpture that’s 23 feet tall, weights 20 tons and is made out of bronze. It had previously been displayed in front of the Seagram’s Building on Park Avenue in New York.
A real bear made its way through security earlier this month at the Yelizovo airport in Far East Russia.
Travel is generally at the forefront of toleration. United, for instance, was first to offer ‘undisclosed’ and ‘unspecified’ gender options when booking a ticket. Air Italy, 49% owned by Qatar Airways, was first in Europe to let customers define gender themselves.
That seems to be the trend everywhere except the TSA where they still apparently expect passengers to conform to whatever gender stereotype matches the preferences of their screeners on any given day. You don’t have to be non-binary to run into problems, if you simply don’t appear masculine or feminine enough.
The question, I think, is whether the feature will be used in the future to pre-reserve a limited number of spaces in the lounge. It’s the only way I can see this feature being useful at all.
There are several amazing fares for coach roundtrip travel between the US and Europe starting at just $224.
American airlines has cut back on their special meals. Three of the meal choices – asian vegetarian, hindu, and muslim – are actually the same thing, diabetic meals now get chicken instead of beef, and five of their special meals now “receive standardized and frozen pre-prepared” entrees with a “one year frozen shelf life.” Yum!
But if one year shelf life is supposed to be the cutoff, how come a reader was served a vegetarian meal made in February 2018?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
