The Barclays American Airlines Card Now Comes With a Companion Ticket as Part of Its Signup Offer

by Gary Leff

steward on plane
May 10 2019

Big changes to the Barclays American AAdvantage cards went into effect May 1. I’m looking forward to trying out the $25 per day inflight food and beverage credit from my Aviator Silver card this coming week. I’m up front, but I plan to ask for a flight attendant’s help springing for a row’s food and drinks in back. I’m going to use that benefit every single time I can because even if it doesn’t benefit me directly it will benefit some flyers’.

The Red card now has a companion ticket available to be earned after $20,000 spend as well. And it’s now also available as part of the card’s initial bonus.

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Elizabeth Warren Flew Out of the Most Notorious Gate in America

by Gary Leff

airport escalators going down
May 10 2019

Elizabeth Warren flew out of the notorious gate 35X at Washington National airport on Thursday evening, taking American’s once-daily flight AA5017 to Charleston, West Virginia. That’s appropriately a single cabin 50 seat regional jet operated by PSA Airlines. And it was delayed an hour and 45 minutes. Before heading down into the Gate 35X she got extra cheese on her &pizza. She then stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for an iced black tea. Spotted: Elizabeth Warren selfies (and FaceTiming?) at be airport pic.twitter.com/45AWQgFbik — MJ Lee (@mj_lee) May 9, 2019 For the uninitiated you take an escalator down to a holding area with a lack of seating and several doors (sub-gates) where you wait to board a bus that “makes a slow, winding journey across the airport to your plane.” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown was also…

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American Airlines Announced 18 Routes But Blew The Game of Thrones Reference (Spoiler Alert)

by Gary Leff

the night king
May 10 2019

American Airlines announced a number of new routes and increased frequencies under the Game of Thrones rubric “Winter is Coming” — several weeks late of course since the Night King is already dead and everyone is headed to Westeros. Fortunately for fans in search of their place on the Iron Throne, American did already add Dubrovnik to their route map.

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Hyatt Added a Tranche of Small Luxury Hotels to Its Earning and Redemption Portfolio

by Gary Leff

santorini
May 09 2019

Hyatt launched their earning and redemption partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World at the end of 2018. Initially they only brought about 10% of SLH’s 500+ properties into their portfolio.

They followed two months later with another 56 properties or 10% and then 57 more a month after that. Now they’ve added another tranche of hotels where you can earn and redeem Hyatt points, bringing them to over 200 (or roughly 40% of) SLH properties in the portfolio.

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Defiant Air Italy Will Launch Two New North American Routes Next Year

by Gary Leff

qatarplane
May 09 2019

U.S. airlines are lobbing political grenades at Air Italy, which flies from Milan to New York, Miami and now seasonally to Los Angeles and San Francisco (cities with no other non-stop service on the route). Air Italy has a total of 15 aircraft in its fleet, and has already reduced service on the Los Angeles and San Francisco routes, and cancelled Chicago service before it even began.

Air Italy is defiant. They say they plan to launch two new North American routes in 2020, at least one likely just summer seasonal, and they hope to re-instate Los Angeles and San Francisco’s service to year-round status.

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