American Express has confirmed to me that U.S.-based cards offering Priority Pass will no longer provide credit in participating airport restaurants going forward.
Effective August 1 “the Priority Pass Membership benefit offered on American Express Platinum and Centurion Cards and Hilton Ascend, Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ Cards will no longer include complimentary access to non-lounge airport experiences.”
There are amazing fares between Los Angeles and Shanghai in business class the last third of the year on Hainan Airlines, which reportedly offers the best inflight product of any mainland Chinese carrier.
These fares are available from New York as well to Shanghai and with slightly higher pricing to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Fuzhou
We’re seeing what may be the beginning of the next big restriction on bank-provided Priority Pass cards: American Express has notified Hong Kong cardmembers that effective August 1 Priority Pass cards that come with their Centurion, Platinum, Peninsula Platinum, and Cathay Pacific Elite credit cards will no longer offer “non-lounge airport experiences” such as restaurants, cafes, and bars “where food/beverage credit is offered instead of entrance into a traditional airport lounge.”
This would cut American Express’ costs to issue these cards significantly, and be a huge cut in cardmember benefits. The worry here is that it could spread (1) to other American Express markets, and (2) to other issuers. I have asked American Express what their plans are for this restriction and will share anything that I learn.
When the new Apple Card becomes available this summer, dedicated Apple fans may rush to it. It’s worth knowing that the card isn’t as good as competitor products in the market and actually moves away from Steve Jobs’ original vision which was points for Apple products, not cash back.
If this is true it’s monumentally stupid on the hotel’s part. If the rapper believes it’s true then he shouldn’t settle for an apology, he should sue the hotel for no other reason than to be able to subpoena documents and emails and depose witnesses. And assuming the subpoenas aren’t quashed the hotel would be in a position of having to pay out in a significant way to avoid embarrassment (and then presumably make copies of emails and documents disappear so to avoid a rinse, repeat scenario).
United Airlines President Scott Kirby declares that new low cost carriers cannot succeed because United will match their pricing. Kirby’s view seems extremely misguided for four simple reasons.
Bank of America has several lesser-known but still excellent rewards credit cards. They will approve at most 2 cards every 2 months, 3 cards every 12 months, and 4 cards every 24 months. That limit applies to Bank of America cards only, rather than being like Chase which looks at the cards you’ve opened from all sources.
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.
Frequent flyer award tickets are supposed to reward loyalty. They don’t feel very rewarding when they come with a cash co-pay in the form of fuel surcharges which — for economy redemptions — can be almost as much as the cost of a paid ticket. (We’ve even seen instances in the past where British Airways fuel surcharges on an award ticket were more expensive than the cheapest fare you could buy with cash.)
Hawaiian Airlines accidentally started imposing the mother of all carrier-imposed surcharges on its awards last week, and they are “deeply sorry.”
Two weeks ago I wrote that Via Air hadn’t shown up at an airport they were supposed to fly to and no one knew why. Even the airport itself couldn’t reach the airline to learn more.
Now it appears that airline has shut down its commercial service entirely, with the exception of a single route. The airline is blaming a lack of pilots. Two weeks ago they also blamed the FAA for “slower and more methodical” oversight following the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, an aircraft Via Air did not operate.
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 »
