American Express Centurion lounges seem to me to be so crowded no one goes there anymore. The lounges are nice, an improvement on their US airline lounge alternatives. They’re stylish spaces with decent food and beverage programs.
And whenever you have a nice lounge demand for the lounge is greater than you expect, even knowing that the lounges are going to face heavy demand because people are going to want to use them.
Based on internal conversations American Airlines believes that they have too many widebodies today but as soon as their joint venture with Qantas is approved they’ll be able to grow into them — taking a couple of planes that fly to Europe in the summer and using them on South Pacific routes in the winter starting in late 2019.
Security wait times have increased as TSA screeners call in sick — coming to work not knowing when they’ll be paid is demoralizing. Air traffic controllers are working without knowing when they’ll be paid, too. But is there any reason that has to be so?
Should US airlines hire the screeners and air traffic controllers and pay them directly?
In addition to faster internet American’s 737s and A321s are also getting bigger overhead bins. As long as each passenger only brings their allowable carry on bags and stows their personal item under the seat there should be no need to check a bag.
A change to the computer display at each gate rolled out December 11 to let agents know when the plane has this new interior and will have enough bin space for all passengers.
Marriott is rebranding their loyalty program, with ‘Bonvoy’ launching February 13. There are no substantive changes whatsoever at that time.
Where does the money for this come from that the loyalty program is investing to transform themselves into Bonvoy? It comes from members, and more specifically from member loyalty accounts.
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.
If you buy something from a food truck and pay with a credit card, chances are you’ll be presented with a tablet to sign your name — and you’ll be given the option to tip even though there was no server or service. Many fast casual restaurants follow this approach now, too. And so does Frontier Airlines.
I wondered what other flight attendants think of the practice, and whether they’d want it to spread to their airline.
United made a splash introducing its new business class product two and a half years ago.
Boeing 787-9s though operate United’s longest haul flights, so it’s appalling they have the airline’s old business class product — the same old seats running San Franciso – Newark fly San Francisco – Singapore. They were delivered with old seats, and to date United had not even announced a plan to ever put new seats in them.
Right now there are roundtrip non-stop fares between the US and Australia as low as $462. That’s just amazing.
Dates are available February through May and August through end of year reportedly excluding October for Monday through Thursday flights.
The system has rolled out to domestic airports. It’s touted as helping passengers not have to stay and wait in line, though gate agents need to trigger emails to passengers. It should mean fewer staff necessary at customer service.
There does seem to be a huge flaw in this system.
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 »
