American Express closed the Dallas Fort-Worth lounge, and today it re-opens in a new location.
The new lounge has all of the amenities of the old lounge with some additions and mostly more capacity for guests. There’s the buffet and full bar, complimentary spa treatments, conference room and family room, and an three shower rooms.
No matter how much space you get, it isn’t enough if you offer a good product. Demand forecasts always underestimate how many passengers will want to visit lounges, and how much time they’ll spend, when a qualify lounge is on offer.
American Express has a new approach coming: advance reservations via app.
Although London and Hong Kong are two of the most premium traffic heavy cities in the world, British Airways recently disclosed that their London – Hong Kong twice daily service lags in performance. They’ve pointed out that it suffers in comparison to Cathay Pacific’s (better, more frequent) flights.
British Airways is closing its Hong Kong crew base at the end of October. And today they’ve pink slipped all 85 Hong Kong-based flight attendants.
Right now Miami – Spain (Madrid or Barcelona) starts at $307 roundtrip on American and its partners.
A couple of weeks ago I highlighted fares West Coast – Hawaii from $246 roundtrip which is an amazing deal. I get more excited about East Coast – Hawaii deals. A few times a year you’ll see prices really drop.
Right now you can book DC or New York – Hawaii from $339 roundtrip.
Taylor Gourmet, which some may know from its outpost at Washington’s National airport, has gone out of business. The DCA outpost is the only remaining Taylor Gourmet spot this week.
You could spend $60 and get $250 in value out of their program. And they didn’t mind, saying “If people want to hack through and get cookies, that’s fine.”
While credit cards are generally less expensive for a merchant than taking cash, retailers push back on the cost of accepting cards.
The latest salvo comes from Amazon, along with Home Depot and Target. They want to be able to accept lower-tier Visa and Mastercard products, and not accept premium cards.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker spoke at the Airline Passenger Experience Association event in Boston, and his airline was awarded the distinction of being a ‘Five Star Global Airline’ at the APEX event.
American Airlines is raising the price of beer, wine, and liquor in coach by $1 effective October 1.
I think there are several ways to understand American’s latest ancillary fee increase.
Doug Parker used the opportunity of a friendly interview to defend his new standard domestic product and argue that cramming more seats into their narrowbody fleet is actually good for the customer.
American had 31 inches as their standard domestic distance from seat back to seat back in economy. They considered squeezing to 29 inches before settling on a 30 inch standard. But, they tell us, not to worry about seats being closer together because less padding in the seats means you have just as much room.
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 »
