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.
Lifetime means as long as American Express sees you as having had a card in the past. Often that seems to be around seven years. You can ask American Express what cards you’ve had in the past and they’ll tell.
There’s no more guessing, because American Express has a new popup when you submit an application — before they pull your credit — noting you’ve had the card in the past (or currently have it) and therefore aren’t eligible for a bonus. You can proceed with the application if you wish, or stop the process.
American’s food service in its clubs has really been boosted, and perceptions of their club experience should be upgraded as a result. Onboard I got a predeparture beverage, and that’s actually notable. And I tried a special meal at breakfast for the first time, unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be the passport to a great inflight meal the way it is at lunch and dinner.
American Airlines is reportedly looking at seasonal Philadelphia – Dubrovnik service.
Authorities in Dubvrovnik have been looking for twice weekly year-round service from New York. There’s a large Croatian population in New York, and an even bigger one in Pittsburgh.
United charges up to $75 for awards booked within 21 days of departure. However the ‘book farther out then change’ trick with United has persisted for a long time. I’ve written about it or linked to others writing about it many times.
In April word leaked that LAX would be getting a Centurion lounge finally. We should expect this lounge to open in 2019.
The lounge will be located in the in the Tom Bradley International terminal, and not where it was originally expected between terminals six and seven. It will be 13,693 square feet, 10% larger than the expanded Centurion lounge they’re building in Dallas.
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.
American’s new Boeing 737 MAX interior has seats with less space between them than ever before, less recline, and no seat back entertainment. They are installing satellite wifi and bigger overhead bins, but to squeeze in even more seats — they’ve gone from 150 seats to 172 seats on this size aircraft in just four years — they’re shrinking the bathrooms onboard.
One American Airlines pilot describes these lavatories as the most miserable experience in the world. He says he’ll refuse to deadhead on the aircraft to get to his duty assignment.
Back in the fall Priority Pass added access to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at LAX. That seemed fantastic, and it is — finally a Priority Pass-accessible lounge at LAX terminal 2. However it wasn’t exciting as it seemed at first blush. Hours are limited to when Virgin Atlantic’s own passengers aren’t there. Initially the LAX lounge was open 5 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. That’s been cut back to 10:45 a.m. Since they’re not servicing Virgin’s customers they don’t offer the extensive food service Virgin customers are used to. Credit: Virgin Atlantic Credit: Virgin Atlantic They’ve apparently extended the model of generating revenue for otherwise-unused lounge space, getting Virgin Atlantic lounges to open earlier in exchange for that sweet, sweet bank cash funneled through Collinson Group. Priority Pass cardmembers now have access to Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses…
American Airlines is already a lot stricter with same day confirmed changes than their competitors are.
Consistent with the American’s overall move to limit agent flexibility they’ve changed how reservations agents process same day standby.
There is no de jure change here, but a de facto change in what reservations agents will be able to do for customers. They’ll no longer be able to ignore other business rules when E inventory is available
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 »
