TSA PreCheck Just Got Better — and How to Get it Free

May 21 2016

Airport security lines have become insufferably long. It’s costing both passengers(who can wait for hours at peak times) and airlines (when passengers miss flights and their seats aren’t used efficiently, plus they have unhappy customers).

While TSA PreCheck is no guarantee of a fast airport security experience, it’s usually a reliable way to get through in minutes rather than tens of minutes let alone an hour. And it’s just improved.

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American’s Pilots Have to Claim to Be Really Unhappy If They’re Going to Ever Be Happy

american airlines hangar
May 20 2016

American’s pilots claim to be unhappy.

This is important because although American and US Airways have merged, and from a customer-facing standpoint are a single carrier (albeit with very different legacy products that the airline is slow to update), work groups are not yet on the same system and pilots do not yet have a single seniority list that will allow the airline to function as one.

There are still planes attached to destinations and crews, and that prevents American from matching the right equipment to the right route and optimize aircraft so that expensive capital equipment gets the most efficient use possible as well. In other words, many of the merger’s promised synergies remain on the table.

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Another New York Hyatt That Comps Diamond Room Service

May 20 2016

Ever since I first stay at the Andaz 5th Avenue I fell in love with that property’s overall value proposition, especially for a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member. Their rooms are generally large for New York anyway, and they have a ton of suites, so Diamonds often get upgrades even when not confirming a suite upgrade at time of booking. And they offer Diamonds breakfast via room service as well as in the restaurant. (The restaurant is small and this makes it possible to accommodate everyone.)

And I absolutely loved the Park Hyatt when I first got to stay there back in the Fall.

However in Manhattan I tend to choose a hotel for a given stay based first on location and then price (or rather ‘value for money’).

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