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.
I think Turkish Airlines is a very good airline overall. They have a great lounge in Istanbul. There’s billiards, golf, a race track, and a movie room with popcorn machine. They even provide complimentary hotel stays to economy passengers forced to overnight in Istanbul by the Turkish schedule.
Since I’ve felt it safe to travel on Turkish Airlines, I thought it was also important to share concerns about actually spending time in Turkey right now as an American now that the US has ordered families of consulate workers there to leave.
American Airlines flight AA383 from Chicago to Miami caught fire yesterday as it was preparing for takeoff.
The Boeing 767-300 had 161 passengers and 9 crew onboard at around 2:50pm Central time and was heading down runway 28R. The crew rejected takeoff, and stopped on the runway, reporting a fire coming from the right wing.
Norwegian and Wow Air are together a key reason we’re seeing deeper discount airfare flash sales than ever before.
Right now you can book Los Angeles – Paris from $369 roundtrip.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Cathay Pacific releases first class award space.
It seems to be that British Airways isn’t showing Cathay Pacific awards within 6 days of departure but the space is there.
Here’s award availability searched via Qantas (American doesn’t show Cathay space on its website). There’s plenty of first class award space for at least one passenger over the next few days.
There’s amazing availability to and from Asia using Star Alliance member EVA Air.
EVA Air offers a business class product that’s four abreast on the Boeing 777-300ER. That means all aisle access. The seat is reverse herringbone and very similar to what Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, and others offer. It’s one of the best business class seats in the sky in my opinion.
And it’s wide open for 4 passengers from all North American gateways starting in February.
Washington Dulles built an expensive train to carry passengers between terminals which started operations in 2010. But they don’t really do that, at least they don’t do it for all passengers and they don’t take passengers of the airport’s major airline anywhere near their gates.
Instead they also have a system of “mobile lounges” or moon buggies that carry passengers slowly across active taxiways to their terminals. Many United passengers still have to use them, for instance.
Since news broke of changes coming in March to Hyatt Gold Passport, becoming “World of Hyatt” with new and different benefits, I’ve been pondering how I’ll approach my own elite status next year.
I still strongly believe the increase in partner award pricing is very out of step with competitors, and that the changes without notice are highly objectionable.
However – and I initially pointed this out as well – the continuation of Alitalia flight awards at the same price as before represents strong value, and combined with the expectation that those prices won’t be changing soon makes the program a continued useful one for members.
And they’ve introduced new valuable features, as well.
It’s fascinating that British Airways is growing their long haul network with new U.S. destinations even as Brexit looms. They have a joint venture with American Airlines and Finnair, but American does seem to leave decisions about new London routes to BA. And they share the risk here.
Earlier in the month they announced they’d be introducing New Orleans service. And yesterday they announced Fort Lauderdale. Both could appear on face to be curious choices.
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 »
