May 22 2015

American Express has begun operating their own network of “Centurion lounges,” which are a step above what travelers have become accustomed to from US airline-operated lounges. I consider the American Express Centurion lounge in Dallas one of my favorite airport spots. It’s one of the two lounges I visit most often. There’s a Centurion lounge already in Las Vegas and at New York LaGuardia as well and also San Francisco. American Express Centurion Lounge San Francisco There’s an additional known lounge in the pipeline for Miami, and a more modest lounge coming to Seattle. The Miami lounge is about to open in the North Terminal, convenient for American Airlines passengers. According to the Miami Herald it opens early June. As for the food, [Celebrity Chef Michelle] Bernstein’s buttermilk-brined fried chicken and Greek-style local watermelon salad…

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May 22 2015

Korean Air’s ‘nut rage’ Vice President has been released from prison. Her conviction for aviation security law violations, in forcing the airline’s plane to turn back to JFK after a flight attendant served her nuts in a bag, was overturned. And her sentence for assaulting a flight attendant was suspended.

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May 21 2015

They booked one-way tickets from Algiers to Istanbul via Rome. They boarded their onward flight to Turkey, and then bolted. Three Algerian illegal migrants found a quick way to avoid deportation last week – they jumped off a moving Alitalia plane at Rome’s Fiumicino airport and ran for it. …the three Algerians, who had been refused permission to stay in Italy, decided to do so anyway. They forced open a door while the plane was moving from the gate towards the runway, activated the exit chutes, slid down onto the tarmac and sprinted into the distance. A major manhunt for the trio has been launched and an investigation opened… The plane returned to the gate, and passengers offloaded onto another aircraft. Though hardly their fault, Alitalia needed to blame someone so they “called for stricter…

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May 21 2015

A collection of interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.

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May 21 2015

A man, angry at US Airways for overbooking his flight to Jamaica, stripped naked and walked around the Charlotte airport for an hour before he was taken into custody. (He won’t face charges.)

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May 21 2015

The new list of IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks redemptions — rooms that may cost as much as 40,000 points per night usually, for just 5000 points — goes up soon for bookings through July 31. Here’s a sample, and how to buy those for as little as $35 or get 14 nights for a single credit card signup.

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May 21 2015

Delta has been pulling its fares off of some websites.

I don’t worry so much from a consumer standpoint, the average consumer searches about 10 sites when booking a trip. This is about tug-o-war over data, how ancillary services will be sold in the future, and distribution costs. In other words, a business-to-business scuffle.

But the Department of Transportation is considering rules that would require a website to highlight airlines that are not shown in their searches. ..which will tip the scales to Delta in moves like this.

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May 20 2015

Luxury Link, the high end hotel booking site, has ceased operations.

People with bookings need to contact their credit card companies to dispute the charges. If it’s beyond the period where disputes can be filed, then folks may just be out of luck (and out of cash)… Here’s what to do.

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May 20 2015

At the Wolfe Research Global Transportation Conference, American Airlines President Scott Kirby shared the things he’s looking forward to once integration is complete. There are lots of projects that have been put off given the single-minded focus on combining American Airlines and US Airways.

Among those, “we would have loved to make some modifications to the frequent flyer program” and he talked about more ancillary revenue and ‘shamelessly copying’ come of their competitors…

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May 20 2015

Last night I dreamt I was in the American Airlines Admirals Club in Los Angeles (although the woman sitting at the desk was one of the gems from the Washington National club.

I watched as a passenger had the agent there run her credit card to fund a bank account. I was a little bit excited for a moment, thinking you could charge bank deposits at American Airlines lounges when I woke up.

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