Apparently American Airlines has ceased selling onboard duty free. Delta dropped duty free last summer. It was characterized in media as a dispute over contract details with their outsource provider, the same company I believe which American worked with (DFASS Group). Duty free is said to be a $3 billion industry, although that strikes me as surprisingly high. Duty free purchases of high tax items like alcohol and cigarettes are popular as are jewelry and cosmetics, especially in Asia and the Middle East as well as Scandinavia flights. You’ll just have to buy your duty free here instead. US airlines don’t have the same volume of duty free purchases as Asian and Middle Eastern carriers. I’ve read that Korean has a standalone duty free display for shopping throughout the flight on the A380 (I’ve only…
Review: LAX Star Alliance First Class Lounge & Business Class Lounge
I kicked off my relaxing trip to the Maldives with a first class award redemption on Etihad. The first flight was Los Angeles – Abu Dhabi, and I had Etihad’s chauffeur service pick me up at the Sheraton LAX. I realize that the Sheraton LAX has an airport shuttle, but the chauffeur service is complimentary and — though my recent visits the shuttle has been reliable, I have a history of waiting for shuttles to come by there that have been full. Utterly gratuitous I suppose, but coming clean — yes I did that. For DC departures I’ve had the car service (Empire CLS) ring me 2-3 days before. For this trip it was just one day prior. They’ll usually show up early to be absolutely sure they’re there on time for you. And indeed…
Spirit Airlines Will Give You Miles if You Borrow Money to Fund Your Vacation, Because That’s a Good Idea..
Spirit is promoting personal loans from Prosper: 200 points for checking your rate online (no hard credit pull, apparently) and 1 point per dollar borrowed up to $35,000. Whether you need to break free from work or some scary credit card debt, we understand. That’s why we’ve partnered with Prosper, an online lending marketplace that offers access to low, fixed-rate loans that you can use for your next vacation or nearly anything else you need. Prosper offers affiliate links, they’d happily pay referral fees to any blogger that wanted to advocate you borrow money from them. I do not have links from them, because I think this is a Very. Bad. Idea. And it’s not any better of an idea when you get Spirit’s Free Spirit miles for doing so. Look, I’m a defender of…
$170 First Class DC – Los Angeles or San Francisco
One-way tickets between DC and the West Coast run $170 at the low end for coach. But Virgin American has $160 fares DC – Dallas Love Field. One they’ll price out with a connection in.. Los Angeles or San Francisco. To get this price (rather than a bit over $200) use promo code BALLER20. Then just get off in San Francisco or Los Angeles. This is a ‘throwaway’ in that you aren’t using the segment from the West Coast to Dallas Love Field. Although if you want to fly to Dallas you can get those $160 non-stops, or could do extra flying DC – San Francisco / Los Angeles – Dallas just to try out Virgin America’s domestic first class product. Remember this is technically against airline rules. In the case of a flight cancellation…
America is Testing Exit Controls at the Border
In most countries you go through immigration not just when you arrive, but when you leave too. In the US there are no ‘exit controls.’ When you go to the airport you get off a connecting flight and right onto your international flight, no more security and no immigration. Domestic and international flights leave from the same terminal. The US is a real exception this way. Canada and the UK are also exceptions. At least, the US was an exception.
Shaming Tourists, a Weird 787 Route, and Margaret Cho Denied Pre-Boarding
News and notes from around the interweb: TSA PreCheck is an important idea – risk-based security, focusing resources where there’s a greater chance of a threat. It’s why TSA as an acronym for ‘Taking Scissors Away’ is such a problem, because it distracts the agency from looking for actually dangerous items. When the TSA lets a member of a domestic terrorist group into PreCheck, however, the program doesn’t work very well. Not to worry, though, because the TSA says there are multiple layers of security. (HT: S.) A woman who opens for Margaret Cho was denied pre-boarding for the disabled on Virgin America and they’re raising a stink. The quite successful Cho “would take legal action if they had the money to fight a Goliath corporation.” While a regrettable incident somehow I think that if…
She Caused a Disruption *After* Her Onboard Sex Act
Alright, crazy passenger stories happen at least somewhat regularly. A woman flying British Airways from Kingston, Jamaica to London Gatwick “was arrested on suspicion of being drunk on an aircraft” which I did not realize was even a crime. (“I’m glad to have never been arrested, then” half the people reading this think to themselves.) Here’s the piece of the story I don’t get: Apparently the disturbance wasn’t caused by the sex act. It was caused after that. The stripping and whatnot, on the BA flight, was itself merely ‘being cheeky’.
~ $5000 Competitours Europe Challenge Trip Giveaway!
My Award Booking Partner Steve Many of you know that I offer an award booking service. It grew too big to handle on my own, and I was fortunate enough to be able to partner with one of the real veterans and gurus in the frequent flyer game, Steve Belkin (known in online forums as ‘beaubo’). Steve is most famous for exploiting loopholes in frequent flyer programs like Aeroplan and United’s MileagePlus in a truly big way, scaling opportunities to earn millions instead of thousands of miles. And in that pursuit he has hired disable Thai rice farmers to fly in and out of the Golden Triangle area of Thailand, and New Zealand college students to fly to Europe for the summer. His ‘Amazing Race for Regular People’ One of the really fun projects he’s…
Will the Thai Airways Mileage Program Be a Savior for United Passengers?
yosithezet responds to my post suggesting that the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program is a good place to credit miles for United flights (because it earns full miles flown and you can top off accounts with points transferred from Citi, Chase, Amex, and Starwood) by asking, “What about Thai? And that’s such a good question! Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus offers full mileage earning on all paid United fares. Here’s the earning chart: And for avoidance of doubt:
KLM’s Business Class Houses, With Liquor
KLM gives long haul business class customers a takeaway gift of collectible houses with liquor inside. Each flight, a Dutch house. Each year, a different style. I didn’t realize that there’s a KLM Houses App so you can look up the details of each house. (HT: baccarat_guy) I’m not sure I buy their slogan ‘Holland. The Original Cool’ (although it gets cold there for sure) but the house gifts are cool. Just not quite as cool as model airplanes.
