I was back in Colombo earlier this year, and I’d go back in a heartbeat but want to spend more time outside the capital than I have so far.
One of my readers will get the chance before I will because I ran a giveaway for a 5 night stay in a suite at MAYA Sri Lanka with Sri Lankan dinner for 2, massages for 2, and cooking class for 2.
American Airlines flight AA731 from London Heathrow to Charlotte was cancelled today as a result of mechanical problems that led to passengers being evacuated via slide onto the tarmac.
Apparently after a mechanical delay smoke began to enter the cabin. The plane was smoking out the back. And passengers evacuated down a slide.
The flight was sort of a ‘freebie’ since I was already booking Houston – Dubai anyway under Alaska Airlines’ pre-devaluation pricing it was only 10,000 miles more to go to Bangkok. And I was getting that in first class. On an A380.
I decided to test booking planeside meet-and-greet through Bangkok Flight Services with a golf cart from the plane to immigration. Here’s what they offer:
Earn the most valuable points – and using an arbitrage opportunity, earn them quickly. And transfer them to programs that accept points from a variety of sources. Then you’ll have points for your award goals in no time.
When you fly you’re traveling with other people. Diverse people. Stuck in a metal tube. And flying is very democratic and surprisingly affordable much of the time.
In economy you’re in tight quarters with people you don’t know, thrown together randomly with other passengers who may not share your values. Although bad behavior is hardly limited to economy.
And that’s what is so difficult about stories like the one of the sleeping teen girl groped and kissed by a man on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to Anchorage this week.
Emirates has a first class lounge that’s really an entire level of the terminal concourse. That’s the A concourse first class lounge. Over there coach passengers are on one level, business class passengers on another, and first class passengers separated still. I called it the ‘Night of the Comet’ lounge because it’s long a neutron bomb went off and the whole terminal is still there but there are no people. It’s surreal.
Since that concourse was set up primarily for Airbus A380 aircraft, and that’s what I’d be flying from Dubai to Bangkok, I assumed that’s where I’d spend my layover between flights. But I landed to discover I’d actually be departing from B so I decided to use the old first class lounge instead which is right beside my gate. I had time that I could have gone over to the A concourse lounge and then to my flight but I’d rather be close by and not worry about the time.
Here’s another phenomenal aifare sale: US – Europe from $442 roundtrip and available to several different cities!
Don’t be fooled, it’s not Brexit-related, it’s another in a continuation of incredible deals we’ve seen to Europe. Each one is short-lived, from a few hours to a few days, but these seem to keep on coming as airlines go after each other, as there’s too much capacity on European routes, and as we’ve seen low cost competition across the Atlantic from the likes of Norwegian.
Unlike the amazing $550 Asia fares which are being offered by United out of their own hubs, these are more traditional ‘fare war’-style offerings by Delta out of American Airlines hubs.
Usually we see the best airfare deals when one airline attacks another airline’s hub cities with cheap deals. For instance United might offer great fares from American cities like Dallas and Charlotte and Delta cities like Atlanta and Detroit.
You don’t usually see an airline offering the cheapest fares from its own hub cities. That’s because they are usually thought to have pricing power there — the best schedules with the fewest connections that people will pay more for.
Right now though United appears to be offering amazing cheap fares to Southeast Asia from its own hub cities.
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.
At the beginning of November I suggested that an American Express Centurion lounge would be coming to LAX.
The big hint was American Express Centurion Lounge-branded couches past security in the Tom Bradley international terminal.
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 »
