Last week I flew American’s 777-200 in first class to and from Buenos Aires. It was my goodbye to the Flagship Suite. That’s because American’s new 777-300ERs have a new first class, and the American Airlines 777-200 business class is getting a retrofit with a top shelf product… but no first class. American’s trusty old Flagship Suite will be a thing of the past. That story and review is coming up, but for now what I’m interested in is the new 777-200 business class. I love American’s new business class onboard the 777-300ER. That one was put together quickly, a version similar to what Cathay Pacific offers (and a generational upgrade on the seat US Airways pioneered). The 777-200 business class seat is supposed to be even better. And now that the first redone aircraft…
Why Was President Obama’s Credit Card Declined? And Which Card Was It?
President Obama credit card declined! @TomBruneDC reports that Obama’s credit card was declined at a restaurant in New York. Obama: NY restaurant rejected his rarely used credit card when he was attending UN general assembly. “Fortunately, Michelle had hers.” As regular readers know, the President has been known to carry a JP Morgan Select card. The only way to get this card currently is to be a Palladium card cardholder. JP Morgan Select is issued for times when Palladium cardholders want to be ‘low profile’ and not use the heavy metal payment instrument with laser-engraved signature. It used to be possible to apply for the JP Morgan Select card on its own, although this was exceedingly rare as it was an obscure product. We do know that the President is a long-standing JP Morgan Chase…
Review: American Airlines Flagship Lounge JFK (And Bottom-line on the Rest of the First Class Lounges, Including the Secret One)
American continues to offer ‘Flagship Lounges’ or first class lounges in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York JFK, at London Heathrow. There are no longer Flagship Lounges in Dallas or Miami. The Dallas lounge still has the dedicated room, just walk into the Admirals Club in the A terminal and when you get upstairs and come out of the elevator you are facing the desk with reservations agents. Turn completely around, because right behind you is the room that used to be the Flagship Lounge. Almost no one is ever in it, it has separate restrooms, it’s great for quiet and privacy even when the rest of the lounge is busy. In Miami the Flagship Lounge closed, and didn’t re-open. My favorite flagship lounge is Los Angeles, I think the food offerings are pretty good and…
Delta’s Coyote Ugly Regional Jet Sabotaged By the Road Runner
On Tuesday a Delta regional jet taking off from Grand Rapids and bound for Cincinnati hit a coyote. The plane apparently escaped damage. Which means residents of Grand Rapids will continue to experience the comforts of the 50 seat regional jet. Now, I’m not sure how I missed this story for a couple of days. I was probably too busy on hold with Cadillac trying to schedule a test drive. Sadly, under Delta’s new revenue-based frequent flyer program next year, the coyote wouldn’t even have earned miles for the flight, since he wouldn’t have paid a fare. Of course there is of course only one possible reaction to this whole incident. And the commenters on the news story nailed it: Next up: A United regional jet flight is cancelled because the co-pilot had ants in…
Ebola Travel Ban: How Would Shutting Down Travel from West Africa Even Work?
I’m not an epidemiologist and I have no greater understanding about the spread of ebola than what I’ve read from others. So I am limiting the scope of my commentary on the spread of the disease and travel. (Relatedly, I found this Wired piece from August on the extent to which disease spreads on planes interesting.) One of the hot topics under discussion is the idea of an ebola travel ban, stopping anyone ‘from West Africa’ from entering the United States. I’ve seen lots of discussion of this in my Facebook feed, including a couple of links to a Whitehouse.gov petition with over 35,000 signatures. Have the FAA ban all incoming and outgoing flights to ebola-stricken countries until the ebola outbreak is contained While there are certainly capabilities to limit entry into the United States…
German Government Strikes a Blow at oneworld Member airberlin
Update: I wrote this post yesterday morning but failed to hit publish. Minutes after I had it go live today, I learned that the German government has apparently already reversed this very strange decision. So it looks like all is well, for now, but there’s still no public explanation for this very strange story. In what has to be one of the strangest legal decisions in aviation that I’ve seen, German authorities have decided Etihad and airberlin have to cease codeshares. No explanation is given for the decision. The German regulator has to re-approve codesharing agreements twice each year, with the filing of summer and winter schedules. The Etihad-airberlin relationship has been consistently approved (six times) over the past three years until now. airberlin struggled on its own, and attracted an investment from Etihad as…
Airline Investment Advice, Starwood’s New Terms, Plus San Francisco Check-in and Lounge Updates
News and notes from around the interweb: San Francisco: Updates on United’s new Global First and Global Services check-in and progress on the Centurion lounge. Are passengers abusing the system by bringing service animals on planes? Two weeks ago Starwood made a bunch of changes to their terms and conditions. Then, oddly, a day later they pulled those changes and reverted to the previous terms. Now the terms are updated again with very similar changes to the version from two weeks ago and a revision date of October 15. New Nexus machines actually require your Nexus card so something to remember to bring when you go to Canada. United announced plans to add wifi to ~ 200 regional jets. Delta has this, and so does US Airways. That tells me that ultimately the legacy American…
Starwood Launches SPG Preferences – Customize Room Choices and Upgrades!
Yesterday Starwood unveiled a bunch of website revamps and improvements. I’ve already written about changes to the SPG Moments page which lets you buy or bid on experiences with your points. Another thing that has changes is the launch of SPG Preferences. Six weeks ago I broke that this was coming. Here’s how I described it then, Chris told me that they’re making “significant investment in suite night awards.. Over the next few months more to share.” He also noted that “rolling out in October is ‘SPG Preferences’” Members will be able to select their core preferences either globally in their account, or varying for each individual stay (recognizing that needs can change by trip). Starwood is adding upgrade preferences so that members can specify that perhaps they want the first available room as quickly…
50% Bonus for Transferring Amex Points to Starwood is an Opportunity to Create Your Own Amex Transfer Partners
American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 50% bonus for transferring points to Starwood through November 30. Amex points normally transfer 3:1. In other words, 1000 Amex points become just 333 Starwood points. With this offer the transfer rate is 2:1. So 1000 Amex points transfer to 500 Starwood points. Better, but not tempting to me. For some though it opens up avenues for transfers beyond Starwood into airline partners that are not linked to American Express Membership Rewards. 40,000 American Express points will transfer to 20,000 Starwood points with this bonus. From there, Starwood points transfer to 25,000 miles with most of their airline partners. That means you can transfer 40,000 Amex points into 25,000 miles with airlines such as: American Airlines Alaska Airlines (one-way awards on partners like Emirates and Cathay Pacific) Delta,…
Martial Law: a New Tourist Attraction in Thailand!
Thailand’s military coup back in May led to quite a bit of concern and uncertainty for tourists. Indeed, tourism is down year-over-year. My own take at the time was that coups are fairly common in Thailand, as are political protests, and historically outsiders have been quite safe. I will be in Bangkok shortly. The current Thai government sees martial law as something that should benefit tourism! Come visit our temples, our spas, and come see martial law! Officials in Thailand say they are preparing to add martial law to a list of tourist attractions, reports suggest. This follows calls by local tourism groups which insist that martial law needs to be lifted in order to halt the decline in the number of visitors to the country. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is preparing a…
