Previous Installments: Introduction and Trip Planning Etihad Lounge, Washington Dulles Etihad First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi Etihad Business Class Lounge, Abu Dhabi Terminal 1, and Abu Dhabi – Chennai Business Class Park Hyatt Chennai Eating South Indian Food in Chennai Etihad has one flight a day in and out of Chennai. It arrives and departs in the middle of the night, scheduled for just over an hour on the ground. It departs Abu Dhabi from a bus gate, and perhaps that’s why the flight perenially runs a few minutes late and squeezes the turnaround time in Chennai. And as a result if leaves Abu Dhabi a bit late too. That’s interesting to me not because the flight is unreliable, it isn’t, delays tend to be short. But because in the Middle East and…
Is Air France KLM’s Flying Blue Getting Even More Frustrating to Deal With in Issuing Awards?
Some of the Best Programs Have Frustrating Quirks I’m a big fan of Avianca’s LifeMiles program because they offer a reasonable Star Alliance award chart, one-way awards, you can buy the bulk of the miles you need either when they run a (frequent) 100% purchase bonus or at time of ticketing through their ‘cash and points’ option. What I don’t like about the program is that they have a sometimes-frustrating website and an always-frustrating call center, and they don’t permit “mixed cabin” awards. If you have a business class award to Europe, you cannot include a domestic flight segment in coach. Every flight has to be booked into the same cabin. Flying Blue Has Long Been Difficult With Mixed Cabin Awards Here’s the thing I haven’t seen much written about. Air France KLM’s Flying Blue…
American Eagle Gives Itself a Name That It Can’t Possibly Live Up To
American Eagle Airlines will change its name to Envoy. Here’s the trick. American Eagle is a wholly owned subsidiary operating feeder flights and thin routes for American. Recently American has taken on more regional partners to do flying for them. And US Airways has non-owned regional airline partners flying for them. And that regional flying needs a name. Like United Express and US Airways Express, a brand that encompasses all of the contracted airlines flying small aircraft. So American wants to use ‘American Eagle’ to represent all of these airlines, not just their one subsidiary. As a result they’re renaming the subsidiary. So far, so good. But… Envoy? “By taking on the Envoy name, we can better differentiate ourselves from the competition and better market ourselves. …The name was chosen because Envoy is reflective of…
2500 Free Miles, 25% Off Redemptions, and 15% Off Shopping (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 14, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb:ANA Mileage Club members save 15% at Bloomingdale’s 2500 bonus miles for joining Jet Airways JetPrivilege 25% off Virgin Atlantic economy redemptions This actually exists. You can Starwood’s Take a Spin Game each day through February 7. American settled a 9/11 negligence suite over 9/11 with Cantor Fitzgerald for $135 million. Perhaps a reader familiar with bankruptcy law can explain why American’s liability wasn’t discharged in their chapter 11 proceedings? (I’m no suggesting it should have been, I am not at all an expert in this, but I’m curious.) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me…
A Quick Jaunt to Southern India: A Taste of South Indian Food and My Hero, Park Hyatt Assistant Duty Manager Arun
Previous Installments: Introduction and Trip Planning Etihad Lounge, Washington Dulles Etihad First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi Etihad Business Class Lounge, Abu Dhabi Terminal 1, and Abu Dhabi – Chennai Business Class Park Hyatt Chennai Chennai isn’t a tourist city the way that Delhi or Mumbai are (not that those are primarily tourist cities). Nonetheless there are certainly things to see and do there, a former colleague from there flagged especially Mahabalipuram a UNESCO World Heritage Site an hour and a half outside the city center, 11th century temple Varadaraja Perumal temple, 7th century temple Kapaleeshwarar,m and 8th century temple Triplicane where you’ll see elephants as well. Marina Beach in Chennai is the world’s second longest, and there’s Ashtalakshmi Temple which is on Besant Nagar beach. There’s plenty of shopping for silks, handicrafts, and…
The TSA Learns its Procedures Via Rumor, Pay for Lounge Access, and Earn Hotel Bonuses (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 13, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: A former TSA supervisor takes to reddit and thousands of comments ensue. (HT: Reid) There was very little new or enlightening, but this — though obvious — was a surprising admission: The basic SOP that most officers have to know is several hundred pages long; few of them have actually read the whole thing and are essentially relying on word of mouth. Here’s a slightly more emotional reaction to Delta’s lounge access policy changes than I had offered. How to put awards on a brief hold at Delta.com. This only works for creating itineraries that can be booked online. The current major hotel chain promos you should register for. US airlines will generally offer paid day passes to their lounges in addition to membership and access to international…
300 Free La Quinta Points
Submit your member number and last name for 300 points. (HT: James R.) Here’s an old submission page for 300 points whose fine print suggests it has expired. I’ve never stayed at a La Quinta. From having read Lamar Muse’s excellent autobiography about his years as Southwest Airlines’ founding President, I recall the story of the La Quinta chain (its founder was a Southwest board member). Apparently the name derives from the founder’s search for the cheapest furnishings possible. They had a Southwestern motif, and so he chose a name to match. Free points, of course, are free points. Even if the Urban Dictionary claims ‘La Quinta’ means “next to Denny’s.” Points convert to a variety of currencies although you need 6000 points to do so. You can also earn free points via their Facebook…
50% Bonus for Crediting American Flights to US Airways, or US Airways Flights to American
American and US Airways have begun phasing in codesharing. In conjunction with this, both US Airways and American Airlines are incentivizing their frequent flyers to credit flights on the other carrier to their home mileage account. No need to book a codeshare flight, just credit a US Airways flight to American — or vice versa — and earn 50% bonus miles. US Airways is offering a 50% bonus on American Airlines flights between January 13 and March 2. Registration is required. Flights purchased prior to registering do count and in fact even flights taken during the promotion period prior to registering will count as well (the flip side of this is that bonus miles don’t post right away). The offer applies only to American, American Eagle, and American Connection-operated flights, and not to codeshares operated…
My Google Glass Experience
Thanks to my friend Scott on Facebook who extended me the invitation to buy Google Glass. It needs internet, so if I’m not at home or office I’m using my mifi. It works in conjunction with the MyGlass app on my Android phone. The battery life on my mifi could be better. The batter life on my phone could be better. And the battery life on Google Glass itself could be better. Plus that’s a lot of device juggling. It’s also not the easiest to store. It doesn’t fold up like glasses in a nice compact case, and I worry about squishing it in my laptop bag. The controls are awkward and non-intuitive although I learn them quickly enough I guess. I just found figuring out all the taps and swipes and head movements strange,…
Eat Better Burgers at the Airport, Earn More Points, and Watch Your Email for Status (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 12, 2014)
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: A week ago I shared how you can sta ck bonus after bonus earning loads of points for your stays at IHG Rewards hotels. Here’s another one for the list, 2000 points per stay for 60 days. Don’t register for it until you’re ready to stay because registering starts the clock. I have a short piece in this month’s Washingtonian on what changes locals can expect at National airport as a result of the American Airlines-US Airways merger. The biggest one? American customers will start flying more out of the C pier, trading Fuddruckers burgers for the superior Five Guys. American is targeting members for accelerated elite status earning and even including 500 mile upgrades in the offer. If you weren’t targeted you won’t be able to sign…
