The Phoenician is a lovely property, and in short worth of both its Starwood “Luxury Collection” branding and its recent fifth diamond. The facilities are beautiful and well-maintained. The service is prompt and courteous. And, for a property of this caliber, I didn’t even find the food offerings to be especially overpriced. Not cheap, mind you, but not really more expensive than better Westin properties. If there was a short-coming, it was in this property’s understanding and recognition of Starwood Preferred Guest program benefits. My status didn’t appear to be properly reflected in my reservation, and I asked the hotel to correct that which they told me they did. In advance of my arrival, I received a concierge email that contained someone else’s reservation — but that showed my Starwood Preferred Guest number with the…
The Next Airline to Fold
Eos files for bankruptcy and ceases operations. Eos Airlines, an all-business-class carrier that flies between Kennedy International Airport and London, said that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and would cease operations by Monday. The airline, which was founded in 2005, is planning to operate its final flights between London’s Stansted airport and Kennedy on Sunday.
What Wines Onboard?
Silverjet has been promoting their in-flight wine expertise as part of projecting an overall luxurious inflight experience. The PR folks are sharing the following thoughts on wine. First, that the taste of wine onboard is influenced by the atmospheric pressure, low humidity and vibration of the cabin, all affecting how efficiently our taste buds work. This concluded that while [t]here has been very little scientific research into this area… we have found is that wines tend to ‘thin out’ in the air, with both tannins and acidity being accentuated. As a result, tart, angular wines make a bad choice, whereas ripe, fruit-driven wines tend to show much better. In practice this means that Passengers often demand quite classic wine styles on the ground, such as white Burgundies; red Bordeaux; lean, mineral Chablis; and structured Clarets. They…
A Few Quick Thoughts on Last Night’s Freddie Awards
Just a few brief thoughts on last night’s Freddie Awards. Marriott did exceptionally well this year. I’m not sure why. There haven’t been any real improvements to their program that I can point to. I can only figure that it’s their get out the vote efforts (of which they did quite a lot) rather than a reflection of substantive improvements. Starwood did well in Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East, Africa. But they really didn’t excel in the Americas. I’m not really sure why the split. Starwood didn’t even win for best award redemption in the Americas, which is just bizarre since they really do structurally offer the best award redemption. Hilton has introduced a system to match Starwood, but presumably too late to influence this year’s Freddie Awards. If the voting public is paying attention…
Air Koryo’s New Tupolov
North Korea Economy Watch has a photo of the new Air Koryo Tupolov parking in Pyongyang. It apparently goes into scheduled service May 1. Elsewhere, the blog points out that Air Koryo acquired the plane in order to continue being permitted to fly to Beijing — China is playing safety regulator, taking on the role of ensuring that planes landing at its airports are airworthy (contra this recent this recent AP piece which suggests that Air Koryo’s acquisition of a new plane points to its success as an airline).
USAirways Business Mastercard with 20,000 Mile Signup Bonus
Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Juniper Bank’s co-branded USAirways credit card options now include a business card offering 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase along with a $79 annual fee. The card comes with a free day pass to the USAirways club and the ability to earn elite qualifying miles based on spending. Small business cards are generally open to pretty much anyone (“Your Name & Associates” – everyone has a business).
Air Traffic Delays Are Awful, Everything Else is Worse
Economic growth in general and deregulation in particular have brought about lower real airline ticket prices and substantial increases in passenger traffic. Infrastructure hasn’t kept pace and air traffic control hasn’t kept pace. And so we face congested airports and airspace. This frustrates travelers, who live in a world of tradeoffs but take what they have as given and long for what they’ve given up. Richard Posner is one such business traveler. And the usually sober, sometimes brilliant, and certainly prolific judge and scholar offers up an unusually misguided rant on why he believes “airline service is so bad” over at the Becker-Posner Blog, Becker rebuts. Posner lays out a myriad of unsupported gripes and mixes in blatantly incorrect facts, leading him to circle around some rather silly notions about re-regulating the aviation industry. Becker…
Double Elite Qualifying Miles on United
United is offering double elite qualifying miles for travel through June 15. Registration is required and only flights taken after registration earn the double EQMs. You don’t get double redeemable miles, your flown miles just count double towards elite qualification.
Return to Le Meridien Barcelona
The morning after dinner at El Bulli we took a cab to the Figueres train station, had our return ticket stamped for the Catalunya Express to Barcelona, and boarded the train. Uneventful ride back, grabbed a cab to the Meridien, and checked in. This time they had us assigned to a junior suite on the 7th floor corner, facing a side street. I asked if we could do any better, and they offered a similar room overlooking Las Ramblas with a fairly panoramic view. I asked whether any renovated suites were open, and they told me this was it… they also mentioned that they hadn’t yet decided to renovate some of the remaining suites on the upper floors, “some customers prefer the older style.” I don’t know whether this was guesswork on the checkin agent’s…
20,000 Mile Signup Bonus, Fee Waived for Northwest Visa Products
Northwest and US Bank are offering 20,000 mile enrollment bonuses with no fee the first year for the Visa Signature and Business card products. US Bank cards have had mixed results with churning at best, most customers will only be able to earn the bonus once for each card type (at least based on my rather dated understanding of the issue). But it’s a good deal for folks who haven’t had either card before. It’s worth noting that if the Northwest-Delta merger closes, there’s a pretty good likelihood that the US Bank relationship with the airline will eventually end. That’s quite a ways off, and doesn’t really effect the decision to take this card now, but worth noting. The American Express relationship with Delta is a stronger one, and represents a better card in any…
