News and notes from around the interweb:
- Qantas is serving Penfolds Grange in their Sydney and Melbourne first class lounges for the holidays, but only for A380 first class passengers, Platinum One and Chairmans Club members. “Those fortunate high flyers have to date noted the 1997 and 2007 vintages being poured.” Has an airport lounge ever poured wine this good?
If you’re in these lounges without access to Grange – an American Airlines Platinum Pro or Alaska MVP Gold 75K flying coach on a oneworld airline out of these airports are eligible – always ask for the bottle of wine that’s being decanted at the bar.
- Retrofitting United Airlines planes to the new ‘United NEXT’ interior has been slow going. Knowing that these planes would get new interiors, it’s seemed that the airline has really ‘let the current interiors go’ and so scenes like this posted to social media by customers have been more common:
And I got this beauty for the next three hours @united pic.twitter.com/9t9VjV4yAl
— Y. Vincent Liu 刘扬 (@Vincent_YLiu) December 20, 2023
- Clear wants to scan your face at airports. Privacy experts are worried: The company’s move into facial recognition technology speaks to a broader exchange of privacy for convenience (WaPo)
- The Heathrow airport holiday video. (HT: @SenatorBulworth)
- Delta Air Lines holiday gift for some customers. I used to love that every year at Christmas, Alaska Airlines would send cookies to MVP Gold members.
@dritakalaj24 #Deltagift #christmassuprise #travel #amex #happymail ♬ original sound – dritakalaj24 - Funny! But it appears there wasn’t actually a gun.
.@TSA officers removed 17 bullets that were artfully concealed inside this otherwise clean disposable diaper in a carry-on bag today at @LGAairport. Arkansas man needs a new bulletproof plan for packing his bag before heading to the airport for his next flight. pic.twitter.com/S41XPRydjA
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) December 20, 2023
The Heathrow Bears are seven years old. They did three of them, IIRC, with Petula Clark making a cameo in the second.
So, what is the Qantas F lounge in LAX doing over the Christmas holidays? And the comment that the special wine is limited – but then Gary’s comment that if you are AA PP (or higher) you can get it? Doesn’t seem to correlate to the Executive Traveler story???
Wine is good; UA seat looks fine; TSA is already scanning faces; would hope that the TSA would know the difference between a bullet and an actual round (in this case they found the latter), but alas.
OMG! Great wine being poured in Sydney, Melbourne lounges. The most important part of flying is definitely the drink! Let’s write a book about it. 🙂
It’s not like they are pouring the 1990-92 vintages. Plus, 2007 is far too young to drink now…
Title is incorrect. The Concorde Lounge at JFK routinely served Krug prior to Concorde flights.
@L3 – Grange > Krug
Obviously very different bottles, but this is not even close.
I was served Jadot Chambertin 1999 in F on Jet Airways BOM-SFO. Not a lounge of course. Still would take Chambertin over almost any other terroir! Presumably that’s why Jet Airways went bust. Noted I was only passenger in F. (Revenue ticket)
I’ve never figured out the big Deal about Penfolds wine???
Just overpriced wine.
Lots of other great Australian wines at a fraction of the price.
Emirates F served excellent Pauillac when I was there. I’ll take Bordeaux over Oz. Penfolds makes good wine, but not better than Bordeaux. Just my HO.
Great Bear replay
Anyone know what dates the Grange is being served? Flying QF F out of MEL on 1/1 and would love to try it in the lounge.