Search Results for "ASIA".
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.
Two well-placed sources tell me that Hyatt is a finalist to acquire Two Roads Hospitality which manages and operates Alila Hotels & Resorts, Destination Hotels, Joie de Vivre Hotels, Thompson Hotels, and tommie Hotels.
American Express just refreshed their Premier Rewards Gold Card and renamed it “American Express Gold Card.”
Most importantly the card raises the bar for points-earning at US restaurants and US grocery stores, while retaining strong points-earning on airline spend. And they’ve added a new monthly credit for dining. Today’s changes to the product – for me – make it the most rewarding card for ongoing spend.
Qatar has the best business class product in the world in its new ‘QSuites’. To be sure even their older Airbus A350 business class is very good, a B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seat and a phenomenal soft product. But QSuites are revolutionary suites with doors and moveable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space.
Two U.S. routes that see QSuites aircraft have outstanding availability for four or more business class award seats for much of 2019. And I throw in another route with great family business class space with a new Qatar business product as well.
This is an incredible story. Air traffic controller Anthonius Gunawan Agung was working at Palu airport in Indonesia on Saturday when several earthquakes occurred.
The tower evacuated but he stayed behind to ensure Batik Air flight ID 6231 got off the ground. It was a 5:55 p.m. scheduled departure. The captain pushed back 3 minutes early and was cleared for takeoff at 6:02 p.m.
I find that booking six months out gives great options for award redemption. Booking towards the ‘end of the schedule’ around 11 months out is even better if you want to redeem for four or more seats. Right now there’s a great example of the theory from several of Cathay Pacific’s U.S. gateways.
Searching for two passengers is much easier of course but the ability to redeem a top flight business class product for four or more passengers is worth noting when availability is this good.
Although London and Hong Kong are two of the most premium traffic heavy cities in the world, British Airways recently disclosed that their London – Hong Kong twice daily service lags in performance. They’ve pointed out that it suffers in comparison to Cathay Pacific’s (better, more frequent) flights.
British Airways is closing its Hong Kong crew base at the end of October. And today they’ve pink slipped all 85 Hong Kong-based flight attendants.
American Airlines is raising the price of beer, wine, and liquor in coach by $1 effective October 1.
I think there are several ways to understand American’s latest ancillary fee increase.
Singapore Airlines usually makes premium cabin awards available only to their own KrisFlyer members. You can transfer points from Chase, American Express, and Citi into the KrisFlyer program, so their miles are relatively easy to get.
If you want to fly Singapore’s business or first class on more than an intra-Asia flight you aren’t going to be able to use miles from United, Aeroplan, or other Star Alliance programs — most of the time.
Six years ago there was a brief window where Singapore Airlines awards were bookable by partners but there hasn’t been anything like it since.
Taipei-based Star Alliance member EVA Air has one of the world’s best business class products. They should be on everyone’s radar because they also frequently have very good award availability from their US gateways and offer good connectivity into Asia.
EVA Air will take delivery of its very first Boeing 787-9 on October 2. They worked with BMW’s Designworks on the look and feel of the business class seats.
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 »
