Search Results for "ASIA".
I had heard back in November or December that a route announcement for Los Angeles – Hong Kong was imminent. So I was surprised that when they made their big splash about growth at LAX they didn’t announce the service then.
Last night American put Hong Kong service up on their website in error, and quickly pulled it down. I asked American spokesperson Casey Norton, and he confirmed the service.
This is a short trip report, British Airways first class enroute Paris and back in business class — a great opportunity to compare two very controversial products. Some say BA’s first class is really just a good business class. While not the over-the-top experiences offered by some Asian or Middle Eastern airlines, I found it to be solid. Business class, on the other hand, was… certainly better than coach.
Along with that another return to the Park Hyatt Vendome, which in many ways is an overrated hotel but that I also believe is one of the best award values going for a very nice hotel in a part of the city I much enjoy. Coupled with the benefits of a Hyatt Diamond, it’s still hard to beat in my opinion.
Upcoming installments will cover the Park Hyatt, Paris, and the return journey. This post covers planning and executing the flights and travel from Austin to London.
Starwood is offering a discount of up to 25% on purchased points through April 15. Starwood points are the most valuable loyalty currency, and there’s leverage in any bonus they offer, however I don’t think this offer quite is cheap enough to justify buying.
Still, if you need to top off most any frequent flyer account this could be strategically useful.
There are truly disgusting things in the world. Last year a family was ‘forced’ to sit in vomit on a flight to DC. A couple flying to Hawaii found a full barf bag in their seat back pocket.
Of course there’s the whole bare feet thing. Worse yet, in the lavatory. And a man was hospitalized last year in a freak airport toilet accident.
There was Three Mile Island. There was Chernobyl. And there’s that Qantas A380 flying Sydney Dallas packed full oftentimes in economy, the American Airlines Dallas – Hong Kong flight, and Delta Atlanta – Johannesburg. The lavatories at the end of those flights…
Singapore Airlines used to operate the longest flights in the world, Singapore – Los Angeles and Singapore – Newark non-stops, operated with a flying gas can an Airbus A340-500. Flights operated between 2004 and 2013, originally with extra legroom economy seating and business class and from 2008 onward all business class seating.
Singapore no longer operates non-stop service to the US. Non-stop flights, though, can now make sense thanks to both more fuel efficient aircraft capable of flying long distances and lower fuel costs. Flying great distances is especially costly when oil prices are high, since they have to carry extra fuel just to fly all the fuel needed for such a long journey.
And that’s just what Singapore Airlines intends to do.
Marriott is buying Starwood. The deal is expected to close in June. t has now cleared anti-trust hurdles in both the US and Canada.
Two narratives coming from folks at Starwood may give positive indications of things to come in both the short and the long term.
American’s revenue management has been notoriously stingy about releasing seats for premium cabin international travel over the past three years. However American has been going to lengths to improve their premium cabin award availability.
We’ve seen that with transatlantic space, with Asia flights, and even with Auckland, New Zealand. This week we finally saw it with South America.
But strangely award availability on American’s flights was nonexistent past the end of the calendar year.
This woman — who was neither from Germany nor from Florida — ripped pages out of her passport and used them as toilet paper. The Thai government didn’t accept her altered passport, and deported her.
The lesson though may not be not to use a passport as toilet paper. The lesson is that if you do you should follow up and have the passport replaced. Ultimately it’s probably not any rougher than much of the toilet paper I’ve found in Europe. And indeed I’ve traveled plenty of places in Asia where, if one didn’t plan ahead, they might well find themselves without better options.
American’s revenue management has been notoriously stingy about releasing seats for premium cabin international travel over the past three years.
However American has been going to lengths to improve their premium cabin award availability. We’ve seen that with transatlantic space, with Asia flights, and even with Auckland, New Zealand.
And now we’re starting to see much better award availability with South America.
One hotel loyalty program executive relayed the common refrain she got from hotels in the chain when they first began rolling out a breakfast benefit for their top tier elites — “you mean we have to feed them, too?”
And yes – they do — because breakfast is a common benefit of hotel elite programs, at least at the time tier, and it’s something that the better programs need to offer in order to remain competitive.
The most coveted hotel elite perk is upgrades, especially to suites. But perhaps the second most coveted hotel elite status perk is breakfast.
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 »
