Back in December I wrote how to get American Admirals Club access free for one year. That strategy still works. Here’s how to get American club access for a net cost of $100, plus get a whole lot of additional benefits as well. (Admirals Club membership normally costs $400 – $500.) Here’s American’s new airport lounge strategy What makes a domestic airline lounge special? Citibank and American Airlines promote that the Citi Executive / AAdvantage Card is the only credit card offering American Airlines lounge access, but that’s not accurate. The Citi Prestige card does as well. The card normally comes with a $450 annual fee but Efficient Asian Man writes that he had no problem getting the $350 annual fee offer meant for Citi Gold accountholders (Citibank customers with significant financial relationships) that also…
ASIA
Search Results for "ASIA".
Cathay Pacific Will Introduce a New Business Class Seat Next Year
Cathay Pacific is an American AAdvantage partner (and a member of oneworld) and flies from New York JFK, Newark, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto and Vancouver to Hong Kong and of course beyond. I love their first class product, and redeem for it when I can. But their business class is excellent. It’s a similar seat to what US Airways pioneered, American has in their new 777s, and Delta flies to Asia and Tel Aviv. I especially like the two-row ‘mini cabin’ on the Cathay Pacific 777. Their business class of course is four seats abreast on the 777, with all aisle access. It’s the ‘reverse herringbone’ style seat, which is my absolute favorite business class seat. Australian Business Traveller reports that Cathay Pacific will come out with a new version of the seat…
How to Maximize Buffets, Lawsuit Over Airport Bottled Water, and Inflight Falcons for Lufthansa First Class Passengers
News and notes from around the interweb: How to maximize brunch Will the Amtrak MasterCard come back… as a Chase Visa or a Citibank MasterCard? Aerolineas Argentinas and Garuda Indonesia awards are now bookable online with Delta miles. Delta has made strong efforts bringing more partners online over the past couple of months. Aerolineas Argentinas isn’t an airline I much want to fly, but it can get you to South America. While Garuda Indonesia is a worthy carrier for intra-Asia flying, it won’t be used often by Americans. Alaska Airlines is offering double miles on their new Seattle – New York JFK route Lufthansa first class passengers will soon be able to bring falcons onboard. No, really, that’s not going to happen. (HT: Paul H.) The high cost of buying bottled water in airports is…
The Most Important Travel News and Advice From the Past Month
Whether it’s recapping the month’s news to get you caught up or passing along tips like “six tricks to get through to airline customer service when phone wait times are long” here’s the opportunity to learn what you missed in miles, points, and travel in February. Credit Card Rewards Advice Four rewards cards that deliver you the most value (and the card to get if you want just one) The card I don’t have… but would never give up if I did Data Shows What Credit Score You Need to Be Approved for the Best Rewards Card 50,000 Mile United Business Card Offer Now Publicly Available Your Miles and Points Just Got More Valuable and Your Travel Just Got Easier Flights to Asia you can pretty much always get business class award tickets on In…
What Makes a Domestic Airline Lounge Special?
There are some really special, amazing airport lounges in the world — places that are more ‘top end private club’ than ‘somewhat more quiet waiting room’.
FREE MONEY: Sign Up to Receive Payment from the Airline Price-Fixing Settlement
Several airlines have settled a price fixing lawsuit and you may be entitled to a very small share of the settlement if you purchased a ticket to Asia or the South Pacific in the past 15 years. No doubt the class action share will be small, but it’s not much effort, and you will just be asked for trip details and won’t need to dig up any documents. In 2009 a class action lawsuit was filed against Air New Zealand, Air France, and Continental for price fixing between the US and Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands. The case later expanded. And in August 2014 there was an agreement for a $30 million settlement with Air France, Japan Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines, and Cathay Pacific. In September Qantas and Singapore Airlines agreed…
Why Airlines Should Improve Their Coffee
Coffee fuels business travel, and most providers don’t understand that. Have you ever actually tried to drink the coffee on a US domestic airline? American’s new Airbus A321T flying between New York JFK and Los Angeles and San Francisco has a cappuccino machine in first class. I have only flown business class on this plane, though, so I’ve not had a decent cup of coffee on a US airline’s plane. Cathay Pacific makes a decent cappuccino but the airline won’t serve hot drinks when the seat belt sign is on. A little turbulence on approach to Hong Kong after a long overnight flight and having no access to coffee is another form of coffee fail. Delta got a lot of mileage out of its announced change to Starbucks this month. I wasn’t especially impressed. United…
The DOT Guts its Post-Purchase Price Increase Prohibition to Help United Out of a Jam
Two weeks ago flights originating in the UK were pricing in Danish Kroner at a price that’s pennies on the dollar what they normally run. You could fly from the UK to pretty much anywhere in the world in business or first class at price hovering around $100 or less. This wasn’t a United-specific glitch, but United.com was the most common place to buy these tickets. United voided these tickets. Thousands of Consumers Complained to the Department of Transportation The Department of Transportation received thousands of complaints, apparently, and they’ve now ruled on whether United violated their rule against post-purchase price increase, which forbids cancelling tickets after purchase. And as I wrote that I expected, they’ve sided with United. While the DOT promulgated a rule requiring airlines to honor tickets that have been purchased regardless…
Send Credit Card Payments Free, the Best Vacation Bargains, and the Biggest Devaluations
News and notes from around the interweb: United is launching once-weekly New Orleans-Cancun flights. I always find these routes strange and fascinating, there’s usually a backstory to them that’s not always immediately obvious. New mobile payment app that lets you send $3750 by credit card without fees. Air Canada has a promo code for 15% off to Asia British Airways is gutting its small business program, too. The winner, as with the Avios changes, will be the rarely-spotted individual who flies exclusively in Club World and First on fully flexible tickets during the week but who loves nothing more than jumping into a World Traveller seat when he travels for leisure. What’s the most improved vacation opportunity for those spending US dollars? Argentina is a great bargain, especially when you exchange cash at the street…
The Changes That Will Happen to American’s Award Chart After The US Airways Merger is Complete
Reader Ryan wanted to know, [W]hat do you think would be a ‘worst-case’ scenario for US/AA miles devaluation after the programs merge in Q2? Plenty of folks thought that combining US Airways and American frequent flyer programs was a chance to implement a brand new program on day 1, a revenue-based one like Delta and United. I predicted from the beginning that: The primary focus would be on integrating the airlines When you merge you don’t want to alienate your customers So the merger would be reprieve from devaluations, for the most part. (Not exclusively.) And indeed, we know what the 2015 program looks like and I don’t expect a big upending of the award chart in the second quarter of 2015 when Dividend Miles gets migrated over to AAdvantage. I don’t necessarily expect big…
