News and notes from around the interweb:
- The San Francisco Centurion lounge has apparently been doing this on Thursdays (starting at 3 p.m.):
- Hilton’s Graduate Hotel on Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech Campus is shutting down Monday. One reader had 20 families members booked there over Thanksgiving, but the hotel will not be operating.
- Homeowner rewards Made Card raised an $8 million seed round. It is “the first product to reward homeowners for making on-time mortgage payments and ties those rewards directly to their mortgage lender.”
However this is less exciting, “points can be redeemed toward lowering the costs of your mortgage on future purchases or refinances.” So rewards that you can use to discount future mortgages, which may or may not be price-competitive than what you can get shopping around?
- Boom Supersonic founder on what’s wrong with airport terminal design, aircraft interiors, TSA security and hotel check-in. Also, how cockpit design and pilot training will be different for a new supersonic jet.
- United Airlines expands from 5 to 14 special meal options although we don’t know if the food for each one will actually be different (e.g. whether they’re using a vegetarian option for the Muslim meal, etc.).
- 40% bonus on transfers from American Express to Virgin Atlantic through end of the year.
- 1.4 million SkyMiles members have linked their Uber accounts interesting that Uber has the big name, low value partners (Delta, Marriott) while Lyft has the smaller name, big value partners (Alaska, Bilt). Of course Uber also has Amex and Lyft has Chase. One imagines that (1) Uber hsa the bigger brand, (2) Chase saw the Uber-Amex deal and needed to be in that space – there’s really only one other player at scale.
If the AMEX Centurion lounges at DFW, CLT, LAS, LGA, JFK, ATL, SEA, DEN, and MIA replaced their lackluster, unimpressive, unappealing salads and chicken thighs with succulent tomahawk steaks and crab legs after 3 PM each day, AMEX could potentially see its waitlist entry times rise to over two to three hours per cardholder. In this scenario, only their preferred Centurion® Card from American Express (black card) cardholders would use their skip-the-line benefits. This would effectively exclude most of the less distinguished AMEX Platinum cardholders from entry, helping to avoid the overcrowding “gate lice” issues often seen at airport departure gates.
Hot damn, son. I mean, dim sum. I mean, yum yum. Can we do this at JFK/LGA, too, please? (And the new EWR Centurion, expected 2026?!)
Lyft also has UA.
@Ken A — Thank you. Never stop.
You sure this is a regular thing on Thursdays at the SFO Centurion Lounge? I’m there on Thursdays about once a month and never seen it. I’m normally not getting there until 6 or 7 though.
I don’t get impressed by much, but this certainly did it for me!
SFO flyer here / frequent visitor of the Amex CL. The crab legs are not just on Thursdays, but also not every day. Since being relocated to their temporary T2 home in the former AA / former AS lounge space, I have consistently seen daily: whole cooked shrimp, pasta and meatballs, rice, a pure vegetarian option, chicken, and beef (though have not seen the “tomahawk” steak, but also not surprised). I was wondering if these improvements were a “make good” since the lounge footprint is smaller than its usual T3 home. They are using thick/higher-quality paper plates, but real silverware, maybe/likely because the volume of customers and dishes overwhelms the limited kitchen/dishwasher space. The food is excellent, bartenders top-notch.
The Graduate on RI was a neat hotel, was just reminiscing about my last stay there over the weekend. Sad to see it close.