Tag Archives for seattle.
At the start of boarding of an American Airlines flight from Seattle to Dallas – Fort Worth, a passenger at SeaTac airport’s gate D10 took advantage of the opportunity of a full flight of passengers to declare his allegiance to Adolf Hitler and plead for the start of a race war.
American Airlines flight AA60 from Tokyo Narita to Dallas-Fort Worth diverted to Seattle on Wednesday after declaring a ‘level 3 security alert’ which the FAA defines as “life-threatening behavior.”
There was loud screaming in the cabin as well as “approximately 10 loud bangs” and three flight attendants were punched and kicked.
A report suggests that American Express will be building out a new Centurion lounge at Washington’s National airport. It also notes significant planned expansion at both San Francisco and Seattle, which matches what I already know.
A couple of weeks ago I called on Centurion lounges to open or at least for American Express to speak to its plans for re-opening. They’ve now done so. American Express tells me that on October 5 they will re-open their Philadelphia and Seattle lounges “with more locations to follow.” They’ve also detailed plans for 5 new and expanded lounges.
Delta has announced new routes and flights out of Seattle showing that they aren’t going to take American’s re-invigorated partnership with Alaska Airlines lying down.
Competition is good, and has been great for Seattle residents since Delta and Alaska began their breakup and Delta built up their own hub at the Pacific Northwest airport. Delta will grow their Seattle service to 190 peak daily departures to 56 destinations for summer 2020, with new service coming beyond that as well.
Ultimately very few people go to the airport just for the restaurants — except maybe Tortas Frontera sandwiches at O’Hare — and most people probably won’t know about this sort of option. It does mean incremental revenue for businesses and the airport, and convenience for customers.
With major US airlines and American Express lounges moving to require a same day departing boarding pass for admittance it’s unlikely to lead to greater crowding of lounges or greater costs for rail drinks.
One of the challenges with Delta’s buildup in the Seattle market has been the city’s intense loyalty to their hometown airline. “Alaska Airlines” is a strange name for a carrier based in Seattle but Seattleites feel a strong affinity for the company.
Delta has done a lot to move the needle, beyond schedule and price. Like Alaska they offer a 20 minute baggage delivery guarantee. The Seattle airport Sky Club is one of their best. And there have been semi-frequent mileage offers targeted at the local market.
You’d never expect a U.S. airport to be nominated for the country’s best public restroom. At Dallas Fort-Worth, for instance, when they renovated the A terminal they didn’t even refresh the bathrooms and when they re-do terminal C they’ve scaled back the budget so there’s no money to do the restrooms there, either.
However a new restroom in Seattle’s North Satellite terminal is a finalist for American’s best. And so is a restroom in the refreshed New York LaGuardia Terminal B. Say what?
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 »
