News and notes from around the interweb:
- Oh my.
- United miles can now be redeemed for intra-Africa travel on AirLink
- Grand Hyatt Singapore will close for four months starting September 19 I look forward to seeing the hotel post-renovation. It’s long had a nice club lounge service (but the space itself could use a refresh) and plenty of suites for upgrade, plus the Straits Kitchen restaurant was always great for hawker center food without going out when it rained.
- Meanwhile inflation has hit Singapore’s hawker centers (HT: @crucker)
- The never-ending lockdown for Taiwan’s airline pilots (HT: Miles)
In the heady days of 2019, Joe, an international pilot working for a Taiwanese airline, enjoyed strolling along the Viennese banks of the Danube or dining out on Pad Thai in Bangkok during short transit stops abroad.
But almost three years after the pandemic began, flight crews from Taiwan’s two main carriers, EVA and China Airlines, are still being locked in their hotel rooms with a single-entry key when they travel overseas – a rule initially created to prevent them from returning to Taipei infected with the virus.“It’s frustrating,” said Joe, who’s name has been changed. “We are still subject to some stupid rules that don’t make sense anymore.”
While the global aviation sector continues along the path towards pre-pandemic travel norms, Taiwan-based pilots – having endured some of the strictest quarantine and testing regimes in the world – are still stuck firmly in the past.
- When everybody has Sky Club access, nobody does.
@Delta is there anyone you don’t allow into your lounges 🙄 might have to stop chasing that annual status. Crazy. pic.twitter.com/EEqetA5TBt
— MW711.eth (@williamson711) August 23, 2022
Greed, pure and simple. They are “selling” more memberships than they can handle – analogous to their current mess with selling too many tickets – more than they can properly handle. Only in this case Pete Buttigieg can’t issue them an ultimatum to perform better. By selling, I mean, outright cash, indirect money from Amex, and fliers cashing in a choice benefit or Skymiles for SkyClub membership. Squeezing the golden goose until one day it will fail.
Why would anyone line up to get inside a Delta hell-hole? Are they after the “look at me, I’m important” factor?
The United/Airlink redemption tie up is months old.
I’m traveling through Europe. Problems with lounge access isn’t a problem. Lounges are huge to handle volume or exclusive enough to allow access. Airlines liberally give away status in US and passengers bitch and moan about access. Giving lounge access away to everyone in the military, everyone that has a certain credit card etc waters down the lounge experience.
US lounges are also in many case extremely small for the size of the airport. That is the provider either a being cheap or trying to shoehorn lounges into old airports that simply don’t have the space and the lounge provides are generally unwilling to invest the capital it takes to acquire the space and renovate
I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Singapore in 2017. It was very 2003-2006ish back then. Rooms, especially the bathroom, were very tired. The club lounge was okay but not as good as the JW Marriott.
Delta should start offering those with lounge access a choice of lounge access or a $20 voucher to use in the airport somewhere.
Is the JFK SkyClub always like that? I don’t fly a lot of Delta, but have access with Amex Plat, and when I have visited SkyClubs, I have not seen them that crowded (DCA and JAX, for example). The UCs and some of the PP lounges seem much more crowded, and I’ve seen lines at some of them fairly frequently. Agree with the prior poster that this is really a US problem.
Tier status with a US-based carrier does not afford access to that airline’s lounges. Yes, top-tier people can gain access via an annual choice award. But, easy tier status is not the issue. And, looking at the average person in a lounge, no one in there is after the “look at me, I’m important” factor. What a ridiculous comment.
Airlines simply need to raise the price of admission to a point at which they’re still making money but from fewer people. Eliminate access via day passes. Eliminate membership via annual choice awards. Eliminate access via credit card without any charge. Some will cheer. Others will complain.
I commented on your post about the DTW club a few months back. Several people seemed to deny it by saying that it was the smaller club and a one time thing. Since then I have maybe 4 or 6 pictures of clubs I was unable to access because of the wait time vs my layover time. I have this same picture from JFK a few weeks ago.
The problem isn’t top tier elites as I have walked right in via the new Diamond line in ATL. I say it is mostly lower tier or even non-status flyers with credit card access. Delta/Amex has been blitzing that ad campaign on the 747 reserve card. They have put some rules into effect to help thin the access but from my view it didn’t have any measurable effect. They don’t seem very interested in doing anything for people that can’t get in. That is the biggest fail I think.
Obviously, there’s nothing special about being important anymore unless you own the jet.
I agree that e1 getting club access takes away the uniqueness. I feel the same about TSA. I hate it when I see it’s recommended. If e1 gets TSA, the lines will be super long and faster to go thru regular.
@Kevin G
The veteran Sky Club agents at DTW tell me 75% of the passengers accessing the five Sky Club lounges at DTW are getting access through a credit card.
Delta should use their SJW money to make more lounges
If everyone has Centurion Club access, Nobody does.
Same problem.
Please, Taiwan airline pilots have only themselves to blame. How many times were those guys found breaking quarantine in Taipei while (knowingly and unknowingly) sick with COVID-19?
If @Kevin G is correct that 75% of the people entering SkyClubs are getting in via a credit cards (and my guess would be that the vast majority of those are the Delta Reserve card – which both Delta and Amex push very hard), the best solution to the problem and possibly the quickest at getting corporate to build more lounge space is if a lot of people choose not to renew their Reserve cards and give the reason as poor access to the lounges. Lounge access is the main reason people buy the Reserve card. (Companion ticket is the second reason.)
@Don in ATL
I’m not sure the majority are Reserve cards. I think they make up a good number but I think most people I see are using an AMEX Platinum or other product. Just looking around the clubs lately I don’t feel like I am seeing the Delta loyalists that I used to. Most “seem” to be that couple time a year traveler. Probably why people are lining up, because they are determined to use the benefit since they decided that was a big perk of their $550+ annual fee.