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News and notes from around the interweb:
- Last week I highlighted that Platinum Card by American Express now gets you access to Escape lounges in Hartford, Minneapolis and Oakland airports. I thought it was strange, I knew the Minneapolis lounge was already linked via Priority Pass. It all makes sense now as Nick Roosevelt finds a sign in the Minneapolis Escape lounge that they’re leaving Priority Pass June 14.
- Already-devalued Malaysia Airlines Enrich, a Citibank ThankYou Rewards transfer partner, is going revenue-based June 10 and gutting partner awards. I guess it’s a thank you for customer loyalty when the airline needed it most. Here’s a good synopsis of the changes.
Worth noting, Malaysia will be eliminating fuel surcharges when redeeming for their flights at the same time, though this is something Singapore Airlines did without the same bloodletting. I’d be far less unhappy, though, if I could redeem miles for their onboard satay which is excellent.
- Travel agency debit memos are increasing and an apparent cause is an increase in credit card chargebacks. A working theory is that credit card EMV chips have shifted even more fraud online.
- Alitalia 20% off through Tuesday if you can jump through hoops and the flights work for you there’s real savings.
- “How Brett Ratner Learned To Love The Hotel Du Crap — Cannes” (HT: Alan H.)
- Collection of Vintage Airline Posters (HT: Alan H.) Reminds me I’m not sure I ever shared how much I love Duke University’s digital repository of historical advertising, there are great collections from the big airlines dating to the 40s and 50s.
Wow, that Ratner guy’s story is interesting. What a colossal jerk. You just don’t see many people around who are so proud of being such a miserable human being. The vintage airline posters are great.
So Gary where do you think PP is going? I find the PP extremely valuable traveling overseas, not as much stateside. It seems that all the players are trying to carve out their piece of the action with clubrooms or I just “lounges” as they are now called. Amex is by far the best stateside, EK internationally.
I have reached the point where after examining how many fees I am paying in the process of paring back. AS was the first, since I fly FC it’s free to me.
Thoughts ?
I departed from LAX T2 last Wednesday and was expecting to use my newly obtained Priority Pass for the Air Canada lounge. Surprise! With Air Canada’s move out of T2, their lounge is also gone, and PP has no T2 substitute, so I had to sit on Delta’s uncomfortable T2 seats, and their power outlets aren’t hooked up yet.
Losing Escape at MSP is a huge hit to my family, we all (6) got the Sapphire Reserve specifically for access to that lounge with travel guests. Only lasted a few short months…was too good to be true.
Although I did notice food quality has dropped and they were out of stock of most snack items during recent visits. Often blamed lack of bottled water on the delivery company.
The only reason I got the (expensive) Platinum Am Ex was for the Priority Pass access. I have been turned away from more lounges than I have been able to access in the last two years – all in the U.S. IN some airports with multiple lounges- the all have the same (or overlapping) blackout times. I have shown up at other lounges (always in a suit and tie) and been told “We are not accepting Priority Pass holders as we are too busy”.