Sean Duffy’s seven-month road trip project

Sean Duffy has released the trailer for the “Great American Road Trip,” whereby he took his family on a trip across the United States, to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday. The narrative is that “to love America is to see America,” so the idea is that Duffy, his wife, and some of their nine children, went on a road trip across the country.

The trailer for the series can be seen below, and the five-part series should be released in the coming weeks.

On his official Transportation Secretary account, Duffy talks about how “for decades our kids have been told they should be ashamed of our country & founders,” and that “it’s time to push back on those Marxist narratives,” and that “one way to do that is to “hit the road and SHOW them our beautiful country & historic sites.”

Of course Duffy is no stranger to TV, since Duffy and his wife even met on a reality TV show (specifically, MTV’s “Road Rules: All Stars”). And the president is no stranger to reality TV either, so was clearly enthusiastic about the concept.

In terms of optics, this might not be the best time to promote an American road trip, given the increase in gas prices in recent months, which have made such a trip significantly more expensive for many.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took to social media to chime in on this concept, writing that “I love a good road trip, but this is brutally out of touch: a Trump Cabinet member making a documentary about himself while regular families can’t afford road trips anymore, because Trump and his war put gas prices through the roof.”

Are taxpayers paying for this road trip series?

Many people are (understandably) asking who is funding this series, and whether taxpayers are on the hook for this. It’s a fair question, with one former Department of Transportation (DOT) staffer writing “using taxpayer dollars and federal staff resources to produce what is essentially a reality TV show for a Cabinet Secretary is a gross misuse of public resources.”

In fairness to Duffy, it appears this might’ve actually been funded by private parties. When you go to the website for the concept (thanks to View from the Wing for flagging this), you’ll see a list of “sponsors powering America’s road trip.” As you can see, there are a variety of sponsors.

It’s logical to see Toyota and Shell sponsoring, while it’s a bit funnier to see Boeing and United sponsoring. Now, even with this being privately funded, this does seem to present a general conflict of interest, not that this is anything new. Should companies in the transportation sector really be making donations to a personal venture of the person who regulates the transportation industry?

It still seems like United CEO Scott Kirby has failed to get his return on investment on the company’s donations to Trump’s team, between this and the $1 million donated for Trump’s inauguration. Was it really just a merger with American that Kirby had in mind all along? He’s not going to use that goodwill (and impeccable timing) to take over JetBlue?

Bottom line

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has launched a new series, which was filmed over seven months. It’s called the “Great American Road Trip,” and the idea is that it’s supposed to show off America’s beauty. The United States definitely has a lot of pretty sights, and there’s a lot to explore and see.

As you’d expect, the concept isn’t being well received by all, in terms of him doing this while in office, concerns over the way this is being funded, plus the poor timing in terms of the state of gas prices.

What do you make of Duffy’s “Great American Road Trip?”

Garuda Indonesia plane circles endlessly over India

On May 8, 2026, Garuda Indonesia flight GA4208 was operating from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (JED), to Medan, Indonesia (KNO). The flight was operated by an Airbus A330-900neo with the registration code PK-GHI. At 4,190 miles and with a tailwind, this flight ordinarily takes somewhere around 8hr.

However, on this particular day, the journey instead took a staggering 12hr39min. When you zoom out and look at the route the plane operated, you might not think much of it, as it looks pretty normal.

However, when you zoom in on the route over India, you’ll notice something pretty wild. The first 5hr20min of the flight was pretty routine, as the plane made its way across Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the Arabian Sea.

Then while over the southern part of India, the plane entered a holding pattern. It’s not unusual for planes to have to enter holding patterns due to heavy traffic, but the plane stayed in that holding pattern for around 4hr30min.

My goodness, this must’ve been borderline disorienting, with the plane making right patterns for hours on end. Eventually the plane was given permission to continue, and then it was roughly another 2hr50min to complete the journey to Indonesia.

What was the cause of this wild holding pattern?

Like I said, while it’s not uncommon for planes to enter holding patterns for some amount of time, a hold of this length is virtually unheard of. That’s true for the simple reason that planes don’t ordinarily load up several extra hours of fuel, given how costly that is.

So, what was the reason? It was reportedly because a large portion of the airspace around the Bay of Bengal was closed down for the test of the Agni-6 missile.

Fair enough, it’s not uncommon to see airspace closed for missile launches, or other similar activity. Here’s what does surprise me:

• Did the pilots know in advance they’d have to enter a holding pattern, so they loaded up on an extra five or so hours of fuel? That can’t be cheap with as expensive as jet fuel is right now! Or did they just happen to be tankering, given that jet fuel is presumably cheaper in Saudi Arabia than Indonesia?
• If they knew they were going to have to hold, wouldn’t it have been better to just delay the departure?

My guess is that there was some sort of a window for the airspace closure, and perhaps the closure came toward the earlier part of the window? Maybe Garuda Indonesia’s operations folks were hoping for a best case scenario outcome with beating the airspace closure, but was were prepared for the worst case scenario, of having to hold for a long time.

It must’ve been a pretty big chunk of airspace closed, or else you’d think they could just reroute more efficiently, to stay out of the closure zone.

Bottom line

A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330neo spent hours circling over the Bay of Bengal, after the airspace was closed due to a missile launch. Typically in such a situation flights would just be delayed. And if this was all unexpected, you’d typically see flights divert, since it’s incredibly rare to see aircraft have this much extra fuel.

I imagine this has to be some sort of a record for the longest holding pattern ever on a commercial flight, or something.

What do you make of this Garuda Indonesia holding pattern?

I first wrote about this several months ago (based on information that JonNYC shared). There’s now an update, as pictures have just leaked of the first plane with this special configuration, and it’s quite something! The entry into service for this aircraft has also been moved forward.

Delta unveils 164-seat A321neos, with 44 first class seats

Delta is introducing a new Airbus A321neo configuration featuring dozens of first class seats. Specifically, this configuration features 44 first class seats, 54 extra legroom economy seats, and 66 standard economy seats.

As a point of comparison, Delta’s standard A321neos have 194 seats, including 20 first class seats, 60 extra legroom economy seats, and 114 standard economy seats.

A few things stand out about this configuration (beyond just the huge number of first class seats):

• First class has 38″ of pitch, so seats are a bit more spacious than your typical Delta domestic first class seat
• One lavatory for 44 first class passengers is brutal, so I imagine many first class passengers will have to go back and use the mid-cabin economy lavatory
• There’s an additional oven in the cabin compared to the standard domestic configuration, so serving hot meals in first class on this plane shouldn’t be an issue

The current plan seems to be that seven planes will get this ultra-premium configuration. The first picture has just been leaked of a plane with this configuration, and it’s quite the unique cabin!

With the amount of premium demand nowadays, plus given how lucrative loyalty programs are, I’ve long argued that US carriers should increase the average size of their first class cabins. However, introducing a cabin with 44 first class seats is quite the stretch! So, what’s actually going on here?

Delta is making the best of A321neos in storage

Delta plans to introduce a new subfleet of Airbus A321neos, which will be in a premium, three-cabin configuration. The airline intends to add 21 of these A321neos to its fleet, specifically for premium transcontinental flights (United has similar plans for a subfleet of A321neos).

These planes are expected to feature just 148 seats, including 16 business class seats, 12 premium economy seats, 54 extra legroom economy seats, and 66 standard economy seats. However, several of these planes have been in storage for an extended period, as Delta is having issues with getting the business class seats certified (that’s very Lufthansa of them, eh?).

With there seemingly being no end in sight to these certification issues, Delta is now putting these planes into service with modified interiors. Keep in mind that the premium economy seats on these planes are comparable to domestic first class, so the idea is that in place of the 16 business class seats, the airline is instead temporarily installing an additional 32 premium economy or first class seats.

Parking planes for years is obviously costly, so this seems like a logical enough way for Delta to get some use out of these aircraft, until those certification issues can be worked out. Besides, the airline can temporarily install these premium seats on the plane, and then later install them on other newly delivered A321neos.

Flights operated by this aircraft are on sale, with flights beginning as of May 20, 2026. Delta’s plan is to fly these planes on select frequencies from Atlanta (ATL) to Los Angeles (LAX), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA).

Here’s how Mauricio Parise, Delta’s VP of Customer Experience Design, describes this:

“Sometimes the supply chain throws us a curve. Rather than wait, we chose to implement a creative solution to ensure our customers had access to some of our newest aircraft in time for the summer travel season.” 

“Customers on coast-to-coast routes want more premium seat options and these aircraft, which will also have 54 Delta Comfort seats, will provide our customers with ample choice. For customers who still want a flatbed option, we’ll continue to operate aircraft with Delta One suites – and Delta Premium Select with additional recline, leg room, and footrest – during peak hours between ATL and LAX.” 

What’s pretty wild to me is that Delta took delivery of the first of these planes in October 2024, and it’s now entering service in May 2026, with modified interiors. In other words, the plane was parked for over 18 months, before getting a temporarily interior and entering service.

Delta must be having some really massive, Lufthansa level certification issues with its new business class seats on those planes for things to play out this way. After all, Delta wouldn’t configure these planes in this way if it expected that the seats would be certified by late 2026 or early 2027, as it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Here’s to hoping that Delta has better luck with its upcoming Airbus A350-1000s, which will feature a new business class, or else that could pose major issues for the carrier’s growth plans.

Bottom line

In the very near future, Delta plans to introduce into service a new Airbus A321neo layout with a staggering 44 first class seats. What’s going on here is that Delta has new A321neos that are supposed to get flat beds, but the airline seemingly can’t get those seats certified.

So rather than keeping these planes in storage with no end in sight, Delta will fly up to seven of these with standard domestic first class seats in the space of the business class cabin.

I just find the timeline here to be pretty wild, given that we’re talking about planes that started to be delivered in October 2024, and now they’re going to entering service as of May 2026, with temporary interiors. So when will these planes actually fly with the intended interiors? 2028, best case scenario?

What do you make of Delta’s premium A321neo configuration situation?

Chase pulling 10% anniversary bonus points benefit

As flagged by Doctor Of Credit, Chase has just updated its website to reflect that a popular perk of the Chase Sapphire Preferred will be ending:

The Anniversary Bonus is retiring. You will continue to earn 10% of your spend through 10/1/26.

For context, the card has a robust rewards structure, and offers 5x points on purchases through Chase Travel, 3x points on dining, select streaming services, and online groceries, 2x points on all other travel purchases, and 1x points on all other purchases.

Beyond that, the card has offered 10% anniversary bonus points, calculated based on your base spending on the card. In other words, points earned from welcome bonuses and spending multipliers weren’t eligible for the 10% boost. That means if you spend $5,000 on the card per year, you’d be eligible for 500 bonus points, and those points are paid out on the account anniversary.

As of now, this is the only change that Chase has revealed on this $95 annual fee card. So it remains to be seen if that’s the extent of the changes, or if Chase is just disclosing this to provide some notice.

This is a shame, probably doesn’t change the math

Of course I hate to see a card issuer eliminate a perk on a card without adding anything to replace is. So this is a negative development, no matter how you slice it.

It definitely seems to me like we’re at a point where card issuers are increasingly trying to control costs, given just how much they’ve been investing in their card portfolios in recent years. I’ve argued that transferable points are probably at a negative inflection point, as we’re also increasingly seeing cost controls implemented when it comes to how people can redeem points.

I suspect this change won’t impact the math much for most people who have this card, in terms of deciding whether or not to keep the card. As I view it, the 10% bonus was unique in that it was a fun marketing bullet and sounded like something, but I doubt a 10% bonus on base spending was actually the difference between the card making sense vs. the card not making sense, at least for most people.

Admittedly for some, this may very much be a “final straw” situation, whereby they might’ve been on the fence about the card, and this makes them decide it’s not worth it.

Bottom line

For purchases as of October 1, 2026, the Chase Sapphire Preferred will no longer award 10% anniversary bonus points, as has been the case since 2021. The card’s bonus categories are otherwise expected to remain unchanged, but this still obviously represents a negative change, and it’s sad to see these kinds of perks being chipped away at.

What do you make of this Chase Sapphire Preferred change?

Ryanair wants to ban alcoholic drinks before morning flights

Ryanair’s CEO is calling on airports to be banned from serving alcohol to passengers before early morning flights, arguing that this would reduce the number of disruptions onboard aircraft. O’Leary claims that Ryanair is having to divert an average of one flight per day due to poor passenger behavior, and alcohol is one of the main contributors to poor behavior onboard aircraft.

O’Leary points out how the UK has licensing hour restrictions that govern the sale of alcohol, but that doesn’t apply to bars at airport. As O’Leary explained:

“It’s becoming a real challenge for all airlines. I fail to understand why anybody in airport bars is serving people at five or six o’clock in the morning. Who needs to be drinking beer at that time? There should be no alcohol served at airports outside licensing hours.”

Of course it’s pointed out that Ryanair sells alcohol onboard flights, and flight attendants are known to be very motivated to sell, given that they have quotas to reach (or at least they historically have). O’Leary defended that by pointing out that the airline rarely sells more than two drinks to a passenger:

“We are reasonably responsible, but the ones who are not responsible, the ones who are profiteering off it, are the airports who have these bars open at five or six o’clock in the morning and during delays are quite happy to send these people as much alcohol as they want because they know they’re going to export the problem to the airlines.”

Lol, you’ve gotta love O’Leary saying Ryanair is “reasonably responsible,” and suggests the airline isn’t really “profiteering off” alcohol, while airport vendors are. O’Leary has also called on a general limit of two alcoholic drinks per person at airports, regardless of the time of day, to minimize issues onboard flights.

Of course being intoxicated on a plane violates regulations in most countries, and can lead to a penalty. Ryanair in particular has been known to go after passengers who cause diversions, suing them for the costs incurred. It seems this is almost done more for optics than anything, in terms of showing people that poor behavior has consequences (it’s something I commend the airline for).

O’Leary has a (convenient) point about alcohol

The culture around drinking at airports is kind of funny:

• An airport is one of the few places you can have a drink in the early hours of the morning without getting judged too hard
• In terms of economic incentives, airports are essentially shopping malls and food halls that just happen to have gates, and most airports get a cut on sales, so there’s an incentive to sell people whatever they’d like to buy
• Airlines (and particularly Ryanair) will also gladly sell passengers alcohol onboard, because it’s another revenue opportunity

If I were to look at this objectively and say “okay, what’s best for society,” sure, maybe banning alcohol at the airports early in the morning would be a “best practice,” in terms of minimizing disruptions to flights. But at the same time, I just think this is a strange place to draw a line:

• Some people flying at 6AM are just going on holiday and have one drink before their flight in a celebratory way, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that
• I don’t necessarily assume someone having a drink or two at an airport in the morning poses more of a risk than someone having a drink or two in the evening
• It’s a really slippery slope to claim “oh, we want to avoid diversions as much as possible,” while also carving out very narrow situations where alcohol shouldn’t be allowed, in a way that closely aligns with economic incentives
• Airport lounges would presumably continue to have alcohol with virtually no limits, so any rule would be rather inconsistent
• In general I don’t disagree with the concept of a limit of two drinks per person at an airport (or whatever), but tracking that is virtually impossible, and isn’t something that’s likely to get very far, given the differing incentives of various parties

Bottom line

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is calling on morning alcohol sales at airports to be banned. He argues that traditional bars only have certain hours over which they can serve alcohol, but that doesn’t apply to airports. O’Leary claims that the airline is now seeing an average of one diversion per day due to unruly passengers, and alcohol is a major contributor to that.

There’s no denying that alcohol does contribute to some inflight issues, and that normalizing drinking early in the morning is something that’s generally only not frowned down upon at airports. I’m just curious to what extent O’Leary’s take here is motivated by his desire to sell more alcohol onboard, rather than an actual concern over diversions.

What do you make of O’Leary proposing a morning airport alcohol ban?

German awarded €1,000 over insufficient resort loungers

A court in Hanover has awarded a German man €986.70 in damages, after he and his family weren’t able to find sun loungers at a resort in Kos, Greece. This incident initially dates back to 2024, when a family of four spent more than €7,000 on a vacation package.

The traveler claimed that despite waking up at the crack of dawn every morning and conducting a 20-minute search for sun loungers, he was unable to actually secure any… throughout the entire stay!

While the hotel initially agreed to offer a partial refund, a district court in Germany ruled that the family was entitled to a larger sum, and claimed that the tour operator that sold the vacation was responsible. The concept of “towel wars” is nothing new at select European resorts popular with some Germans and Brits, where people get up very early, lay claim to sun loungers, and then prevent others from using them.

The man claimed that he got up every morning to try to get desirable pool spots, but he was never successful, and his family was forced to lounge on the concrete floor. The thing is, the hotel reportedly banned the concept of using towels to reserve loungers, but despite bringing this to the attention of staff, no one did anything about it.

The court ruled that even though guests may not always get a lounger, the onus is on the tour operator, in partnership with the hotel, to ensure that there’s a system in place to allow a “reasonable” relationship between the number of sun beds and the number of guests. The judge clarified that his decision was made “based on individual circumstances.”

Some might be surprised to see the tour operator be on the hook for the hotel’s issues, but that’s because Germany has strict laws about package holidays, and as a result, the hotel was viewed as an agent of the tour operator. So the judge ruled that the tour operator is on the hook to prevent such conflicts.

The practice of reserving pool loungers is a dirty game

I find the whole concept of reserving pool chairs hours before you’re going to use them to be an awful practice. It’s common to see this around the globe, though there’s huge variance in this practice between regions. Like, at a resort in Hawaii you might find a couple of towels on chairs early in the morning, while at some resorts in Europe, all lounge chairs are spoken for by 7AM.

Everything about this system sucks, and it really seems like hotels just throw their guests under the bus, sort of. Typically the rules don’t actually allow this practice, yet nothing is done to enforce the rules. So it creates a system whereby those who break the rules are rewarded, and those who don’t break the rules are left with few options.

Still, I find this whole competitive game of securing lounge chairs to be so silly. Do people actually enjoy this? Like, at this point, why go on vacation? You’re going to get up hours earlier than usual so that you can actually sit at the pool? There are even some stories out there of people sleeping on lounge chairs overnight to reserve them.

From a guest experience perspective, it always amazes me how hotels don’t do more to manage this ridiculous practice. These hotels presumably have significantly fewer pool chairs than guests who want them, yet “first come, first served” is the only system that hotels can come up with?

The problem with any of these unmonitored system is that 100% of the pool chairs might be reserved, while only a small percentage are actually being used at any given point. So whether it’s a case where people sleep on the chairs or simply storm the pool when the gates open, it seems like there should be a better way to handle this:

• If a pool chair isn’t occupied for some amount of time (30 minutes, one hour, etc.), it should be given up to a guest who wants it
• Maybe each guest should get a certain amount of time in a pool chair, and sessions can be broken up so that you can be guaranteed a pool chair either in the morning or in the afternoon
• Not to suggest more revenue opportunities, but maybe pool chairs should cost extra and have dynamic pricing, so that guests can pay a little extra but actually enjoy their vacation; I wouldn’t actually like to see this, but it seems more rational than spending over $500 per night, only to sleep on a pool chair

Bottom line

A German court awarded a tourist damages over a stay at a resort in Greece, that was booked through a German travel agency. The guest got up early every morning to try to get sun loungers at the pool, only to not have any luck.

The concept of people reserving sun loungers early in the morning is common at some resorts, especially those popular with Germans. Quite honestly, it’s refreshing to see someone challenge this practice legally, since there’s a big gap between what hotels promise and what they deliver.

What do you make of this German court ruling?

130K Emirates employees get huge bonuses

Emirates has historically offered profit sharing to employees when the airline has a good year. However, there’s no consistent formula to this, and it’s at the discretion of the company’s executives. With the airline having done so well the past financial year, employees are being rewarded in a generous way.

The Dubai-based airline has announced that all employees of the company will be getting a bonus equal to 20 weeks worth of basic salary. Yes, that means all Emirates employees will be getting a roughly 38% bonus on their basic salaries. It’s worth emphasizing that basic salaries aren’t necessarily equal to the total pay, as many flight crews have both basic pay plus an hourly pay.

So, how does this latest profit sharing amount compare to past amounts? Historically when Emirates has performed well, the airline has offered employees bonuses equal to several weeks worth of salary:

• For the 2017-2018 financial year, employees received bonuses equal to five weeks worth of salary
• The airline then didn’t do so well for several years (first due to a challenging environment, then due to the pandemic), so there weren’t bonuses
• For the 2022-2023 financial year, employees received bonuses equal to 24 weeks worth of salary, to reflect that it had been years since they were rewarded in this way
• For the 2023-2024 financial year, employees received bonuses equal to 20 weeks worth of salary, to reflect record financial results
• For the 2024-2025 financial year, employees received bonuses equal to 22 weeks worth of salary, to reflect record financial results

So while the latest profit sharing of 20 weeks isn’t as quite as good as the profit sharing of 22 weeks from the year prior, it’s still very good.

In a note to employees, Emirates CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum wrote the following:

“March 2026 will fade into memory, but we will never forget your bravery and incredible resilience. You were called upon during one of the most complex and challenging times in our history, and you showed up with commitment and passion. For that, I will remain forever grateful to you.”

“There is a renewed sense of energy, pride in the city and optimism in its future. Emirates will soon operate flight schedules as normal. We will continue to take delivery of aircraft on order and progress apace on the retrofit programme.”

“To all critics who believe Dubai and the Emirates Group are in decline, we’ve heard this before and proved them wrong every time. We’re coming back bigger, better and bolder as we always do after a crisis.”

It’s exceptionally rare to see airlines give out such large bonuses as part of a profit sharing perk. Here in the United States, Delta has a formula for its profit sharing, and for the past year, Delta’s profit sharing was equal to 8.9% of pay. The only airline that has beat Emirates is Singapore Airlines, which offered its employees a 32-week salary bonus a couple of years ago.

This is really great to see from Emirates

Gulf carriers are often vilified for their employment practices. While I think some criticisms are warranted, Emirates usually does a pretty job taking care of employees, and this is a clear reflection of that. Even without a union or collective bargaining agreement, it’s possible for a company to be generous with staff.

For several years in a row now, Emirates employees have received profit sharing equal to nearly 50% of their salary. I’m sure this will do a lot to help morale at the airline, and to ensure employees are invested in the continued success of the airline.

So many Emirates employees live in Dubai, while their families are back home in the country they’re originally from. Often the Emirates staff are bread winners for their whole family, so getting this kind of a bonus will make a material difference in their lives.

Admittedly I suspect the coming year won’t see much in the way of bonus payments, as I can’t imagine Emirates will have a good year. But in the meantime, it’s nice to see employees continuing to be rewarded.

Bottom line

Emirates Group reported a record profit of $6.6 billion, and the airline is celebrating that by offering employees profit sharing that’s equal to 20 weeks of salary. What an awesome way to recognize employees, especially since these big bonuses have become the standard in good years. Unfortunately I fear we won’t see a fifth consecutive year with such a big bonus.

What do you make of Emirates’ massive bonus for employees?

Details of Emirates’ impressive financial results

Emirates Group has reported a record $6.6 billion profit, while Emirates Airline has reported a $6.2 billion profit (compared to $6.2 billion and $5.8 billion last year, respectively), representing a 16.2% profit margin (which is unbelievably good for the airline industry). Emirates Group also includes ground handling company dnata, though I’ll be focusing specifically on the carrier’s results.

To look at some of the key figures of Emirates’ performance compared to the previous year:

• Revenue increased by 2%, to $35.7 billion
• Passenger and cargo capacity increased by 1%, to 60.6 billion ATKMs
• Passengers carried was down by 1%, to 53.2 million
• Average load factor decreased by 0.5%, to 78.4%
• Passenger yield increased by 4%, to 10.4 cents per revenue passenger kilometer
• Operating costs increased by 2%, with the carrier’s fuel bill decreasing by 7%
• Emirates Group’s total workforce was increased by 8%, to 130,919 employees

Emirates is ending the financial year with its highest ever cash balance of $15.0 billion, up 3% from last year. Furthermore, Emirates Group has declared a dividend of $1 billion to its owner, Investment Corporation of Dubai.

As you may have guessed, the upcoming financial year will likely look a lot different than the past one. And it’s incredible to see Emirates’ results despite the last month of the financial year having some really major challenges (or else I’m sure the airline would’ve done a lot better).

Here’s how Emirates CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum describes these results:

“These outstanding results, despite significant challenges in the last month of our financial year, reaffirm the strength and resilience of the Emirates Group’s business model, which is rooted in safety, excellence, innovation, people and partnerships.”

“For the first 11 months of 2025-26, the picture across the Group was very positive. Strong demand for our products and services was driving revenue, and we were achieving healthy margins thanks to our sustained investments in product, people, technology and brand. Month after month, we were surpassing our targets.”

“On 28 February, military activity massively disrupted global commercial air traffic in the Gulf region, including in the UAE. Emirates and dnata quickly mobilised to support our people and affected customers, protect our assets, and ensure business continuity.”

“We are fortunate to be based in Dubai, where years of infrastructure investments and a cohesive aviation ecosystem has enabled the government to quickly secure safe corridors for commercial flights. Emirates and dnata have since gradually restored operations at DXB. Although we are still operating at a lower passenger capacity than pre-disruption, cargo operations have ramped up to support the movement of essential goods into and through the UAE.”

Yes, Emirates is now more profitable than Delta

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Emirates’ financial results for the past couple of years is that the airline has overtaken Delta as the most profitable in the world. For example, this past year Delta generated a $5 billion profit, so Emirates is about 25% more profitable.

When I write about the financial performance of the Gulf carriers, there are always questions about whether this is all just imaginary math, given that the Gulf carriers are state owned. After all, going back a decade, US airlines spent tens of millions of dollars campaigning to convince us that these are all heavily subsidized airlines that light money on fire (they’ve since changed their tune).

Yes, these results are accurate, and they’re independently audited per international financial reporting standards. However, there’s no denying that the math on some things works differently for an airline like Emirates than many other airlines:

• Emirates has had easier access to attractive financing on account of being government owned, which has allowed the airline to become what it is
• Emirates largely has lower operating costs than other airlines, given that the airline essentially has the same owner as the airport, ground handlers, catering company, etc.

I do think Emirates is “legitimately” profitable, though of course it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison to US airlines in terms of revenue vs. costs. The problem with the A380 for most airlines is that they haven’t been able to scale their operations in a way that works. Emirates has been able to scale its route network unlike any other airline.

The A380 was quite literally created for Emirates’ business model, it’s just a shame that other airlines couldn’t make it work in the same way. One has to wonder what Emirates will look like starting in the early 2040s, when the A380 is no longer in service.

For that matter, I think it’s worth pointing out that even the most profitable US airlines are only sort of profitable in terms of transporting passengers. For example, when you look at the financial results of carriers like American, Delta, and United, you’ll find that the airlines largely don’t actually make money transporting passengers, but rather earn much of their profits through their frequent flyer programs and other means. They’re lucky to breakeven in terms of the cost per air seat mile vs. the revenue per air seat mile.

Emirates is obviously just much more efficient — labor costs are lower, the airline is flying much larger planes with lower per seat operating costs, operating flights in the Middle East is cheaper, etc.

Bottom line

Emirates has reported a record profit for the past financial year, which is its fourth consecutive year of record profits. What’s particularly remarkable is that for the second year in a row, Emirates has overtaken Delta as the world’s most profitable airline.

It’s great to see Emirates continuing to succeed with its business model. The airline has scaled operations with the A380 in a way that no other airline has, and that’s a key part of the carrier’s success. Now, I imagine those increased profits will be coming to an end for the time being, given the current conflict in the region, which is sort of an existential threat to some Gulf carriers.

What do you make of Emirates’ financial results?

AirAsia will add 160-seat Airbus A220-300 to fleet

AirAsia has placed a firm order for 150 Airbus A220-300 aircraft, with deliveries expected to begin in 2028. The purchase agreement is the largest single firm order placed for the A220, and propels the program beyond the 1,000 firm order milestone, which is major.

It’s also worth noting that AirAsia is the launch customer for the high density version of the A220-300. The plane is otherwise certified for up to 149 seats, but by adding an extra overwing exit, the capacity can be increased to 160 seats. Note that this high density A220-300 is different from the stretched A220-500 concept, which Airbus is seriously considering.

As it’s described, the A220 will play a key role with AirAsia’s network across ASEAN and into Central Asia, freeing up larger aircraft to fly longer routes. Here’s how AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes describes this order:

“We have built AirAsia by making bold decisions at the right moment, not the easiest moment. This order reflects our long-term discipline and the scale of our ambitions. The A220 unlocks new markets and routes and brings us closer to building the world’s first true low-cost network carrier. Our partnership with Airbus spans more than two decades and has been central to everything we have achieved. Today is another milestone in that journey, and there are many more to come.” 

How the Airbus A220 will fit into AirAsia’s fleet

The fleet of AirAsia’s Malaysia subsidiary otherwise consists primarily of Airbus A320-family aircraft, including both the classic (ceo) and next generation (neo) versions. For example, the airline has over 400 A321 aircraft on order, between the A321neo, A321LR, and A321XLR. At least initially, those planes are all going to be configured with 236 people, in a one-cabin configuration.

Presumably these A220s will over time replace some of the classic A320s, which have 180 seats. So that fleet replacement does represent a capacity downgrade on a per-aircraft basis, though I imagine the total number of frames will be greater. You also can’t argue with the operating costs of the A220, especially with so many seats.

So while many airlines hesitate to introduce a new type of aircraft when they benefit from fleet commonality, it’s clear that AirAsia has the ability to scale multiple fleets, in a way where they can all be operated efficiently.

Given AirAsia’s size and what a good customer of Airbus it has been, I imagine the airline got a great deal on these aircraft. It’s understandable that for its long term fleet growth, the airline also wants something smaller than the 236-seat A321neos. If you don’t need the range of the A320neo, there’s a lot of merit to the A220-300, given the lower cost per frame, lower operating costs, etc.

This is also a massive win for Airbus, because up until now, the A220 hasn’t been particularly popular with ultra low cost carriers (with some exceptions, like Breeze, which is more of a “value” airline than an ultra low cost one).

Bottom line

AirAsia has announced a firm order for 150 Airbus A220-300s, with deliveries expected as of 2028. AirAsia will be the launch customer for the high density version of the A220-300, which can have up to 160 seats (thanks to an extra emergency exit). Congrats to AirAsia and Airbus, this is a good development all-around.

What do you make of AirAsia’s A220 order?

Lufthansa’s First Class Suite Plus concept made no sense

Lufthansa’s A350 Allegris first class cabin consists of three to four seats, depending on how you’d like to look at.

Essentially, the two window seats are marketed as the First Class Single Suite, and are already very spacious, pretty typical of what you’d expect from a first class suite.

But then there’s this weird seat in the center section, marketed as the First Class Suite Plus.

In theory, the concept of a double suite is cool, as so many airlines don’t consider couples or families when designing new first class products. However, the reality of this suite is simply that it’s not double as spacious as a single suite, and this really limits your flexibility. For example, the seat has one main tray table, so good luck if the two passengers traveling together are on slightly different schedules.

The point is, I think there would be merit to booking this product if the airline gives you a discount over the standard fare. But I couldn’t imagine paying two full first class fares, only to end up in that rather tight suite.

So that’s the issue, because up until now, the monetization has worked as follows:

• If you book two first class tickets at the regular cost, the airline was happy to seat a pair in those center seats; that’s a big win for Lufthansa, since they can then sell another first class seat
• If a single traveler wanted to book the double suite, they’d have to pay a fee of somewhere around $2,500-3,000, over the standard first class fare
• Since few people seemed interested in either of those options, these seats were most commonly simply assigned to “standard” first class passengers, since this was easy enough to “game” (just don’t select a seat assignment, and if the cabin is full, you’ll then automatically be put in the center suite at check-in)

Lufthansa eliminates all first class seat assignment fees

Lufthansa is radically changing how it monetizes its First Class Suite Plus product (thanks to Jens for flagging this):

• For bookings effective immediately, and for travel as of July 1, 2026, any first class passenger can select the double suite in advance at no extra cost
• If you are traveling as a couple and want to book the double suite, you can receive a 50% discount on the first class fare for the second passenger

Indeed, if you look at seat maps now for travel as of July 1, you’ll see that the First Class Suite Plus product can be selected free of charge.

Wow, a few things come to mind here:

• The double suite hard product is incredible, so it’s pretty compelling to think that you can snag that with a “standard” first class fare, and no premium; obviously it greatly incentivizes booking early
• The discount for the second passenger in Allegris first class makes perfect sense, it’s something I suggested last year when I flew the product, and I’m happy to hear the airline is moving in that direction
• Honestly, the lack of monetization of the center suite almost seems a bit extreme; you’d think the airline would still charge some sort of a more reasonable fee ($250-500) to assign the seat in advance, reserve the seating for HON Circle members and then only open it up to others within 24 hours of departure, etc.

Bottom line

Lufthansa is completely changing how it monetizes its Allegris First Class Suite Plus product.

The first class double suite concept hasn’t made a whole lot of sense with the current pricing, where you need to either book two standard first class fares, or need to pay a premium of $2,500-3,000 as a solo traveler. Those two extreme options meant that the double suite typically just went to someone during online check-in, at no extra cost.

Lufthansa is now updating how it monetizes this experience. All first class passengers can now select the double suite at the time of booking, on a first come, first served basis. Meanwhile if a couple wants to book the suite together, the second passenger receives a 50% discount.

What do you make of Lufthansa’s updates to its Allegris first class monetization?

In October 2024, Four Seasons announced plans to open its first resort on a Greek island. There’s now an update, as this property is bookable, so we also have a lot more details about what to expect.

Basics of the the Four Seasons Resort Mykonos, Greece

The Four Seasons Resort Mykonos is now bookable for stays as of June 26, 2026. The property is located along the coastline of Kalo Livadi Bay, and offers 94 rooms, villas, and suites, with views of the Aegean Sea. This is a new-build property, located on 60,324 square meters (649,322 square feet) of land.

The resort was designed and developed in the Cycladic style that Mykonos is known for, with white cubic architecture, whitewashed courtyards, traditional pathways, and piazzas.

As far as restaurant and bar options go, the property has an al fresco poolside Italian venue, a modern interpretation of a Mykonian kafeneio, and a beach restaurant. Additional resort features include an infinity swimming pool, a spa with several treatment rooms, fitness facilities, and more.

This is the Four Seasons brand’s second property in Greece, after the Four Seasons Athens Astir Palace.

Four Seasons Mykonos rates & how to book

With the Four Seasons Mykonos now bookable, what are rates like? As you’d expect, the resort is open seasonally, between early May and the middle of October, and rates can vary significantly depending on exactly when in the season you travel.

Currently I see rates at the hotel ranging from $700 to $2,000 per night for a standard room, depending on how close to the peak of summer you’re traveling. With Four Seasons, it’s always worth keeping an eye on the hotel’s offers page, as you’ll sometimes find offers like a free night promotion, extra property credit, etc. (though currently the primary deal I see is an introductory offer).

If you’re going to book this hotel (or any Four Seasons), you should generally book through a travel advisor who is affiliated with the Four Seasons Preferred Partner program. With this program, eligible travel advisors can add value to your stay without it costing you extra. They can add perks like complimentary breakfast (including via in-room dining), a hotel credit, an upgrade subject to availability, and more.

Best of all, Four Seasons Preferred Partner can generally be combined with any rates or promotions you’ll find directly with Four Seasons. Ford and his team are happy to help with Preferred Partner bookings, and can be reached at ford@fordbtravel.com.

Alternatively, there are also some credit card programs you can use for book Four Seasons properties with extra perks, and that can be especially worthwhile if you have some sort of a credit.

This is quite the addition to the Mykonos hotel scene

Greece is of course as hot of a tourist destination as ever, and Mykonos and Santorini get the bulk of traffic from the United States (even though Greece has so many amazing islands, and I’d say those are probably the two places to avoid nowadays… I digress).

Hotel rates in Mykonos are incredibly high, not necessarily because hotels are amazing, but rather because of the amount of demand there is for travel to the island. What makes Mykonos unique as such a high-end destination is that there are currently few luxury hotels belonging to international groups.

Santa Marina, a Marriott Luxury Collection, is probably the most luxurious property belonging to one of the major hotel groups. The other best properties, like Deos Mykonos and Kalesma Mykonos, are independent, or part of small groups.

I’m surprised it has taken this long for one of the major luxury hotel groups to reach an agreement to open a property in Mykonos. You’d think that just about every international chain would have properties popping up there. At least with Four Seasons you know you’ll get great service, even if the rate is high (though quite honestly, rates aren’t even really higher than at existing top properties).

Bottom line

The Four Seasons brand is expanding to Mykonos, with the opening of a property in June 2026. The resort has just 94 keys, and is the first newly opened luxury property on the island belonging to a major hotel group in quite some time.

What do you make of the new Four Seasons Mykonos?

British Airways Club Europe loses headrest covers

Club Europe is the name of British Airways’ regional business class product. As is standard in Europe, this simply consists of economy seats with blocked middle seats, and improved food, drinks, and service.

There’s also a curtain between business class and economy, and those in business class have received a headrest cover on their seat, to sort of visually differentiate the cabin from economy. Well, that will be no more.

As of tomorrow, May 6, 2026, British Airways will no longer place headrest covers on Club Europe seats. This change is being made to “ensure operational resilience, improve punctuality and align with our wider sustainability commitment.”

So yeah, basically the goal is to cut cleaning costs between flights, since presumably those headrest covers are sometimes replaced. Furthermore, since the size of the cabins can differ between flights, it also simplifies the process of adjusting the cabins.

My take on British Airways’ headrest cover change

As such, I’m not terribly offended by this change on the part of British Airways. For example, Air France doesn’t have headrest covers in either cabin on its A220s, which represent the carrier’s latest passenger experience.

Meanwhile Lufthansa has headrest covers in all cabins, with the catch being that short haul seats don’t actually have adjustable headrests, unlike on Air France and British Airways (and that can make a big difference in terms of comfort).

Instead, what stands out to me more is just the general trend of British Airways pushing its luck in finding every last opportunity possible to cut costs. In isolation I wouldn’t think much of it, but the small but negative changes are constant, ranging from trying to cut water bottles in economy, to extending the hours of breakfast and brunch to cut down on catering costs. All the while, British Airways has told employees to stop apologizing to customers.

Bottom line

As of May 6, 2026, British Airways is eliminating headrest covers in its Club Europe business class. Visually, this was one of the few things that differentiated business class from economy. I don’t consider this to be a huge deal, I just find it sad how British Airways’ inflight service changes seem to consistently be little ways to chip away at the experience, rather than ways to improve it.

What do you make of these British Airways headrest cover changes?

Interestingly, the product was initially supposed to roll out in the coming weeks, but there has still been no product reveal, or anything along those lines. There’s now an update, as this project has just been delayed substantially, and we won’t see our first retrofitted aircraft enter service until 2027. Let’s take a look at all the details.

Singapore Airlines updating 41 Airbus A350-900 cabins

Singapore Airlines will be investing 1.1 billion SGD (~835 million USD) to update the interiors of its entire long haul Airbus A350-900 fleet. This consists of a total of 41 jets, and includes the carrier’s seven A350-900ULRs, with the “ULR” standing for “ultra long range,” as these planes operate the world’s longest flights.

The only A350-900s that won’t be reconfigured are the ones that are specifically designed for regional flights, featuring the same cabin products you’ll find onboard Boeing 787-10s.

With this project, we can expect changes across cabins. We’ll see first class added to the carrier’s ultra long range A350s, an all-new business class product, refreshes to premium economy and economy, plus an updated inflight entertainment system and the installation of Starlink Wi-Fi.

How will the layouts of these jets change, once reconfigured? Singapore Airlines’ standard long haul A350-900s:

• Currently have 253 seats, including 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 187 economy seats
• Will have 258 seats, including 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 192 economy seats
• The business class and premium economy capacity will remain unchanged, while economy will get five more seats

Singapore Airlines’ ultra long range A350-900s:

• Currently have 161 seats, including 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy seats
• Will have 132 seats, including four first class seats, 70 business class seats, and 58 premium economy seats
• There will be four new first class seats, three more business class seats, and 36 fewer premium economy seats

Singapore Airlines’ new first & business class products

Singapore Airlines will be introducing new first and business class products. This isn’t just some new interim product, but rather this is intended to be the carrier’s new premium product in the long run. The same seats that are being installed on the Airbus A350-900s will also be installed on the carrier’s Boeing 777-9s, so these are very much “flagship” cabins.

Singapore Airlines initially intended to debut new premium cabins on its 777-9s, which were first supposed to be delivered in 2020. However, those have now been pushed back all the way to 2027 at the earliest. So clearly Singapore Airlines decided that it’s finally time to introduce new cabins, even if the 777-9 keeps getting delayed.

Singapore Airlines’ new first class seat

Singapore Airlines will introduce a new first class product on its subfleet of A350-900ULRs, which operate the world’s longest flights. This same product will be available on 777-9s in the future, but won’t be available on standard A350-900s. Furthermore, there are no plans to retrofit existing 777s with this product. A350s will have four of these seats, while 777s will have six of these seats.

Below is the first teaser picture of Singapore Airlines’ new first class.

Currently Singapore Airlines only has first class on its A380s and 777-300ERs, so it’s cool to see this product expand.

Official details about the new first class are limited, other than that it’s “designed with increasingly discerning travellers in mind,” and that the first class seats “promise to deliver an unparalleled in-flight experience.” 

We have reason to believe that the new cabin will be in a 1-2-1 layout. Why? Well, Singapore Airlines filed a patent some time back, clearly for the carrier’s new first class product. The patent is for the 777-9, where the airline will have a first class cabin with six seats.

The plan seems to be to have individual suites along the windows, plus a double suite in the center. However, the center suite can be used by either one or two people, so if people are traveling separately, there’s a partition that can go up.

As you can see, there’s a bit of staggering with the cabin, to maximize the width of the suite, as the aisle curves a bit.

This looks like a very nice product, though to be perfectly honest, it doesn’t look like anything revolutionary. Nowadays some of the top first class products are in a 1-1-1 configuration, like what you’ll find on Japan Airlines and Emirates. Admittedly the flexibility of the double suite in the middle is great for those traveling with someone, since that’s not something that was really considered with the new Japan Airlines and Emirates products.

For that matter, we have reason to believe that Cathay Pacific may offer the world’s best first class on its 777-9s, as it could very well be in a 1-1 configuration.

Singapore Airlines’ new business class seat

So far, we have limited information about Singapore Airlines’ new business class product. The airline has released the below rendering, and the company claims that the product will offer greater levels of privacy, comfort, and convenience.

This is super exciting. Singapore Airlines is one of the best airlines in the world, with incredible service, food, drinks, and more. However, at this point the carrier’s business class hard product isn’t really cutting edge anymore.

With details being so limited, all we can do is speculate as of now. So I have a few thoughts:

• It appears to me that the product will be in a staggered configuration, since it doesn’t look like the seat is angled toward the windows or aisles, based on the side table
• The seat will have privacy doors, and they look to be quite high, similar to what you’ll find in many of the top products nowadays
• While I know Singapore Airlines is claiming this is customized, I wonder if this is based on the Safran Unity platform, like what you’ll find in Japan Airlines’ incredible new A350 business class

When will Singapore Airlines’ new premium products debut?

In November 2024, when this project was first announced, Singapore Airlines shared the following timeline for debuting the new first and business class seats:

• The first retrofitted A350-900 was supposed to enter service in the second quarter of 2026
• The first retrofitted A350-900ULR was supposed to enter service in the first quarter of 2027
• The entire retrofit project was supposed to be complete by the end of 2030

Unfortunately there’s some bad news on that front, as reported by The MileLion. Singapore Airlines has now revealed that the first retrofitted aircraft isn’t expected to enter service before the first quarter of 2027. The expectation is still that some long range A350s will be reconfigured before the first ultra long range A350 gets a makeover.

The revised timeline reflects industry-wide supply chain constraints, as well as delays in the certification of one of the new seats (a common industry problem). The aircraft will be retrofitted by SIA Engineering Company in Singapore.

While we’ll see how this plays out, based on historical precedent, it’s likely that Sydney (SYD) and London (LHR) will be the first two destinations to get the new cabins, since those are the first destinations where the airline has sent all of its new long haul products.

Bottom line

Singapore Airlines plans to introduce all-new cabins on its Airbus A350-900s, which will also eventually be installed on Boeing 777-9s. Most exciting is an improved new business class product, which is long overdue. Singapore Airlines will also be adding first class to its subfleet of A350-900ULRs, with a boutique cabin having just four seats.

While this product was supposed to enter service as of the second quarter of 2026, the timeline has now been pushed back to the first quarter of 2027, due to supply chain constraints and certification issues… a familiar story! I’m still mighty curious to learn the details of the new cabins, so I hope Singapore Airlines unveils the details soon.

What do you make of Singapore Airlines’ plans to introduce new long haul cabins?

Singapore Airlines’ on-demand foot cleansing service?

OMAAT reader Paul sent me a link to the below post on X (which has been seen close to 400K times in less than a day), and asked me if this is true.

As you can see, the caption reads as follows:

On ultra long haul flights, SQ offers on-demand foot cleansing (wipes/towels) for First & Suites to freshen up swollen feet after 18+ hours. Done professionally with gloves. Some call it incredible luxury. Others find it too much. I am curious whether flight attendants extend the same level of service to their partners or spouses.

It appears that the person who posted this runs an otherwise pretty reliable aviation geek account, so I don’t think this person is trolling, and I’m not sure how they came up with the claim. One thing is 100% sure, though — this is absolutely not a service that Singapore Airlines offers. Never mind that the picture shown is of business class, while the caption claims it’s only for first class (which isn’t even offered on the carrier’s longest flights).

Presumably the flight attendant in the picture here is dealing with some sort of a medical situation, or something, and is assisting a passenger for that reason.

But of course I now also see countless other accounts posting about this, passing it off as fact, and not crediting the original person. For example, take a look at this post in Arabic:

It is said that Singapore Airlines flight attendants on very long-haul flights offer foot massage and moisturizing services to first-class and business-class passengers to alleviate swelling caused by prolonged sitting.

So yeah, none of this is accurate in any way…

Inflight massage services ended in 2008

While some airlines will offer premium passengers massages in airport lounges, that’s not a practice that has been offered inflight for nearly 20 years, since 2008.

Specifically, between 1990 and 2008, Virgin Atlantic had an inflight masseuse on most flights, who would offer Upper Class (business class) passengers spa treatments, ranging from a neck & shoulder massage, to a back massage, to a manicure. Virgin Atlantic even marketed this service with an ad campaign that proclaimed “British Airways doesn’t give a shiatsu.”

As you’d expect, that was a costly service to offer, to essentially have an extra crew member fly around the world just to massage people. But hey, it was a time where Virgin Atlantic was trying to differentiate its product in order to compete with British Airways (Virgin Atlantic is still great, but they’ve cut many of the “frills” from back in the day, realizing it doesn’t generate much of a revenue premium).

Bottom line

As nice as it sounds (well, sort of), unfortunately Singapore Airlines doesn’t offer foot cleansing or massage services on ultra long haul flights. Clearly a picture was snapped of a flight attendant dealing with some sort of a medical situation involving a foot, and that has now turned into a narrative about how this is a standard service (which it isn’t).

The St. Regis brand will be opening a second resort in the Cancun area, and this one is just weeks from welcoming its first guests.

St. Regis Costa Mujeres Cancun opens June 25, 2026

The St. Regis Costa Mujeres Resort Cancun is now accepting reservations for stays as of June 25, 2026. This property is located in Costa Mujeres (as the name suggests), around 20 minutes by car north of Cancun. For context, there’s also the St. Regis Kanai Riviera Maya, roughly 40 minutes by car south of Cancun (so the two resorts are around an hour apart).

This resort was first announced in late 2022, with a planned early 2025 opening. Now it’ll finally be opening in mid 2026 — while that’s a substantial delay, we’ve seen worse. The resort is located on a 3.5-hectare site along the Costa Mujeres beach (though based on the renderings, the beach here doesn’t look particularly big), just a quick boat ride from Isla Mujeres.

The St. Regis features 160 guest rooms and suites, plus 80 branded residences. As you’d expect, the resort has lots of amenities, from several pools, to a full service spa, to a gym and kids club, to a variety of restaurants and bars.

Dining options include Costa Coral (an all-day Mexican restaurant), Fish Market (a Caribbean restaurant open for lunch), Palmare Grill (a seafood restaurant open for lunch), Shami (an Asian fusion restaurant open for dinner), and the St. Regis Bar.

St. Regis Costa Mujeres Cancun rates & points requirements

With the St. Regis Costa Mujeres Cancun now being bookable, what are rates like?

Entry level rates currently start at just over $660 per night, though that’s before Mexico’s high taxes and service charges, which add 30%+ to the base rate.

However, there’s quite a bit of seasonal variation, and in peak season (winter), rates start at closer to $1,000 per night.

If you’re going to book a cash stay here, I’d recommend doing so through the Marriott STARS program, to receive perks like free breakfast, a $100 resort credit, a room upgrade, and more. Ford and his team are happy to help with these requests, and can be reached at ford@fordbtravel.com.

For those looking to redeem Marriott points, I see rates starting between 104,000 and 126,000 Bonvoy points per night. Keep in mind that you can receive a fifth night free on award redemptions, which improves the value somewhat.

Based on my valuation of 0.7 cents per Bonvoy point, I’d say the math is generally pretty breakeven when it comes to paying cash vs. redeeming points, especially after factoring in taxes & fees. You definitely get more value with your points in peak season, though.

Bottom line

The St. Regis Costa Mujeres is opening as of late June 2026. This will be the St. Regis brand’s second property in the Cancun area. It’s interesting to see the growth of more non all-inclusive luxury properties in the region beyond Mayakoba. I’m curious to see how this resort looks in real life.

What do you make of plans for the new St. Regis Costa Mujeres?

Airport to be named after President Trump as of July 2026

In November 2025, Republican Florida State Representative Meg Weinberger introduced a proposal to rename Palm Beach International Airport to President Donald J. Trump International Airport. As she explained in a statement:

“President Trump is the most consequential president of our lifetime and a resident of Palm Beach County, which makes it only fitting to honor him, like many other presidents before him, by naming our airport Donald J. Trump International.”

In February 2026, a vote took place on this in the Florida Legislature, and it passed with a strictly partisan vote. This included an 81-30 vote in the House, and a 25-11 vote in the Senate. Then in March 2026, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on this.

That means the renaming can now happen, and that’s supposed to take effect as of July 1, 2026. Around $5.5 million has been allocated for implementing the renaming, including updated signage and branding.

We know that Trump has long wanted airports to be named after him, so I’m sure he’s very happy about this. I am curious if one airport is “enough” for him, or if he’ll maybe go for having multiple airports named after him. For example, Trump has also often said he wants Washington Dulles Airport (IAD) to be named after him.

Currently, more than 10 commercial airports in the United States are named after former presidents, including New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK), Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA), Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Grand Rapids’ Gerald Ford Airport (GRR), and Little Rock’s Clinton National Airport (LIT), among others.

The trademark deal behind Trump’s airport renaming

Palm Beach County officials have just reached a tentative trademark deal with President Trump’s companies, following weeks of negotiations. The deal here is unusual, because typically when airports are named after presidents, they don’t have trademarks owned by private companies.

However, Trump’s companies, as well as Palm Beach County officials, have argued that a trademark agreement is necessary not for private profit, but to protect the county from lawsuits.

The agreement for the name is non-exclusive to Palm Beach County, and when it comes to profiting off of this:

• Trump’s companies have agreed not to receive royalties or revenue for the sale of Trump branded items at the airport
• However, the non-exclusivity clause allows for Trump’s companies to sell airport-branded items off-site, given that they have the trademark for it
• Furthermore, Trump’s companies get to make a list of “approved retailers” from which airport stores have to buy their airport-branded merchandise

As part of this agreement, Trump also has veto power over how his biography is displayed at the airport, so he can modify any aspects of it that he doesn’t like. The county can also use Trump’s name, image, and biographical information, to market and promote the airport, but Trump’s companies need to approve all of this beforehand.

For those curious, below you can find the new logo for the airport.

I’m not a fan of airports being named after politicians

My opinion on this is the same as it has been about every proposal to rename an airport after a politician, whether a Democrat, Republican, or whatever (and if you don’t believe me, see my post about Las Vegas being renamed after Democrat Harry Reid).

I’m just no a fan of airports being named after politicians:

• Why can’t we just keep airport names simple, and name them after their location, or the cities or regions they serve? There’s no need to complicate things
• It’s one thing to name an airport after someone a vast majority of people can agree on, but to me it’s a bit different to name an airport after a politician, which is always going to be divisive
• At some point this renaming stuff just comes down to partisan politicians ruling in favor of one politician over another, and that just seems like a rabbit hole that’s better avoided

But at this point over 10 airports in the United States have been named after presidents, so I guess there’s no reason to stop now. What’s especially bad here, if you ask me, is that the city’s name is completely being removed from the official name, as it’ll just be President Donald J. Trump International Airport.

Bottom line

Several weeks ago, the Florida Legislature passed legislation to rename Palm Beach International Airport after Donald Trump, and that was signed off on by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The airport is expected to get its new name as of July 1, 2026.

Ahead of that, we’ve learned the details of the trademark agreement between Trump’s companies and the county. Trump won’t technically be able to directly profit off of the trademark at the airport. However, Trump’s companies can sell merch for profit off-site, and they also get to tell airport retailers where they need to buy their merch. For that matter, Trump has full veto power over what his biography at the airport says.

Flying Blue updates 24-month mileage expiration policy

Prior to today (through May 3, 2026), the mileage expiration policy for Air France-KLM Flying Blue was as follows:

• Miles expired after 24 months of inactivity (though this didn’t apply to Flying Blue elite members, for as long as they maintained their status)
• Only select activity could reset the expiration of miles, including crediting a flight to the program, or earning miles with a co-branded card
• Other mileage earning activity, like moving over points from a transferable points currency, wouldn’t reset the expiration of miles

This policy has finally changed. As of today (May 4, 2026), Flying Blue is using the same 24-month mileage expiration policy for all miles earned. In other words, all miles have one expiration date, and any activity that involves earning miles resets that expiration. These new rules apply to miles earned both before and after that date, and accounts should be updated to now show the correct expiration date.

For what it’s worth, this is the first time that Flying Blue has meaningfully updated its mileage expiration policy since 2017. At that time, we saw the period of inactivity before miles expire increase from 20 months to 24 months.

This is a sensible policy change from Flying Blue

I’m very happy to see Flying Blue update its policy, since it means that you can now extend the expiration of your miles simply by moving over a small number of points from a transferable currency. This new policy isn’t only more generous, but it’s also just more straightforward, as I know the old policy confused a lot of people.

It’s nice to see positive changes from a program, without a catch. For that matter, I’ll add that I think a two-year mileage expiration policy is perfectly fair. Personally, I don’t care much if programs have miles that don’t expire, since ultimately I’d rather they invest more in other areas, for engaged members (keeping in mind that every perk comes with a tradeoff and opportunity cost).

Bottom line

The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program has improved its mileage expiration policy. Effective immediately (as of May 4, 2026), all Flying Blue miles no longer expire as long as there’s some earning activity every 24 months.

Under the old policy, only select earning activity (including crediting flights and spending on a Flying Blue credit card) could extend the expiration of miles, while miles earned through other means couldn’t be used to extend the expiration of miles.

What do you make of this Flying Blue mileage expiration policy change?

However, that’s only part of what Lufthansa is changing, as the airline is also working on completely overhauling its soft product on long haul flights, which is long overdue. This started in late March, when Lufthansa rolled out its new first class soft product, and this will be continuing this week, with a new experience across business class, premium economy, and economy.

The full details of the new experience have now been unveiled, but before we get into that, let me provide a bit of background.

Lufthansa hopes FOX will make it Europe’s best airline

2026 marks Lufthansa’s 100th anniversary. As part of this milestone, the airline claims it wants to fundamentally redesign its onboard experience, with a concept known as “FOX,” which stands for “Future Onboard Experience.”

The idea is that the experience is changing across all service classes, regardless of whether or not planes have the new Allegris cabins. FOX was rolled out in first class as of March 29, 2026, and it’s now being rolled out across business class, premium economy, and economy, as of May 6, 2026.

Executives at the airline claim that the goal of this project is to make Lufthansa Europe’s number one airline (which… I guess it’s nice to have dreams… but that sounds a little like my “goal” of winning the lottery, or something). Lufthansa claims that FOX will redefine flying on long haul routes and “underline Lufthansa’s premium claim,” and will be “setting new standards in premium travel.”

Here’s what Lufthansa CEO Jens Ritter had to say about this:

“Lufthansa is celebrating its 100th anniversary. To mark this special occasion, we are redefining the service on board our long-haul flights. Our goal is clear: We want to be the number one premium airline in Europe. To achieve this, we are investing over 70 million euros this year alone in the new premium service across all classes for our guests. These enormous financial investments during challenging times demonstrate how sustainably and resolutely we are renewing and transforming Lufthansa. I thank the entire team for their tremendous efforts over the past two years, and I am proud of what our customers can enjoy on board with us.”

What all does FOX entail? As the airline describes it, “FOX stands for the fulfillment of individual wishes, for more flexibility, for comfort and premium, for human interaction and hospitality above the clouds with the unmistakable character of Lufthansa.” Here’s how the airline breaks down the points of individuality, comfort, and signature moments:

Individuality: passengers have more opportunities to shape their own flight experience. This is particularly evident in Business Class: with FOX, guests will be able to choose their second meal flexibly in future – exactly when it suits them. This concept offers a varied selection of savory and sweet dishes, snacks and hot meals. But the experience in Economy and Premium Economy Class will also become more individual: in future, guests will be able to choose from three meal options instead of two.

Comfort: Lufthansa will place even more priority on premium. High-quality amenities, upgraded textiles – and completely new tableware in all four classes. Modern and timeless at the same time. Because this is more than just functional: it is pleasant to hold, conveys value and underlines the premium experience on board.

Lufthansa Signature Moments: FOX also stands for special and unforgettable moments that only Lufthansa can create. The rose and the unique caviar service in First Class or the Avionic as a signature drink are unique selling points and examples of Lufthansa’s unmistakable signature. FOX picks up on these iconic service elements and further enhances the quality of the travel experience. When it comes to cuisine, a triad of home, variety and Lufthansa signature dishes can be tangibly experienced. Passengers can immerse themselves in different worlds of pleasure created by top chefs. Sometimes with a focus on the destination, sometimes inspired by the place of departure – always combined with a touch of anticipation.

Over the past couple of years, 180 Lufthansa employees and nearly 2,000 Lufthansa customers have been involved in this project, providing insights and feedback on new service concepts.

Details of Lufthansa’s “Future Onboard Experience”

As mentioned above, Lufthansa’s FOX passenger experience launched in first class several weeks back, and it’s launching as of this week in all other cabins on long haul flights. Let’s share what Lufthansa claims the new service entails (rather than paraphrasing, I’ll just let Lufthansa make its pitch, because it’s not that long).

New Lufthansa first class inflight service

Here’s Lufthansa’s new first class inflight service, which debuted as of March 29, 2026:

In addition to new tableware, a varied gourmet breakfast – including caviar upon request – and an expanded beverage menu featuring new cocktails, long drinks, and mocktails, the First Class menus in particular are set to be a memorable experience: They showcase modern, light fine dining – conceived by two-Michelin-starred chef Christoph Kunz. With his restaurant Komu in Munich, he is one of the defining voices of modern and creative haute cuisine. With FOX, First Class travelers enjoy a curated selection of smaller courses, consisting of trilogies for the amuse-bouche, the appetizer, and the dessert. For the main course, guests have a choice and can decide between a single dish and a tasting menu. Together, Christoph Kunz and Lufthansa have created a high-quality yet surprising concept.

Aside from the new FOX menus, First Class travelers on Lufthansa will continue to enjoy the popular caviar service, which has been one of the “Lufthansa Signature Moments” since the introduction of First Class. In addition to the excellent caviar served with the traditional accompaniments of lemon, egg, shallot, and crème fraîche, blinis are now also served – traditionally on a mother-of-pearl spoon, which is also new on board.

Lufthansa is also offering First Class guests an even more premium champagne selection: For the first time, the airline is serving the exquisite Prestige cuvée La Grande Dame from the renowned Veuve Clicquot. In addition to the rotating selection of premium champagnes, which will continue to be offered as before, First Class guests can now enjoy the exceptional quality of La Grande Dame on every flight.

The innovative amenity kit from BABOR rounds out the premium travel experience in FOX First Class. With the amenity menu, guests can individually select cosmetics and skincare products that perfectly suit them and their skin’s needs. The crew then brings guests the chosen products directly to their seats.

New Lufthansa business class inflight service

Here’s Lufthansa’s new business class inflight service, which debuts as of May 6, 2026:

In Business Class, the new premium service offers guests a particularly memorable experience. The focus is on the culinary experience. New menus by Johann Lafer, who has already created new dishes for Lufthansa on short-haul flights, will treat passengers to the highest culinary quality and exciting combinations in the future. The new breakfast menu allows guests to choose what they’d like to eat for breakfast the following morning from a varied menu as early as the evening before—ranging from smoothies to French toast and omelets. In addition, FOX Business Class features completely new tableware. As a Lufthansa Signature Moment, there will be a cake service in the future, where guests can treat themselves to coffee and cake in classic style onboard. Also brand-new: With “Sky Selection,” guests can order their second meal on long-haul flights whenever they like—from a wide selection ranging from tapas bowls to currywurst to macarons.

New Lufthansa premium economy inflight service

Here’s Lufthansa’s new premium economy inflight service, which debuts as of May 6, 2026:

For guests in Premium Economy, FOX is all about offering more comfort: The entire first service has been significantly upgraded: from a Business Class-level appetizer to a choice of three hot main courses, plus fresh, warm bread. In Premium Economy Class, guests can also look forward to pastries or a slice of cake; in addition, the beverage selection has been expanded, so that from now on there are more frequent drink service, greater variety, and a new digestif service. For that little extra touch of comfort, travelers will now receive cozy slippers.

New Lufthansa economy inflight service

Here’s Lufthansa’s new economy inflight service, which debuts as of May 6, 2026:

FOX also offers numerous innovations for travelers in Economy Class: For the first time, Economy Class passengers will receive an amenity kit featuring a sleep mask and earplugs for a peaceful night’s sleep. Added to this are new and modern tableware—in all classes, by the way—new cutlery and trays, as well as a printed menu. The beverage selection is being significantly expanded. On flights longer than ten hours, there are now three hot main courses to choose from—instead of two as before. Freedom of choice and greater personalization thus become a quality promise in Economy Class as well.

Bottom line

Lufthansa is finally rolling out its new passenger experience on long haul flights, referred to as FOX (Future Onboard Experience). This rolled out as of March 29 in first class, and is now debuting in all other cabins as of May 6.

Lufthansa claims that this is its biggest soft product investment in history, and that the airline hopes this will make it the number one airline in Europe. Ultimately I’d say these changes are evolutionary and not revolutionary. I actually just flew Lufthansa’s first class and experienced the new soft product, and walked away with a surprising conclusion. I’ll share that in a separate post shortly…

What do you make of Lufthansa’s aspirations with FOX, and the details of the soft product?

United 767 causes damage on New Jersey Turnpike

This incident happened on Sunday, May 3, 2026, and involves United Airlines flight UA169, flying from Venice (VCE) to Newark (EWR). Specifically, the flight was operated by a 23-year-old Boeing 767-400ER with the registration code N77066, and there were 231 people onboard, including 221 passengers and 10 crew.

At around 1:50PM local time, after a roughly 8hr30min flight, the aircraft was on a visual approach to Newark’s runway 29. It obviously approached too low, to the point that the plane hit both a light pole and a catering truck on the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95), just past the runway perimeter.

The point of impact was a little over 700 feet from the runway threshold. Prior to the landing, the tower advised the pilots that winds were 300 degrees at 15 knots, gusting to 31 knots, and visibility was good. So winds were on the gustier side, but not that far off from the runway heading, and not in a way that should’ve made this a particularly challenging landing.

One video is taken from inside a car, and doesn’t show a direct impact, but you can hear people cursing, obviously in disbelief at what they saw.

Another video is from inside the bakery truck that was hit by the wheel of the aircraft (the wheel reportedly crashed into the driver’s window). The video is rather graphic, but fortunately it sounds like the driver wasn’t seriously injured.

When the plane landed, pilots reported to air traffic control that they felt something when they landed near the runway threshold, and there was also confirmation that there was a hole in the side of the plane.

In a statement, the airline confirmed the incident, saying the plane landed safely and taxied to the gate under its own power, with no passengers or crew being injured. The carrier’s maintenance team is now evaluating damage to the aircraft, as well as investigating the cause.

It’s worth mentioning that United’s official statement only references that the plane “came into contact with a light pole,” and makes no mention of the truck that was hit.

The FAA is now investigating this United 767 incident

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now investigating this incident, so let’s see what comes of this. There were no reports of any issues with the aircraft prior to the “contact,” so it sounds like the plane just ended up lower than it should’ve, for whatever reason.

Newark’s runway 29 is commonly used for landings, but it’s not terribly long, at 6,725 feet in length. That’s not problematically short, but it also means that pilots are trying to make sure they don’t land too far down the runway. Furthermore, with the New Jersey Turnpike right there, it makes for some dramatic approaches.

Just a few weeks ago, video footage was uploaded of a United Boeing 777-200ER making what looked like a dangerously low approach to the same runway, to the point that a person in the car was screaming.

Incidents like what we saw just shouldn’t happen. The Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) lights were operational during the landing, which should’ve given the pilots a clear indication that they were too low. Was this an unstable approach, or how did they mess this up so badly?

While United still has a great safety record in the scheme of things, the airline does seem to have more takeoff and landing incidents than American and Delta (at least in terms of those that are widely talked about), and it’s hard to know what to make of that.

A couple of years ago, the FAA even increased oversight of United, due to a series of incidents. However, the investigation ultimately didn’t reveal any major systematic issues.

Bottom line

On Sunday, a United Boeing 767 had an eventful approach to Newark Airport, when it struck a light pole and a truck on the New Jersey Turnpike. While Newark’s runway 29 is known for some low approaches, this is obviously a major issue, and should never happen. Fortunately no one onboard the aircraft was injured, and it still landed safely. Furthermore, the driver of the truck didn’t sustain serious injuries, which is a relief.

What do you make of this strange United 767 incident?

Singapore Airlines will install Starlink as of early 2027

Singapore Airlines is partnering with SpaceX to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi on select aircraft. The free service will be available to all first and business class passengers, as well as to KrisFlyer members in premium economy and economy.

Starlink is known for its high-speed, low-latency broadband internet, and the service is offered gate to gate. Starlink Wi-Fi allows for live streaming, productivity similar to on the ground (with high upload and download speeds), gaming, e-commerce, and more. Having recently taken my first flights with Starlink, I can confirm that this is a total game changer, as I see it.

Starlink is becoming increasingly popular with airlines. So far we’ve seen carriers like Aer Lingus, airBaltic, Air France, Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Copa Airlines, Emirates, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia, Korean Air, Lufthansa Group, Qatar Airways, SAS, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and WestJet, all announce plans to install the service.

Singapore Airlines already offers free Wi-Fi throughout its entire fleet, with most planes being fitted with Panasonic’s service. Under the current system, the requirements for getting free Wi-Fi are the same as they’ll be with Starlink (so it includes all first and business class passengers, and premium economy and economy passengers who are part of the loyalty program). So switching to Starlink will enable much better speeds.

Here’s how Singapore Airlines’ SVP of Customer Experience, Yeoh Phee Teik, describes this development:

“Fast, seamless connectivity is, today, an essential part of the travel experience. Singapore Airlines already offers the world’s most comprehensive complimentary in-flight Wi-Fi across our entire fleet. Starlink will take this to the next level by delivering next-generation high-speed connectivity, enabling customers to stay entertained, connected, and productive throughout their journey, with a smoother and seamless experience from take-off to landing.”

Singapore Airlines’ disappointing Starlink Wi-Fi rollout plans

While it’s great to see Singapore Airlines introducing Starlink Wi-Fi, there are two major things that aren’t terribly impressive about this:

• Starlink will progressively be rolled out between the first quarter of 2027 and the end of 2029
• Starlink will only be rolled out on Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A350-900 long haul and ultra long haul fleet, as well as on Airbus A380 aircraft

So it’ll take nearly three years to roll out the service, and it won’t even be coming to all aircraft in the fleet. Specifically, Boeing 737 MAX 8s, 777-300ERs, and 787-10s, as well as medium haul Airbus A350-900s, won’t get the service.

Singapore Airlines has just under 150 passenger aircraft, and just over one-third of those are expected to get the service. Usually one of the selling points of Starlink is how quickly it can be rolled out, so to take nearly three years to retrofit 53 planes with the service is puzzlingly slow. You’d expect such a project to take under a year, if done efficiently.

Bottom line

Singapore Airlines has announced plans to introduce free Starlink Wi-Fi, which is great news. The catch is that installation will only happen between early 2027 and late 2029. Furthermore, only select A350s and all A380s will get Starlink, and that makes up only around one-third of the fleet.

So I’m happy to see this development, but among airlines that have announced Starlink, Singapore Airlines perhaps has the least comprehensive and expedited plans.

What do you make of Singapore Airlines’ Starlink announcement?

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has been leading the investigation, and unfortunately hasn’t been terribly transparent about the cause of what happened. Just last year, the CAAC announced it would withhold a report on the accident, saying “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.” So authorities weren’t even claiming that they don’t know, they’re just saying that they’re not going to tell us.

Well, we now have a new clue as to what might’ve happened, and it only points even more to the widely held theory that this was a deliberate act (thanks to David for flagging this).

NTSB’s investigation on China Eastern 737 crash made public

The aviation industry at large deserves huge credit for the extent to which it prioritizes safety, and tries to learn from every accident to prevent something similar from happening in the future. The main exception to this seems to be when accidents happen in countries where they’d rather save face than actually make the skies safer.

So while the CAAC hasn’t at all been transparent with its findings, we’ve just seen the most meaningful release of data on this accident to date. Earlier this year, a Freedom of Information Act (CAAC) request was filed with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about the accident, and that data is now available for download.

The widely held belief has been that this accident was a deliberate act, given that no maintenance issues were found, and planes don’t just nosedive toward the ground at cruising altitude for no reason. Here’s exactly what we’ve now learned about the sequence of events:

• Both engines were shut down almost simultaneously using the fuel cutoff switches (and on the 737, those can both be moved at once, even with one hand)
• Almost immediately thereafter, the autopilot was disconnected
• The control column was then pulled hard left and pushed forward, putting the plane into an inverted barrel roll

That order of events can only be explained as a deliberate act.

Of course the engine shutoff detail is pretty wild to consider, because in last year’s Air India Boeing 787 crash, the Dreamliner’s engines were shut off just seconds after takeoff. In the case of the Air India, there was simply no room to recover, since it happened just seconds after takeoff. In the China Eastern 737 situation, there was in theory time to recover, but when combined with putting the plane into a spin, well… that’s what sealed its fate.

The first officer of the flight remains the prime suspect

It of course sucks to speculate about a tragedy where people have lost their lives. But when the authorities responsible for investigating are actively covering up information, it’s only fair to point out some obvious possible factors.

Typically when a pilot intentionally downs a plane, there are lots of clues, at least in retrospect. Authorities in China have refused to release a whole lot of information, though there are details that are widely believed to be true.

For example, we know the captain on the flight was a 32-year-old with 6,700 flight hours, and it’s believed that he had just had a baby. He was doing great in his career.

The first officer, on the other hand, was a 59-year-old with a staggering 31,800 flight hours (this is as many hours as many pilots rack up in their entire career). Despite that, he was a first officer on a narrow body jet. Beyond that, he had reportedly been demoted from captain at some point, and had some issues with some simulator rides.

Authorities have refused to release details of who was in the cockpit at the time the engines were shut off. But this all happened shortly before the start of descent, which is the most common time during a flight for pilots to use the bathroom.

In some ways, the parallels between this and the 1999 crash of EgyptAir flight 990 are almost uncanny. That plane was also sent into a dive while at cruising altitude, with the person in the cockpit being a suspiciously experienced first officer (so much so that he was honorarily referred to as “captain”), and he was reportedly facing disciplinary action over his behavior.

Of course Egyptian authorities have also refused to acknowledge that this was an intentional act, instead insisting it was a catastrophic failure (US authorities reached a different conclusion).

Bottom line

In March 2022, a China Eastern Boeing 737 mysteriously crashed, killing all 132 people onboard. Chinese authorities have outright refused to reveal what happened, claiming that “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.”

An FOIA with the NTSB now sheds light on the cause of this tragedy. We know the fuel cutoff switches for the engines were simultaneously turned off, then the autopilot was disengaged, then the control column was pushed to send the plane into a nosedive.

I don’t think that leaves much about this situation to the imagination. And it clearly means that China believes acknowledging a pilot intentionally downing a plane would “endanger national security and social stability.” All those poor souls onboard…

“Sitting next to a baby would’ve been better”

In the United Airlines section of Reddit, a passenger shared a frustrating experience they had on a recent United inaugural flight, featuring the carrier’s all-new cabins. Here’s the post:

I was so excited to sit in the bulkhead premium plus seat of the inaugural London to San Francisco flight with the new seats, I guess travel bloggers were too.

I have always seen the videos reviewing planes and products but never realize how bad it would be to sit next to one of them. This influencer was documenting for The Points Guy, and while I thought it was cool at first, I didn’t realize this meant he would be talking nearly the entire flight. He would do take after take, call the flight attendant over, and, most egregiously, leave the windows uncovered to get better lighting. I had planned on sleeping, but was always interrupted by his loud talking and filming. I actually think sitting next to a baby would’ve been better.

I considered asking to switch seats, but really I think these influencers and travel sites should buy two seats out if they’re doing this. The crew seemed to know who he was, and what he was doing, welcoming him, and thanking him the end.

So annoying that his flight was likely comped, and I paid extra for a better seat to try to get some rest.

Anyway, just remember that all of these people documenting plane come at the cost of their neighbors! Run away if you have been misfortune of sitting next to one.

As you’d expect, the thread is getting quite the responses on Reddit, because any time that influencers are brought up, people have a lot to say. There are also plenty of people sharing their experiences flying with other influencer types.

What should the limits be on documenting inflight experiences?

As mentioned earlier, over the years we’ve certainly seen a massive increase in the number of people documenting their travel experiences. Sharing short form travel video content is almost the new version of “everyone is asking me about my skincare routine” (no they’re not).

Generally airlines have pretty simple rules about taking pictures or filming onboard. Typically the idea is that you can film and record yourself, but not others (and increasingly, we’re seeing airlines add this to their contract of carriage, and make onboard announcements reminding passengers of this).

But this of course becomes a slippery slope. It’s probably fine to film yourself if someone is just barely in the background. But what happens when you start setting up multiple cameras, and when you film for hours? It’s hard to individually say “you shouldn’t be allowed to talk” or “you shouldn’t be allowed to keep your window shade open,” or whatever. But I also understand when you combine those things, it can start to materially impact the experience of others.

And I’m not saying any of this to rag on whomever was tasked with filming these videos (I’m not sure who this is about). They work for a big VC-funded company that expects certain things from employees, and clearly a semi-professionally produced video is among them. They’re just doing their jobs.

Putting the person in the position of doing that while seated right next to other passengers isn’t exactly easy. I don’t know where the line is with what should and shouldn’t be allowed. I do think that generally once there are multiple cameras and things are starting to be affixed to the windows and fuselage, that usually ups the level of disruption, and starts to make things feel like a film studio.

Obviously this also puts the crew in a tough position. They’re probably told to support the filming and recording as much as possible, and at the same time, how are they supposed to balance that with the comfort of other passengers?

Bottom line

A United Airlines passenger traveling on the carrier’s first flight from London to San Francisco with new cabins ended up in premium economy next to an influencer. He found the entire thing to be very disruptive, between there being multiple cameras, constant talking, etc.

This obviously isn’t about any one person, but it does raise the general question of what level of filming should be allowed in a cabin. On the surface, it’s reasonable to let people document themselves on a plane, but should there be limits? I don’t have the answer, but I find it to be a fair discussion to have.

Where do you stand on this?

No matter how competitive airlines are with one another, the entire industry comes together in difficult times, and here’s the prime example of that…

Retiring Spirit captain gets water cannon salute, party

There’s no point in paraphrasing here, so let me just share the story that Southwest Airlines published on its Facebook page yesterday:

Today was supposed to be Capt. Jon Jackson’s retirement flight with Spirit Airlines. After the airline’s sudden shutdown, he found himself heading home as a passenger, seated in the back of a Southwest flight with his son, Chris, a Southwest First Officer.

Chris casually mentioned to the flight’s Pilots that this would have been his dad’s retirement flight. They seized the opportunity to change the course of the day for Capt. Jackson. They alerted Dylan, a Southwest Dispatcher, setting into motion a plan that resulted in a proper retirement party when the flight landed in Baltimore. The Baltimore Airport Fire & Rescue met the aircraft with a traditional water cannon salute, and the Baltimore Ground Operations Team was waiting at the gate to welcome him with cheers and bottle of bubbly.

It was a powerful reminder of the aviation community’s ability to show respect, compassion, and solidarity when it matters most. Above all, this moment was about honoring a fellow aviator. Congratulations, and thank you for your service in the skies, Capt. Jackson.

Beautifully written, Southwest, and well done to all involved who made this so special for the pilot.

Spirit captain makes emotional final announcement

While we’re on the topic of Spirit captains during their final hours working for the company, a video is also circulating online about an announcement made by a Spirit captain who was operating one of the carrier’s last flights. As you can tell, he had nothing but positive things to say, and this can’t help but tug at your heartstrings.

Bottom line

Say what you will about Spirit’s customers, but the company always had a really great culture among employees, and most people working there really seemed to enjoy the company. It’s nice to see these employees getting the respect they deserve.

While I suspect the captain who missed his retirement flight won’t be operating any more commercial aircraft (for obvious reasons), I hope other Spirit employees can find new careers ASAP.

British Airways’ Chicago O’Hare ground taxi pilot job

British Airways currently has a job opening for the position of “ground taxi pilot,” to be based at Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD), with a base salary in the range of $90K-100K per year. Here’s how it’s described:

The role:

B777 & B787 taxi pilot

You will operate as Pilot in Command or Second Pilot during ground taxi operations at Chicago O’Hare Airport

What you’ll do:

You’ll play a critical role in helping achieve On Time Performance by safely ground taxiing British Airways Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft between terminals at Chicago O’hare airport.

What you’ll bring to British Airways:

You’ll be an experienced Airline Transport Pilot (or former Airline Transport Pilot) with a solid track record of safety and a high degree of familiarity with procedures at Chicago O’Hare airport. You will operate diligently with an uncompromising regard for safety and security at all times.

Your experience:

You will have recent experience of operating the Boeing 777 or 787 as Captain or First Officer and a willingness to learn and adapt to the British Airways Standard Operating Procedures.

You must have employment authorisation to work in the United States.

I’m sure many people are thinking “wait, why does British Airways need to hire pilots to taxi planes at Chicago O’Hare?” Well, British Airways operates up to three daily flights at the airport, and there’s a bit of a quirk to the service.

The aircraft arrives at Terminal 5 (the terminal for all international arrivals), but then departs from Terminal 3 (which is primarily occupied by American). So the one crew clocks out after passengers disembark from Terminal 5, and another crew clocks in before passengers board from Terminal 3. That leaves the issue of getting the plane between the two terminals, given crew duty hour limits, etc.

What a unique and confusing “pilot” position

Keep in mind that American and United also need to get their planes out of Terminal 5 at Chicago O’Hare, though it’s my understanding that the actual taxiing of planes can be done by some specialized ground tech ops employees, and not actual pilots (or is my understanding incorrect?).

So does anyone know what’s going on here? Is the airline erring on the side of caution (as it views it), and trying to hire as experienced of a person for the role as possible? Is there some union rule that requires this to go to a pilot? Or what’s the logic here?

Some people might be surprised to learn that tugs typically aren’t used to get planes between the terminals. The reason (as I understand it) is that they’re slower, and given the maze of taxiways at O’Hare, it’s more efficient and safer to just taxi planes under their own engine power.

I do wonder how easily British Airways will find a recent 777 or 787 pilot to accept a role where they never actually fly, but instead, use their experience for a few minutes per day of taxiing.

I have to imagine most people who are passing all their medicals, not at retirement age, etc., would actually want to be flying planes, racking up hours, and making more money. But I suppose if you’re recently retired, didn’t pass a medical, etc., this could be an interesting role.

Bottom line

British Airways is looking to hire a 777 or 787 pilot. Not to be based in London and to fly around the globe, but to be based in Chicago, and to taxi for a few minutes per day. It’s an unusual role, for sure, and I’m curious what kind of a candidate ends up applying.

What do you make of this “ground taxi pilot” job, and does anyone have the background for why this is necessary?

Delta canceling lots of flights on Friday & Saturday

Delta is having some issues with operational reliability at the moment. Yesterday, Friday, May 1, 2026:

• Delta canceled 157 flights (4% of schedule) and delayed 631 flights (17% of schedule)
• United canceled 24 flights (0% of schedule) and delayed 815 flights (26% of schedule)
• American had a great day, and had no real issues

Today, Saturday, May 2, 2026, things are looking worse for Delta. As of 4PM ET:

• Delta canceled 204 flights (6% of schedule) and delayed 363 flights (11% of schedule)
• United canceled nine flights (0% of schedule) and delayed 268 flights (9% of schedule)
• American canceled four flights (0% of schedule) and delayed 470 flights (13% of schedule)

Just for reference, Spirit canceled 277 flights today (it ceased operations), so by the time the day is over, Delta might almost be caught up with Spirit when it comes to the number of cancellations.

It’s of course worth acknowledging that United saw a fair number of delays, but that’s not nearly as bad as cancellations. After all, a delayed flight is simply one that arrives at the gate 15 or more minutes late, and that’s pretty common.

What’s causing Delta’s operational issues?

Airlines do everything they can to avoid canceling flights, especially since it counts against them when it comes to Department of Transportation (DOT) statistics. Delta especially tries to avoid canceling flights, as the airline loves to brag about how operationally reliable it is.

But now Delta has canceled close to 400 flights across two days, with seemingly no major weather issues. And as you can see, the airline is canceling 4-6% of its schedule when competitors cancel 0% of their schedules.

What do we know about the cause of this? JonNYC reports that the reason for most of these cancellations is “crew restrictions,” which is of course vague. But obviously there aren’t sufficient crew to operate all scheduled flights.

In recent times, Delta has had some worse operational issues than competitors, even in situations where weather can’t be blamed. The airline has also generally taken longer to recover from meltdowns than other airlines.

Several months ago, I wrote about how Delta’s pilot scheduling software majorly hurts the airline when things go wrong, and one can’t help but wonder if that’s also what’s at play here. No matter how you slice it, this is pretty embarrassing for “the on-time machine,” as Delta likes to call itself.

While not directly related, JonNYC also points out how the Department of Transportation (DOT) has just published cancellation statistics for January 2026 (this always comes with a delay), and Delta ranked six of major nine airlines. That’s not exactly industry leading performance.

Bottom line

Delta isn’t doing so well when it comes to operational reliability, as the airline canceled 4% of its schedule yesterday, and 6% of its schedule so far today (and counting), despite no major weather issues, and despite competitors canceling 0% of their flights.

This seems to be due to “crew restrictions,” though we don’t know anything beyond that. There’s no denying that Delta has lost its touch when it comes to leading the industry with operational performance. Hopefully the airline does something to improve this. Though at least publicly, it seems management just wants to pretend everything is still perfect?

What do you make of Delta’s operational issues?

China Eastern A350 badly damaged at Shanghai Airport

This incident happened today (around 11:40AM local time on Saturday, May 2, 2026) at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA). It involves a five-year-old China Eastern Airbus A350-900 with the registration code B-324W, which had just completed flight MU5406, the 1,033-mile domestic journey from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU).

There’s video footage of this incident from many angles, down to a video of the flight attendants in the jump seat looking at the tail camera above them, confused by what’s going on. While the plane was pulling into the gate, it appears that it just couldn’t stop, causing the left engine and wing to hit the jet bridge.

However, rather than stopping, the plane then backed up with the reverse thrusters deployed, only to then ram into the jet bridge again. This looks like something straight out of a video game.

What could possibly explain this bizarre accident?

I think it’s safe to assume that something malfunctioned here, because suffice it to say, this isn’t how your typical gate arrival looks.

One would think that there was some sort of a brake failure, or something, or else the pilots would’ve… well, not done whatever that was. The fact that they then used reverse thrust further supports that theory, as one would assume they felt that was the only option to prevent the plane from moving forward more.

But I guess after using enough reverse thrust they put the plane back into idle, and then it moved forward again? It’s really the re-ramming of the jet bridge that’s the biggest mystery here.

It’s way too early to know where the blame falls here, and it’s also entirely possible that the pilots deserve credit for preventing a worse outcome, like crashing into the terminal (which could’ve been much more serious).

Reports suggest that the plane ultimately came to a stop by the pilots just cutting the engines, so one wonders why that wasn’t done earlier, and just how sudden any possible brake failure was. Anyway, yowzers. It appears that all passengers onboard were uninjured, and hopefully anyone who may have been in the jet bridge didn’t sustain significant injuries either.

Bottom line

A China Eastern Airbus A350 sustained major damage today while pulling into its gate at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. For whatever reason, the plane couldn’t come to a stop, so its left engine and wing rammed the jet bridge. The pilots then immediately used reverse thrust to back up the plane, only to then collide with the jet bridge again.

What do you make of this strange accident?

Along those lines, JetBlue is wasting no time adjusting its route network, in order to fill the void left by Spirit, and hopefully improve its own economics.

JetBlue’s crew base resizing gives us a sense of its plans

JonNYC shares how JetBlue has internally revealed plans to resize its flight attendant bases, just hours after Spirit ceased operations. As the airline describes it, it’s taking steps to better align staffing with where flying actually is.

With this, the airline is understandably assigning new hire flight attendants to the bases with the highest demand. The airline is also exploring ways to voluntarily encourage flight attendants to move between bases. The airline also isn’t ruling out forced base movements, but only if other options are exhausted.

JetBlue hasn’t exactly been growing in recent times, so any additions in flying will need to come at the expense of existing flying. That’s why JetBlue’s planned base changes are pretty revealing.

JetBlue has three understaffed bases:

• It wants to grow its Fort Lauderdale (FLL) base by 100%, and it currently has 682 flight attendants
• It wants to grow its San Juan (SJU) base by 100%, and it currently has 228 flight attendants
• It wants to grow its Boston (BOS) base by 10%, and it currently has 1,245 flight attendants

Meanwhile JetBlue has four overstaffed bases:

• It wants to shrink its Orlando (MCO) base by 30%, and it currently has 1,106 flight attendants
• It wants to shrink its Newark (EWR) base by 30%, and it currently has 292 flight attendants
• It wants to shrink its Los Angeles (LAX) base by 30%, and it currently has 265 flight attendants
• It wants to shrink its New York (JFK) base by 10%, and it currently has 2,748 flight attendants

Let me of course emphasize that size of crew bases doesn’t necessarily directly correlate to the amount of flying that will happen. Over time, some bases naturally become overstaffed and understaffed, and there’s more that goes into deciding on crew bases than just the number of nonstop flights from an airport.

How will the competitive dynamics play out in Fort Lauderdale?

Fort Lauderdale was Spirit’s biggest base, so I think it’s the airport that’s going to be most interesting to watch in the coming days and weeks. Here’s a (rough) breakdown of the market share at the airport in 2025:

• Spirit had roughly 30% market share
• JetBlue had roughly 20% market share
• Delta had roughly 15% market share
• Southwest had roughly 12% market share
• United had roughly 9% market share

It has been decades since we’ve seen an airline in the United States just liquidate this way overnight, so I’m curious to see how this situation plays out in Fort Lauderdale. The airport isn’t slot controlled, so instead, it’s just about gate real estate.

Will gates be temporarily allocated to any airline that will add service there, or how do long term gate allocations work in this situation? Do airlines have to submit proposals, and then the airport decides, or…?

As I see it, there are probably two airlines that would be most interested in a significant expansion in Fort Lauderdale:

• JetBlue has a lot to gain in Fort Lauderdale, because its other two hubs are ones where it’s in a second place spot, behind Delta, so being the number one airline at a major airport would be useful (then again, it didn’t exactly serve Spirit that well, given its demise)
• United has long expressed interest in setting up a hub in Florida, and this seems like as good of an opportunity as it’ll get, in terms of getting lots of gates at once; I also have to imagine United CEO Scott Kirby would delight in setting up a base so close to American, given his disdain for the airline (though South Florida is a market where United will have to settle for second place)
• We know that JetBlue and United partner, and there have of course long been rumors of some possible consolidation, so if you combine the presence of JetBlue and Spirit at the airport, we’re looking at around 50% market share, and if you add in United that’s 60% market share, so that could turn into close to a fortress hub overnight

I’d say the cruelest outcome for JetBlue would be if Delta expands its market share there significantly, and makes JetBlue the second place airline in all three of its hubs. But I can’t imagine Delta has that much interest in expanding there (or who knows, maybe it does).

Of course some people will point out “well Spirit was hemorrhaging money, so why would someone want to expand there so much?” Well, with Spirit gone, airlines will have a bit more pricing power there, without having to compete quite so fiercely on price.

Bottom line

With Spirit Airlines ceasing operations, this leaves a huge gap in Fort Lauderdale, where the airline had roughly 30% market share. JetBlue is wasting no time making it clear it wants to grow there, with plans to double its crew base (which doesn’t necessarily mean there will be twice as many flights).

I don’t know how this is going to play out, but it’s going to be fascinating to see. I have to imagine JetBlue isn’t the only airline that might want to grow in Fort Lauderdale, so let’s see what happens…

How do you see the competitive landscape playing out in Fort Lauderdale?

However, this time around I wrote almost nothing about the trip while I was on it (aside from a couple of rants about Royal Jordanian), while now I can share the full trip report shortly after returning home. This actually ended up being a two-part trip, with the first part being with Ford, and the second part being with my dad, as I sort of planned this trip as it evolved. Let me explain.

Why I took this trip

Ford and I try to plan a trip around each of our birthdays every year, not because we actually care about out birthdays, but just because it’s an opportunity to plan something in advance that we might not otherwise do.

This year we decided to go to Thailand for my birthday. Ford hadn’t been in Southeast Asia since before the pandemic (though we have visited Japan several times), and had also never visited Thailand. So we figured this was as good of a time as any to plan such a trip, especially with the hotel market constantly reaching new heights (and it still represents a relatively good value).

While we left our sons with family, we didn’t both want to be gone from home for too long, so I flew out first so I could check out a couple of hotels that have been on my radar, and then Ford joined me for our visit to Bangkok and Chiang Rai.

After that, Ford returned straight home (to be with our kids), while at the very last minute I decided to route through Germany, so I could also spend a little quality time with my dad. That’s kind of just how award availability worked out at the last minute. So my dad was (pleasantly) surprised when I called him and asked if he wanted to meet me in Germany the following day.

You can find the routing that I flew in the end below, as it covered eight segments and 22,928 miles.

The airlines I flew on this trip

Let me share the exact itinerary that I booked, including sharing how much I paid. I’ll be sharing it in the chronological order in which I traveled, which roughly lines up with the order in which I booked things.

To kick off the trip, I flew flew Qatar Airways’ Airbus A350-1000 Qsuites business class from Miami (MIA) to Doha (DOH), and then Qatar Airways’ Boeing 777-300ER Qsuites business class to Bangkok (BKK). I booked the following for 95,000 Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios plus $298.10 in taxes & fees:

4/14 QR778 Miami to Doha departing 7:40PM arriving 5:50PM (+1 day)
4/16 QR836 Doha to Bangkok departing 3:30AM arriving 2:15PM

You of course can’t beat that value, and while some might say “great, another Qatar Airways review,” I actually hadn’t reviewed Qatar Airways Qsuites on the A350 since 2019, and a lot has changed since then, including the rollout of Starlink, so I thought it was time for an updated review.

Then we had to travel roundtrip between Bangkok (BKK) and Chiang Rai (CEI), and we ended up flying Thai Airways’ brand new Airbus A321neo business class in one direction, and the carrier’s recently retrofitted Airbus A320 in the other direction. We booked the following in business class for $330.24 in business class (that was about $50 more each direction than economy, at the time we were booking):

4/21 TG132 Bangkok to Chiang Rai departing 11:35AM arriving 1:10PM
4/25 TG131 Chiang Rai to Bangkok departing 10:10AM arriving 11:40AM

Next up, I decided to fly to Germany, so I flew Royal Jordanian’s Boeing 787-8 business class from Bangkok (BKK) to Amman (AMM), and Royal Jordanian’s E190-E2 business class to Frankfurt (FRA). I booked the following for 75,000 American AAdvantage miles plus $80.40 in taxes & fees:

4/26 RJ183 Bangkok to Amman departing 11:00PM arriving 4:40AM (+1 day)
4/26 RJ125 Amman to Frankfurt departing 10:25AM arriving 2:45PM

Lastly, to finish off the trip, I flew Lufthansa’s Airbus A340-600 first class from Frankfurt (FRA) to New York (JFK). I booked the following for 90,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points plus $219.35 in taxes & fees:

5/02 LH400 Frankfurt to New York departing 10:55AM arriving 1:35PM

While my goal was to fly SWISS Senses first class, that didn’t work out. The good news about flying Lufthansa first class is that I could experience the carrier’s brand new “FOX” soft product, which only recently launched. That ended up being a good experience.

In addition to flight reviews, you can expect reviews of the following lounges:

• British Airways Lounge Miami (MIA)
• American Flagship Lounge Miami (MIA)
• Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman (AMM)
• Plaza Premium Lounge Amman (AMM)
• Lufthansa First Class Lounge Frankfurt (FRA)
• Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt (FRA)

I know some people may have questions or be skeptical of my decision to travel through the Middle East on this itinerary. I’m happy to write a separate post about how I thought through that decision, but it’s not something I did without thought (though I realize some people may arrive at a different conclusion than I did). And for what it’s worth, Ford and I flew separately, because in the event one of us did get stuck, we didn’t want it to happen to both of us.

The hotels I stayed at on this trip

This trip included quite a few hotel stays, in both Thailand and in Germany. In Thailand, we stayed at five different hotels, while in Germany, we stayed at two hotels.

Bangkok is known for being one of the most competitive and best value luxury hotel markets out there, and in particular, the bar has been raised a lot in recent times. Over the years, I’ve only reviewed the points properties in Bangkok, ranging from the Park Hyatt, to the Ritz-Carlton, to the Waldorf Astoria.

This time around, I decided to check out the top end of the market, while getting a value that I think many will appreciate:

• I first spent a night at the Rosewood Bangkok, which only cost around $300 (and I booked using my Amex Platinum $300 hotel credit, so I paid almost nothing out of pocket for my stay, plus received all kinds of FHR perks)
• I then spent a night at the Capella Bangkok; after my recent stay at the Capella Taipei, I became a huge fan of the brand, and couldn’t help but check out this hotel, especially given that on The World’s 50 Best Hotels list, it took the number one spot in 2024, and the number three spot in 2025
• Then I met up with Ford and we spent a few nights at the Four Seasons Bangkok, which is actually in the same complex as the Capella; this hotel took the number two spot on The World’s 50 Best Hotels list for 2025
• Then on the return we had one more night in Bangkok, and decided to stay at the Aman Bangkok, the newest addition to the city’s luxury hotel portfolio, as I was curious how it compared to the existing top options

Our other destination in Thailand was the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle. This was my first time in the Chiang Rai area, and we had an incredible time.

I also can’t wait to share the story of what’s possibly the most interesting and unexpected day trip I’ve ever taken from a hotel in my life. We couldn’t help but be fascinated the second we saw a certain something from the Mekong River, and eventually we talked the hotel into taking us there, even though apparently nobody has made such a request in years. Bonus points to anyone who can guess what it is. 😉

In Germany, my dad and I were initially going to get more creative with where we’d go, but the Frankfurt area just had the most uncharacteristically beautiful late April weather imaginable, which is such a rare treat, so we decided to just stay in the area.

Specifically, we checked out two relatively new Hyatt properties in the area, which have been on my radar. First we stayed at Kennedy 89 Frankfurt, Hyatt Unbound Collection, a new Hyatt property that I’ve been particularly excited about.

Then we also spent a couple of night at Brunfels Hotel Mainz, Hyatt Unbound Collection, another Hyatt property that opened within the past couple of years (it was previously a Hilton, but underwent a full refresh).

I can’t wait to report back on all these experiences, as we had some really lovely hotel stays.

Bottom line

I recently wrapped up a great trip to Thailand and Germany. This included flights on Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, and Lufthansa, with products both old and new. Beyond that, I stayed at some pretty cool hotels, especially in Thailand, but also Hyatt affiliated ones in Germany.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading, as I’ll be publishing this trip report over the coming weeks!

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card is one of the most popular premium credit cards on the market. If this is a card that has been on your radar, this is the ideal time to apply, given the welcome offer that’s currently available. I’d argue that picking up this card is a no-brainer, if eligible.

In this post, I’d like to take an in-depth look at the Chase Sapphire Reserve. If you’re willing to put in the effort, this card can absolutely be worth it in the long run, especially if you value airport lounge access.

Chase Sapphire Reserve bonus & fee basics

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is a card that has it all — a great welcome bonus, excellent perks, a rewarding points structure, valuable lounge access, and much more. The Chase Sapphire Reserve was built on the fundamentals of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), so is the higher annual fee of the Sapphire Reserve warranted? Let’s start with the basics, like the welcome bonus and annual fee.

Limited time welcome offer of 150K bonus points

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is offering a welcome bonus of 150,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $6,000 within the first three months. This is a fantastic welcome offer, the best we’ve ever seen on the card.

Personally, I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, so to me, the points are worth $2,550. That’s massive, and a huge incentive to pick up this card.

Card bonus eligibility restrictions & credit score tips

Officially, here are the restrictions when it comes to applying for the Chase Sapphire Reserve:

This credit card is unavailable to you if you currently have one open. The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you previously held this card or received a new cardmember bonus for this card. We may also consider the number of cards you have opened and closed in determining your bonus eligibility.

We’ve seen Chase tweak bonus eligibility rules over time, and under the current rules, the card essentially follows a “once in a lifetime” rule for the bonus on this card specifically.

That means you likely won’t be eligible for the bonus on this card if you currently have it, or if you have had it in the past. However, eligibility for this card (including the bonus) is unrelated to whether you have or have had the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review), etc.

Chase now uses a pop-up feature during the application process, which should let you know if you’re not eligible for the bonus on a card (this appears after submitting your application), before there’s a hard pull on your credit.

It’s also worth being aware that Chase will often let you product change from one card to another, assuming you’ve had a card for at least 12 months. For example, if you apply for the Sapphire Reserve, you could later downgrade it to the Sapphire Preferred. Just keep in mind you wouldn’t be eligible for the bonus on a card if you get it through a product change.

What kind of a credit score do you need to get approved for the Chase Sapphire Reserve? Credit card issuers don’t publish a minimum credit score required to be approved for a card, though in general, I’d recommend having an excellent credit score to be approved for the card. I wouldn’t apply for the Sapphire Reserve if my credit score were under 700, and ideally, it would be over 740.

It’s possible to get approved with a lower score, and it’s also possible to be denied with a higher score. There are many factors that go into card approval, including your income, your existing relationship with Chase, and more.

$795 annual fee & $195 authorized user fee

The Sapphire Reserve has a $795 annual fee. Among the super-premium credit cards out there, this is at the high end of the fees, given that the card was recently refreshed. The good news is that the card offers all kinds of benefits that should help cardmembers offset that fee.

You can add authorized users to the Sapphire Reserve, and there’s a $195 fee per person. Some people will find this to be worthwhile — not only do authorized users get all the increased points earning rates, but they get a Priority Pass™ Select membership, access to Chase Sapphire Lounges, access to select Air Canada Lounges, etc.

Chase Sapphire Reserve points earning structure

The Chase Sapphire Reserve has a very lucrative points earning structure, thanks to some well-rounded bonus categories. When picking a credit card, I always recommend getting one that has bonus categories that match up with your spending profile. Some cards offer bonus points on dining, gas stations, supermarkets, etc., so pick the card that works best for you.

8x points on Chase Travel portal bookings

The Sapphire Reserve offers 8x points on all purchases through Chase Travel℠, which is Chase’s travel portal. This includes spending on flights, hotels, rental cars, and more. While there’s sometimes an opportunity cost to booking this way, I’d consider this to be pretty awesome, since earning 8x points on flight bookings is industry leading.

Since I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, to me that’s the equivalent of a 13.6% return on travel spending, but only through Chase Travel. I’d consider that to be pretty enticing.

5x points on Lyft rides

Chase and Lyft have a partnership, and with this, the Sapphire Reserve earns 5x points on Lyft rides, valid through September 30, 2027. To me, that’s the equivalent of an 8.5% return on Lyft spending, making this one of the best cards for rideshare spending.

4x points on direct flight & hotel bookings

The Sapphire Reserve offers 4x points on flights and hotels that are booked direct. That means if you book a flight directly with an airline or a hotel stay directly with a hotel (rather than through an online travel agency), you get an excellent return on that spending.

Based on my valuation of points, that’s the equivalent of a 6.8% return on that spending. That makes this among the best cards for airfare and hotel spending.

3x points on dining

The Sapphire Reserve offers 3x points on dining purchases globally. Chase’s dining category is pretty broad, and includes everything from sit-down restaurants, to fast food. While there are other competitive cards for dining, this is a solid bonus for this spending, as I value this at a 5.1% return.

No foreign transaction fees

The Sapphire Reserve has no foreign transaction fees, so this is an excellent card to use for purchases globally, since you can earn valuable rewards while not being stuck with those fees, which are sometimes 3%.

Best of all, I find that a large percentage of my purchases abroad are in the categories of dining, hotels, and airfare, so I can avoid foreign transaction fees while also maximizing points — that’s the best of both worlds!

$75,000 annual spending bonus benefits

If you spend $75,000 per calendar year on the Sapphire Reserve, you receive a slew of extra benefits, including the following:

• IHG One Rewards Diamond status, which is IHG’s top tier status, offering perks like complimentary breakfast, room upgrades, and more
• Southwest Rapid Rewards A-List status, offering perks ranging from priority seating to free checked bags
• A $500 Southwest credit, for flights booked via Chase Travel
• A $250 Shops at Chase credit, valid for purchases with select brands, including Baccarat, Bang & Olufsen, Breitling, Tumi, and more

Everyone will value these perks differently, but I’d say this has the potential to factor nicely into the overall value proposition of spending on the card.

Chase Sapphire Reserve points redemption options

The Chase Sapphire Reserve earns Ultimate Rewards points, which I find to be one of the most valuable flexible points currencies. Not only that, but having the Sapphire Reserve means that you can potentially redeem your points for more than you could if you had other cards. As I’ll explain below, there are a couple of ways that you can most efficiently redeem your Ultimate Rewards points.

Transfer points to airline & hotel partners

My favorite way to redeem Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to one of the Chase Ultimate Rewards airline or hotel partners. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio, and this is a great option if you want to book aspirational travel, like staying at a five star hotel or redeeming for first or business class travel.

Just make sure you study up on this, and learn the tips & tricks of maximizing points. Below are the Ultimate Rewards transfer partners.

Redeem points for up to 2.5 cents each toward travel

You can also redeem Ultimate Rewards points through Chase’s website, for everything from gift cards, to flight and hotel redemptions. Typically, Ultimate Rewards points will get you a minimum of one cent per point of value toward travel redemptions, though thanks to the Points Boost feature, you can sometimes get more value with points than that.

For example, if you have the Sapphire Reserve, you can redeem points for up to 2.5 cents each toward select The Edit by Chase Travel luxury hotel bookings, and also at an improved rates toward airfare on select airlines. The exact value you get is constantly changing, and it’s extremely rare to find redemptions of 2.0 cents per point or more. So they’re worth looking for, but I don’t consider this to something you can really rely on.

Chase Sapphire Reserve lounge access perks

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers excellent airport lounge access perks, and this is something that has become even more valuable in recent times, as Chase has continued to invest in its network of airport lounges. This could be a great reason to not only pick up the card, but also to add authorized users to the card, since they get the same lounge access perks.

Priority Pass™ Select membership

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a Priority Pass™ Select membership, which gets you access to the world’s largest collection of independent lounges. Best of all, this membership allows you to take two guests with you at no additional cost.

Priority Pass has 1,300+ airport lounges around the world, so access to these lounges will prove useful to just about any traveler.

Chase Sapphire Lounge access

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers Chase Sapphire Lounge access. These lounges are exceptional, among the best credit card lounges out there, and among the best in the United States. While the lounges in the United States can be accessed once annually for all Priority Pass members, those with a Priority Pass™ Select membership through the Chase Sapphire Reserve receive unlimited visits annually, with the ability to bring two guests.

This network of lounges is a huge reason to consider picking up this card, as these lounges really are a treat, especially the ones at Boston Logan, New York LaGuardia, and Philadelphia.

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge access

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers Air Canada Lounge access. This is valid at select Air Canada Lounge locations, and you must be traveling Air Canada or a Star Alliance partner airline in order to get lounge access.

Note that for Air Canada Lounges, one complimentary guest is allowed, and then additional guests can be brought in for an extra fee. It’s pretty awesome to get access to Air Canada’s airport lounge facilities without otherwise having a membership, since there’s not another US-issued card that offers this.

Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits & credits

What really sets the Chase Sapphire Reserve apart is the incredible benefits that it offers, including lots of credits. While the card has a steep annual fee, it potentially offers thousands of dollars in annual value from its benefits.

Many people should be able to come out ahead on the annual fee with these credits and other perks. At a minimum, they should help massively offset the annual fee, making holding onto the card more justifiable, so that you can maximize the return on spending and lounge access, among other things. Let’s go over all the details.

Up to $500 annual The Edit by Chase hotel credit

The Sapphire Reserve offers up to $500 in annual hotel credits. This benefit is specifically valid for hotel bookings with The Edit by Chase Travel, which is Chase’s collection of luxury hotels, where cardmembers can receive extra perks when booking through the program. In order to take advantage of this credit, cardmembers need to book a stay of a minimum of two nights, with the “pay now” feature.

The way this works, you can receive a $250 credit up to twice per calendar year, based on eligible bookings. Personally, I wouldn’t value this credit at close to face value, since many hotels belonging to the portfolio are quite expensive. That’s not to say that people won’t get use from this benefit, but I just wouldn’t factor this into the math on the card too much.

Up to $300 annual travel credit

The Sapphire Reserve offers up to $300 in annual travel credits. While quite a few credit cards offer travel credits, there are typically lots of strings attached. That’s not the case with this credit, which couldn’t be easier to use.

There’s no registration required, and any purchases that are coded as travel will be reimbursed automatically. This could include flights, rideshares, taxis, train tickets, hotels, and more. You don’t have to use the entire credit in one transaction, but rather, can use it across as many transactions as are needed.

Note that this benefit is based on the anniversary year rather than the calendar year, and you can track your progress with using this benefit on Chase’s website or app. Since I consider this to basically be good as cash, I tend to think this lowers the card’s out of pocket by around $300.

Up to $300 annual dining credit

The Sapphire Reserve offers up to $300 in annual dining credits. This benefit is valid at a limited number of restaurants in major cities, and you can find a full list here.

This credit is semi-annual, meaning you can get a $150 credit in January through June, and a $150 credit in July through December. Admittedly the list of eligible restaurants is quite small. Personally, I value this at close to face value, since some of my favorite restaurants in Miami are on the list, while others will probably struggle to maximize this perk.

Up to $300 annual Stubhub & viagogo credit

The Sapphire Reserve offers up to $300 in annual entertainment credits. This benefit is valid for the purchase of concert and event tickets with Stubhub and viagogo.

This credit is semi-annual, meaning you can get a $150 credit in January through June, and a $150 credit in July through December. Note that this benefit is currently valid through December 31, 2027.

Up to $300 annual DoorDash credit & DashPass

The Sapphire Reserve offers benefits with DoorDash. For one, you receive a complimentary DashPass membership, valid for at least one year, if you activate by December 31, 2027. This is a value of up to $120 per year.

With DashPass, you pay a $0 delivery fee when ordering from thousands of restaurants and grocery stores nationwide. Certain minimums apply in order to get the $0 delivery fee. You also receive reduced service fees.

On top of that, the card offers up to $300 in DoorDash credits each year, in the form of up to $25 in monthly credits. However, this is broken down quite a bit — it includes a $5 monthly promo credit to spend on restaurant orders, and two $10 promo credits to spend on groceries, retail, and more.

Personally, I wouldn’t place much value on this in terms of justifying the annual fee, but some people will certainly still save.

Up to $288 annual Apple TV+ & Apple Music benefit

The Sapphire Reserve offers benefits with Apple. Cardmembers can receive a complimentary subscription to Apple TV+ and Apple Music, through June 22, 2027. This benefit is a value of up to $288 per year. So if you’d otherwise pay for that, it’s a pretty substantial savings amount.

Up to $250 one-time Chase Travel Hotels credit

In addition to the up to $500 annual hotel credit with The Edit by Chase Travel, the Sapphire Reserve also offers up to $250 in hotel credits on a one-time basis. This is specifically valid through December 31, 2026, when booking select hotels through Chase Travel Hotels.

Specifically, it works for prepaid Chase Travel hotel bookings for stays with IHG Hotels & Resorts, Montage Hotels & Resorts, Pendry Hotels & Resorts, Omni Hotels & Resorts, Virgin Hotels, Minor Hotels, and Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, with a two night minimum stay required. While this isn’t an ongoing perk, it sure can add quite a bit of one-time value.

Up to $120 annual Lyft credit

In addition to 5x points on Lyft rides, the Sapphire Reserve also offers up to $120 in annual Lyft credits. This credit is monthly, meaning you receive a $10 credit each month. This can be applied toward Lyft rides for Standard, Extra Comfort, XL, Black, or Black SUV ride modes. This benefit is currently valid through September 30, 2027.

Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck credit

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck credit once every four years. Just charge the membership fee to your card, and it will automatically be reimbursed. It doesn’t matter who the fee is being paid for, as long as you charge it to your eligible card.

Primary rental car coverage

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers primary collision damage waiver coverage against damage up to the cost of most rental car vehicles provided you decline the CDW coverage offered by the rental agency. This includes economy through luxury class vehicles, vans that carry fewer than seven passengers, and SUVs. You’ll want to check your cardmember agreement for full details.

Valuable travel & purchase coverage

The Sapphire Reserve is a Visa Infinite Card, so comes with all kinds of great travel and purchase protection.

What’s especially awesome is that you earn bonus points for many travel purchases with the card, so you can put your travel purchases on this card, and then automatically be covered with the benefits. Airline mileage award tickets qualify for this benefit as well, assuming you put the taxes on the Sapphire Reserve.

Below are the basic details of the coverage, though you’ll want to consult the cardmember agreement for all the details.

Is the Chase Sapphire Reserve worth it?

The Chase Sapphire Reserve has become an extremely popular card over the years. Admittedly the product recently underwent a refresh, so people will feel differently about the card than before — some people find it more valuable than in the past, while others don’t.

Personally, I find this card to be easy to justify. Here’s how I generally approach the math on the card:

• While the $795 annual fee is steep, I consider the $300 annual travel credit to basically be worth face value, lowering the real out of pocket on this card to $495 per year
• Then there are the hundreds in extra credits, which people will value differently; for me, the $300 dining credit is good as cash, while I get big value from some of the other credits, but don’t necessarily factor them into the math
• The card offers exceptional lounge access, including a Priority Pass™ Select membership, Chase Sapphire Lounge access, Air Canada Lounge access, and more
• The card has a great rewards structure, particularly earning 8x points on Chase Travel purchases, 4x points on direct airline and hotel bookings, and 3x points on dining
• The card also offers amazing travel coverage and rental car protection, which is a perk that any frequent traveler should have

Personally, I think the math on the card checks out nicely, at least in my situation. That being said, if you can’t stomach the annual fee, I think the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a useful alternative, and I think for some cardmembers that could make more sense.

Consider the Chase Freedom Unlimited as well

If you have the Sapphire Reserve, then you should also consider getting the no annual fee Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review). Why? Because the Chase Freedom Unlimited offers points that can be pooled with the Sapphire Reserve, and it offers 1.5x points on all purchases.

The best strategy is to have both cards and put spending eligible for bonus categories on the Sapphire Reserve (where you earn 3-8x points), and all your other spending on the Freedom Unlimited (where you earn 1.5x points, rather than 1x points). To me, that’s among the best credit card duos out there.

Showdown: Sapphire Preferred vs. Sapphire Reserve

The Sapphire Reserve is the evolution of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), so which of the two cards is better? Here’s a comparison of a few factors:

• Welcome bonus — the Sapphire Preferred has a welcome bonus of 75,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 within three months, while the Sapphire Reserve has a welcome bonus of 150,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 within three months
• Annual fee — the Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee, while the Sapphire Reserve has a $795 annual fee
• Points earning — the Sapphire Preferred offers 3x points on dining, online grocery purchases, and select streaming services, 2x points on travel, and 10% anniversary points bonus, while the Sapphire Reserve offers 8x points on Chase Travel, 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly, and 3x points on dining
• Other perks — the cards have some overlap in terms of benefits, though the Sapphire Reserve has the edge of offering a bunch of benefits, including up to $500 in annual hotel credits, up to $300 in annual travel credits, up to $300 in annual dining credits, a Priority Pass™ Select membership, access to Chase Sapphire Lounges, a TSA PreCheck, NEXUS, or Global Entry fee credit every four years, Visa Infinite perks, and more

Long term I think the Sapphire Reserve could be worth it if you value lounge access, and if you can maximize the credits and other benefits. However, I think for many people, the Sapphire Preferred may be more compelling overall, and a better value — the card has some better bonus categories on spending (plus the 10% anniversary points bonus), and a $50 hotel credit, all with a much lower annual fee.

Showdown: Sapphire Reserve vs. Sapphire Reserve Business

The Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review) is based on the fundamentals of the Sapphire Reserve. What are the differences between the cards? Let me point out some of the things that differentiate the business version of the card, for better or worse:

• The Sapphire Reserve Business also offers a huge welcome bonus of 150,000 bonus points after spending $20,000 within three months
• While the bonus categories are largely similar, the exception is that the Sapphire Reserve offers 3x points on dining, while the Sapphire Reserve Business offers 3x points on select advertising
• The Sapphire Reserve Business has no annual fee for authorized users, but authorized users also don’t receive lounge access
• The Sapphire Reserve Business doesn’t offer Air Canada Lounge access, as that perk is exclusive to the personal version of the card
• The credits offered by the card different a bit, as the Sapphire Reserve Business offers credits with ZipRecruiter, giftcards.com, and more

There’s potentially merit to having both cards, though if I had to choose, I’d say the personal version of the card is probably a bit easier to justify, on average.

Bottom line

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of the most popular and compelling premium travel cards on the market. While it has a high annual fee, it also has very strong perks.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is great for its lounge access benefits, including a Priority Pass™ Select membership, Chase Sapphire Lounge access, and even Air Canada Lounge access. The card also has an excellent rewards structure, offering bonus categories with 3-8x points per dollar spent.

The card’s annual fee can also largely be offset (or even be more than offset) with the credits and benefits offered, ranging from $300 in easy to use travel credits, to a slightly trickier $500 in hotel credits, to $300 in dining credits, to $300 in entertainment credits, and more.

Personally I find the annual fee to be easy enough to justify, but of course everyone should crunch the numbers for themselves.

To learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, follow this link.

The American Express Platinum Card® is one of the most popular premium cards on the market. While the card has a high annual fee, it also has compelling perks that will make it worthwhile for many. In this post, I’d like to cover the details of the huge welcome offer currently available on the card.

Best Amex Platinum Card welcome offer details

The Amex Platinum Card has a potentially lucrative welcome offer, with a twist. The welcome offer is marketed as being as high as 175,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $12,000 within the first six months. However, Amex notes how the welcome offers vary, and applicants may not be eligible for that welcome offer.

The way this works, you can apply for the card, and then find out your offer amount. Then you can decide whether you want to accept the offer or not. That’s an unconventional approach for a welcome offer. At least Amex has the “apply with confidence” feature, so there won’t be a hard pull unless you accept the offer, making this risk-free.

Personally, I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, meaning that to me, 175,000 points are worth a staggering $2,975. Of course that assumes you’re eligible for this offer, which not everyone will be. There are lots of great uses for Amex points, as they can be transferred to all kinds of useful airline and hotel partners.

Who is eligible for the Amex Platinum Card offer?

In line with Amex’s “once in a lifetime” rule, the welcome offer on the Amex Platinum Card isn’t available to those who currently have the card, or those who have had the card (or previous versions of the card) in the past. On top of that, Amex’s general card restrictions apply. There are a few additional things to note:

• You are eligible for the welcome offer on this card if you’ve had any other Amex card, so you can apply for this card even if you have other Amex cards
• While Amex typically has a limit of letting someone have at most five Amex credit cards (including personal and business cards), that doesn’t include this product, since it’s not a traditional credit card
• There’s a mystery to Amex card approvals, as you may sometimes receive a pop-up when applying for cards, indicating that you’re not eligible for the offer, even if you otherwise think you should be
• Sometimes people will be eligible for offers with “no lifetime language,” meaning they can earn a welcome offer on a card even if they’ve had it in the past; however, that’s something you’d have to be targeted for

Why the Amex Platinum Card could be worth it

The Amex Platinum Card has a $895 annual fee (Rates & Fees). While this isn’t the most rewarding card in terms of the return on spending, it does have a huge number of valuable perks, and it should be easy to justify the annual fee. Here are just some of them (Enrollment is required for select benefits):

• Comprehensive airport lounge access, including Amex Centurion Lounge access, Delta Sky Club® access, a Priority Pass™ Select membership, and more; in all cases, there are some terms and restrictions associated with access
• Elite status with travel brands, including Hilton Honors™ Gold status, Marriott Bonvoy® Gold status, and elite status with multiple rental car companies
• Up to thousands of dollars worth of credits, including for airline fees, hotels, Equinox, SoulCycle, CLEAR, and much more
• Access to all kinds of special programs, from Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts®, to the Amex International Airline Program, and more

I think two recently added perks on the card are particularly worth calling out:

• The card offers up to $400 per year in credits at Resy restaurants, in the form of a $100 credit per quarter; I’d consider this to nearly be good as cash
• The card offers up to $600 per year in hotel credits, in the form of a $300 credit semi-annually; this can be used even for one night stays at Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts® properties, so I think that’s quite easy to maximize

Read a full review of the Amex Platinum Card here.

Amex Platinum Card welcome offer FAQs

Bottom line

The Amex Platinum Card has a huge welcome offer as high as 175,000 bonus points upon completing minimum spending. The structure of this offer is a little unusual, since the offer is “as high as” that amount, and when you fill out your application, you’ll see exactly what offer you’re eligible for.

If you are eligible for such a big welcome offer, this card is absolutely worth picking up. It offers all kinds of great perks that can help offset the annual fee, ranging from lounge access, to credits, to elite status, and more. If you’re eligible for this card, this would be a great time to apply.

Do you plan on picking up the Amex Platinum Card with this welcome offer?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: American Express Platinum Card® (Rates & Fees).

Along those lines, GHA Discovery has just brought back a lucrative paid status match promotion in partnership with statusmatch.com, which may interest some people.

Basics of the GHA Discovery status match promotion

GHA Discovery is offering a status match to either Titanium or Platinum status. This is an outright match, and status is valid through December 31, 2027 (so there’s no status challenge element to this). This offer is valid for applications through September 1, 2026, though that remains subject to change.

Matching to GHA Discovery Titanium comes with a fee of $150, but offers a reward of D$75, while matching to GHA Discovery Platinum comes with a fee of $100, but offers a reward of D$50.

For those not familiar, the “D$” refers to Discovery Dollars, and the idea is that each D$ gets you a dollar off an eligible hotel stay. In other words, this match will really only cost you $50-75, assuming you are able to use the D$.

On this page you can see how status maps over between programs. GHA Discovery is matching status with airlines, hotels, and cruise lines, and generally upper tier status earns Titanium, while lower tier status earns Platinum. Certain credit cards are also being matched.

A GHA Discovery status match could be a good value

I slept on the GHA Discovery program for far too long. I don’t want to say it’s the world’s most exciting loyalty program, but a few things stand out to me:

• It’s really cool to see the huge number of otherwise independent brands that participate in GHA Discovery, ranging from Capella, to Corinthia, to Kempinski; best of all, you can even still earn and redeem rewards and take advantage of elite perks when booking through a program like Virtuoso
• I appreciate the program’s flexibility, as you can redeem D$ toward only part of the cost of a stay, so you don’t have to be a super loyal guest to get value from the program
• The elite perks with GHA Discovery are actually solid, like Titanium members receiving a double upgrade subject to availability

Bottom line

GHA Discovery has just launched an easy paid status match promotion for Titanium and Platinum status, with status valid through the end of 2027. While the program has a $100-150 application fee, you receive D$50-D$75, so that helps offset that cost.

If you have any number of GHA stays planned over the next 19+ months, this could seriously be worth considering.

Do you plan on taking advantage of this GHA Discovery status match?

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is one of the best business credit cards out there, and is part of the Chase Ink Business card portfolio. This card continues to have a generous welcome bonus, so in this post, I’d like to go over the updated details of that, including eligibility requirements (which have changed over time).

Best Chase Ink Preferred Card welcome bonus details

The Chase Ink Preferred Card currently has a welcome offer of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $8,000 within the first three months.

Personally I value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, meaning the 100,000 points are worth $1,700 to me, which is a very good bonus. There are lots of great uses of Chase points, as they can be transferred to all kinds of useful airline and hotel partners.

Let me emphasize that this is the best publicly available bonus currently offered, but in the past we have seen a best-ever offer of 120,000 points upon completing minimum spending. However, it has been a while since we’ve seen that, and there’s no indication of that returning anytime soon. Still, I like to provide that context.

Who is eligible for the Chase Ink Preferred Card bonus?

When it comes to getting approved for the Chase Ink Preferred Card and earning the welcome bonus, what rules should you be aware of? Well, there are the card specific policies, and then also the more generic Chase policies. When you pull up the application, you’ll see the following terms:

The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card. We may also consider factors pertinent to your business in determining your bonus eligibility.

As you can see, officially the welcome bonus may not be available to you if you currently have this card, or if you’ve had it in the past. However, eligibility for the card (including the bonus) is unrelated to whether you have any other Chase business card.

In other words, you’re eligible for this card, including the bonus, if you have cards like the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review), Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review), or Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review).

Beyond that, there are some general Chase rules to be aware of:

• This card may be subjected to Chase’s 5/24 rule, which is to say that you may not be approved if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months (this excludes many business cards); however, there are increasingly data points that this rule is no longer consistently enforced
• It’s generally considered a best practice to not apply for more than one Chase business credit card every 30 days, so I’d recommend observing that limit when applying

While Chase business cards can be tough to get approved for, they offer such fantastic bonuses and perks, so it’s worth the effort, in my opinion. Furthermore, it’s nice how the eligibility requirements aren’t too strict in terms of qualifying for the bonus.

Read my guide to getting approved for the Chase Ink Preferred Card, and my experience getting approved for the Chase Ink Preferred Card.

Why the Chase Ink Preferred Card is worth it

The Chase Ink Preferred Card has a $95 annual fee, and offers all kinds of amazing perks that make it worth holding onto. Among other things, here’s what makes the card so valuable:

• The card has an amazing rewards structure, as it offers 3x points on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable, and phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines (on up to $150K in combined purchases every cardmember year)
• The card offers a cell phone protection benefit, which can get you up to $1,000 per claim in cell phone protection against covered theft or damage (with a $100 deductible)
• The card offers primary rental car coverage, which can come in handy if you rent cars with any frequency
• The card offers valuable travel protection, in the event of irregular operations with your travel, delayed bags, etc.
• Having this card allows you to maximize the value of other no annual fee Chase cards that accrue points, since it potentially allows you to move all your points to Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners

Read my review of the Chase Ink Preferred Card.

Chase Ink Preferred Card welcome bonus FAQs

Bottom line

The Chase Ink Preferred Card is one of the best business cards out there, and if you’re eligible for the card, there’s lots of merit to applying.

Not only does the card have a big bonus, but it’s worth holding onto for the great rewards structure, excellent protection benefits, and the ability to maximize other cards in the Chase ecosystem. With the changes we’ve seen to other Chase cards in recent times, this card is arguably even more compelling than in the past.

Do you have the Chase Ink Preferred Card, and if so, what has your experience been?

In August 2025, we saw the launch of the new $395 annual fee Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® Credit Card, one of the most lucrative airline credit cards on the market. This is a card I have, and it’s one where I think it’s really hard to go wrong.

Several weeks ago, we saw a huge new welcome offer introduced on the card, which I’d argue is the best publicly available offer that we’ve seen, even better than the limited time offer at launch. I’d like to post a heads up that I’ve received word that this offer is ending soon. While I still don’t have an exact date to share, if you’re interested in the card, I’d recommend applying ASAP.

Atmos Rewards Summit Card limited time welcome bonus

The Atmos Rewards Summit Card is offering a limited time welcome bonus that consists of three separate sets of rewards, and it’s ending soon:

• Earn 100,000 Alaska Atmos Rewards bonus points after spending $6,500 within the first 90 days; there are lots of amazing uses of Atmos Rewards points, including for travel on Alaska, Hawaiian, and American, among many other airlines
• Earn a 25,000-point Global Companion Award after spending $6,500 within the first 90 days; this is valid for 12 months from when it’s issued, and can be used to take a companion on an award ticket, while getting 25,000 points off the cost of their award
• Earn a 50% flight discount after opening the account; there are quite a few terms associated with this, as you must travel over a limited period in summer, it’s only valid on most economy fares, and you must fly Alaska or Hawaiian

Personally, I value Atmos Rewards points at 1.5 cents each. I’d consider this offer to be worth 125,000 points (not factoring in the 50% discount code), so to me that’s a staggering value of $1,875.

Even if you’re not convinced on the long term value proposition of the card, I absolutely think it’s worth giving a try, given all the uses of Atmos Rewards points. This is one of the best bonuses I ever recall seeing on an airline credit card.

Atmos Rewards Summit Card eligibility requirements

If you’re interested in applying for the Atmos Rewards Summit Card, the good news is that the application restrictions are pretty limited. Specifically, you are eligible for this card if you have any of the other Atmos Rewards cards, whether personal or business.

Personally, I find Bank of America to be one of the most straightforward and easier card issuers to get approvals from, though that’s anecdotal, and I’ve had good luck with these cards.

Read my guide to getting approved for Atmos Rewards cards.

Why the Atmos Rewards Summit Card is worth it

The Atmos Rewards Summit Card has a $395 annual fee, though it has to be one of the most interesting and rewarding airline credit cards we’ve ever seen. As I see it, here are the main reasons to consider getting this card, beyond the welcome bonus:

• A lucrative rewards structure, including 3x points on all foreign purchases (an incredible bonus category), plus 3x points on dining
• The fastest pathway to Atmos Rewards elite status — receive an anniversary boost of 10,000 status points, plus earn one status point for every $2 spent
• The ability to earn Global Companion Awards — an anniversary 25,000-point Global Companion Award just for having the card, plus a 100,000-point Global Companion Award for spending $60,000 on the card per anniversary year
• Up to eight Alaska Lounge passes and up to eight Alaska inflight Wi-Fi passes per year, in the form of two of each pass per quarter
• A first checked bag free and 20% savings on inflight purchases on Alaska & Hawaiian flights
• Preferred boarding on Alaska flights
• Waived fees, including waived $12.50 partner award booking fees, and waived same day change fees on Alaska flights
• Upgrade priority on Alaska & Hawaiian flights, so that comes in handy for anyone with elite status
• The ability to share points with up to 10 other members at no cost (and vice versa)
• Primary rental car coverage, plus valuable travel protection for delayed flights, lost bags, and more

Read a detailed review of the Atmos Rewards Summit Card.

Bottom line

The Atmos Rewards Summit Card currently has a limited time welcome offer that can earn you 100,000 Atmos Rewards bonus points, a 25,000-point Global Companion Award, and a 50% discount code for an eligible flight, upon completing eligible activity. Arguably this is even better than the limited time offer we saw at launch, so if you missed that offer, this is a great time to apply, especially as the offer is ending soon.

This card is worth getting for the offer alone, given the huge value for travel on partner airlines, even if it’s “just” for domestic flights on American. But I think the card also offers good long term value, from the annual Global Companion Award, to all the other perks. For that matter, there’s an argument to be made for spending on the card to earn oneworld status.

This is a card that I and everyone else in my family have, so I would seriously recommend considering it.

Anyone plan to pick up the Atmos Rewards Summit Card with this great offer?

IHG One Rewards offering up to 2K bonus points per night

For the summer of 2026, IHG One Rewards is offering the “Pick Your Points” promotion, whereby members can register for one of two offers. They can either earn 2,000 bonus points after every two nights, or 8,000 bonus points after every four nights.

As you’d expect, there are some details to be aware of:

• Registration is required prior to your first eligible stay, and registration is final, so consider which offer you want to sign up for
• The promotion is valid for stays between May 20 and August 31, 2026
• There is no booking deadline, so nights consumed anytime during the promotion period are eligible, as long as you register in time
• All paid nights booked directly with IHG qualify for this promotion, as long as the nightly rate is at least $30 (award nights don’t qualify)
• There’s no limit to how many bonus points you can earn with this promotion, and rewards are based on cumulative nights accrued, so don’t have to be consecutive
• Bonus points will post within six weeks of an eligible stay

How lucrative is this IHG One Rewards promotion?

IHG One Rewards members ordinarily earn the following return on spending at IHG properties (for what it’s worth, I value IHG points at 0.5 cents each):

• IHG offers 10x points per dollar spent at most brands, and 5x points per dollar spent at Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites
• IHG members receive bonus points — Silver members receive a 20% bonus, Gold members receive a 40% bonus, Platinum members receive a 60% bonus, and Diamond members receive a 100% bonus
• If you pay with the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (review) or IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card (review), you earn 10x bonus points per dollar spent

With this promotion, you earn either 2,000 bonus points after every two nights, or 8,000 bonus points after every four nights, meaning you earn either 1,000 or 2,000 bonus points per night, in the right increments. Based on my valuation of IHG points, that’s like an incremental return of $5-10 per night, in the right increments. This offer is better than nothing, but hardly a reason to switch any stays to IHG.

To state the obvious, you should register for the 8,000 bonus points promotion if you plan to stay at least four nights during the promotion period, as that’s how you’ll come out ahead.

Bottom line

IHG One Rewards has opened registration for its summer 2026 promotion. With this, registered members can earn either 2,000 points every two nights, or 8,000 points every four nights. Obviously the latter promotion is more lucrative, assuming that you plan to stay at least four nights during the promotion period.

Still, at an incremental 1,000 to 2,000 bonus points per night (at most), this offers up to $5-10 per night in value, so it’s hardly a reason to switch any stays to IHG.

What do you make of IHG One Rewards’ new global promotion?

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card is part of the Chase Ink Business card portfolio, and is one of the best no annual fee cards out there. In this post, I’d like to go over the details of the best welcome offer that’s currently available on the card, and talk about how that compares to past offers on the card.

Best Chase Ink Cash Card welcome bonus details

The Chase Ink Cash Card currently has a publicly available welcome bonus of 75,000 points after spending $6,000 within the first three months. You’ll see that the bonus is marketed as offering cash back, rather than points, so it’s described as a $750 bonus. Indeed, you could redeem the rewards as cash back.

However, if you have the card in conjunction with a card earning Ultimate Rewards points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review), or Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review), then rewards can be transferred to Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners. Since I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, that increases the value of the points by 70% right there, as far as I’m concerned.

I consider the 75,000 points to be worth $1,275. That’s a good bonus, especially for a no annual fee card. For what it’s worth, in the past we’ve seen limited time welcome offers on this card as high as 90,000 points, but it has been several months since we’ve seen such an offer.

Who is eligible for the Chase Ink Cash Card bonus?

When it comes to getting approved for the Chase Ink Cash Card and earning the welcome bonus, what rules should you be aware of? Well, there are the card specific policies, and then also the more generic Chase policies. When you pull up the application, you’ll see the following terms:

The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card or any other Chase for Business card without an annual fee. We may also consider factors pertinent to your business in determining your bonus eligibility.

As you can see, officially the welcome bonus isn’t available to you if you’ve had this exact card, or another Chase business card without an annual fee, including the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review). So there is an element of cards being mutually exclusive.

However, the key here is that you “may” not be eligible, and not that you absolutely won’t be eligible. I don’t love that level of vagueness, though the good news is that if you apply for the card and aren’t eligible for the bonus, you should receive a pop-up message informing you of this, before there’s a hard pull. So that at least means the downside of applying is limited.

The good news is that eligibility for the bonus is completely unrelated to whether you have a Chase business card with an annual fee, like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) or Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review).

It’s fine to apply for Chase business cards as a sole proprietorship, corporation, etc. If you apply as a sole proprietorship, you can just enter your Social Security Number in the section where you’d otherwise put your EIN.

Beyond that, there are some general Chase rules to be aware of:

• This card may be subjected to Chase’s 5/24 rule, which is to say that you may not be approved if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months (this excludes many business cards); however, there are increasingly data points that this rule is no longer consistently enforced
• It’s generally considered a best practice to not apply for more than one Chase business credit card every 30 days, so I’d recommend observing that limit when applying

Why the Chase Ink Cash Card is worth it

The Chase Ink Cash Card has no annual fee, and there are several reasons to consider picking it up. The way I view it, there are a few points that are most important.

For one, the card has a phenomenal rewards structure, which can earn you lots of points:

• Earn 5x points on the first $25,000 of combined purchases per account anniversary year at office supply stores, and on internet, cable, and phone services
• Earn 2x points on the first $25,000 of combined purchases per account anniversary year at restaurants and gas stations

Furthermore, the card offers primary rental car coverage, which can come in handy if you rent cars with any frequency, and is incredibly rare for a no annual fee card. Also, since the card has no annual fee, there’s really no opportunity cost to holding onto it, and it allows you to create a great portfolio of cards to maximize rewards.

Read my review of the Chase Ink Cash Card.

Chase Ink Cash Card welcome bonus FAQs

Bottom line

The Chase Ink Cash Card is one of the most lucrative no annual fee cards out there. Currently the card has a welcome bonus of 75K points upon completing minimum spending. Not only does the card have a great bonus, but it offers rewards that can make it worth holding onto, like 5x points in select categories, plus rental car coverage.

Do you have the Chase Ink Cash Card, and if so, what has your experience been?

The Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card is part of the Chase Ink Business card portfolio, and is one of the best no annual fee cards out there. In this post, I’d like to go over the details of the best welcome offer that’s currently available on the card, and talk about how that compares to past offers on the card.

Best Chase Ink Unlimited Card welcome bonus details

The Chase Ink Unlimited Card is currently offering a welcome bonus of 75,000 points after spending $6,000 within the first three months. You’ll see that the bonus is marketed as offering cash back, rather than points, so it’s described as a $750 bonus. Indeed, you could redeem the rewards as cash back.

However, if you have the card in conjunction with a card earning Ultimate Rewards points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review), or Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review), then rewards can be transferred to Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners. Since I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, that increases the value of the points by 70% right there, as far as I’m concerned.

I consider the 75,000 points to be worth $1,275. That’s a good bonus, especially for a no annual fee card. For what it’s worth, in the past we’ve seen limited time welcome offers on this card as high as 90,000 points, but it has been several months since we’ve seen such an offer.

Who is eligible for the Chase Ink Unlimited Card bonus?

When it comes to getting approved for the Chase Ink Unlimited Card and earning the welcome bonus, what rules should you be aware of? Well, there are the card specific policies, and then also the more generic Chase policies. When you pull up the application, you’ll see the following terms:

The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card or any other Chase for Business card without an annual fee. We may also consider factors pertinent to your business in determining your bonus eligibility.

As you can see, officially the welcome bonus isn’t available to you if you’ve had this exact card, or another Chase business card without an annual fee, including the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review). So there is an element of cards being mutually exclusive.

However, the key here is that you “may” not be eligible, and not that you absolutely won’t be eligible. I don’t love that level of vagueness, though the good news is that if you apply for the card and aren’t eligible for the bonus, you should receive a pop-up message informing you of this, before there’s a hard pull. So that at least means the downside of applying is limited.

The good news is that eligibility for the bonus is completely unrelated to whether you have a Chase business card with an annual fee, like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) or Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review).

It’s fine to apply for Chase business cards as a sole proprietorship, corporation, etc. If you apply as a sole proprietorship, you can just enter your Social Security Number in the section where you’d otherwise put your EIN.

Beyond that, there are some general Chase rules to be aware of:

• This card may be subjected to Chase’s 5/24 rule, which is to say that you may not be approved if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months (this excludes many business cards); however, there are increasingly data points that this rule is no longer consistently enforced
• It’s generally considered a best practice to not apply for more than one Chase business credit card every 30 days, so I’d recommend observing that limit when applying

Why the Chase Ink Unlimited Card is worth it

The Chase Ink Unlimited Card has no annual fee, and there are several reasons to consider picking it up. The way I view it, there are a few points that are most important.

For one, the card has a solid rewards structure, as it offers a minimum of 1.5x points on all spending, making it one of the best Chase cards for everyday spending. Furthermore, the card offers primary rental car coverage, which can come in handy if you rent cars with any frequency, and is incredibly rare for a no annual fee card.

Also, since the card has no annual fee, there’s really no opportunity cost to holding onto it, and it allows you to create a great portfolio of cards to maximize rewards.

Read my review of the Chase Ink Unlimited Card.

Chase Ink Unlimited Card welcome bonus FAQs

Bottom line

The Chase Ink Unlimited Card is one of the most lucrative no annual fee cards out there, and it’s currently offering a welcome bonus of 75,000 points upon completing minimum spending.

Not only does the card have a great bonus, but it offers rewards that can make it worth holding onto, like 1.5x points on everyday spending, plus rental car coverage. If you’re eligible for this card, I think there’s a lot of merit to picking it up.

Do you have the Chase Ink Unlimited Card, and if so, what has your experience been?

The American Express® Business Gold Card is one of the most rewarding business cards if you’re looking to earn Amex Membership Rewards points.

Currently we’re seeing an excellent improved welcome offer on this card, making it the ideal time to apply. Or more accurately, we’re seeing an offer that could be very good, as it’s variable. If you’re eligible for this card, it’s absolutely worth seeing what’s available to you.

See what Amex Business Gold Card offer you’re eligible for

The Amex Business Gold Card now has a welcome offer that’s as high as 200,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 within the first three months. Personally, I value Amex points at 1.7 cents each, meaning that to me, the 200,000 points are worth $3,400.

There are lots of great uses for Amex points, as they can be transferred to all kinds of useful airline and hotel partners. Of course let me emphasize that not everyone will be eligible for this offer, which is why you’ll want to check what’s available to you.

Who is eligible for the Amex Business Gold Card bonus?

In line with Amex’s “once in a lifetime” rule, the welcome offer on the Amex Business Gold Card isn’t available to those who currently have the card, or those who have had the card (or previous versions of the card) in the past. On top of that, Amex’s general card restrictions apply.

There are a few additional things to note:

• You are eligible for the bonus on this card if you’ve had any other Amex card, so you can apply for this card even if you have another Amex business card, or the personal version of this card
• While Amex typically has a limit of letting someone have at most five Amex credit cards (including personal and business cards), that doesn’t include this product, since it’s not a traditional credit card
• If you’re worried about the Chase 5/24 limit, getting approved for the Amex Business Gold shouldn’t count as a further card toward that limit
• Amex does sometimes have application pop-ups indicating that you may not be eligible for a bonus even though you meet the published requirements otherwise, and in those cases there’s not much you can do

Anecdotally, I find this to be a pretty easy card to get approved for, and you can read about my experience applying here.

Why the Amex Business Gold Card may be worth it

The Amex Business Gold Card has a $375 annual fee (Rates & Fees). There are many reasons to consider picking up this card.

I’d say the single biggest reason to get this card is because of the rewards structure. Each billing cycle, the card earns 4x Amex points in the two categories in which your business spends the most. There are a total of six eligible categories to choose from. Note that you earn 4x points on the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these categories each calendar year, and then 1x points thereafter.

Categories eligible for 4x points include the following:

• Purchases at U.S. media providers for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio)
• U.S. purchases made from electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers
• U.S. purchases at restaurants, including takeout and delivery
• U.S. purchases at gas stations
• Transit purchases including trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses, and subways
• Monthly wireless telephone service charges made directly from a wireless telephone service provider in the U.S.

On top of that, the card offers some credits that can help offset the annual fee:

• The card offers up to a $240 flexible business credit annually; this comes in the form of a $20 per month statement credit that can be used toward eligible purchases with FedEx, Grubhub, and office supply stores (Enrollment required)
• The card offers up to $155 in Walmart+ credits annually; this comes in the form of a $12.95 monthly credit toward a Walmart+ membership, which covers the entire cost of that, and can save you money on shipping and delivery of Walmart purchases, and can also save you money on prescriptions and gas. (Enrollment required)

Read a full review of the Amex Business Gold Card here.

Amex Business Gold Card welcome offer FAQs

Bottom line

The Amex Business Gold Card currently has an excellent welcome offer that’s as high as 200,000 bonus Membership Rewards points upon completing minimum spending. While the spending requirement is significant, so is the number of points you can earn, so this is worth it if you can swing it… assuming you’re eligible!

The main reason to consider picking up this card (beyond the great welcome offer) is because it offers 4x points in valuable categories. On top of that, though, the card offers some credits that can help offset the annual fee.

Do you plan on picking up the Amex Business Gold Card? What kind of a welcome offer are you eligible for?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: American Express® Business Gold Card (Rates & Fees).

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is one of the most perks-rich business cards out there, and is useful if you’re looking to earn Amex Membership Rewards points. 

At the moment, we’re seeing an excellent elevated welcome offer on the card, making it an ideal time to apply. Or perhaps more accurately, we’re seeing an offer that could be very good, as it’s variable. If you’re eligible for this card, it’s absolutely worth seeing what’s available to you.

See what Amex Business Platinum Card offer you’re eligible for

The Amex Business Platinum Card has a massive welcome offer that’s as high as 300,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $20,000 within the first three months. Personally, I value Amex points at 1.7 cents each, meaning that to me, the 300,000 points are worth a staggering $5,100. As I see it, that’s basically the best welcome offer you’ll find on any card.

There are lots of great uses for Amex points, as they can be transferred to all kinds of useful airline and hotel partners. Also keep in mind that having this card lets you unlock the full value of Amex Pay With Points, potentially allowing you to get up to 1.54 cents of value per point toward the cost of airfare on a designated airline. You could then use that redemption rate for all your linked Amex Membership Rewards cards.

Of course let me emphasize that not everyone will be eligible for this offer, which is why you’ll want to check what’s available to you.

Who is eligible for the Amex Business Platinum Card bonus?

In line with Amex’s “once in a lifetime” rule, the welcome offer on the Amex Business Platinum Card isn’t available to those who currently have the card, or those who have had the card (or previous versions of the card) in the past. On top of that, Amex’s general card restrictions apply.

There are a few additional things to note:

• You are eligible for the welcome offer on this card if you’ve had any other Amex card, so you can apply for this card even if you have cards like American Express Platinum Card® (review) or American Express® Business Gold Card (review)
• While Amex typically has a limit of letting someone have at most five Amex credit cards (including personal and business cards), that doesn’t include this product, since it’s not a traditional credit card
• If you’re worried about the Chase 5/24 limit, getting approved for the Amex Business Platinum shouldn’t count as a further card toward that limit

Why the Amex Business Platinum Card is worth it

The Amex Business Platinum Card has a $895 annual fee (Rates & Fees). While this isn’t the most rewarding card in terms of the return on spending, it does have a huge number of valuable perks. Here are just some of them (enrollment is required for select benefits):

• Comprehensive airport lounge access, including Amex Centurion Lounge access, Delta Sky Club® access, a Priority Pass™ Select membership, and more; in all cases, there are some terms and restrictions associated with access
• Elite status with travel brands, including Hilton Honors™ Gold Status, Marriott Bonvoy® Gold Elite Status, and elite status with multiple rental car companies
• Up to thousands of dollars worth of credits, including for airline fees, hotels, wireless purchases, Adobe, Dell, and more
• Access to all kinds of special programs, from Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts®, to the Amex International Airline Program, and more

Of particular note is that the card offers up to $600 per year in hotel credits, in the form of a $300 credit semi-annually. This can be used even for one night stays at Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts® properties, so I think that’s quite easy to maximize, and largely helps with offsetting the annual fee.

Read a full review of the Amex Business Platinum Card here.

Amex Business Platinum Card welcome offer FAQs

Bottom line

The Amex Business Platinum Card has a huge welcome offer that’s as high as 300,000 bonus Membership Rewards points upon completing minimum spending. While the spending requirement is significant, so is the number of points you can earn, so this is worth it if you’re eligible, and can swing it.

This card offers all kinds of great perks that can help offset the annual fee, ranging from lounge access, to credits, to elite status, and more.

Do you plan on picking up the Amex Business Platinum Card? What kind of a welcome offer are you eligible for?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: The Business Platinum® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees).

Starbucks bonus gift card with Delta gift card purchase

Here’s an easy promotion that could be worth taking advantage of. In celebration of Mother’s Day, if you purchase a $300+ Delta gift card, you can receive $20 worth of Starbucks gift cards as a bonus:

• The offer is valid while supplies last or until May 11, 2026, whichever comes first
• Each person can take advantage of this promotion at most one time
• This offer is available to residents of the United States who are 18+ years old
• The Delta gift cards can be redeemed 72 hours after purchase, and have no expiration date
• The Delta gift cards can only be used to purchase tickets, and not for upgrades, taxes & fees on award tickets, or other incidentals
• The Starbucks eGift cards will be emailed separately from the Delta gift cards, don’t expire, and can be used multiple times, up to the maximum value

Getting a $20 Starbucks gift card for a $300 purchase is potentially a good deal, as it’s essentially the equivalent of an incremental ~6.7% return.

The catch with buying Delta gift cards

If you’re a Delta frequent flyer, on the surface it’s a no brainer to pick up a Delta gift card, so you can get an extra reward for money you’d spend anyway. Just to be clear, you’ll still earn SkyMiles and Medallion Qualifying Dollars for your flights, as you usually would when you go to redeem your gift card for a flight.

There is just one catch to buying Delta gift cards — the Delta gift card purchase as such won’t code as a Delta travel purchase for the purposes of your credit card spending, since the transaction is processed by a third party. What are the implications of that if you’re maximizing rewards?

• If it did code as a Delta airfare purchase (which it doesn’t), you could earn credit card rewards as you usually would for airfare purchases, so there would be no opportunity cost to funding your Delta travel this way; you could earn up to 5x points on airfare purchases
• Since it doesn’t code as an airfare purchase, you’d be better off using a card that’s lucrative for everyday spending, and there’s quite an opportunity cost there

If you’re anything like me, you’d ordinarily earn 5x points for an airfare purchase, while you’re only earning 2x points for everyday spending. So the opportunity cost here is 3x points per dollar spent. I value transferable points at 1.7 cents each, so that’s like an opportunity cost of 5.1%. That makes the value of this promotion pretty marginal, assuming you’re in a similar boat.

Bottom line

At the moment you can receive $20 worth of Starbucks gift cards when you purchase a $300+ Delta gift card. While this isn’t the highest value offer on earth, if you spend money with Delta regularly, then this offer could be worth it.

Do you plan on taking advantage of this Delta gift card promo?

Amex offering 10% JetBlue TrueBlue transfer bonus

Between May 4 and May 11, 2026, you can receive a 10% bonus when you transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to JetBlue TrueBlue. Points generally transfer from Amex to JetBlue at a 250:200 ratio, so during this promotion, they’d transfer at a 250:220 ratio.

This promotion is being offered on Amex’s end (in the United States), and is hard coded into the transfer ratio, meaning you should see the bonus at the time that you make the transfer. You can take advantage of this offer an unlimited number of times, though you’re limited to transferring 999,750 points per transaction (not that this is a limit that will impact many people).

There are lots of fantastic cards for earning Amex Membership Rewards points. Transfers from Amex to TrueBlue are generally instant. Keep in mind that transfers from Amex to US frequent flyer programs are subjected to a federal excise tax of 0.06 cents per transferred point, up to a maximum of $99. In other words, transferring 100,000 points would cost $60.

We last saw a transfer bonus from Amex to JetBlue back in late 2024, so an offer between the two programs seems to come around less than once a year. That being said, the last offer was for a 25% bonus, while this one is only for a 10% bonus, so this is much less generous.

Should you transfer Amex points to JetBlue TrueBlue?

How much are JetBlue TrueBlue points worth? If you’re redeeming for travel on JetBlue, each TrueBlue point will typically get you at most 1.5 cents toward the cost of a JetBlue ticket, and that’s on the very high end. Personally I value TrueBlue points at 1.3 cents each. So that’s not a terrible rate at which to cash out JetBlue points, but also not great.

I should mention that if you have JetBlue’s most premium card, you can get a 15% award rebate, so that can stretch points a bit further, but still, it’s not amazing.

One other thing to keep in mind is that JetBlue TrueBlue has gotten better about adding redemptions on partner airlines in recent times, including on Qatar Airways, Condor, and United Airlines. We’re also now seeing redemptions added on China Airlines.

For example, looking at one-way business class pricing, an award from the United States to Qatar starts at 70,000 points, and an award from the United States to Germany starts at 54,000 points.

The catch is that award availability can be tough to come by, and on top of that, connections will cost you extra. Still, at least there are some circumstances where one can get outsized value on partners using TrueBlue points.

One major hesitation I’d have with moving Amex points to JetBlue is that the program also often sells points at a reasonable cost, and at that rate I’d typically rather buy them outright, rather than using valuable Amex points.

Bottom line

Through May 11, 2026, Amex Membership Rewards is offering a 10% bonus when you transfer points to JetBlue TrueBlue, meaning you can transfer points at a 250:220 ratio. If you fly JetBlue frequently, this could be a way to get decent value with your Amex points, better than most other ways to cash out these points. There are also a limited number of partner redemption opportunities that could represent a good deal.

I don’t plan on taking advantage of this offer, personally, but I know others may find value with it.

Do you plan on taking advantage of Amex’s 10% transfer bonus to JetBlue?

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) is one of the most popular premium credit cards. The card initially launched roughly a decade ago, in 2016, and it most recently underwent a major refresh in 2025.

In this post, I’d like to take an updated look at the overall value proposition of the card. I’m going to tackle the question of whether the Chase Sapphire Reserve is still worth it, both in absolute terms, and relative to other cards, including the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

What are the benefits of the Chase Sapphire Reserve?

The Chase Sapphire Reserve has a $795 annual fee, and offers a variety of benefits, including the following:

• A best-ever limited time welcome bonus of 150,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 within the first three months
• An excellent rewards structure, including 8x points on Chase Travel℠ bookings, 4x points on direct airline and hotel bookings, and 3x points on dining
• A Priority Pass™ Select membership with unlimited visits and the ability to take two guests, access to Chase Sapphire Lounges, and access to select Air Canada Lounges
• A $300 annual travel credit, which I’d basically consider to be good as cash, as it can be applied toward any purchase coded as travel, with no registration required
• A variety of other credits and benefits, which require jumping through some additional hoops; this includes up to $500 in annual hotel credits with The Edit, up to $300 in annual dining credits, up to $300 in annual DoorDash credits, up to $300 in annual Stubhub and viagogo credits, up to $250 in one-time credits for Chase Travel Hotels with select brands, and an Apple TV+ and Apple Music subscription
• The ability to get more value with your Ultimate Rewards points with the Points Boost feature, offering redemptions of up to 2.5 cents per point toward select airline and hotel purchases (though the amounts can vary significantly, and generally aren’t nearly that high); this is in addition to being able to transfer points to airline and hotel partners
• Excellent travel coverage and rental car coverage

Is the Chase Sapphire Reserve worth the fee?

It goes without saying that there’s no “one size fits all” answer as to whether or not the Chase Sapphire Reserve is worth the annual fee, though let me try to share my thoughts on how to go about deciding whether it makes sense for you.

On the most basic level, the Chase Sapphire Reserve has a $795 annual fee, and I’d consider the $300 annual travel credit to basically be good as cash, since it can automatically be applied to any purchase coded as travel. I would imagine that virtually every cardmember spends at least $300 per year on travel, and it’s the one perk that everyone should be able to maximize.

Taking that into account, I’d consider the card to really cost $495 per year to hold onto, before factoring in all the additional perks. The challenge is, it can be hard to figure out how much you value each of the benefits. Let’s talk about that in terms of return on spending, lounge access, and the credits.

When it comes to return on spending:

• The 8x points on Chase Travel bookings will get some people to book through the portal, though admittedly that comes with some opportunity costs, so I don’t really factor this into my overall valuation of the card
• The 4x points on direct airfare and hotel bookings is great, and this is my go-to card for hotels (which is a big spending category for me)
• The 3x points on dining continues to be a great bonus category that many people value

Then there’s lounge access:

• Admittedly a lot of cards offer a Priority Pass™ Select membership, so that’s hardly a differentiator nowadays
• I think the real value comes with Chase Sapphire Lounge access and Air Canada Lounge access, which are unique to this card; the value of that will vary greatly based on your home airport and travel patterns

Then there are the credits beyond the $300 travel credit. Like with so many cards nowadays, there are some hoops to jump through to maximize these credits, so even though they’re potentially worth well over $1,000, I wouldn’t value them nearly that much. For example, based on my own spending patterns and behavior, here’s what I don’t particularly value:

• I don’t place much value on the up to $500 hotel credit, since it’s a semi-annual $250 credit that can be applied toward a minimum of a two night stay at The Edit hotels, which is quite limiting; that’s not to say I won’t use it, but I just don’t factor it into the math on justifying the card
• The one-time $250 Chase Travel Hotels credit that’s valid for minimum of a two night prepaid hotel bookings for IHG, Montage, Pendry, Omni, Virgin, Minor, and Pan Pacific, also potentially offers value, but it’s niche enough that I won’t factor it into the math
• I don’t really like concerts and events, so the up to $300 Stubhub and viagogo credit isn’t of much value to me
• The up to $300 DoorDash credits are in such small increments (three credits totaling $25 monthly) that I don’t really factor them into the math, even though I try to use them

Meanwhile here’s what I do value, in terms of factoring them into the math:

• While the up to $300 dining credit is fairly limiting, with just hundreds of participating restaurants across the country, the good news is that some restaurants in Miami that I frequent are on the list, so I get full value out of that with just two meals per year
• I have an Apple Music subscription, so getting that for free saves me a substantial amount of money

So between saving $300 on dining and saving well over $100 per year on Apple Music, I find it quite easy to justify the annual fee on the card, with the lounge access and rewards structure being the icing on the cake.

Let me be clear — that’s the math for me, and only for me. For some other people, the math will work out wildly differently, so you’ll want to crunch the numbers for yourself.

What are the best Chase card alternatives to consider?

Let’s say that you’ve historically had the Chase Sapphire Reserve, but no longer find it it to be worthwhile. What are your best options, at that point?

I think there could instead be merit to either downgrading to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), or maybe instead focusing on the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review).

On the most basic level, the reason you want to keep one of those cards is that they allow you to unlock the full value of the Ultimate Rewards program. If you have one of those three cards, then you can transfer the points earned on the no annual fee Chase Freedom Flex℠ (review), Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review), and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review), to Ultimate Rewards partners.

So let’s talk a bit more about these options.

Downgrade to the Chase Sapphire Preferred

One option is to downgrade the Chase Sapphire Reserve to the $95 annual fee Chase Sapphire Preferred, and this could be compelling. To compare the two cards:

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred also offers 3x points on dining, and even offers 2x points on all travel purchases (so it’s better for non-hotel and non-airfare travel purchases)
• The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers an up to $50 annual hotel credit, which many could get value from
• The Sapphire Preferred also offers great travel protection
• You’d essentially be giving up an incremental Priority Pass™ Select membership (not a big deal), access to Chase Sapphire Lounges and Air Canada Lounges (a big deal to some, and not to others), bonus categories like 4x points on direct airfare and hotel bookings, and then the credits that can help offset the annual fee

The question comes down to whether it’s worth paying the higher annual fee (minus the annual travel credit), in order to receive those incremental perks. I shared my math above, so everyone has to do their own number crunching. But there’s no denying that the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a considerably lower cost option for staying in the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem.

Cancel, and focus on the Chase Ink Preferred

The $95 annual fee Ink Business Preferred is a business card with a massive welcome offer, which also awards 3x points on the first $150,000 of combined purchases per cardmember year on travel, shipping, internet, cable, phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines.

This is a phenomenal card, given that it offers the same 3x points on travel, now making it the best Chase card for non-airfare and non-hotel travel purchases (though with a cap). Of course an important distinction is that this is a business card, while the Sapphire Reserve is a personal card, and the spending you put on the cards should reflect that.

If you canceled the Chase Sapphire Reserve and instead picked this up, you’d potentially save quite a bit in annual fees. You’d still be able to transfer points to partners, and for many people, the rewards structure might even be better.

Bottom line

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is a premium rewards card with a high annual fee, and very strong perks. While there’s understandably some hesitation to apply for a card with a $795 annual fee, for many consumers, the math will work out.

While I’m generally not a fan of the “coupon book” model of justifying annual fees, between the $300 annual travel credit, the $300 annual restaurant credit, and the Apple TV+ and Apple Music subscription, that’s basically breakeven on the annual fee for me. And that doesn’t account for all of the other credits, the solid rewards structure, and the unique lounge access perks.

Admittedly everyone has different spending patterns, but at least that’s my situation. My biggest general hesitation is the overall concept of credit card fatigue, and the headache of actually trying to maximize the value of several premium cards (since most annual fees can be justified, with some effort).

For those who have a hard time making the math work, perhaps the Chase Sapphire Preferred is worth considering instead. You’ll pay a lower annual fee, you’ll still earn 3x points on dining, you’ll receive 2x points on all travel purchases, and you’ll even receive a 10% anniversary points bonus, while still having access to the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem. Or if you can shift to a business card, the Ink Business Preferred is probably the most compelling option in terms of the rewards structure.

How are you feeling about the value proposition of the Chase Sapphire Reserve? Can you make the math work, or how has your strategy evolved?

Air France’s “old” first class product was already excellent, and you can read my full review here. Meanwhile the new first class product is even more impressive, and you can read my full review here.

Air France is continuing to introduce its new first class product to more flights, and this product is now available on 13 aircraft, and an expanding number of routes. In this post, I’d like to recap which routes feature La Premiere, and which routes have the new product.

Even if Air France first class is out of your budget, it’s worth understanding which planes have the new first class, as they also have the new business class, which is excellent, and worth seeking out (and it can be easily booked with Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles).

Which planes have Air France first class?

Air France’s first class is only available on a subfleet of Boeing 777-300ERs, which feature four classes of service (first class, business class, premium economy, and economy). Specifically, it’s currently installed on just over two dozen Boeing 777-300ERs, which makes up roughly half of the 777-300ER fleet.

Just in the interest of being very thorough, let me emphasize that you won’t find first class on any other Air France jets, including the A330s, A350s, 787s, etc. Air France is increasing the number of 777-300ERs with first class cabins, though it’s not yet known how many total 777s will have first class, when all is said and done.

Which routes have Air France first class?

Which routes feature Air France first class? Air France operates Boeing 777-300ERs with first class on select frequencies between Paris (CDG) and the following destinations:

• Abidjan (ABJ)
• Atlanta (ATL)
• Dubai (DXB) — temporarily suspended
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Miami (MIA)
• New York (JFK)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Sao Paulo (GRU)
• Singapore (SIN)
• Tel Aviv (TLV) — temporarily suspended
• Tokyo (HND)
• Washington (IAD)

Beyond the current network, Air France has announced that it’s expanding the La Premiere network, thanks to more planes getting the cabin installed. Specifically, we’ll soon find La Premiere on the following routes:

• To Boston (BOS) as of July 20, 2026
• To Houston (IAH) as of July 6, 2026

For what it’s worth, in the past we’ve seen Air France also offer first class to Beirut (BEY), Hong Kong (HKG), Johannesburg (JNB), and Mexico City (MEX), among other airports. We’ll see if any of those airports also see a return of first class.

Which flights have Air France’s new first class?

Air France’s plans are to retrofit the entire fleet of four cabin Boeing 777-300ERs with the new first class cabins by the end of 2026. We’ll see how that timeline works out, but Air France is making good progress, and that seems pretty realistic.

So far, you’ll find the new cabins on the 777-300ERs with the registration codes F-GSQC, F-GSQE, F-GSQF, F-GSQK, F-GSQL, F-GSQY, F-GZND, F-GZNE, F-GZNH, F-GZNK, F-GZNP, F-GZNQ, and F-GZNR. That’s a total of 13 planes so far, and for those tracking things, it looks like F-GSQU is the next plane to get new cabins.

It’s interesting to note that several of the 777-300ERs that have been reconfigured so far were previously in a three cabin configuration without first class, so that explains the increase in La Premiere capacity, which is allowing the number of destinations to grow as well.

So, which flights feature Air France’s new La Premiere first class product?

• Air France’s route between Paris (CDG) and Los Angeles (LAX) have the new cabins, for flights AF20/21, AF22/23, and AF24/25
• Air France’s route between Paris (CDG) and Miami (MIA) have the new cabins, for flights AF90/91
• Air France’s route between Paris (CDG) and New York (JFK) have the new cabins, most commonly for flights AF4/3 and AF6/5
• Air France’s route between Paris (CDG) and Singapore (SIN) have the new cabins, for flights AF256/257
• Air France’s route between Paris (CDG) and Tokyo (HND) have the new cabins, for flights AF274/275

Keep in mind that routes operated by the new aircraft type are always subject to change. When searching online, how can you tell if your flight will feature the new first class? For one, if you go to Air France’s website and do a search, you’ll see a message indicating “Aircraft equipped with the new La Premiere suite.”

Furthermore, when you go to the seat map, you’ll see a different layout, with both a seat and chaise longue. The seat numbers are also different — for the new configuration, first class consists of 1A, 1D, 1H, and 1L, while for the old configuration, first class consists of 1A, 1E, 1F, and 1L.

Note that these reconfigured jets aren’t just great news for first class passengers. As Air France installs its new first class, the airline is entirely overhauling its four cabin Boeing 777-300ERs. Most exciting is that these planes are also getting Air France’s new business class with doors, so arguably that’s an equally positive aspect of these updates.

Bottom line

Air France exclusively has its La Premiere first class cabin on just over two dozen Boeing 777-300ERs, operating select long haul flights out of Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG). These planes are in the process of being reconfigured, and Air France has so far updated the interiors of 13 jets.

You’ll now find these updated 777-300ERs flying from Paris (CDG) to Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), Singapore (SIN), and Tokyo (HND), on select frequencies. Obviously this is exciting for those in first class, but it’s also positive for those in business class, as that cabin has received a makeover as well.

What do you make of Air France’s plans for its refreshed four cabin Boeing 777-300ERs?

I’d like to take a closer look at that in this post. Which airlines are offering this, why, and how much extra do these seats cost?

Why airlines are introducing “premium” business class

Airlines do everything in their power to utilize space on aircraft efficiently. This can be done in a variety of ways, ranging from cramming as many seats into an aircraft as possible, to creating as many differentiated products onboard as possible, so that there are buy-up opportunities.

In recent years, we’ve increasingly seen airlines introduce premium products within business class. Really this is just another example of airlines trying to create additional revenue streams.

The logic for these business class plus products is pretty straightforward. In most business class configurations nowadays, seats utilize the space to the side of the seat in front, to minimize each seat’s overall pitch. That’s why we often see business class seats with small footwells, since that’s what’s needed to make the seats economical.

In the first row of the cabin, though, space can’t be utilized as efficiently, since there’s no seat in front where you can place a footwell. Historically airlines haven’t done much to differentiate the first row, perhaps aside from a marginally larger footwell. However, that’s a trend that has changed.

Airlines have increasingly been making the first row of business class more spacious, and selling those seats at an extra cost. In some cases, airlines also differentiate the soft product, while in other cases they don’t.

Airlines offering “business class plus” products

With the above out of the way, let me share some of the airlines offering business class plus products. As I go over each product, I’ll talk about:

• What makes the seat better than other business class seats in the cabin
• If the soft product is at all differentiated
• How you can score these seats

Note that I’ll only be covering the products that are currently in service. So I won’t include any new business class products on the horizon, which may have special front row products. I also won’t include products that just have marginally bigger footwells at the bulkhead, since that’s probably most airlines.

With that out of the way, here we go, in no particular order…

Virgin Atlantic Retreat Suite (A330-900neo)

Virgin Atlantic’s Airbus A330-900neos have two special business class seats (1D, 1G), known as Retreat Suites.

While the seats might on the surface look similar to the other staggered seats in this configuration, what makes the product unique is that you have more space. You get a much larger ottoman, you can dine face-to-face with your travel companion, the beds are larger (the bed becomes 6’7″), and the entertainment screens are larger (27″ vs. 17″). There’s no differentiation to the soft product.

If you want to select one of the Retreat Suites, the cost can vary (sometimes around £300 per person per flight), and it can be selected through Virgin Atlantic’s website in the weeks leading up to departure.

JetBlue Mint Studio (A321LR & A321neo)

JetBlue’s Airbus A321LRs and A321neos have two special Mint business class seats (1A, 1F), known as Mint Studios.

What makes these seats unique is that they boast a massive amount of extra space. Rather than being a herringbone seat where you’re right next to someone, you have a bench next to you where you can even have someone visit you in your seat, as well as extra storage. There’s no differentiation to the soft product.

If you want to select one of the Mint Suites, the cost is currently typically $299 per person for transatlantic flights, though the cost can vary. You can purchase these seats anytime between when you book and when you travel.

American Flagship Suite Preferred (787-9P)

American’s newest Boeing 787-9s (designed as 787-9Ps) are equipped with Flagship Suite seats, and they also feature a special front row business class (1A, 1L, 2D, 2H, 10D, 10H, 10L, 11A), known as Flagship Suite Preferred.

These seats feature quite a bit more personal space over the other seats, including more space for your feet, and more storage. There’s also some soft product differentiation, including pajamas and mattress pads.

While the expectation is that these will eventually cost extra, for now, American is letting all business class passengers assign these at no extra cost, subject to availability.

United Polaris Studio (787-9)

United’s newest Boeing 787-9s (which operate specific routes) are equipped with the carrier’s new Polaris business class seats, and they also feature a special front row business class (1A, 1D, 1F, 1L, 9A, 9D, 9F, 9L), known as the Polaris Studio.

These seats feature quite a bit more personal space over the other seats, including a larger ottoman, more storage, and even a larger entertainment monitor. There’s also some soft product differentiation, including Global Services ground treatment, upgraded food & drinks (including a caviar amuse bouche, and Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé), updated amenities, and more.

United currently charges an extra $499 per long haul flight for passengers to assign these seats. As long as you’re confirmed in business class, you can pay the fee to select one of these seats.

Condor Prime Seat (A330-900neo)

Condor’s Airbus A330-900neos have four special business class seats (1E, 1F, 2A, 2K), known as Prime Seats.

What makes these seats special is that they have ottomans that are way larger than what you’ll find in the rest of the cabin. You can also dine face-to-face with your companion, and the entertainment screens are larger (24″ vs. 17″). Condor also differentiates the soft product, offering those in Prime Seats a snack basket, free Wi-Fi, pajamas, and more.

If you want to select one of the Prime Seats, the cost is currently typically around $300-600 per person per flight, so pricing is all over the place. You can purchase these seats anytime between when you book and when you travel.

Lufthansa Allegris Business First Row Suite (A350-900)

Lufthansa’s Airbus A350-900 Allegris business class features an irrational number of seating options, though the most noteworthy is the suites that are available in the first rows of the two business class cabins (2A, 2D, 2G, 2K, 8A, 8D, 8G, 8K).

These seats feature an unreal amount of personal space, that will make you feel like you’re in first class. The seats have privacy doors, higher partitions, extra storage, larger ottomans, and bigger entertainment screens. It really is like a different experience than the rest of the cabin. There’s also a slight differentiation with the soft product, including extra bedding and pajamas.

If you want to select one of these seats, the pricing is currently €400 to €600 per person per flight. You can purchase these seats anytime between when you book and when you travel.

SWISS Senses Business Suite (A350-900)

SWISS’ new Airbus A350-900 SWISS Senses business class experience is virtually identical to Lufthansa Allegris, but with SWISS branding and finishes. So everything stated above about the front row suites in Lufthansa Allegris also applies to SWISS Senses. The best seats in the cabin are those in the first rows of the two business class cabins (2A, 2D, 2G, 2K, 8A, 8D, 8G, 8K).

These seats feature a huge amount of space, as well as privacy doors, higher partitions, extra storage, larger ottomans, bigger entertainment screens, and more.

If you want to select one of these seats, the pricing is €400 to €600 per person per flight. You can purchase these seats anytime between when you book and when you travel.

Air France Business Suite (A350-900 & 777-300ER)

Air France’s newest Airbus A350-900s (1A, 1D, 1H, 1L, 10A, 10L) and reconfigured three-cabin Boeing 777-300ERs (1A, 1D, 1H, 1L, 9A, 9D, 9H, 9L), and reconfigured four-cabin Boeing 777-300ERs (9A, 9D, 9H, 9L) feature some amazing seats in the bulkhead rows.

While Air France has comfortable reverse herringbone seats throughout these jets, the bulkhead rows have an unbelievable amount of personal space, with a massive ottoman. This is the biggest ottoman you’ll find at any seat in the industry. Note that there’s no differentiated soft product for this row of seats.

Until recently, Air France didn’t actually market this as a separate product, but as of recently, it’s being marketed as Business Suite. When it comes to assigning these seats, on all non-North America flights, only Flying Blue Ultimate members can assign these front row business class seats for free. All other passengers can pay to assign these seats at the time of booking (or any time up until departure), and the fee seems to be around €200 one-way. Meanwhile on North America flights, these seats continue to be open to Flying Blue Gold members and above starting at the time of booking, at no extra cost.

Air New Zealand Business Premier Luxe (787-9)

Air New Zealand’s new Boeing 787-9 business class recently debuted, as it’s being retrofitted on existing Dreamliners. These planes have four special business class seats (1A, 1B, 1J, 1K) in the first row, known as Business Premier Luxe.

These seats feature doors (unlike the other business class seats), and more personal space, with features like an ottoman that can double as a buddy seat, plus a larger tray table. There are also special amenities, like an extra throw.

These seats are bookable by any confirmed business class passenger, at the cost of 250 NZD for short haul flights, and 820 NZD for long haul flights.

Malaysia Airlines Business Suite (A350-900)

Malaysia Airlines’ Airbus A350-900s have four special business class seats (1A, 1D, 1G, 1K), known as Business Suites. Back in the day, this product was actually marketed as first class, but the airline decided to rebrand it.

These seats are significantly different than the standard business class seats the airline has. They’re suites with proper doors, and are quite a bit more spacious than the standard business class. Note that this includes a differentiated soft product as well, from premium lounge access, to a better inflight menu.

Business Suites are sold as a totally separate product, and can be purchased at the time you make your booking. Expect it to be significantly more expensive than business class.

Asiana Airlines Business Suite (A380)

Asiana Airlines’ Airbus A380s have 12 special business class seats (seats in rows 1-3), known as Business Suites. In reality, this used to be marketed as the first class cabin, but the airline decided to rebrand it.

This is probably the most spacious business class product you’ll find anywhere, as the cabin has huge suites with doors. While the rest of business class is on the upper deck, this is located at the front of the lower deck. The soft product is also differentiated a bit, with better lounge access on the ground, plus more bedding onboard.

Business Suites are sold as a totally separate product, and can be purchased at the time you make your booking. Expect it to be significantly more expensive than business class. However, there are also reports of discounted upgraded being sold at check-in, typically around $500 per person per flight for a long haul sector.

Oman Air Business Studio (787-9)

Oman Air recently rebranded its first class as Business Studio. This product is available on two Boeing 787-9s, which primarily fly to London (LHR) and Bangkok (BKK). Oman Air was struggling to actually sell this product with decent yields, so the airline has instead decided to market it as Business Studio.

There are eight seats in this cabin, in a 1-2-1 configuration. Seats have 82″ of pitch, 23″ personal screens, and privacy doors.

This is marketed as a separate business class product, so you have to book into it directly. Oman Air Business Studio includes some premium offerings over business class, like free Wi-Fi, but for the most part, it’s the business class soft product.

ITA Airways business class (A321neo)

ITA Airways has a fleet of premium Airbus A321neos, which feature business class, premium economy, and economy. You’ll find 12 business class seats on these planes, in a 1-1 configuration. While these seats are all in a reverse herringbone layout, the first row of seats is the most impressive, as it features a lot more space for you feet, much like in JetBlue Mint.

This front row seat is marketed as an extra space seat, and can be assigned for a reasonable premium for anyone booked in business class. For example, on some A321neo flights, you can expect the fee is around $100 to assign these special seats. There’s no differentiation in the soft product, though.

China Eastern business class (A350-900)

China Eastern’s Airbus A350-900s have four special business class seats (1A, 1D, 1G, 1K), and they’re not talked about a whole lot.

The plane is snazzy in general, and has staggered seats with doors in business class. The first row of seats has extra space, including a much bigger ottoman, and larger entertainment monitors, similar to what you’ll find on Condor and Virgin Atlantic. Now, there’s not actually a whole lot out there about the soft product, so I’m not sure if that’s differentiated.

Rather than being a seat assignment upgrade option, this is actually marketed as a separate business class product. When you go to China Eastern’s website to book a flight on the A350, you’ll see the option of booking “Business Class” or “Luxury Business Class,” with the latter being this product.

Shanghai Airlines business class (787-9)

Shanghai Airlines’ Boeing 787-9s have four special business class seats (1A, 1D, 1G, 1K).

Shanghai Airlines is actually a subsidiary of China Eastern, and this is exactly the same setup as above for China Eastern. You’ll find that the standard seats are marketed as “Business Class,” while the bulkhead seats are marketed as “Luxury Business Class,” and can be booked when you reserve your ticket.

Singapore Airlines business class (A350-900 & 777-300ER)

Singapore Airlines’ long haul configured Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 777-300ERs feature some very special bulkhead seats.

Much like on Air France, these aren’t formally marketed as a special product, but that doesn’t make them any less exceptional. While other Singapore Airlines business class seats have a footwell to the side that you have to place your feet into, these seats offer way more space, whether sitting up or sleeping. Being able to snag one of these can greatly change your impression of the experience.

Singapore Airlines doesn’t sell these seats at an extra cost, but instead they’re reserved for KrisFlyer PPS Club members in advance. Then within 96 hours of departure, they can be assigned by any confirmed business class passenger (from 48 to 96 hours, you can only reserve these by phone).

Bottom line

Not only have we seen business class improve hugely over the years, but we’re also seeing airlines increasingly create a cabin within a cabin. Generally these products are thanks to the extra space available at bulkheads. Airlines are making the most of this by creating seating that they hope consumers will be willing to pay extra for, and I’d say many airlines have succeeded.

I figured it would be useful to recap the airlines offering these kinds of experiences. I think this is a trend that we’re only going to see continue, so I’m sure when I update this list in a couple of years, it’ll be much longer.

What do you make of these “business class plus” products?

For those who may not be familiar with the process of applying for business cards, in this post I’d like to talk about Amex small business cards. What are the popular Amex business cards, what are the rules for getting approved, can you apply with a sole proprietorship, etc.?

Amex business card application rules & restrictions

Amex’s consistent rules regarding getting approved for business cards are as follows:

• Welcome offers are generally “once in a lifetime,” so you’re typically not eligible for the welcome offer on a card if you currently have it, or have received a welcome offer on that card in the past; some cards also have “family” restrictions, whereby you’re not eligible for a welcome offer if you have a card in the same family
• Amex typically limits cardmembers to having five credit cards at a given point, including personal and business cards; however, this only applies to traditional credit cards with preset spending limits, so cards like The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and The American Express® Business Gold Card don’t count toward that limit
• Amex will sometimes decide that people aren’t eligible for welcome offers on cards despite otherwise following the rules, and in those cases, you should get a pop-up during the application process warning you of this

Are Amex business cards easy to get approved for?

There’s not really published data on how hard various cards are to get approved for. That being said, anecdotally speaking, I find Amex business cards to be among the easiest to get approved for. That’s true compared to other business cards, and even compared to many personal cards. That doesn’t just apply for people applying as corporations, but also for sole proprietorships.

To add to that, I find that the Amex business cards that aren’t credit cards, like The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and The American Express® Business Gold Card, are actually the easiest to get approved for.

Here’s what makes it even better, though. Not only are Amex business cards easy to get approved for, but they’re also among the lowest risk cards you can apply for.

Getting denied for a card isn’t a big deal, but it’s even less big of a deal with Amex. When you go to the application page for a business card, you should see a note stating “Know if you’re approved with no personal credit score impact.”

As you’ll see explained there, you’ll get a decision about your approval without any impact on your personal credit score. So in the event you’re not approved for the card, it has absolutely no impact on your personal credit score. This is as risk-free as card applications come.

Can you earn Amex business card welcome offers more than once?

As mentioned above, Amex card welcome offers are generally “once in a lifetime,” meaning you can only earn the offer on a card once. However, there are a couple of caveats with that, as the reality is a bit nuanced.

First of all, there’s a debate as to how a “lifetime” is defined. Anecdotally, some people report being eligible for a welcome offer again roughly seven years after they’ve last had a particular card. This isn’t a published policy, but some people report success with that. Keep in mind that thanks to Amex’s pop-up warning about welcome offers, you’ll generally be warned if you’re not eligible for an offer.

Second of all, Amex frequently targets members for business card applications, even if they wouldn’t otherwise be eligible. These applications generally have “no lifetime language” in the terms, meaning there’s nothing in the terms stating you can’t qualify for a welcome offer again.

I’ve been targeted for many of these cards over the years, including for cards I already have, so clearly there are some exceptions. Let me emphasize this only applies if you’re targeted for a card, and if the terms don’t have any language around not earning a welcome offer if you have or have had a card.

Applying for Amex business cards as a sole proprietor

You need some sort of a business to get approved for a business card, but not necessarily in the way that many people would assume. You don’t need to have a corporation to pick up a business credit card, but rather, a sole proprietorship qualifies as well.

A sole proprietorship is the most basic form of a business, where it’s owned and run by one person, and isn’t incorporated. The owner has unlimited liability, and the business has no legal existence, separate from the owner. The owner reports the business’ income on their personal tax return, and pays federal and state income tax on profits.

Now, I’m obviously not here to advise as to what kind of a business someone should set up (you should talk to a tax professional about that), but in most places there’s literally no barrier to having a sole proprietorship, as it doesn’t even require registering in any official capacity.

For many people, a side hustle could very well be considered a sole proprietorship, whether you have a property you rent out, you do consulting, you’re a freelance writer, or whatever. There’s value to being able to separate your business expenses from your personal expenses, and of course the very lucrative business cards that we see don’t hurt either.

How to fill out an Amex business card application

Those who already have business credit cards are probably familiar with the application process, but for those who aren’t, let’s talk about what you need to know.

It can be intimidating to apply for your first business card, though even if you’re a small business or sole proprietorship, you should be eligible. When applying for an Amex business card, you’ll be asked the following questions:

• Legal Business Name
• Business Address & Phone Number
• Industry Type
• Company Structure
• Years In Business
• Number Of Employees
• Annual Business Revenue
• Estimated Monthly Spend
• Federal Tax ID

If you’re a sole proprietorship, how should you approach this? First of all, and most importantly, answer everything truthfully. I think the concern that a lot of people have is that they think they need an incorporated business, a separate office, etc., in order to be considered for a business card. That’s not the case:

• You can use your name as your legal business name
• The business address and phone number can be the same as your personal address and phone number
• You can select “other” as your industry type, if the options don’t otherwise describe your business
• If you’re a sole proprietorship, you can select that as your company structure
• In terms of years in business, there’s no shame in saying it has been less than a year, one to two years, etc.
• In terms of the number of employees, saying just one is perfectly fine
• For the federal tax ID you can put your social security number

While a lot of people are intimidated by applying for their first business card, I think most are pleasantly surprised at the results. Best of all, keep in mind that with Amex you’re generally warned if you won’t be approved for a card without an impact on your personal credit, so there really is limited downside.

My favorite Amex business cards

American Express has a variety of lucrative business cards. Some earn Membership Rewards points, while others are co-branded cards that can earn you valuable airline or hotel rewards.

If you’re looking to earn Membership Rewards points, consider one of these cards:

• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (review) — the card offers big perks that can make it worth holding onto
• The American Express® Business Gold Card (review) — the card offers excellent bonus categories and great perks
• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (review) — the card has a lucrative rewards structure

If you’re looking to earn cash back, consider:

• The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card (review) — this is the best Amex business cash back credit card with no annual fee
• Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card (review) — a new cash back business card with unlimited 2% cash back and 5% on Amex Travel bookings

If you’re looking to earn hotel rewards, consider one of these cards:

• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) — the card offers elite status and other perks that can make it worthwhile
• Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review) — the card offers an annual free night award, bonus elite nights, and more

If you’re looking to earn airline rewards, consider one of these cards:

• Delta SkyMiles^® Reserve Business American Express Card (review) — the card is for Delta super users who are loyal, and want to spend their way to status
• Delta SkyMiles^® Platinum Business American Express Card (review) — the card is good for a relatively frequent Delta flyer, who values perks
• Delta SkyMiles^® Gold Business American Express Card (review) — the card is best for the casual Delta flyer, who wants basic benefits

Overview of American Express’ core business cards

With the above basics out of the way, let’s talk a little more about each Amex business card, and why some consumers may want to consider them.

Amex Business Platinum Card overview

The American Express Platinum cards are some of the most well-known premium cards out there. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is the business version of the card, offering some outstanding perks, though the card also has a steep annual fee.

At the moment, the Amex Business Platinum has an incredible welcome offer where you can earn a bonus as high as 300,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $20,000 within the first three months. Personally, I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, so to me those 300,000 points are worth $5,100 (assuming you’re eligible for the offer).

The Amex Business Platinum has an annual fee of $895 (Rates & Fees). This is one of the highest annual fee cards out there. The card offers so many benefits just for being a cardmember, and some of the most valuable benefits are credits. The card potentially offers over $2,000 in credits annually, including:

• Up to $600 annual hotel credit (semi-annual, $300 in January through June, and $300 in July through December, on prepaid bookings through Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection)
• Up to $360 annual Indeed credit ($90 per quarter)
• Up to $250 annual Adobe statement credit (after spending $600 or more on U.S. purchases made directly with Adobe each calendar year)
• Up to $209 annual CLEAR+ credit
• Up to $200 annual Hilton credit ($50 per quarter)
• Up to $200 annual airline fee credit
• Up to $150 annual Dell statement credit (with an additional $1,000 statement credit after spending $5,000 or more on those purchases each calendar year)
• Up to $120 annual wireless credit ($10 per month)

The Amex Business Platinum offers 5x Membership Rewards points on prepaid hotels and flights that are booked through Amex Travel, plus 2x Membership Rewards points for purchases at U.S. construction material & hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers, and shipping providers, as well as on eligible purchases of $5,000 or more, regardless of the category.

The card also offers one of the most comprehensive lounge access benefits of any card, including Amex Centurion Lounge access, Delta Sky Club access, a Priority Pass™ Select membership, Escape Lounge access, and select Lufthansa Lounge access. Cardmembers also receive complimentary Hilton Honors™ Gold status, Marriott Bonvoy® Gold status, Hertz President’s Circle elite status, and National Emerald Club Executive status. (Enrollment is required for select benefits)

Read a full review of the Amex Business Platinum Card.

Amex Business Gold Card overview

For businesses looking to earn Membership Rewards points, the Amex Business Gold Card could prove to be the card for you, given that it earns up to 4x Membership Rewards points for spending in certain categories.

The card currently has a lucrative welcome offer as high as 200,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months. Personally, I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, so to me those 200,000 points are worth $3,400 (assuming you’re eligible for the offer).

The Amex Business Gold Card has an annual fee of $375 (Rates & Fees). Each billing cycle you earn 4x Membership Rewards points in the two categories where your business spends the most each billing cycle. There are a total of six eligible categories to choose from. Note that you earn 4x points on the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these categories each calendar year, and then 1x points thereafter. Categories eligible for 4x points include:

• Purchases at U.S. media providers for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio)
• U.S. purchases made from electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers
• U.S. purchases at restaurants, including takeout and delivery
• U.S. purchases at gas stations
• Transit purchases including trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses, and subways
• Monthly wireless telephone service charges made directly from a wireless telephone service provider in the U.S.

Based on my valuation of Membership Rewards points, that’s the equivalent of a 6.8% return on spending in those categories, which is incredible.

To help offset the annual fee, the Amex Business Gold Card offers up to $240 back annually for eligible purchases with FedEx, Grubhub, and office supply stores. This comes in the form of up to $20 per month in statement credits toward eligible purchases. The card also offers a $12.95 monthly credit toward a Walmart+ membership, plus access to The Hotel Collection, where you can receive a $100 hotel credit and a room upgrade if available for stays of two or more nights.

Read a full review of the Amex Business Gold Card.

Amex Blue Business Plus Card overview

The Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express is almost too good to be true, given that the card has no annual fee (Rates & Fees), offers up to 2x transferable points per dollar spent, and gives you access to some other useful perks as well.

The Amex Blue Business Plus Credit Card currently has a welcome offer where you can earn 15,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $3,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months.

The Amex Blue Business Plus Credit Card earns 2x Membership Rewards points on everyday business purchases, and that applies to the first $50,000 spent per calendar year. You earn 1x points per dollar thereafter. Personally I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each. To me, that’s the equivalent of a 3.4% return on everyday business spending, which is phenomenal.

The Amex Blue Business Plus also offers 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months from the date of account opening. After that, your APR will be a variable rate (currently in the range of 16.74% - 26.74%) (Rates & Fees). I wouldn’t recommend using the Amex Blue Business Plus for purchases outside the United States, as the card does carry foreign transaction fees of 2.7% (Rates & Fees).

Read a full review of the Amex Blue Business Plus Card.

Amex Blue Business Cash Card overview

The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card is a credit card that has no annual fee (Rates & Fees) and that offers a solid cash back rewards structure. For someone looking for a cash back Amex business card, this is as good as it gets.

The Amex Blue Business Cash has a welcome offer where you can earn a $250 statement credit after spending $3,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months.

The Amex Blue Business Cash offers 2% cash back on all eligible purchases on the first $50,000 of purchases each calendar year, 1% thereafter. The cash back you earn is automatically credited to your statement with every billing cycle.

The Amex Blue Business Cash offers 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months. After that, your APR will be a variable rate (currently in the range of 16.74% - 26.74%) (Rates & Fees). I wouldn’t recommend using the Amex Blue Business Cash for purchases outside of the United States, as the card does carry foreign transaction fees of 2.7% (Rates & Fees).

Read a full review of the Amex Blue Business Cash Card.

Amex Graphite Business Cash Card overview

American Express has recently launched a new cash back business card. The Amex Graphite Business Cash Card is now open for applications, and it’s pretty straightforward:

• The card has a $295 annual fee (Rates & Fees), and authorized users cost $95 each, though you can also get a no annual fee Employee Business Expense Card
• The card has a welcome offer of $1,500 cash back after spending $50,000 within the first six months
• The card offers unlimited 2% cash back on all eligible purchases, plus 5% cash back on flights and prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel Online, all with no foreign transaction fees (Rates & Fees)
• The card is a hybrid product, meaning it has no preset spending limit
• The card offers up to $2,400 in American Express One AP statement credits, after spending $250,000 on eligible purchases on the card in a calendar year; statement credits will be applied to the monthly bill charged to the card for Amex’s accounts payable solution, One AP

Frequently asked questions about Amex business cards

Bottom line

American Express business cards can be very beneficial additions to your wallet, so hopefully this is useful for anyone who hasn’t yet applied for an Amex business card. Even if you’re not someone who has applied for Amex business cards in the past, you may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

At the moment there are some particularly good offers on Amex business cards, so this is a great time to take advantage of one of these offers. In particular, you can’t go wrong with a card like The Business Platinum Card® from American Express or The American Express® Business Gold Card.

What has your experience been applying for Amex business cards?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: American Express® Business Gold Card (Rates & Fees), The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), The Business Platinum® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card (Rates & Fees), and Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card (Rates & Fees).

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review) is Marriott’s most premium co-branded credit card, and there are all kinds of reasons to consider picking it up, including a massive improved welcome offer.

While the card has a steep $650 annual fee (Rates & Fees), I find that to be easy to justify, thanks to benefits like an anniversary free night award, a $300 annual restaurant credit, and more.

Arguably the biggest selling point of this card is how it can help you earn elite status. Not only does the card offer Marriott Bonvoy® Platinum Elite Status, but it also offers 25 elite nights toward status annually. People sometimes get confused about the details and logistics of the card’s elite perks, so I want to talk about that a bit more in this post.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card Platinum Elite status basics

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card offers Platinum Elite status for as long as you have the card:

• This is only available to the basic cardmember, and not to any authorized users
• There’s nothing you need to do to register, but rather the status automatically posts to the account provided at the time of application
• Officially, it can take 8-12 weeks for Platinum Elite status to post to an eligible account, though in reality, most people report the status posting within a few days of account approval, around the same time the card arrives in the mail
• The status is valid year-after-year, for as long as you maintain the card, and there’s nothing you need to do to re-register
• Officially, the Platinum Elite status is cancelled immediately if you cancel the card, though anecdotally many report the status staying active through the end of the status year (which is typically the end of February of a particular year)
• Platinum Elite status ordinarily requires 50 elite nights per year, but if you get it through this card, then you don’t get those 50 elite nights; however, you do earn 25 elite nights per year with the card (which I’ll talk more about below)

Platinum Elite status is where status really starts to get valuable with Marriott. It offers a variety of perks, including room upgrades subject to availability (including potentially to suites, though manage your expectations), complimentary breakfast at select brands, guaranteed 4PM late check-out at non-resorts, bonus points, and more.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card 25 elite night benefit basics

Separate from the Platinum Elite status, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card also offers 25 elite nights toward status annually, for as long as you have the card:

• This is only available to the basic cardmember, and not to any authorized users
• There’s nothing you need to do to register, but rather the elite nights automatically post to the account provided at the time of application
• Officially, it can take up to 60 days for the 25 elite nights to post to an eligible account, though in reality, most people report the elite nights posting within a few days of account approval, around the same time the card arrives in the mail
• In subsequent years, the 25 elite nights post before March 1, though in reality, typically post within a few days of the beginning of the year
• If you cancel your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card and the elite nights have already been deposited for that year, they won’t be removed from your account
• You can only earn elite nights via one Marriott Bonvoy personal card and one Marriott Bonvoy business card

The 25 elite night benefit on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card tends to cause some confusion, given that Platinum Elite status requires 50 elite nights per year. When you’re given the Platinum Elite status for having the card, you don’t get any of the corresponding elite nights.

However, you do get 25 elite nights thanks to this separate perk. What’s the value in getting 25 elite nights posted to your account?

• Choice Benefits, offers you the ability to select certain perks (like Nightly Upgrade Awards) when passing 50 elite nights and 75 elite nights in a calendar year; those 25 elite nights would count toward that total
• If you’re going for Marriott Bonvoy® Titanium Elite Status, that requires 75 elite nights per year, so the 25 elite nights earned with the card would count toward that

For what it’s worth, in addition to the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card, I also have the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review). Between those two cards, I start every year with 40 elite nights in the program, as the former offers 25 elite nights, while the latter offers 15 elite nights.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card lifetime elite status basics

There’s a Marriott Bonvoy lifetime elite status program, and the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card can help you toward earning that status. Specifically:

• Lifetime Marriott Bonvoy® Silver Elite Status requires earning 250 elite nights and having five years of Silver Elite status or higher
• Lifetime Marriott Bonvoy® Gold Elite Status requires earning 400 elite nights and having seven years of Gold Elite status or higher
• Lifetime Marriott Bonvoy® Platinum Elite Status requires earning 600 elite nights and having at least 10 years of Platinum Elite status or higher

The Platinum Elite status and the 25 elite nights toward status annually offered by the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card count toward both of those metrics. So holding onto this card can help you eventually earn lifetime elite status.

Of course let me emphasize that the lifetime elite status program could change at some point, and card perks could also change at some point. So I’d think twice before making too many decisions based on the ability to earn lifetime elite status.

My take on Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card elite perks

I think getting elite perks with the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card represents a phenomenal value, but I also want to make sure people manage expectations appropriately, so let me share how I approach the value of this card.

To me, the card’s $650 annual fee is more or less justified by the $300 restaurant credit and anniversary free night award, so I view the elite perks as costing very little.

Earning Platinum Elite status just for having a credit card is an awesome opportunity. Now, do keep in mind that Marriott’s elite ranks are pretty swelled, so don’t expect that you’re going to roll into a Marriott in New York or Hawaii, and be treated like the world’s biggest VIP.

However, the status does offer concrete value. In particular, it’s great to get guaranteed 4PM check-out at non-resorts, and also to receive complimentary breakfast at most brands, and/or club lounge access.

Generally speaking, the further away from the United States you get, the better elite treatment will be. In many places with a lower concentration of elite members, you may pretty consistently see suite upgrades. Just trade San Francisco and Maui for Bishkek and Tbilisi, and you’ll probably find that you’re treated like royalty.

Even as someone who already has lifetime Platinum Elite status, I still find it worthwhile to hold onto the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business Card, in order to earn 40 elite nights per year.

At 50 and 75 elite nights, I can select five Nightly Upgrade Awards at each threshold, and each can be used to score a great room upgrade, subject to availability. I know some people don’t have much luck using these, but that doesn’t reflect my experience.

For example, a while back I stayed at Hotel Maria Cristina San Sebastian, a Luxury Collection property. I applied my Nightly Upgrade Awards, and was confirmed into an incredible terrace suite, which would have cost thousands of dollars per night.

More recently, I stayed at the Tokyo EDITION Toranomon, and I used a Nightly Upgrade Award to confirm an incredible suite with Tokyo Tower views.

You just need to be strategic about using your upgrades, but I’ve consistently received huge value with these.

Bottom line

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card is a lucrative credit card. The card offers a variety of perks, from an anniversary free night award, to a $300 annual restaurant credit, to Platinum Elite status, to 25 elite nights toward status annually. If you stay at Marriotts with any frequency, then I think this is a card that’s worth having. This is a particularly good time to apply, given the offer that’s currently available.

What’s your take on the elite status perks offered by the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees).

While there are lots of excellent business credit cards out there, I’d argue that Chase’s portfolio of business cards — including the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, and Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ — are among the most compelling. The cards have exceptional welcome bonuses, great rewards structures, and valuable perks.

In this post, I’d like to cover the basics of these cards. Why are the cards worth having, and how can you maximize your odds of getting approved when applying?

Chase Ink business credit cards overview

Let’s start by covering the basics of Chase Ink & Sapphire business credit cards, including the welcome bonuses, the rewards structure, the perks, and more. As I view it, these cards are mostly complements rather than substitutes, given that only two of the cards have annual fees (at very different price points), and each card has its own strengths.

These cards also have consistently great welcome bonuses, so applying for multiple cards can be a great way to earn lots of points with a reasonable spending amount, which can fuel some great travel opportunities.

Note that in this post I won’t be covering the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card (review). While this is a potentially useful card, it exclusively earns cash back, so it isn’t a travel rewards card, unlike the rest of the cards in the portfolio.

Ink Business Preferred Card basics

The Ink Business Preferred Card has a reasonable $95 annual fee, and there are so many reasons to pick up this card:

• It has a big welcome offer of 100,000 bonus points after spending $8,000 within the first three months
• It has a generous rewards structure, as it offers 3x points on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable, phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines, on up to $150,000 in combined purchases per cardmember year
• It offers valuable perks, like cell phone protection, rental car protection, and extended warranty protection
• Having this card gives you full access to the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem, including the ability to transfer points to travel partners

Read a full review of the Ink Business Preferred Card.

Ink Business Cash Card basics

The Ink Business Cash Card is a valuable no annual fee card, and has a compelling value proposition:

• It has a great welcome bonus of 75,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 within the first three months
• It has a lucrative rewards structure, as it offers 5x points on office supply stores, internet, cable, and phones services, and up to 2x points on restaurants and gas stations, on up to $25,000 in combined purchases per cardmember year
• It offers valuable perks, like rental car protection and extended warranty protection
• The card only offers the ability to transfer points to Chase Ultimate Rewards travel partners in conjunction with another card

Read a full review of the Ink Business Cash Card.

Ink Business Unlimited Card basics

The Ink Business Unlimited Card is a useful no annual fee card, and there are several reasons you’d want to consider this card:

• It has a lucrative welcome bonus of 75,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 within the first three months
• It has a solid rewards structure, as it offers a flat 1.5x points on all business purchases, with no limits
• It offers valuable perks, like rental car protection and extended warranty protection
• The card only offers the ability to transfer points to Chase Ultimate Rewards travel partners in conjunction with another card

Read a full review of the Ink Business Unlimited Card.

Sapphire Reserve Business Card basics

While not part of the Ink portfolio, the Sapphire Reserve Business Card has a $795 annual fee, and it’s the most premium Chase business card. There are several reasons to consider the Sapphire Reserve Business Card:

• It has a massive welcome bonus of 150,000 bonus points after spending $20,000 within the first three months
• It has a lucrative rewards structure, as it offers 8x points on Chase Travel℠ bookings, 4x points on direct airfare and hotel bookings, and 3x points on select advertising purchases
• It offers valuable lounge access, including Chase Sapphire Lounge access and a Priority Pass™ Select membership
• It offers a variety of credits that can help offset the annual fee, including up to $300 in annual travel credits, up to $500 in annual hotel credits, and more

Read a full review of the Sapphire Reserve Business Card.

Why the Ink Business Preferred stands out

In recent years we’ve seen business credit cards become more compelling than ever before, as credit card issuers increasingly try to create products that meet the needs of small business owners.

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card continues to be one of the most rewarding business cards out there. There’s not another business card that offers a combination of a huge welcome bonus, generous return on spending, and useful perks, all while having such a low annual fee.

100K Ultimate Rewards points bonus

The Ink Business Preferred Card is offering a welcome bonus of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $8,000 on purchases within the first three months.

I value Ultimate Rewards points at ~1.7 cents each, so to me, 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points are worth ~$1,700. This is a great reward, and among the best welcome bonuses on any business credit card.

Valuable 3x points bonus categories

The Ink Business Preferred Card offers triple points in several useful categories that your business may spend quite a bit in, including:

• Travel
• Shipping purchases
• Internet, cable, and phone services
• Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines

You earn triple points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases in the above categories each account anniversary year (which means Chase isn’t using a January 1 through December 31 calendar, but rather it’s based on your account year).

Based on my valuation of points, that’s like earning a return of ~5.1% on spending in those categories, which is exceptional.

Cell phone protection benefit

With how expensive smartphones are nowadays, there’s a lot of value to having a credit card with cell phone protection, and that’s something that the Ink Business Preferred Card offers.

The Ink Preferred offers up to $600 per claim in cell phone protection against covered theft or damage for you and your employees listed on your monthly cell phone bill when you pay it with your Ink Preferred. You can have a maximum of three claims in a 12 month period, and there’s a $100 deductible per claim.

On top of that when you charge your cell phone bill to the Ink Preferred, you’ll be earning triple points on that purchase.

Rental car collision damage waiver coverage

The Ink Business Preferred Card offers primary collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage for rentals of most types of vehicles in most countries. This is one of the best credit card rental car coverage & insurance policies you’ll find.

There aren’t any countries that are specifically excluded from coverage through Chase cards, but the benefits guide does note that “coverage is not available where it is prohibited by law or by individual merchants, or is in violation of the territory terms of the rental agreement.” You’ll want to decline the rental car company’s collision or loss options.

You can confirm coverage for a particular trip by contacting the benefits team at 877-631-0919. Coverage is primary globally when renting for business purposes, while it’s primary internationally for personal rentals, and secondary in the United States for personal rentals.

When renting a car you’re also potentially earning triple points on your car rental by charging it to the Ink Preferred, since this qualifies as travel.

Comprehensive travel & purchase protection

In addition to the cell phone and car rental coverage, the Chase Ink Preferred offers other purchase and travel benefits, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Trip cancelation and interruption coverage, of up to $5,000 per trip
• Extended warranty protection, for up to a year on eligible purchases

You’ll want to read the cardmember agreement for exact terms, but this has the potential to be extremely valuable for purchases as well.

For example, I really like the trip delay coverage. If your trip is delayed by 12 hours or more, you can get up to $500 reimbursed for hotel accommodation, meals, and transportation. You just need to pay for the travel with your card, or with your Ultimate Rewards points.

Pool points with four no annual fee cards

While the Ink Business Preferred Card is valuable in and of itself, having it can make the points you earn on other cards more valuable as well. Chase has four fantastic no annual fee cards that can earn Ultimate Rewards points. I’m talking about the:

• Chase Freedom Flex℠ Credit Card
• Chase Freedom Unlimited®
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

The catch is that not all Ultimate Rewards points are created equal. By having the Ink Business Preferred, you can convert the points earned on the no annual fee cards (where one point is ordinarily worth a penny) into “premium” Ultimate Rewards points.

These can then be transferred to the Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners. Personally I value these points at ~1.7 cents each, so having the Ink Business Preferred makes other cards more valuable as well. That’s a major reason to have an Ultimate Rewards card with an annual fee.

Why the Ink Business Cash stands out

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card is one of the all-around most lucrative no annual fee business credit cards out there. The card has no annual fee, an excellent welcome bonus, and a great rewards structure. In conjunction with other cards earning Ultimate Rewards points, this can be one of the most useful cards for a small business.

75,000 bonus points welcome offer

The Ink Business Cash has an excellent welcome bonus of 75,000 points after spending $6,000 on purchases within the first three months.

You’ll see that the card is marketed as offering a bonus of $750 (rather than 75,000 points). That’s because on the surface this is a cash back card, meaning that the 75,000 points are worth $750 cash back. However, you can potentially convert these rewards into “full” Ultimate Rewards points, which I value at 1.7 cents each, so to me that bonus is worth $1,275. Yes, on a no annual fee card. That’s very good.

No annual fee

The Ink Business Cash has no annual fee. Getting a no annual fee card that’s super rewarding is rare, especially when you consider the value of the welcome bonus.

Awesome 5x points bonus categories

The Ink Cash offers 5x points on the first $25,000 of combined purchases per account anniversary year at office supply stores, and on internet, cable, and phone services.

If nothing else, earning 5x points on your cell phone and cable bill is huge, in my opinion. However, I should note that some may prefer the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, which offers 3x points on your cell phone bill, but also offers a great cell phone protection plan.

Even more 2x points bonus categories

On top of the 5x points categories, the Ink Cash offers 2x points on the first $25,000 of combined purchases per account anniversary year at restaurants and gas stations.

While these are categories that other cards also offer bonuses on, that’s pretty generous for a no annual fee card, and for many businesses it may be worth putting that spending on this card.

Business rental car coverage

The Ink Cash offers primary collision damage waiver coverage for rentals of most types of vehicles in most countries, except where it is prohibited by law, by individual merchants, or is in violation of the territory terms of the rental agreement. There aren’t many no annual fee cards offering rental car coverage, so I think that’s pretty remarkable.

Prior to renting, you should check with the benefits administrator (call the number on the back of your card) to verify your coverage. Keep in mind, you’re only eligible for coverage when renting for business purposes.

Travel & purchase protection benefits

In addition to rental car coverage, the Ink Cash offers other purchase and travel benefits, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Trip cancelation and interruption coverage, of up to $5,000 per person and $10,000 per trip
• Purchase protection for up to 120 days against damage or theft
• Extended warranty protection, for up to a year on eligible purchases

You’ll want to read the cardmember agreement for exact terms, but this has the potential to be extremely valuable for purchases as well.

Why the Ink Business Unlimited stands out

The Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card is another one of the all-around most lucrative no annual fee business credit cards. The card has no annual fee, an excellent welcome bonus, and a great rewards structure.

75,000 bonus points welcome offer

The Ink Business Unlimited currently has a welcome bonus of 75,000 points after spending $6,000 within three months of account opening. This is a great welcome offer, especially for a no annual fee card.

On the surface this is a cash back card, meaning that the 75,000 points are worth $750 cash back. However, you can potentially convert these rewards into “full” Ultimate Rewards points, which I value at 1.7 cents each, so to me that bonus is worth up to $1,275.

No annual fee

The Ink Business Unlimited has no annual fee. Getting a no annual fee card that’s super rewarding is rare, especially when you consider the value of the welcome bonus. Not only does the card not have an annual fee for the primary cardmember, but you can also add authorized users at no extra cost.

1.5x points on everyday spending

The Ink Business Unlimited offers 1.5x points on all business purchases, with no limits. This is a straightforward rewards structure, so there’s no need to focus on bonus categories. If you use this card correctly, it’s the single best Chase business card for earning Ultimate Rewards points on everyday spending.

Note that while points on the card can ordinarily be redeemed for one cent each cash back (meaning that 1.5x points is really 1.5% cash back), in conjunction with other Chase cards, these can be converted into “full” Ultimate Rewards points. Since I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, to me the card offers a 2.55% return on everyday spending, which is excellent.

Business rental car coverage

The Ink Business Unlimited offers primary collision damage waiver coverage for rentals of most types of vehicles in most countries, except where it is prohibited by law, by individual merchants, or is in violation of the territory terms of the rental agreement. There aren’t many no annual fee cards offering rental car coverage, so I think that’s pretty remarkable.

Prior to renting, you should check with the benefits administrator (call the number on the back of your card) to verify your coverage. Keep in mind, you’re only eligible for coverage when renting for business purposes.

Travel & purchase protection benefits

In addition to rental car coverage, the Ink Business Unlimited offers other purchase and travel benefits, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Trip cancelation and interruption coverage, of up to $5,000 per trip
• Purchase protection for up to 120 days against damage or theft
• Extended warranty protection, for up to a year on eligible purchases

You’ll want to read the cardmember agreement for exact terms, but this has the potential to be extremely valuable for purchases as well.

Maximize the value of Chase Ultimate Rewards

The value of the points you earn with Chase Ink & Sapphire business credit cards varies based on which cards in the portfolio you have. Assuming you have the Sapphire Reserve Business or Ink Business Preferred Card, then all the points you earn on these cards could be converted into airline miles or hotel points, using one of the Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners.

If you don’t have either the Ink Business Preferred Card, Sapphire Reserve Business Card, Sapphire Reserve Card, or Sapphire Preferred Card, then points earned on the Ink Cash Card and Ink Unlimited Card can only be redeemed for a penny each, which isn’t nearly as good. The key to maximizing value is to build up a portfolio of Chase cards.

Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to over a dozen loyalty programs, including 10 airline programs and three hotel programs. There’s so much value to be had maximizing those programs. For example, you could transfer 35,000-45,000 points to World of Hyatt for a free night at Ventana Big Sur, which is an Alila property that often costs $2,000+ per night.

Alternatively, you could transfer miles to one of the Ultimate Rewards airline partners so you could redeem for ANA’s incredible first class, when a one-way ticket would often cost $10,000+.

What makes Ultimate Rewards points even better is that you can also redeem them at an efficient rate toward a travel purchase through Chase Travel. You can redeem Ultimate Rewards points at a favorable rate toward travel purchases with the Points Boost through Chase Travel feature.

Chase Ink business card application tips

With the above out of the way, let’s talk about some of the logistics of applying for and being approved for Chase Ink & Sapphire business credit cards. The great thing is that you’re potentially eligible for the welcome bonuses on multiple of these cards.

Who is eligible for Chase business credit cards?

Eligibility for a small business credit card is easier than you might think. You don’t need to have a big company, and don’t even need to be incorporated. Even a small side business with limited business revenue makes you eligible for a business credit card, even if you’re just selling things on eBay, do some consulting on the side, have a rental property, or do freelancing, for example.

It goes without saying that you should always fill out credit card applications truthfully. I’ve written in the past about how to apply for Chase business cards as a sole proprietorship.

What are restrictions on applying for Chase business cards?

Chase’s general restrictions on applying for cards are as follows:

• There’s no hard limit on how many Chase credit cards you can be approved for, but rather there’s often a maximum amount of credit the bank is willing to extend you, in which case you may be asked to switch around your credit limits on some cards in order to facilitate an approval
• While you can typically be approved for up to two Chase cards in a 30 day period, that doesn’t usually work when both are business cards; you typically want to wait at least 30 days between business credit card applications to be on the safe side, though there are mixed reports (some people don’t have to wait that long, others have to wait longer)
• Chase has the 5/24 rule, whereby you typically won’t be approved for a Chase card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months; however, note that this no longer seems to consistently be enforced
• Regarding the 5/24 rule, the good news is that when you’re approved for a Chase business credit card, that application shouldn’t count as a further card toward the 5/24 limit, given that it won’t show up on your personal credit report

Can you earn the bonuses on multiple Chase business cards?

When it comes to eligibility for the welcome bonuses on Chase Ink & Sapphire business credit cards:

• Each card has a “once in a lifetime” rule, meaning you’re generally only eligible for the bonus on each card once
• Each card is considered separately for the purposes of earning the bonus, with the exception of the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited, where you have to choose one card for earning the bonus
• In other words, you can apply for the Sapphire Reserve Business, Ink Preferred, and then either the Ink Cash or Ink Unlimited

How should you fill out Chase business card applications?

Those who already have business credit cards are probably familiar with the application process, but for those who aren’t, here’s what you need to know. It can be intimidating to apply for your first business credit card, though even if you’re a small business or sole proprietor, you should be eligible.

When applying for a Chase business credit card, you’ll be asked the following questions, in addition to the typical personal questions about your income, Social Security Number, etc.:

• Legal name of business
• Business mailing address & phone number
• Type of business
• Tax identification number
• Number of employees
• Annual business revenue/sales
• Years in business

If you’re a sole proprietor, how should you approach this? First of all, and most importantly, answer everything truthfully. I think the concern that a lot of people have is that they think they need an incorporated business, a separate office, etc., in order to be considered for a business card. That’s not the case:

• You can use your name as the legal name of your business
• The business mailing address and phone number can be the same as your personal address and phone number
• If you’re a sole proprietorship, you can select that as your type of business
• For the tax identification number, you can put your Social Security Number
• For number of employees, saying just one is perfectly fine
• For your annual business revenue, be honest about what it is
• For years in business, there’s no shame in saying that it’s new, that it has been one to two years, etc.

How hard is to get approved for a Chase business card?

When it comes to getting approved for business credit cards, Chase certainly isn’t the easiest issuer. In general I find American Express business cards to be easiest to be approved for. However, getting approved for Chase business cards isn’t as tough as some people assume, at least if you have excellent credit.

In my experience instant approvals on Chase business cards aren’t that common, so don’t be worried if the approval doesn’t come through right away. You’ll often get a pending decision response, and then eventually (hopefully) an approval.

Still, sometimes instant approvals do come through, and it’s always exciting when that happens. Just don’t be surprised if it doesn’t.

How does the 5/24 rule impact Chase business credit cards?

Chase has what’s known as the 5/24 rule, whereby you typically won’t be approved for a Chase card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months (however, there are increasingly reports that this is no longer enforced).

One exception is most business cards, including select cards issued by American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Capital One, Chase, and Citi, generally won’t count as an additional card toward that limit, because they won’t be shown on your personal credit report.

One positive thing is that while Chase business cards may be subjected to the 5/24 rule, when you’re approved for them, they don’t count as a further card toward that limit.

In other words, if you’ve opened four new accounts in the past 24 months and then apply for a Chase business card, you’ll still be at four cards. If you then apply for another Chase business card, you’ll still be at four cards.

Can you be approved for all Chase branded business cards?

If your goal is to be approved for the Sapphire business card and two of the three Ink business cards (since you have to choose between the bonus on the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited), your best strategy is “slow and steady,” as they say. I’d recommend applying for the cards a bit over 30 days apart, at the absolute fastest. If you apply for the first card on day one, apply for the second card on day 35 (or so), and then the last card on day 70 (or so). Or maybe wait even longer between applications.

If it were me, I’d definitely recommend making the Sapphire Reserve Business Card or Ink Business Preferred Card first, since they’re the all-around most lucrative, and have the biggest welcome offers.

Then you have to decide whether the Ink Business Cash Card or Ink Business Unlimited Card is a better option for you as the second card to apply for. If it were me, I’d probably apply for the Ink Business Unlimited Card, given that it offers 1.5x points on all business purchases, so it nicely balances the 3x points categories on the Ink Business Preferred Card.

I’d note that while this is how it’s supposed to work, Chase also sometimes has limits on how much credit can be extended to someone, so it’s totally possible that Chase will approve you for two of these, but not the third. Everyone’s situation will vary.

Chase Ink business credit card FAQs

Bottom line

Chase has some fantastic credit cards, and in particular, the issuer has great business credit cards. The lineup of Chase Ink & Sapphire business credit cards have some phenomenal bonuses, and between the Ink Business Preferred Card, Ink Business Cash Card, Ink Business Unlimited Card, and Sapphire Reserve Business Card, you could potentially earn bonuses hundreds of thousands of Ultimate Rewards points. That’s huge.

Not only do the cards have great initial bonuses, but they have excellent bonus categories, ranging from 1.5x points on all purchases, to 3-5x points in select categories.

Applying for business credit cards in general can be intimidating for new businesses, though I recommend giving it a try using the above tips, and you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Do you have any Chase business cards? If so, what was your experience getting approved for them?

In this post, I’d like to take an in-depth look at elite status with the Atmos Rewards program, as there’s a lot that makes it special. In particular, I love how Atmos Rewards is the only major US frequent flyer program that still lets members earn points based on how far they fly rather than how much they spend.

Even if you’re not an Alaska or Hawaiian loyalist, there’s potentially lots of merit to engaging in Atmos Rewards, especially if you frequently redeem points, fly on oneworld partner airlines, spend on credit cards, etc.

How to earn Alaska Atmos Rewards elite status

Qualifying for Alaska Atmos Rewards elite status is based on how many status points you can rack up in a calendar year. So you can earn status without flying a minimum number of segments, without actually flying Alaska or Hawaiian, etc.

Here are the requirements for the four Atmos Rewards elite tiers for 2026, from the lowest to the highest tier:

• Silver status requires 20,000 status points
• Gold status requires 40,000 status points
• Platinum status requires 80,000 status points
• Titanium status requires 135,000 status points

You can earn Atmos Rewards status points not just for flights on Alaska, but also for travel on dozens of airline partners, ranging from oneworld airlines, to carriers like Condor, Icelandair, Porter, etc. Note that status points earning rates differ based on whether you book through Alaska or Hawaiian, or directly through the partner airline (they’re typically better when booking through Alaska or Hawaiian).

But I’d argue that what makes Atmos Rewards unique is the opportunity to earn status beyond that. For one, Atmos Rewards awards status points for award flights booked through the program. You earn one status point per flown mile on an award, regardless of the cabin you’re traveling in. That’s pretty awesome, and makes this a really compelling program for those who redeem lots of points (like I do, for travel on American).

On top of that, Atmos Rewards awards status points for credit card spending, on three excellent co-branded credit cards, all with no caps on how many status points you can earn:

• The Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card (review) and Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card (review) offer one status point per $3 spent
• The Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® Credit Card (review) offers one status point per $2 spent

If you’re going to spend a lot to earn status points, you’ll obviously want to use the Atmos Rewards Summit Card. This is one of the all-around most compelling airline credit cards, as it also offers plenty of other useful perks, like free points sharing, waived partner award booking fees, 3x points on foreign purchases, the ability to earn Global Companion Awards, and more.

Lastly, note that Alaska Atmos Rewards has a million miler program and also a status match challenge, which can earn you various elite tiers.

Alaska Atmos Rewards elite status benefits & perks

Alaska Atmos Rewards’ four elite tiers come with a variety of perks, ranging from bonus points, to complimentary upgrades, and much more. As you’d expect, your luck with using these perks will vary based on your elite tier, especially for those benefits that are offered on a space available basis.

Let’s go over the details of each of the perks offered across elite tiers, roughly in the order that I value them.

Complimentary first & business class upgrades

All Atmos Rewards elite members are eligible for unlimited complimentary space available upgrades within North America on Alaska and Hawaiian flights, for themselves and one companion on the same reservation. Upgrades start clearing at a certain window, which varies based on your elite tier, as follows:

• Titanium members clear upgrades starting 120 hours before departure
• Platinum members clear upgrades starting 120 hours before departure
• Gold members clear upgrades starting 72 hours before departure
• Silver members clear upgrades starting 48 hours before departure

Let me emphasize that just because first class seats are still available for sale at the upgrade window doesn’t mean the upgrades will immediately clear (more often than not, they won’t).

Within each elite tier, the tie-breaker to scoring an upgrade is whether you’re a million miler member, whether you have the Atmos Rewards Summit Card, the status points you’ve earned this year and last year, and when you booked (in that order).

The only other restriction is that if you’re traveling on a Saver fare, you’re only eligible for a same-day upgrade, and will be notified of whether you’ve cleared within two hours of departure.

How often should you expect upgrades to clear? Well, it really depends on your status and the market. Upgrades are no doubt becoming much tougher as time goes on, as airlines get better at monetizing their premium cabins. You’re definitely going to have much better luck traveling during off peak periods, and the higher your status, the better your chances of clearing.

One last thing worth mentioning is that as of recently, Atmos Rewards Titanium members are eligible for upgrades on global flights on Alaska and Hawaiian. This is also valid for a companion, and upgrades only clear on the day of departure. That’s an unrivaled perk that we’ve never seen before from a US frequent flyer program.

Complimentary Premium Class seating

All Atmos Rewards elite members are eligible for unlimited complimentary space available upgrades to Premium Class, which is Alaska’s extra legroom economy seating, typically in the front of the economy cabin and at exit rows, and it generally offers several extra inches of legroom. Furthermore, Premium Class offers complimentary alcoholic drinks, including beer, wine, and cocktails.

How early you get access to these seats depends on your status, and the type of fare you book. Assuming you’re eligible for complimentary Premium Class seating, that applies to the member plus one companion on the same reservation, as follows:

• Titanium and Platinum members can select Premium Class at the time of booking, except on Saver fares
• Gold members can select Premium Class at the time of booking, assuming they’re booked in one of the following fare classes: Y, B, H, K, M, L, V, S or N
• Silver members can select Premium Class at the time of booking, assuming they’re booked in one of the following fare classes: Y, B, or H

For Gold and Silver members, Premium Class upgrades are otherwise available 72 hours and 48 hours before departure, respectively. The only other restriction is that if you’re traveling on a Saver fare, you’re only eligible for a same-day upgrade, and will be notified of whether you’ve cleared within two hours of departure (this applies to all elite tiers).

oneworld Emerald, Sapphire, or Ruby status

Alaska Airlines belongs to the oneworld alliance, and this means that Atmos Rewards elite status also comes with corresponding alliance-wide perks:

• Atmos Rewards Silver status offers oneworld Ruby status
• Atmos Rewards Gold status offers oneworld Sapphire status
• Atmos Rewards Platinum status offers oneworld Emerald status
• Atmos Rewards Titanium status offers oneworld Emerald status

As I view it, it’s the two highest oneworld elite tiers where the value really starts to become apparent.

Atmos Rewards Gold offers oneworld Sapphire status, which is a pretty valuable alliance-wide status. This offers various benefits when traveling on any of the over dozen oneworld airlines, including priority check-in, priority boarding, and more.

As a oneworld Sapphire member you’ll also get access to most oneworld business class lounges when traveling on long haul international flights. This includes everything from American Flagship Lounges, to the Greenwich Lounge New York (JFK), to the oneworld Lounge Los Angeles (LAX). It’s a real treat to be able to visit many of these lounges when traveling internationally.

Meanwhile Atmos Rewards Platinum and Titanium offers oneworld Emerald status. Incrementally, this offers access to oneworld first class lounges, ranging from the Cathay Pacific First Lounge Hong Kong (HKG), to the Qantas First Lounge Sydney (SYD).

25-150% boost on points earning from flights

Atmos Rewards elite status offers a boost to the number of redeemable points earned, based on points accrued from flights:

• Silver status offers a 25% points boost
• Gold status offers a 50% points boost
• Platinum status offers a 100% points boost
• Titanium status offers a 150% points boost

The 150% points bonus is industry leading, and will really make points rack up really quickly. Between that and the program still awarding points based on distance flown, mileage running is still very much a thing with Alaska!

Priority check-in, security, and boarding

All Atmos Rewards elite members receive priority airport services, including:

• Priority check-in, with first class
• Priority security screening
• Priority boarding — Titanium members get boarding with first class, Platinum and Gold members get boarding with Group A, and Silver members get boarding with Group B

Generally I think priority boarding is the most valuable of those benefits. Most people check-in online, and nowadays TSA PreCheck and CLEAR will typically save you the most time at security, rather than a priority security line.

If you have Atmos Rewards Titanium status, there’s also a new special check-in facility at Seattle Airport (SEA), which offers direct access to a security line. So that’s a huge benefit, as that kind of a perk is reserved for invitation-only elite members at other airlines.

Same day flight changes and priority standby

Atmos Rewards Platinum and Titanium members can make complimentary same day flight changes to another flight in the same market. There are capacity controls to this, so don’t expect that it will always be possible, even if there are seats available.

Beyond that, all elite members receive priority standby, and the list is prioritized based on elite status.

One to three complimentary checked bags

All Atmos Rewards elite members receive a free checked bag perk, which applies to the member and any companion traveling on the same reservation. Specifically:

• Silver status offers one free checked bag
• Gold status offers two free checked bags
• Platinum status offers three free checked bags
• Titanium status offers three free checked bags

Checking bags with Alaska Airlines is pretty painless, thanks to the carrier’s 20-minute baggage guarantee. With this, you’re promised that your bag will arrive within 20 minutes of your arrival, or you can claim 2,500 bonus points or a $25 Alaska discount voucher.

Complimentary drink, meal, and/or snack, in economy

To make the travel experience a bit more pleasant when upgrades don’t clear, Atmos Rewards elite members may receive a complimentary drink, snack, and/or meal, when traveling in economy. As mentioned above, Premium Class passengers get unlimited free alcoholic drinks, so that’s not necessarily going to be an incremental benefit. So, how does this work?

• Atmos Rewards Titanium, Platinum, and Gold members, receive a complimentary premium beverage or chocolate on most flights of over 350 miles
• On flights of over 790 miles, Atmos Rewards Titanium members receive a free snack, or you can even pre-order a fresh meal for free, which could include a fruit & cheese platter, a protein platter, a sandwich, a salad, or a picnic pack

Atmos Rewards Milestone Perks benefits

In addition to the standard perks offered at each tier, Atmos Rewards also has the Milestone Perks program. This offers benefits at 11 additional thresholds, ranging from 10,000 status points to 250,000 status points. So it’s for those who under qualify and over qualify for status.

Just as an example, when passing 95,000 status points in a year, you can pick rewards like 15,000 bonus points, two upgrade certificates, and more. When passing 125,000 status points, you can choose perks like 50,000 bonus points, an Alaska Lounge+ membership, etc.

Reciprocal elite perks on American

There’s a reciprocal upgrade agreement between Alaska and American. Specifically, you can potentially be eligible for first class upgrades on American, as well as Main Cabin Extra seating. The value of this obviously depends based on how much you fly with American.

Is Alaska Atmos Rewards elite status worth pursuing?

Alaska Atmos Rewards is an incredibly compelling loyalty program, all the way from entry level status to top tier status. A few things stand out to me about the program, which I’d like to talk about briefly.

First of all, I think Atmos Rewards really strikes a sweet spot when it comes to efficiently qualifying for elite status. That’s because you can earn status through a combination of revenue flying, award flying, and credit card spending. For someone with well balanced participation in a program, that’s a pretty unbeatable combo.

Next, I’d say Atmos Rewards has some really compelling perks, especially if you can earn one of the higher tier status levels. I love the concept of unlimited complimentary global upgrades on Alaska and Hawaiian, so if you do often fly with one of those airlines, that’s a major reason to go for Titanium status. But even beyond that, the total number of points you can earn is impressive, especially with the Milestone Perks program.

Of course the value of the Atmos Rewards program will vary greatly based on the elite tier you earn. After all, that’s the case with virtually any airline loyalty program. Personally, I don’t view first class upgrades as a major motivator of going for status nowadays, given how hard upgrades have become in many markets. But yeah, a Titanium member is definitely going to see a lot more upgrades than a Silver member, for example.

Bottom line

Alaska Atmos Rewards is a robust loyalty program. Not only are the points valuable for award redemptions, but the status is pretty lucrative as well. Status can be earned pretty easily through a combination of revenue flying, award flying, and credit card spending, and the benefits are also pretty lucrative, especially given oneworld reciprocity.

It’s nice to see Alaska continuing to invest in its loyalty program, using it as a point of differentiation in an industry where competitors are increasingly all looking quite similar to one another.

If you’re an Atmos Rewards elite member, what’s your experience with the program?

In recent times, I’ve been writing a series about some of the world’s popular luxury hotel groups, both big and small. Recently, I wrote about the Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis brands, which are two of Marriott’s most popular luxury hotel groups.

In this post, I’d like to take a look at what’s generally considered to be the pinnacle of the Hyatt portfolio, which is the Park Hyatt brand. On balance, Park Hyatt is my favorite brand with a major loyalty program, though there are aspects of the brand that I think are getting a bit worse over time (as I’ll explain below). Let’s start with a bit of background, and then I’ll share my take.

Basics & background of the Park Hyatt brand

Nowadays the Park Hyatt brand is owned by Hyatt (as you’d expect), and it has just over 50 properties in around 30 countries. Given Hyatt’s asset-light strategy, this means virtually all properties are owned by individual investment firms, and then Hyatt has management contracts for them.

Park Hyatt is still a relatively modern brand, as it was only founded in 1979 (compare that to Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis, which are brands that at least technically date back 100+ years). The first Park Hyatt property opened in 1980 in Chicago, and the intent was that it would be Hyatt’s entry into the luxury hotel sector. In the same year, the Grand Hyatt New York was opened, and that hotel was the launch property for that brand.

So as you can see, it was a year of brand growth for Hyatt, and that’s obviously a concept that has picked up massive steam in the decades since then.

The Park Hyatt portfolio grew slowly for many years. Just for context on the growth rate, the 25th Park Hyatt property opened in 2010. So it took around 30 years to get 25 hotels open, and then the portfolio roughly doubled again in 16 years, which is pretty impressive.

Here’s how Hyatt describes the inspiration behind Park Hyatt properties:

Created in 1979 from a simple idea—that a hotel could feel like a beautifully curated private residence— Park Hyatt hotels brings depth to every stay. Each address is intentionally scaled and shaped by its setting: architecture that elevates local context, interiors envisioned by celebrated designers, and materials chosen for their quiet beauty—textures that welcome, tones that reflect where you are.

Culinary life is chef-led. Restaurants and bars are individual studios where provenance matters and technique advances tradition—often recognized by leading guides and lists. Art is curated with equal rigor, pairing museum-caliber works with contemporary voices to spark reflection and conversation.

What endures, however, is how it feels to be here. Our hospitality is observant, warm, and unforced—attuned to the individual in ways that transform beautiful spaces into meaningful stays. At Park Hyatt hotels, Luxury is Personal.

Generally when I think of Park Hyatt properties, I think of luxury hotels that have fairly minimalist design, but in a way that’s inviting, and not too sterile. I also generally think of larger hotels, so these aren’t typically boutique properties (though there are exceptions). Beyond that, though, consistency with the brand has decreased a bit over the years…

World of Hyatt is a big part of what makes Park Hyatt great

Simply put, World of Hyatt Globalist status is one of the things that really makes me appreciate Park Hyatt properties. Of course Hilton and Marriott also have loyalty programs, but I think the ways in which members can use the program to get as much value as possible for the stays that matter most to them is just in a different league with Hyatt.

On the most basic level, this comes down to perks like suite upgrade awards, and the ability to use those to confirm upgrades at the time of booking. Then there are the other Globalist perks, ranging from full breakfast, to free parking on awards stays. Heck, even the ability to give Guest of Honor awards to others can add value as well.

The point is that it’s just a totally different experience than staying at a Ritz-Carlton as an elite member, where you don’t even get free breakfast, as a standard.

I like the Park Hyatt concept, but the brand is losing steam

Across hotel groups, lack of consistency has obviously become a much bigger issue. The major hotel brands all want to attract owners, and hotel owners are increasingly dictating the terms they’re willing to agree to, and that’s why hotel groups are making compromises.

I actually find Park Hyatt to still be one of the more consistent major brands when it comes to service. However, I can’t help but notice a few general trends with the brand.

As of late, it really feels to me like the Park Hyatt brand is excelling when it comes to opening good hotels in “secondary” markets (please don’t read too much into that, my point is to exclude what most would probably consider to be the world’s 10 top tourism and business destinations), like Auckland, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, etc. In many ways that’s a good thing, since those are the markets where Park Hyatts most have the potential to stand out.

I also think Park Hyatt generally does a better job with city hotels than resorts. That’s not too surprising to me, since I think the general design and aesthetic for Park Hyatt is a better match for non-resorts.

I also think some of Park Hyatt’s most iconic properties are losing a bit of their luster:

• The Park Hyatt Tokyo is great, and I’m happy the hotel was renovated, though the Tokyo hotel market has also become a lot more competitive; for that matter, credit to Park Hyatt across the board for the Japan portfolio, because the Park Hyatt Kyoto and Park Hyatt Niseko are also excellent
• The Park Hyatt Sydney should be amazing, but I’ve increasingly heard that service has gotten worse over the years, and the Capella Sydney is now the city’s top property
• The Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme continues to be a hotel with Palace distinction, but it’s definitely now a tier two Palace property, and the hotel could use a full refresh, in my opinion
• I find it rather embarrassing that the Park Hyatt New York, intended to be a flagship for the brand, still doesn’t have a proper restaurant, aside from the lobby lounge

But I do think Park Hyatt is greatly lagging Waldorf Astoria when it comes to its current property pipeline. I think the perfect example of that is the new Park Hyatt London River Thames. It’s a great hotel for what it is, but if you’re going to have only one property in London, it’s not exactly what most people would consider to be a central location.

So I love Park Hyatt, I continue to stay at Park Hyatt properties, and I almost always enjoy my stays with the brand. That being said, the future property pipeline isn’t quite as exciting as that of Waldorf Astoria, for example. And I also wish that some of the historically best Park Hyatt properties would get a bit of love, to be brought back to their previous glory, among the best addresses in their respective markets.

Bottom line

Park Hyatt is a brand that continues to deliver. I love that Park Hyatt belongs to World of Hyatt, the program that can offer the most value with luxury hotel stays. In general I find Park Hyatt to have among the most consistently high standards of most luxury hotel groups with loyalty programs, so I appreciate that very much.

I do think the brand could use a few more “flagship” properties that have an overall halo effect for the brand. For that matter, I wish some of the existing properties would be worked on, as there seem to be some opportunities there.

What’s your take on the Park Hyatt brand, especially in comparison to other luxury brands with loyalty programs?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) and Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) are among the most popular personal travel rewards cards, while the Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review) is quickly becoming one of the most popular premium business travel rewards cards.

Over time, we’ve seen Chase update its eligibility requirements for these cards, including what’s needed to unlock the bonuses. In this post, I’d like to go over all the details you need to know, if you’re interested in applying for one of these cards.

Chase Sapphire card bonus rules basics

While I’ll get into more detail below, I don’t want to bury the lede, so let me cover the very basics upfront. As it currently stands (these rules do change every so often), the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Sapphire Reserve Business, are considered totally independently when it comes to eligibility, including for the bonus:

• Each card has a “once in a lifetime” rule, so you’re only eligible for the welcome bonus on the card if you haven’t had that exact in the past
• That being said, each card is considered independently, so you could potentially pick all three cards, including the bonuses

Those are the very basics, so let’s get into a bit more detail.

Chase Sapphire card eligibility requirements

There are often questions about what it takes to get approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Sapphire Reserve Business, so in this post, I’d like to share the main things to consider before applying for one or more of these cards, to try and figure out if you’re eligible. The below considerations are the main reasons you may be denied for the card, so let’s go over each of those.

What credit score do you need for a Chase Sapphire card?

There’s not a consistent rule as to what credit score you need to be approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Sapphire Reserve Business, as credit score is one of only many considerations when being approved for a card. In general, I’d recommend having a credit score in the “good” to “excellent” category if you’re going to apply for one of these cards.

Personally, I probably wouldn’t apply if my credit score were under 700, and ideally, I’d hope to have a credit score of 740 or higher. That being said, people with scores lower than that have been approved, and conversely, people with scores higher than that have been rejected. There are lots of factors that go into approval — your income, your credit history, how much credit Chase has already extended you, etc.

See this post for more on how credit scores work, and how they’re calculated.

Are you under Chase’s 5/24 limit? It may not matter…

Chase has what’s known as the 5/24 rule, whereby you may not be approved for a Chase card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months. This is also all the more reason to pick up the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Sapphire Reserve Business, early in your credit card journey.

However, do note that many data points suggest that this rule is no longer consistently enforced. So it’s something to be aware of, but it’s not necessarily going to be a dealbreaker. There are lots of reports of people being approved despite having exceeded that limit (and also reports of people not having such luck).

See this post for the details on the 5/24 rule, including how to check your “status.”

Are you eligible for the welcome bonus, based on vague rules?

For the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve, you’ll find the following terms with the application:

This credit card is unavailable to you if you currently have one open. The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you previously held this card or received a new cardmember bonus for this card. We may also consider the number of cards you have opened and closed in determining your bonus eligibility. So as you can see:

• You’re not eligible to be approved for the card if you currently have one open
• You may not be eligible for the welcome bonus if you previously had that exact card; however, it’s fine if you had another card, like if you have the Sapphire Preferred already, and are applying for the Sapphire Reserve

Meanwhile for the Sapphire Reserve Business, you’ll find the following terms with the application:

The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card. We may also consider factors pertinent to your business in determining your bonus eligibility.

So as you can see, there’s no limit on actually getting approved for the card, but if you’ve had this card in the past, you may not be eligible for the bonus.

Note that if you’re the authorized user on someone else’s Sapphire credit card, you’re still eligible to get it for yourself. Eligibility is determined based on whether you’re the primary cardmember.

Do you receive a pop-up during the application process?

As you can see based on the published terms, it’s a bit open-ended whether you’re eligible for the welcome offer on cards in some situations, based on the use of “may.” In other words, if you’ve had a specific card in the past, Chase says says you “may” not be eligible for the bonus.

One good thing is that when you apply for one of the cards, the application should indicate whether you’re eligible for the welcome bonus or not. This notice will be provided without the need for a hard or soft pull. For those curious, here’s what the pop-up looks like, if you’re not eligible for the welcome offer on a card:

A quick update about your application

It looks like you’re not eligible for a bonus for a [card name]. This can happen if you’ve already held or received a bonus for this credit card. We haven’t done a credit check yet, so there will be no impact to your score if you don’t continue.

How would you like to proceed?

• Continue without the bonus
• Cancel my application (no impact to credit score)

Do you meet Chase’s other card application restrictions?

While the above are the most significant restrictions to be aware of, there are some other general Chase card application rules to be familiar with. Most significantly, you can be approved for at most two Chase cards every 30 days, so I’d limit your overall Chase applications before trying to pick up a Sapphire card.

See this post for Chase’s general credit card application rules.

Chase Sapphire card application & approval FAQs

To answer some of the frequently asked questions when it comes to applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Sapphire Reserve Business…

Is it hard to get approved for a Chase Sapphire card?

Yes and no. There’s nothing that makes the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve in particular hard to be approved for, but rather Chase is among the tougher issues to get an approval from. However, that’s mainly just because of the 5/24 rule, and that Chase anecdotally seems to prefer customers with established credit.

If you have a good credit score, a fair amount of credit history, and you’re under the 5/24 limit, you have good odds of getting approved for the card. Even if you’re over 5/24, you may still have good odds.

How long does it take to get approved for a Chase Sapphire card?

Approvals on Chase credit cards could be instant, they could take a few days, or they could take a couple of weeks. In general I find that Chase doesn’t issue too many instant approvals, so don’t be worried if you get a pending decision answer when you apply. That doesn’t at all mean you’re likely to be rejected.

What is the minimum credit line for a Chase Sapphire card?

If you’re approved, the Chase Sapphire Preferred will have a minimum credit line of $5,000, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve will have a minimum credit line of $10,000. That’s because the former is a Visa Signature while the latter is a Visa Infinite, and those are the minimum credit lines extended to those products.

Which credit bureau does Chase pull from?

If you apply for a Chase Sapphire product, there’s not a single credit bureau that Chase always pulls from. It could be Equifax, Experian, or Transunion, depending on a variety of factors.

Is it bad for your credit score if you get denied for a card?

What are the negative impacts of applying for a credit card and getting denied? The only downside is that there’s a new inquiry on your credit file, which could temporarily ding your score by a few points. While everyone’s situation is different, personally I wouldn’t consider that to be a big issue, as losing a few points temporarily shouldn’t have major implications.

Meanwhile getting approved for the card and using it responsibly could have a very positive impact on your credit score, by improving your total available credit, history of on-time payments, credit utilization, etc.

If you get denied for a Chase Sapphire card, can you apply again?

You sure can. If you’ve gotten denied for any Chase Sapphire product in the past, you could apply again. Just because you get denied once doesn’t mean you’ll be denied again, especially if aspects of your credit worthiness have improved (for example, if your credit score went up, the number of cards you opened in the past two years went down, etc.).

Should you get the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve?

Many people try to decide between the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Sapphire Preferred is one of the best low annual fee cards, while the Sapphire Reserve is one of the best premium credit cards.

There are pros and cons to both cards. The Sapphire Preferred is great for its reasonable annual, generous rewards structure, and travel and rental car coverage. The Sapphire Reserve is valuable for its perks, including the $300 annual travel credit, Priority Pass™ Select membership, Chase Sapphire Lounge access, and much more. See this post for a comparison of the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve.

Are other Chase cards easier to be approved for?

All Chase credit cards are subjected to the same general rules. That being said, Chase does seem to have slightly different approval standards for different cards.

For example, anecdotally I find that the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (review) is among the easier travel credit cards issued by Chase to be approved for. Why is that? On co-brand cards, Chase works with partners to analyze the customer base they’re going after, and that could impact requirements to get approved.

Bottom line

The Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Sapphire Reserve Business, are all lucrative cards. It’s worth understanding the eligibility requirements associated with each of these cards, including the welcome bonuses.

Nowadays the cards have pretty straightforward eligibility requirements for the bonuses. Generally you’re eligible for the welcome bonus on a particular card if you haven’t had that exact card before. Given the huge bonuses on these cards, there’s a major incentive to pick up one of these cards, if eligible.

Hopefully the above answers the question of who is eligible for Chase Sapphire cards. If anyone has any other questions on Chase Sapphire card approval, please let me know.

What has your experience been with being approved for the Chase Sapphire cards?

Some time back, I wrote a post about the Ritz-Carlton brand, posing the question of whether it’s the pinnacle of hospitality, or a brand full of generic luxury factories. In this post, I’d like to take a look at what’s perhaps regarded as Marriott’s other top “mainstream” brand, which is St. Regis.

It’s a brand that I feel has changed quite a bit over the years, and I can’t help but be less excited about it than in the past. The brand still has many great hotels, but not with the level of consistency we saw in the past, in my opinion. Let’s start with a bit of background, and then I’ll share my take.

Basics & background of the St. Regis brand

Nowadays the St. Regis brand is owned by Marriott, and it has just over 60 properties across the globe. The history of what ultimately became St. Regis dates back over 120 years, though the brand has really only become mainstream in the past 30 years.

St. Regis was founded in 1904, when John Jacob Astor built the St. Regis New York, as a sister property to the original Waldorf-Astoria New York, which he partly owned (this is different from the current Waldorf Astoria, which was only built in 1931). The John Jacob Astor name should sound familiar for any frequent St. Regis guest, given that some suite categories are named after him.

Not a whole lot of growth happened with the brand for many decades. In 1966, Sheraton purchased the property, and after an extensive renovation in 1991, the hotel became the flagship for the company, and was branded as the ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection.

Things really got interesting in 1997, when Starwood acquired the Sheraton brand from ITT. In 1998, Starwood decided to formally launch the St. Regis brand, with the rebranding of the the former Ritz-Carlton Aspen as the St. Regis Aspen. Then in 1999, Starwood rebranded the Carlton Hotel in Washington DC as the St. Regis Washington DC.

That’s how the modern day brand was born, and from there, the brand continued to grow. Then in 2016, Marriott acquired Starwood, and with that, the St. Regis brand. Given the size of Marriott’s portfolio, it’s of course not surprising to have overlapping brands, but it’s funny that St. Regis and Ritz-Carlton were initially supposed to be direct competitors, but now belong to the same group (which isn’t to say that individual hotels don’t compete with one another).

St. Regis used to be my favorite Marriott Bonvoy brand

Going back 10-15 years, St. Regis was probably my favorite major hotel brand, especially in the Starwood days, and even in the early days of Marriott having acquired the brand:

• St. Regis used to be a brand with a lot of “flagship” properties, which is to say that when a St. Regis was built, it was generally very high quality, had an ideal location, a consistent design concept, etc.
• It felt like St. Regis properties consistently had excellent service, and wouldn’t cut corners in any major ways
• I’ve always appreciated that St. Regis is a brand that fully participates in Marriott Bonvoy, so Bonvoy Platinum members can receive complimentary breakfast and other perks, while brands like Ritz-Carlton skimp on that

St. Regis properties just consistently delivered. When you think of the portfolio 15(ish) years ago, which included properties in Aspen, Bal Harbour, Bali, Bora Bora, Florence, New York, Punta Mita, Rome, San Francisco, it was really a very high quality collection of hotels.

The St. Regis brand has really been watered down over the years

I have a harder time getting excited about the St. Regis brand than in the past, and I think that probably comes down to a few primary factors (and I’m curious how others feel).

The obvious factor is what I like to call the Marriott effect. We’ve increasingly seen over the years that Marriott isn’t really in the hospitality business, but instead, is in the room count and hotel owner relationship business. Admittedly that’s technically the case for all hotel management and franchise companies, but you definitely feel it more with Marriott than with others, and it’s especially evident with luxury brands.

This is true in terms of delivery of elite benefits being much less consistent than in the past (like the St. Regis Macao just refusing to give elite members breakfast, and Marriott doing nothing about it), to just generally less consistent and personalized service (I used to love the butler service coffee feature, but nowadays I feel like the benefit comes with more terms & conditions than a sweepstakes, with little consistency between properties).

It also increasingly feels like Marriott isn’t actually holding hotel owners to any standards in terms of design, location, or vibe, when it comes to what can be a St. Regis. It’s pretty wild to me that St. Regis is increasingly becoming a conversion brand, where existing hotels with totally different designs can now become St. Regis properties.

Heck, we’re even seeing Marriott now create the St. Regis Estates brand, because… well, who really knows, but we have reason to be suspicious about the motive.

It just feels like the St. Regis brand is losing steam quite a bit. Yes, new hotels are still opening, but very few of them strike me as global “flagship” properties. The new, purpose-built St. Regis properties are mostly in what I’d consider to be secondary markets or non-ideal locations, while the more globally “mainstream” properties seem to be conversions of existing hotels, which just don’t otherwise fit the St. Regis vibe.

Again, I’m not trying to say St. Regis is dead as a brand, or anything. Instead, I’m just saying that I think at this point you have to deliberately choose whether you want to stay at each individual St. Regis, rather than it being a brand where you can just think “oh, this will be among the best in the city.”

Aren’t all luxury brands being enshittified, though?

Admittedly many people would likely point out that the general enshittification of chain hotels is widespread. I’d say that’s largely true, and I get it — the hotel giants all want to grow at any cost, and appealing to investors of newly built hotels is difficult. So getting a conversion and lowering standards as needed is the next best thing, and their only option, they feel like.

I’d say if you look at the major hotel groups with points programs, there’s probably one luxury brand that’s most trending upward, and that’s Waldorf Astoria. Waldorf Astoria really is on an incredible streak in terms of winning contracts for very lucrative, flagship properties. That’s not to say that all new Waldorf Astoria properties are incredible, but I’d say it’s probably the mainstream luxury points brand portfolio that’s building the most impressive portfolio at the moment.

Am I the only one who feels that way? If others agree, I can’t help but wonder what Waldorf Astoria and Hilton are doing right, that competitors are missing…

Bottom line

St. Regis continues to be one of the better major hotel groups out there with a points program, and in particular, in the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio (given that most elite perks are honored at St. Regis properties).

However, it does feel like general standards (service, property design, etc.) have been compromised over the years. While that’s true of most major hotel groups nowadays, it seems to be especially common with St. Regis nowadays.

I still very much enjoy the St. Regis brand, and stay at the hotels when I can. However, I do a lot more research on each individual St. Regis before deciding to book it, because I think consistency has decreased hugely, and the brand as such can no longer be relied on to delivery a consistent standard.

Where do you stand on the current state of the St. Regis brand?

Of course one common question is which routes actually feature these new planes. So in this post, I’d like to go over that — which planes have the new cabins, and which routes do they fly? The airline has just revealed the next routes that will be served by these planes (as flagged by Zach Griff), so let’s cover all the details.

Basics of United’s new 222-seat Boeing 787-9s

Prior to 2026, United already had over 80 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in its fleet, split between the 787-8, 787-9, and 787-10 variants. However, United is now taking delivery of another 71 Boeing 787-9s, which recently started to be delivered (in addition to 56 Boeing 787-10s, which will be delivered as of 2028).

What’s exciting about these planes is that they feature an all-new passenger experience, and are in an ultra premium configuration. The planes feature just 222 seats, compared to the 257 seats you’ll find on all the previous 787-9s.

Specifically, these planes feature:

• 64 Polaris business class seats, spread across 16 rows, in a 1-2-1 configuration; eight of those are Polaris Studio seats, which are the front row “business class plus” product
• 35 Premium Plus premium economy seats, spread across five rows, in a 2-3-2 configuration
• 123 economy seats, spread across 15 rows, in a 3-3-3 configuration; 39 of those are Economy Plus extra legroom seats

United Elevate Boeing 787-9 routes & flights

If you want to actually fly a United Boeing 787-9 with the new United Elevate interiors, what are your best odds of getting on one of these? The good news is that they’re consistently scheduled on certain routes.

As it currently stands, United has four of these 787s in its fleet, and the planes have the registration codes N21102, N51104, N61101, and N61103. For what it’s worth, United plans to have 33 of these jets by 2028, so the airline is taking delivery of an average of around one of these per month.

When you go to book a ticket, the best way to tell if a flight is operated by the new plane is whether you see “Polaris Studio available” listed under the United Polaris fare options (assuming those seats are for sale). Otherwise there are no obvious indicators, other than looking at the seat map.

Currently, the United Elevate 787-9s are based in San Francisco (SFO), operating the following international flights, daily:

• UA1/2 to & from Singapore Changi (SIN)
• UA901/900 to & from London Heathrow (LHR)

Beyond that, as more planes are delivered, we can expect these Dreamliners to add the following additional flights in the coming months:

• As of May 21, 2026, UA930/939 to & from London Heathrow (LHR) — this is a second daily flight
• As of August 1, 2026, UA29/28 to & from Singapore (SIN) — this is a second daily flight
• As of September 1, 2026, UA948/949 to & from London Heathrow (LHR) — this is a third daily flight
• As of September 1, 2026, UA44/45 to & from Zurich (ZRH)

In other words, by September 2026, all daily flights from San Francisco to London, Singapore, and Zurich, will feature the new cabins, so that’s pretty straightforward. On top of that, United sometimes flies these new planes from San Francisco to to Houston (IAH) for crew familiarization, but that’s not terribly consistent.

Let me emphasize that schedules are always subject to change (especially when Boeing delivery delays are a potential factor), and the above is just how things currently stand.

Bottom line

In recent months, we’ve seen United start to take delivery of its brand new Boeing 787-9s, featuring a more premium layout, plus new cabins. These are exciting planes for passengers, as they feature a much improved onboard experience. They’re also great in terms of upgrade and award availability, given the number of premium seats.

If you want to fly United’s new 787s, you’ll find them based out of San Francisco, currently flying to London and Singapore. Between now and September 1, we’ll see all daily flights in those markets get the cabins, in addition to the route to Zurich.

What do you make of United’s new Boeing 787-9s, and the routes they’re flying?

The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (review) is a popular hotel credit card, and for good reason — it’s worth getting for the excellent welcome bonus, and it’s worth keeping for the long term perks. In this post, I’d like to look at nine reasons to consider the $99 annual fee IHG Premier Card, given that now is the ideal time to apply. In no particular order…

Limited time welcome offer of up to 185K points

For applications through June 24, 2026, the IHG Premier Card is offering a two-part limited time welcome bonus where you can earn up to 185,000 IHG One Rewards bonus points. The bonus is broken down as follows:

• Earn 150,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 within the first three months
• Earn an additional 35,000 bonus points after spending a total of $6,000 within the first six months

For what it’s worth, I value IHG One Rewards points at 0.5 cents each, so to me, this bonus is worth $925. The card previously offered a bonus of up to 140,000 points, so this promotion is 45,000 points better. This is a great bonus for this card, and while there are bigger card bonuses out there in general, this is a card that you actually want to keep in the long run.

Anniversary free night certificate

Arguably the single best benefit of the IHG Premier Card, which more than justifies the ongoing annual fee, is the anniversary free night certificate. This certificate can be redeemed at an IHG property retailing for up to 40,000 points per night, which covers a vast majority of IHG properties around the globe.

You can also use points to top off a free night certificate, in order to redeem at a more expensive property. For example, you could book a hotel costing 60,000 points per night by redeeming the free night certificate plus 20,000 points.

I’ve gotten lots of value with this free night certificate. For example, I’ve stayed at the InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut, InterContinental Johannesburg Airport, and Kimpton EPIC Miami using free night certificates, all without having to top off these awards. In each case, a night would have otherwise cost $250+.

Fourth night free on award redemptions

The other best perk of the IHG Premier Card is that it offers a fourth night free on award redemptions. If you stay for four consecutive nights on an award redemption, then you only have to redeem points for the first three nights.

This is an awesome perk, since it can be used an unlimited number of times (you can even use it to book multiple rooms at the same hotel, and you can even use it at Six Senses properties). If you usually redeem points for stays in increments of four nights, this is like getting 25% off all your redemptions. This is a fantastic perk.

IHG One Rewards Platinum status

Just for having the IHG Premier Card, you get IHG One Rewards Platinum status, which is valid for as long as you have the card. IHG One Rewards Platinum status includes the following perks:

• Room upgrades, subject to availability (including potentially to suites)
• A 60% bonus on base points
• Early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability
• A welcome amenity
• Access to award night sales throughout the year
• The ability to earn Milestone Rewards, which could get you club lounge access, confirmed suite upgrades, and more

IHG One Rewards Diamond status with spending

While the IHG Premier Card offers Platinum status for being a cardmember, you can earn Diamond status when you spend $40,000 on the card in a calendar year. This is IHG’s top tier elite status, which includes legitimately valuable perks. Among other things, Diamond members receive a 100% points bonus and free breakfast.

If you stay at IHG properties with any frequency, it could be worth going out of your way to earn this status.

Up to $50 in United TravelBank Cash each year

The IHG Premier Card offers up to $50 in United TravelBank Cash each calendar year:

• Each calendar year you receive one $25 United TravelBank Cash deposit around January 1, and another around July 1
• Deposits made between January 1 and June 30 expire on July 15, and deposits made between July 1 and December 31 expire on January 15
• You must complete one-time registration to receive this benefit

If you fly United with any frequency, then this is like $50 worth of travel on United per year.

Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS credit

For some, this will be valuable, and for others, it won’t offer much value. The IHG Premier Card offers a statement credit when you use your card for a Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS enrollment fee, up to once every four years.

This is a nice perk that could easily get you more value than the annual fee.

Valuable rewards structure for spending

The IHG Premier Card has a potentially solid value proposition for spending money on the card, as follows:

• The IHG Premier Card offers 10x points on IHG spending, 5x points on travel, gas stations, and dining, and 3x points on other purchases
• The IHG Premier Card offers a $100 statement credit plus 10,000 bonus points if you spend $20,000 on the card in a calendar year
• As mentioned above, the IHG Premier Card offers Diamond status if you spend $40,000 on the card in a calendar year

I definitely think there’s something to be said for spending either $20,000 or $40,000 on the card per year, to take advantage of those incremental perks.

Anecdotally easy card approval

Historically Chase is one of the tougher issuers with which to get a card approved. The IHG Premier Card has all the standard Chase approval restrictions, and this card is subjected to the 5/24 rule.

However, anecdotally many report that the IHG Premier Card is easier to get approved for, and that also matches my experience, as I got instantly approved when I applied (and I don’t remember the last time prior to that where I was instantly approved for a Chase card).

It’s my understanding that Chase has different approval requirements for some co-brand cards, depending on the customer base the card is targeting, and it sure seems like the IHG Card is among the easiest of the travel rewards cards to get approved for.

Assuming you’ve otherwise struggled to be approved for Chase cards (while still being under 5/24, etc.), then this could be a good card to consider.

Looking for a business credit card?

If this card sounds intriguing but you’re instead interested in a business card, there’s good news — the IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card (review) is also an option. The card has an excellent welcome bonus, and very similar perks to the personal version of the card.

Best of all, you’re eligible for both of these cards, so you could pick up both the personal and business version of the card to really maximize your perks.

Bottom line

The IHG Premier Card is a useful hotel credit card that just about everyone who is eligible should have, even if they’re not otherwise IHG loyalists. The good thing is that now is the perfect time to apply, given the offer that’s available.

Personally, I’d get the card for the anniversary free night certificate alone, though there are potentially valuable benefits beyond that, including the fourth night free on award redemptions, IHG Platinum status, $50 in United TravelBank Cash, etc.

If you’re looking for a business card instead, consider the IHG Premier Business Card, which has equally good perks.

If you have the IHG Premier Card, what has your experience been like?

What are United Polaris Lounges?

While United Clubs are primarily United Airlines’ membership clubs and lounges for elite members, Polaris Lounges are United’s premium lounges primarily for long haul business class passengers. Guests traveling long haul business class generally have higher expectations of the airport experience than what’s otherwise offered from domestic airline lounges, so that’s why United has created this network of lounges.

United Polaris Lounges really are pretty great, among the best business class lounges offered by any US airline. They feature everything from a la carte dining and buffets, to nap rooms and shower suites, to great decor, to cocktails and barista-made coffee.

Nowadays all of the “big three” US carriers have their own versions of these premium lounges, as there are also American Flagship Lounges and Delta One Lounges. I’d argue that Delta One Lounges are best, followed by United Polaris Lounges, followed by American Flagship Lounges. In fairness, the lounges also have very different access requirements, so which is best really depends on what you have access to.

United Polaris Lounge locations & hours

United Airlines currently has six Polaris Lounges, located in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington. Let’s go over the very basics of each of these lounges, including their locations, hours, and square footage.

United Polaris Lounge Chicago (ORD)

The United Polaris Lounge Chicago is open daily from 7AM until 9PM, and it’s located in Terminal 1, Concourse C, near gate C18. The lounge is 25,000 square feet, making it among the larger lounges in the network.

United Polaris Lounge Houston (IAH)

The United Polaris Lounge Houston is open daily from 5:30AM until 9PM, and it’s located in Terminal E, near gate E12. The lounge is 12,500 square feet, making it the second smallest Polaris Lounge.

United Polaris Lounge Los Angeles (LAX)

The United Polaris Lounge Los Angeles is open daily from 6:30AM until 10:30PM, and it’s located in Terminal 7, between gates 73 and 75A. The lounge is 12,000 square feet, making it the smallest Polaris Lounge.

United Polaris Lounge Newark (EWR)

The United Polaris Lounge Newark is open daily from 5AM until 10PM, and it’s located in Terminal C, between gates C102 and C120. The lounge is 27,000 square feet, making it the second largest Polaris Lounge.

United Polaris Lounge San Francisco (SFO)

The United Polaris Lounge San Francisco is open daily from 7AM until 11PM, and it’s located in International Terminal G, just past the security checkpoint and terminal connector. The lounge is 28,000 square feet, making it the largest Polaris Lounge.

United Polaris Lounge Washington (IAD)

The United Polaris Lounge Washington is open daily from 6AM until 10PM, and it’s located in Concourse C, near gate C17. The lounge is 21,000 square feet, putting it in the middle of the pack in terms of size.

United Polaris Lounge access rules

The access requirements for United Polaris Lounges are quite strict, and are also much more complicated than in the past, due to recent changes. Elite status won’t get you into these lounges, regardless of where you’re traveling to. So whether you have Star Alliance Gold status or United Global Services status, don’t expect that this alone will be enough to get you into a Polaris Lounge.

Rather, the only people who can access United Polaris Lounges are select passengers traveling on a flight marketed as United Polaris, or those traveling in select markets in business or first class on certain Star Alliance partners.

Accessing Polaris Lounges when flying United

You can access United Polaris Lounges if you’re traveling the same day on a United Polaris ticket, under select circumstances:

• You must have at least one flight marketed as United Polaris, which is the name of United’s business class on most international long haul routes, as well as select premium domestic routes; if your United flight is marketed as first class or business class, you don’t get access to Polaris Lounges
• You can expect that flights marketed as United Polaris will be those to Africa, Asia, Europe, the South Pacific, and “deep” South America, as well as domestic flights between Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO) and Newark (EWR), plus nonstop flights between Chicago (ORD) or Newark and Hawaii
• United recently introduced “basic” Polaris tickets, and those explicitly don’t allow access to Polaris Lounges, but instead, only provide access to United Clubs; so the “base” Polaris tickets don’t get you access, while the “standard” and “flexible” tickets do (note that when you redeem miles, you do get Polaris Lounge access, since those aren’t “base” tickets)
• You can access a lounge either on departure, at a connecting airport, or on arrival
• No guests are allowed

Let me emphasize that United marketing select domestic routes as Polaris is a new development, so yes, now select domestic passengers do get access to these lounges. This is part of United’s updated transcon strategy, coming shortly ahead of the introduction of new “Coastliner” A321neos.

Star Alliance first & business class Polaris Lounge access

United Polaris Lounges are also open to premium cabin passengers traveling long haul on select Star Alliance partners. Until recently, all long haul Star Alliance premium cabin passengers received Polaris Lounge access, but that’s no longer the case.

Nowadays only the following Star Alliance partner airline passengers receive access to Polaris Lounges (those on other Star Alliance airlines receive United Club access):

• Those with first class tickets on All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa, and SWISS
• Those with basic and flex business class tickets on Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines
• Those with business class tickets on All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand, and ITA Airways

Eligible Star Alliance first class passengers can bring one guest traveling on the same flight, while eligible Star Alliance business class passengers can’t bring any guests.

For those passengers on eligible Star Alliance partner airlines, Polaris Lounge access is only offered at the long haul international gateway prior to your long haul flight, and not at other points during your connecting journey. The policy on connecting itineraries is an area where the Star Alliance lounge access policy is stingy compared to the oneworld lounge access policy.

Just to be crystal clear about the policy, say you’re flying from Frankfurt to Chicago to Los Angeles, with the second segment on United. If you’re flying United from Frankfurt to Chicago, then you could use the Polaris Lounge in Chicago, while if you’re flying Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Chicago, you couldn’t use the Polaris Lounge in Chicago.

Bottom line

United Polaris Lounges are among the better lounges you’ll find in the United States, with a la carte dining, nice decor, great showers and rest areas, and generally friendly service.

The catch is that Polaris Lounges also have really strict entry requirements. There’s no way to enter them based on elite status, but rather these lounges are exclusively available to select long haul and premium transcontinental first and business class passengers.

United Polaris passengers are prioritized in terms of the situations under which they can access (while connecting and even on arrival), though if traveling in “basic” business class, access isn’t offered. Meanwhile only select first and business class passengers on Star Alliance partner airlines receive Polaris Lounge access, prior to long haul flights.

Hopefully the above clears up any questions about accessing Polaris Lounges, though if I missed anything, please let me know.

What has your experience been with United Polaris Lounges?

We’re taking both of our kids to Europe this summer

Our travel situation has changed significantly in recent years. Our older son, Miles is now nearly four years old, while our younger son, Jet, is about to turn one. While we’ve traveled long haul with Miles several times (and he’s finally getting to an age where it’s relatively easy and also enjoyable), this will be our first long haul trip with Jet.

We’re taking things slow (as is needed when you’re traveling with little ones while also trying to work, and while maintaining your sanity). We’ve rented a house in Greece for a week, and then we’ve rented a place in Sylt for a week.

Greece is of course always awesome in terms of the climate, food, people, etc. For the past couple of trips we’ve done to Greece, we’ve rented a home ina less popular place, rather than staying at a hotel in the few hotspots that most people visit. Meanwhile Sylt is an island in northern Germany that’s special to us — my mom absolutely loved it, and with her recent passing, we thought it would be nice to take our kids there.

The thing is, between those two stays, we have a little over a week. We’d like to spend that time in Germany or Austria. There are a few reasons for that:

• We’d like to expose our kids to the culture more, in general
• Ford is basically now fluent in German (he’s really good at learning languages), and wants to actually spend more time there
• We’re going to see relatives, since basically my entire family lives there

Anyway, we’ll have around a week to kind of do whatever. Initially we were just going to visit cities, but the more we thought about it, the more we decided it might be nicer to just go to more of a rural, outdoor-focused area. After all, if the weather is nice and our kids can just run around, that honestly sounds more relaxing and fun than dragging two little kids through cities.

One of my fondest travel memories from when I was young was when I did a road trip through the Alps with my parents. We didn’t know where we were going to stay each night, but instead, we’d just drive, and then end up in a really cute bed & breakfast. It was just such a special memory, and I can remember one of the inns in such vivid detail that it feels like it was only a week ago. How time flies.

So as I think of the concept of this, I think something in the area around the Alps, like a road trip from Munich, Salzburg, or Innsbruck, sounds like it could be prettiest. It would just be nice for them to have space to enjoy the outdoors, whether it’s in the mountains, on a lake, or whatever The thing is, I’m trying to figure out what’s best, which brings me to my question…

Any creative Germany or Austria hotel ideas?

I’d like to think I have a reasonably good grasp on the hotel market in Germany and Austria, challenging and scattered as it may be. The issue is that Germany doesn’t see much inbound international tourism, so the traditional ways you might find good hotels (like through Virtuoso) don’t necessarily work in the area. Furthermore, most of the best properties are actually tiny, boutique ones, and those aren’t necessarily as widely known.

So, what’s my thought process here? On the one hand, one easy option would be to just fly into Frankfurt, and then go to the nearby Marriott Autograph Collection properties, like the Falkenstein Grand Koenigstein, and/or the Villa Rothschild Koenigstein. However, I just visited those, and I feel like we could do better than that in terms of scenery.

Another great Marriott Autograph Collection option is Roomers Baden-Baden, and I quite like the area, as it’s right at the base of the Black Forest. However, the immediate area around the hotel feels like a busy town, so it’s maybe not necessarily ideal for kids.

Going back to my Munich area concept above, here are a few thoughts:

• The Kempinski Berchtesgaden (formerly the InterContinental Berchtesgaden — shoutout to any OMAAT readers who were around back in the day when I constantly talked about this hotel) is a beautiful property in an area that perfectly fits the bill in terms of nature, but I’d still like something that’s ideally even smaller scale (though I do like the angle of being able to use GHA Discovery, given the elite status match)
• I’d love to stay at the Rosewood Schloss Fuschl, as I stayed there back when it was a Marriott Autograph Collection property; however, given that we’re looking to stay somewhere for around a week, it’s more than I’d ideally like to spend, especially since we may be joined by other family, and need multiple rooms
• Hilton Honors and Small Luxury Hotels of the World have a partnership, and there’s an interesting hotel portfolio in Austria, like Hotel Schloss Seefels and Grossarler Hof
• Marriott Bonvoy and Design Hotels have a partnership, and there are also a couple of cool Austria properties, like the Stieg’nhaus in Mühlbach am Hochkönig (which looks absurdly charming), and the Cōmodo in Bad Gastein (which looks cute, and is very reasonably priced)
• The Relais & Châteaux Hotel Tennerhof in Kitzbühel belongs to Virtuoso, and has half board rates that are entirely reasonable
• From a points perspective, the Caro & Selig Tegernsee, Marriott Autograph Collection, is reasonably priced and seems to have a good location, but I’m not sure about the hotel as such, and ideally we’d like to go for something a bit smaller
• Or I guess to go a completely different direction, we could stay at the Conrad Hamburg, as Hamburg is a beautiful city with lots of parks and cool activities for kids, cities have lots of food options, and the hotel actually looks nice

I’m sure there are many other properties I’m missing, so if anyone has any thoughts on the above properties, or ideas for other hotels, I’d love to hear them. If I could create my dream hotel, it would be a small inn in the Alps with a dozen rooms, nice design, and not a whole lot else around, while still being kids friendly. Of course we’re flexible, though. 😉

Bottom line

We’re going to visit Germany in several weeks, and while most of our trip is planned, I still have a week or so in Germany where we need to decide where to stay. We’re also open to Austria, and the more we talk about it, the more we think something charming in the Alps would be the ideal option, rather than spending too much time in a city.

However, aside from my own experiences, I can’t say that I’ve heard a whole lot about specific properties that are worth seeking out. So if anyone has any ideas, I’d be very grateful (and then I’ll of course report back with my experience).

I’m hoping to fly SWISS Senses first class!

SWISS recently launched its new SWISS Senses cabins, available initially on newly delivered Airbus A350-900s. While I’ve reviewed the SWISS Senses A350 business class, I’d now like to check out the carrier’s A350 first class.

Now, admittedly SWISS Senses first class is basically a direct replica of Lufthansa Allegris first class, which I recently reviewed. That being said, I do try to stay on top of having tried the latest first class on all of the world’s top airlines, and that includes trying SWISS Senses.

I also want to update my list of the world’s top first class airlines, and trying the new SWISS first class is needed to do that, in my opinion. I’m pretty resourceful when it comes to miles & points, though unfortunately SWISS Senses poses a unique challenge. The airline isn’t allowing award redemptions in first class, so that means the only two options are to pay outright with cash, or to upgrade with cash.

What’s the best way to book SWISS Senses first class?

Let me share what I’ve tried up until now. I’ve written in the past about how SWISS business class tickets can be upgraded to first class with cash starting at online check-in. This includes award tickets booked with points belonging to partner frequent flyer programs.

For example, a couple of years ago I shared my experience upgrading to SWISS first class, as my partner award ticket was eligible for a cash upgrade as soon as online check-in opened. However, it seems the policy on that has changed in recent times, and I believe it’s not even specific to planes with SWISS Senses cabins.

For example, a few weeks ago I booked a SWISS business class ticket using partner points, and at online check-in I wasn’t given any option to upgrade with cash, despite all three first class seats being available.

When I called SWISS, I was told the ticket couldn’t be upgraded at online check-in because it was issued through another airline. Then just last week, I decided to redeem Miles & More miles for a SWISS business class ticket from Frankfurt (FRA) to Zurich (ZRH) to Boston (BOS), since I figured maybe that would allow an upgrade in advance.

Well, once again I wasn’t offered an upgrade, despite two seats being available during online check-in. When I called, I was told that only revenue tickets issued by Lufthansa Group are eligible for upgrades at online check-in, and not award tickets, even through Miles & More. Grrr! That’s why I ended up canceling that ticket, and instead booking Lufthansa first class using partner miles (which at least allowed me to experience the new FOX soft product).

Now, it’s my understanding that all tickets are still eligible for upgrades at the airport (or more specifically, at the departure gate), but that’s a bit too risky for me:

• With just three first class seats, a majority of flights have full first class cabins
• If I can’t get first class on the flight I’d rather not take this route again, since I’ve reviewed it before
• I live in neither Boston nor Zurich, so just being on “standby” at the airport waiting for an upgrade opportunity isn’t really practical

That leaves the other option, which is… to just pay for a ticket. Bleh, what’s the fun in that? 😉 I’m trying to find the best fare for SWISS first class or business class, particularly on the Boston route, though I’m also open to Seoul Incheon (ICN), the other current SWISS Senses destination.

SWISS does allow confirmed upgrades from business to first class on revenue tickets at the time of booking, assuming the the “A” fare class is available.

Just as an example, one could book a roundtrip from Copenhagen (CPH) to Boston with the outbound in business class and the return in economy for around $2,283.

That could then immediately be upgraded to first class on the outbound at the cost of around $2,700. So in the end, I’d be paying around $5,000 for a one-way first class ticket. As someone who likes to maximize value, that’s more than I’d like to spend!

Surely there must be a better option for maximizing value, and ideally one that doesn’t involve Cairo (CAI). 😉

My other strategy (more jokingly) is just to gamble on Lufthansa having another strike soon, booking a Lufthansa first class award from Boston to somewhere in Europe at the very last minute, and then hoping to be changed to SWISS first class. Admittedly that requires amazing timing and luck, including for the need for there to still be empty seats in first class on the SWISS A350. But hey, given the frequency of strikes at Lufthansa, maybe it’s not that unrealistic. 😉

Bottom line

I’m hoping to try the new SWISS Senses first class product, though I’m struggling to find any sort of decent value. It seems there’s new restrictions on SWISS cash upgrades, where award tickets can only be upgraded at the departure airport, which isn’t ideal if you’re trying to book a flight just to experience a specific product.

Short of outright paying cash for a first class fare, the only other decent option is to find a reasonable business class fare, and then upgrade it with cash for a not-cheap amount. Still, given the countless number of fare combinations SWISS files, I have to imagine there’s some market where one can get a deal here. So if anyone has any insights, I’d certainly appreciate them, as my lack of luck with checking this product off my list is starting to bug me!

There’s often discussion about all the things that Delta does right, and all the things that American does wrong, given their vastly different financial performance. However, what’s actually driving this difference in performance? Is Delta really transporting passengers that much more profitably, or what’s going on? I think the results might surprise some people…

The surprising reality of American vs. Delta vs. United

Let’s look at the full year financial results for 2025, for American, Delta, and United:

• American reported net income of $111 million, down 87% from the $846 million net income in 2024
• Delta reported net income of $5.0 billion, up 45% from the $3.5 billion net income in 2024
• United reported net income of $3.4 billion, up 7% compared to $3.1 billion net income in 2024

That’s obviously quite a range. I think the average person would assume that this means that Delta transports passengers a lot more profitably than American and United. While this doesn’t tell the full story, I’m a big fan of looking at PRASM, TRASM, and CASM, since it’s a fun, easy thing to compare. For those not familiar:

• Passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) tells you how much passenger revenue an airline is getting for every seat mile flown, regardless of whether it’s full or not
• Total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) includes not just the passenger revenue, but also cargo revenue, revenue from ancillaries, etc.
• Cost per available seat mile (CASM) tells you the average cost an airline incurs for each seat mile flown, whether there’s someone in that seat or not

So, how do those numbers compare at American, Delta, and United, for 2025?

Looking at American’s financial results:

• Passenger revenue per available seat mile was 16.58 cents
• Total revenue per available seat mile was 18.25 cents
• Cost per available seat mile was 17.76 cents

Looking at Delta’s financial results:

• Passenger revenue per available seat mile was 17.37 cents
• Total revenue per available seat mile was 21.26 cents
• Cost per available seat mile was 19.31 cents

Looking at United’s financial results:

• Passenger revenue per available seat mile was 16.18 cents
• Total revenue per available seat mile was 17.88 cents
• Cost per available seat mile was 16.46 cents

You’ll probably notice some interesting things here:

• At all three airlines, PRASM is lower than CASM, meaning that airlines aren’t breaking even on their costs exclusively from selling tickets for transporting passengers; United is the closest to breaking even with PRASM vs. CASM
• United has the lowest PRASM, TRASM, and CASM, but that reflects that the airline has a much larger long haul network, where you expect those numbers to be lower; for example, United’s average stage length is 1,488 miles, while American’s is 837 miles
• It’s not surprising to see Delta have the highest CASM, given that the airline has a rather outdated and fuel inefficient fleet, the highest paid employees (on average), and doesn’t operate as many long haul flights as United
• If you take PRASM and compare it to CASM, you’ll find that United has the best performance, followed by American, followed by Delta
• If you take TRASM and compare it to CASM, you’ll find that Delta beats United slightly, and then American is way behind

What’s driving the difference in profitability?

Based on 2025 results, United is the closest to directly breaking even on transporting passengers, while Delta is the furthest from breaking even on transporting passengers. So, how is Delta able to be the most profitable airline, despite that reality? And why is American so far behind Delta and United when it comes to profitability?

This is where it’s interesting to dig into other aspects of airline performance. A few things stand out:

• American has the most modern fleet, but that also translates to lots of interest expenses (debt), while Delta (probably smartly) largely flies older aircraft; in 2025, Delta paid $679 million in interest expenses, United paid $1.4 billion, and American paid $1.7 billion
• While American and Delta are largely “up to date” on their labor contracts, United still has a long way to go there, so the airline has significant cost savings from not having finalized contracts with flight attendants, for example, and that will eat into profitability in the future (that contract is expected to be ratified soon)
• United has a major advantage with cargo, given how global its route network is; in 2025, United generated around $1.8 billion in revenue from cargo, while American generated around $800 million and Delta generated around $900 million
• Delta is also really good at generating revenue from its loyalty program, including with its co-brand credit card agreement, plus Sky Club access agreement with Amex; in 2025, American generated $6.2 billion in revenue from AAdvantage, while Delta generated $8.2 billion from SkyMiles
• Delta is unique among the “big three” US carriers in owning an oil refinery, though the profitability of that varies greatly by year; while that generates billions in revenue, it’s not consistently profitable, and in 2025 the biggest benefit was that it acted as a “hedge,” by reducing fuel costs at the airline by around four cents per gallon

Admittedly let me acknowledge that I’m trying to keep things very simple here, and there’s a bit more nuance to this. For example, on some level, loyalty revenue also factors into revenue per available seat mile, since some people are redeeming points for travel, and the value of that is accounted for. But you also can’t overlook that Delta basically has a $2 billion annual revenue advantage with its loyalty program over American, and that’s the highest margin revenue you’ll find at the airline.

What’s my point in saying all of this?

What’s the moral of the story with all of this? After all, it’s the bottom line that counts, and it’s pretty clear who is winning (and losing) there. Well, I think it’s interesting to note that despite similar revenue, Delta is 45x more profitable than American.

My point is simply to point out the complexity of the industry. I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but the reason American is less profitable than Delta and United probably isn’t primarily because it’s less “premium,” and doesn’t have seat back TVs. Instead, there are so many other factors at play.

Ultimately Delta is profitable due to a combination of factors, and I’d say two are most significant — the airline has less debt than American, and it generates a killing on its SkyMiles program and its Amex lounge access agreements. Yeah, Delta gets a little more revenue per available seat mile, but it also has higher operating costs.

United also has some unique circumstances. Comparing United’s profitability right now really isn’t apples-to-apples, given its labor cost advantages. For the time being, the airline is closest to actually making money transporting passengers, though.

I also think United probably has the most upside with its loyalty program, as the airline increasingly gets a loyal following due to its global route network that’s popular with premium leisure travelers, and increasingly offers elite status for credit card spending, where it lagged American and Delta.

Bottom line

We all know that among the “big three” US carriers, Delta is most profitable, followed by United, followed by American. However, it’s not necessarily exclusively for the reasons that people assume. None of the airlines are particularly good at making money from transporting passengers, but instead, they make money with everything else.

What’s interesting is the relative advantages that each of the airlines have (well, American doesn’t have many advantages, but Delta and United do). Delta has less debt than competitors (so that’s cheaper to service) and knocks it out of the park with its loyalty program revenue, while United makes the most from cargo and still has a labor cost advantage.

What’s your take on the profitability divide between the “big three” US carriers?

American is serving special meals for its 100th anniversary

A few months ago I covered how American is serving special centennial‑themed inflight meals in premium cabins, to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Many of these are only available for pre-order, given that American allows that up to 20 hours before departure.

In domestic first class, the most common special meal being served is the Beef Wellington with roasted vegetables and asparagus with bearnaise sauce. This comes with a Waldorf Salad as the appetizer, and a pecan tart as the dessert.

So when I saw this available for pre-order on my recent flight, I couldn’t help but order. Not because this is something I’d ordinarily be interested in on a plane, but instead, because I was curious about the execution (the same reason I ordered American’s sliders & fries).

Well, below you can see what the dish looked like…

This first class dish was better than I was expecting!

In the past I’ve shared my general approach to ordering airplane food. The idea is that airline catering budgets are really low (especially for domestic first class), so I try to order the thing that I think can both be best executed on a budget, and also that reheats well (given the realities of preparing airplane food).

Ordinarily, a beef filet wouldn’t really check either of those boxes — I’m not a huge meat eater, but when I do eat it, I enjoy a higher quality piece of meat, and ideally not one that’s reheated.

Back in the day I had tried American’s “steak” in domestic first class, and I can’t say it was great. My worry was that the piece of meat here would be even lower quality, since I imagine other components of the dish cost more than normal, so you’d assume there would be even more budget control.

So while I don’t want to exaggerate and suggest this was some amazing meal that I would’ve been delighted to be served in a restaurant, it was better than I was expecting. I’m not a huge Waldorf Salad fan, but the Beef Wellington pastry had a good texture, the veggies were crisp, and the beef at least wasn’t lower quality than usual (so it was just your typical hockey puck). Meanwhile the pecan tart was excellent.

Personally I probably wouldn’t order this again, but if you do like airplane beef, then you’ll probably be pretty happy ordering this.

Bottom line

I had my first chance to try one of American Airlines’ centennial-themed dishes, as the Beef Wellington was on the pre-order menu for my domestic flight. I was a little skeptical as to how bad the execution would be, given tight catering budgets. But it was better than I was expecting — that’s not to say it was something you’d expect to be served in a nice restaurant, but for what it is, I can’t complain!

If you’ve dared to order American’s Beef Wellington, what did you think?

My unforgettable stay at the Aegon Mykonos

Some long time OMAAT readers may remember my summer 2021 stay at Aegon Mykonos, a Marriott Autograph Collection property (well, at least at the time). This was a new points hotel I was excited to check out, though my stay ended up being much more memorable than expected.

Long story short, I used a confirmed suite upgrade, but was downgraded. Fair enough, stuff happens, but the general manager was a complete jerk about it, basically suggesting I couldn’t complain because I was staying for “free,” and then offering to compensate me with free breakfast, which was already included on account of my status.

And that was only the start of the problems, as eventually the owner of the hotel came into the driveway to ask “are you OMAAT,” and then to yell at me for my “bad energy.” We ended up checking out after four hours, because we just weren’t comfortable staying there.

Anyway, you can get the play-by-play of what happened in these posts, if you’re interested:

• Marriott Bonvoy Confirmed Suite Upgrade Downgrade
• I’d Like To Speak With The Marriott Manager!
• I’m Speechless: My Awful Marriott Check-In Experience
• My Four-Hour Stay At Marriott’s Aegon Mykonos
• Aegon Mykonos Responds To My TripAdvisor Review With Lies
• I Received An Apology From The Aegon Mykonos…

The Aegon Mykonos disappeared without a trace

Long story short, some time in 2022, the Aegon Mykonos just vanished into thin air. The hotel was no longer listed on Marriott’s website. The hotel’s own website — aegonmykonos.com — started returning a domain error. The hotel hasn’t updated its Facebook or Instagram since 2022. And when you search “Aegon Mykonos” online, you won’t find the hotel bookable anywhere.

It seems that the hotel just closed, which made no sense for a hotel that was only two years old in one of the world’s busiest summer tourist hotspots. Now four years later, it seems absolutely nothing has changed.

For what it’s worth, I suspected that something strange was going on with the hotel back in 2022, before it officially closed. In the summer of 2022, I wrote about how the hotel was no longer accepting reservations through Marriott’s website. I assumed that there was some sort of a dispute with Marriott. Nonetheless, when I reached out to a Marriott spokesperson, they claimed the hotel wasn’t leaving the Marriott portfolio.

Even with that statement, I assumed that the hotel would either become fully independent, or join another one of the major global hotel groups. We all know that just about all hotel groups are looking to expand their footprint in Mykonos. What I didn’t expect is that the hotel would just shut down long term, since that also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

What could explain the hotel closing?

I can appreciate why the hotel might have wanted to rebrand, but it appears the hotel just closed, and has remained that way for four years. What could possibly explain that? I’m trying to come up with theories, and have just two possible explanations:

• There were financial issues; maybe the owners were in financial trouble, or something along those lines
• There were structural or safety issues; maybe the hotel just wasn’t in a position to accommodate guests, didn’t have correct permits, etc.

What made me most recently think of the Aegon Mykonos is that I just wrote about the opening of the Four Seasons Mykonos, which is also located near Kalo Livadi Bay, the same area as the Aegon.

I’m not sure how current this is, but it appears that Pima Group may have purchased the Aegon Mykonos at some point in the past several years. It sounds like there might be some controversy surrounding that, but I can’t find enough sources to be sure this is accurate, vs. something that’s being blown out of proportion.

So yeah, this ultimately doesn’t matter, I’m just shocked to see a new hotel sit abandoned in Mykonos for years on end, given the insatiable demand for tourism. Obviously something went very wrong to cause that outcome.

Bottom line

In 2022, the Aegon Mykonos closed, and sort of disappeared without a trace. I know all of that might sound random, but I had a very “memorable” hotel stay there in 2021, and obviously found the whole owner situation to be very strange.

It’s one thing for there to be a dispute between Marriott and the hotel owners, but to see the entire property just be shuttered and (seemingly) abandoned for years is something I can’t make sense of. Presumably there were some sort of financial or structural issues, or something.

If anyone has more details and can indulge my curiosity, I’d sure love to know what happened!

What do you make of this Aegon Mykonos situation?

Newark Airport’s runway 29 is sort of a problem

There’s quite a bit of discussion going on regarding what could cause an accident like this to happen, because suffice it to say, commercial aircraft shouldn’t be clipping cars on the interstate.

While the above footage (from Sunday’s incident) is obviously the wildest, the reality is that there have been quite a few very low approach landing videos from this runway over time.

What’s going on here? Well, runway 29 is used as needed for landings based on the winds. Here’s the issue:

• The runway is only 6,725 feet long, and for wide body aircraft, that’s very close to the minimum runway length they need; this means the room for error is limited, so pilots are going to try to land toward the beginning of the touchdown zone
• It seems utterly moronic to have an elevated interstate right at the edge of such a short runway, for obvious reasons (see all of the above videos!)
• There’s no ILS approach for runway 29, but just a series of RNAV approaches that go as low as 490 feet, at which point it becomes a visual segment

When you add in all of these factors, plus you see the above videos, it’s not difficult to think “oh, that could end very badly.” The United pilots and truck driver got really lucky here, as I see it. If the plane had instead been just feet lower, and had impacted that perimeter wall, I imagine this could’ve ended much worse.

Is there a practical solution to this runway issue?

Newark Airport is already known for constantly being congested, so any additional restrictions on runways will complicate things further. But of course safety is paramount, and can’t be overlooked in the name of operational efficiency.

It’s not that runway 29 needs to be shut down, but maybe investigators should look into whether restrictions should at least be placed on wide bodies landing there. Yes, pilots manage to safely land here day in and day out, but the safety margins just might not be there.

I’ve seen some people suggest that this portion of the interstate should simply be closed, but I don’t view that as a reasonable or practical solution.

Bottom line

On Sunday, a United Boeing 767 clipped a truck and light pole while on approach to Newark Airport’s runway 29. While that absolutely shouldn’t happen, when you look at the circumstances, you can kind of see what might’ve contributed to this.

Runway 29 is rather short (especially for wide body aircraft), and there’s an elevated interstate right at the approach end of it. When you consider that this is a visual approach, this all just seems rather risky. Also, in terms of plane spotting, the New Jersey Turnpike shouldn’t feel like Maho Beach, in my opinion.

Do you think we’ll see any new rules related to Newark’s runway 29? Or do you think this incident will be forgotten in a week?

In a separate post, I broadly covered the changes that are being promised. The new first class soft product rolled out in late March, while the new soft product in other cabins is debuting this week.

Over the weekend, I had the chance to fly Lufthansa first class from Frankfurt (FRA) to New York (JFK), a flight that was operated by the A340-600. It wasn’t my first choice of flights, but my other option for returning home fell apart at the last minute, so I figured this was a good value way to return home (since I redeemed miles), while also getting to experience the new soft product.

So, how is the new FOX experience in first class? Is it revolutionary? Evolutionary? Lipstick on a pig?

What I was expecting from Lufthansa’s new first class soft product

First, I’d like to talk a bit about what I was expecting going into this flight. After all, perception of an experience is often considered to be the gap between expectations and reality.

I’m focusing here specifically on soft product — I’ve already reviewed Lufthansa’s new Allegris A350 first class, and the hard product is very good, even if I can’t make sense of the monetization of the double suite.

My particular flight was operated by an A340, a first class experience I’ve reviewed before. This plane is months from retirement, so there’s no point in discussing the hard product further.

I was skeptical of the extent to which FOX would revamp Lufthansa’s soft product:

• I just don’t have much faith in Lufthansa’s management team nowadays, and think they’ve lost the plot
• The goals with this project seem rather questionable, as Lufthansa’s CEO insists all of this will make Lufthansa Europe’s top airline; when a project starts with an unrealistic goal, it always makes me a little more skeptical
• When announcing these changes, they quite frankly seemed rather minimal, especially for something described as the biggest soft product overhaul in the company’s history
• I’ve actually frequently said that I think Lufthansa’s first class soft product is perfectly fine and middle of the pack; it’s not bad in any way, but also not the best in the industry, and I thought that was a fair way to be positioned

Basically, going into the flight I was expecting we’d be getting a mother of pearl spoon for caviar, blinis, and an appetizer trio, and that would be it. In some ways, that’s not too far off from how things actually played out. But despite that, I was more impressed than I was expecting to be.

Lufthansa’s first class soft product overhaul

With the above out of the way, let me just get right into it, and share how the experience has changed, as I see it, broken down by amenities, food, and drinks.

New Lufthansa first class amenities & small touches

When it comes to onboard amenities in Lufthansa first class, they’ve been updated, but I wouldn’t say they’ve been fully overhauled. For example, in addition to the standard pillow and day blanket, there’s a new, small memory foam pillow, which is a nice addition.

The bed setup otherwise remains unchanged, which I’d consider to be a good thing, as Lufthansa’s bedding is excellent.

Lufthansa has new first class pajamas, intended to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary. Pajamas used to be from van Laack, but I couldn’t find any branding on the new ones. To be honest, I found them to be quite comfortable and high quality, and I like the little Lufthansa branding touches.

Then there’s the amenity kit situation. The current kit is a 100th anniversary case, and I really liked this. The box feels sturdy, and it’s something that can be reused.

The contents have been updated a bit, and there’s a new plush Lufthansa first class eye mask, which is pretty awesome. What a cool twist on a traditional eye mask.

To create a more customized experience, as it’s described, Lufthansa now makes the process of selecting amenities a bit more interactive. Upon boarding, you’re presented with an amenity selection menu, with products from German skincare brand BABOR.

I think it’s a cute concept they have, but I find it all to be a bit strange. Like, how many of these products is one reasonably supposed to ask for? After all, these are basically like skincare samples you’d get if you went to a department store, or something.

I asked the very friendly flight attendant if I could have each of the five products. She kind of looked at me a bit wide-eyed (in the nicest way possible) and said she’d have to check if they have enough. I didn’t want to seem greedy, so between my dad and I (he met me in Germany and was also on the flight), we ended up with four.

But anyway, it seems a bit could be done to make that situation a little clearer and less awkward. Like, it seems worth stating what the intention is there…

As before, there continue to be well padded slippers, among the most comfortable you’ll find on any airline.

Speaking of cute little details, before landing the crew came through the cabin to thank each passenger for flying with Lufthansa, offering them a box of chocolates and a handwritten card with Lufthansa first class branding. What a nice touch!

New Lufthansa first class meal selection

When it comes to the meal service in Lufthansa first class, I’d also describe the changes as being evolutionary rather than revolutionary. That being said, the changes are absolutely noticeable, and make a difference.

As before, pre-departure drinks are served on the ground, with the choice of macadamia nuts and/or olives. That’s still one of the nicer pre-departure services out there, if you ask me.

The menu and drink list are much more colorful and substantial than in the past, and they do a bit more to tell a story, in terms of extra pages dedicated to the products being offered.

Below is the menu for the main meal on my flight.

The single amuse bouche has been replaced by an amuse bouche trilogy. Let me say from the start that I think the way dishes are presented is so much better than in the past — just look at the garnishes here. These actually look like little dishes where effort was put into the presentation.

That’s followed by Lufthansa’s new caviar service, which hasn’t actually changed that much, except for the addition of a mother of pearl spoon and blinis.

That’s then followed by a trio of appetizers, a concept that’s basically unchanged at the airline.

After that, there’s the choice of a soup and/or salad. I opted for the soup, and was impressed by how it was presented, as the bowl was brought out with the solid ingredients, and then the liquid was poured on top of it at my seat.

I know Lufthansa has tried to update the presentation of dishes, and I think that has been very successful. Both my dish, as well as my dad’s main dish, were beautifully presented, in line with what you’d expect in a restaurant. This is a huge upgrade over the old presentation.

There’s then the option of a cheese plate, which is largely unchanged compared to the past (though the cheese and dessert course have been separated out).

Then there’s a dessert selection, and you can go for the full dessert trio, if you’d like (there used to be just two options, and now there are three).

Lastly, there’s a selection of pralines, and Lufthansa has even added a little praline menu, so you can review your options in advance.

I thought the tea presentation was pretty cute a well.

The quantity of food that Lufthansa now offers people is sort of unreal. Most of the above pictures are a combination of what my dad and I separately had, because there’s no way either of us could’ve made it through all the courses.

Lufthansa has also updated its pre-landing meal concept, with the introduction of an “anytime selection,” so you can order what you’d like, when you’d like. In the past, there was just one section with “cold & warm specialties,” and now there are separate cold specialties, warm specialties, and light bites, plus more dessert options.

The options weren’t that different from the past, but presentation has been upgraded a bit, and I like the flexibility offered by the menu.

New Lufthansa first class drink selection

When it comes to drinks, Lufthansa claims it has upgraded both its alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink selection. As I understand it, 2018 Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame is now the standard brut option, and there’s also a section option, which on this flight was 2015 Bollinger La Grande Annee.

The rest of the wine list is pretty decent but nothing amazing, with a heavy focus on the region.

Lufthansa is also increasingly highlighting other signature drinks.

Based on the beautiful (I assume) negroni picture on the cover of the drink list, I asked if they could make me a negroni. They said they could, though it didn’t look quite like what was on the cover. 😉

Lufthansa’s first class improvements are incremental but meaningful

When Lufthansa set out to launch its new first class soft product, I didn’t think the airline needed to reinvent the wheel, or anything.

In terms of substance, the changes are fairly minimal, and were roughly what I expected. But what exceeded my expectations was the extent to which the changes were thoughtful, and clearly intended to create more nice interactions between the crew and passengers.

I’ve often said that when you fly Singapore Airlines, it almost feels like a “performance,” in terms of the service flow. The airline is just so good at creating a polished and seamless experience, and often it’s the smallest details that impact the impressions we have.

Simply put, everything about the refreshed Lufthansa first class experience felt a bit more seamless and deliberate. I think the perfect minor example of that is the introduction of a praline menu. It’s such a minor and unnecessary little touch, but it makes you say “oh, someone put some extra thought into this.”

After all, sometimes you’ll be presented the box of pralines in a dark cabin, and you can barely tell the difference between what they are, so having a little menu can help, silly as it may seem. Similarly, the “thank you” card before landing is another nice touch. The only other airline that has consistently done something like this is Cathay Pacific, which gives a little handwritten card with the first meal service.

When you combine Lufthansa’s new first class hard and soft product, I think it makes for a really well rounded experience. It’s certainly much better than what British Airways offers, but it’s not quite to Air France’s level (which is fair enough, given the pricing difference).

Honestly, I can’t think of many things that I’d really change about the soft product, given Lufthansa’s position in the market, aside from perhaps some stronger brand collaborations (though that’s more about “vibes” than actual substance). A couple of areas do stand out to me:

• While the claim is that the plating and cutlery have been updated, they looked mostly the same to me; I wish Lufthansa would introduce something more interesting here, since everything is white and rather unmemorable
• This is minor, but Lufthansa needs a brand sonic, or something, because there’s so much awkward silence at the airline; it’s so weird to me how the Lufthansa First Class Terminal is so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, there’s no boarding music on the plane, etc.

Anyway, all-in-all, I walked away with a very positive impression. Lufthansa managed to create more of a human element to the service, and I was under the impression part of Lufthansa management was incapable of having human feelings. 😉

Now, can I make sense of how it took the airline two years and thousands of people to overhaul the experience this way? Not really, it seems like most of these concepts could’ve been come up with in an afternoon. But hey, it’s one of the better executed things we’ve seen at Lufthansa in recent times

Bottom line

Lufthansa recently rolled out its new first class soft product, including a refresh of amenities, food, and drinks. While the airline didn’t revolutionize first class, I think the service updates are thoughtful, and contribute to a more well thought out service concept that lends itself to more favorable interactions between passengers and crew.

Ultimately Lufthansa’s first class soft product was quite good before, and the airline really tweaked some of the minor areas where there were opportunities to improve. Between this and the new first class hard product, Lufthansa has come a long way (though don’t get me started on the 3.5-seat cabin concept).

What do you make of Lufthansa’s first class service updates?