Good morning, and welcome to today's community discussion thread! Today's posts will appear here throughout the day, but this thread is for going off-topic. Did you love/hate something about today's coverage? Are you tracking other news I missed? Or, do you just have a general question about rewards travel? This is the place for your wandering thoughts.
Today's posts on OMAAT:
- Flying Blue Award Pricing Changes: New Tiered Fares Amount To A Devaluation
- Flight Attendants Hate Working Alaska 787s, Complain Of “Impossible” Service
- Lufthansa Airbus A380 Lands Early In Munich, Hits Runway Lights… Second Runway Incident In Two Days!
- Chase Ink Business Preferred Cell Phone Protection: How This Useful Benefit Works
- Regent Seven Seas & GHA Discovery Partnership: Surprisingly Lucrative
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card Platinum Elite Status: How It Works
- Buy Avianca Lifemiles With Up To 145% Bonus: Worth It For 1.35 Cents Each?
- Cool: Eurowings Adds “Real” Business Class On Entire A320neo Fleet, A Rarity In Europe
- Starlux Airlines Starts Selling Miles: I’m More Excited Than I Should Be!!
- Do Airlines Want You To Get Amazing Deals With Your Points? The Complicated Truth…
Daily threads stay open for a week, so it's never too late to jump into a recent conversation.
Wanted to know everyone's thoughts on lounge recommendations. I have an upcoming trip PHL-LHR, LHR-CDG, CDG-PHL separate legs.
For PHL I know I prefer the Centurion if it's not over crowded because it's my preferred food option, and am familiar with my other options if need be.
However, I've only ever flown BA out of LHR, but am flying AF for the LHR-CDG leg. Is AF Lounge my best option in Terminal 4? The other option is Plaza Premium which I can't imagine would be better.
Also, for the CDG-PHL leg I'm flying American in business. It looks like my two options are Cathay Pacific or American lounges. From quick research the Cathay Lounge seems considerably better than the American Lounge. Is that people's impression?
For CDG-PHL, hands-down Cathay lounges over everything else (at CDG, and in-general, think, LHR T3, HKG, etc.), especially for food, but also, most other things. And, if you didn't have the seats in J, you could also get in with oneworld Sapphire/Emerald for that route. (One small caveat for CDG, the CX lounge may close around midday, depending on flight schedules, so if your timing is off, it may not work; then, you can back-up plan to the AA lounge, but you will be somewhat 'sad' there, I think. Bah!)
For your outbound segment (PHL-LHR), you didn't mention the airline, class of service, or status, so presuming you wouldn't have access to the newer AA Flagship lounge in Terminal A-West? (Haven't tried it yet personally, but have wanted to.) If you do happen to be flying AA/BA, etc. in J or hold the qualifying oneworld status, that's worth checking out, too.
(Actually have never been to T4 at LHR; I'm sure someone else has, but your intuition seems wise; AF lounges are generally decent.)
Enjoy! Safe travels!
I'm flying Premium Economy on BA to LHR, then business for the other 2 legs (this was a cash out miles on 3 different airlines special.) From what I've heard about the new AA Flagship (haven't been yet as it's been awhile since I had an international business flight out of PHL on AA) most people like it equivalently to Centurion or maybe a little better, but it's less crowded being the bigger draw as Centurion gets busy before the wave of nighttime AA international flights which happens to be around the time I'm flying.
I was able to cash upgrade from PE to J on AA, but it looks like it's close to a sold out flight on BA and wasn't able to do the similar upgrade.
Score on the paid upgrade to J with AA!
For PHL, personally, if I had access (PE alone would not, so you'd need OW Sapphire or Emerald), I'd start with AA Flagship, and, if not, I'd attempt to use the Amex app in-advance if there's a waitlist for the Centurion (since evening flights can pack those lounges, any airport.)
Either way, hope the trip goes well!
If you fun folks like ATC videos, there's a new one yesterday of Kennedy Steve commenting on how Kennedy Steve was handing a SWAP. Very meta and enjoyable.
Ben, I've been getting updates (especially from my travel insurance provider) to 'be prepared' for "What El Niño Could Mean for Your Next Trip" ... not sure if that's a merely marketing pitch for buying more comprehensive travel insurance policies, or if airlines/hotels, etc. are prepared for what could be an insane 12-15 months ahead of travel disruptions around the world...
Just an example of what one provider is saying: https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/travel-resources/el-nino-travel.html (I found their regional breakdown fascinating. "Central and South America: Flooding and Changing Ecosystems; Asia and Oceania: Heat, Drought, and Wildfire Risk" Not sure this is something anyone's thinking much about yet, but could become Mr. Toad's Wild Ride depending on where/when.
So why do none of my posts show up in comments on stories? It'd be weird to ban me from there and not from here. And it'd be weird to ban me from there when the crapflooders who populate this place aren't banned. So unban me or tell me I've been banned, and I'll leave.
Who's flooding what now, ORD? Name-names. Perhaps, it's a quantity vs. quality thing, but that can be fairly subjective. Like, one commenter's 'trash' may be another's treasure. (I donno, man; I'm not the boss; hope you get your answers, soon. See you 'round!)
@1990_ I wasn't necessarily talking about you. There are a number of people here who qualify as a crapflooder more than you do. And you know exactly who I'm talking about because the "crap" part and the "flood" part are definitely represented by his posts.
@ord_is_my_second_home Well, I just learned that we reach a maximum comments on these message boards, so I had to wait an hour in ‘jail’ just to be able to tell you this. Huh. Yowzers!
@1990_ Excepty my maximum comments seem to be set to 0. I try to post in any comment section on any story, and the message gets black-holed.
Another off-topic post: how far in advance does Air India announce flight changes for the AI 101 DEL-JFK? So far the FCO refuel stop is in the schedule through the end of September. I really don't see the Iran war truly ending anytime soon - I guess Air India are just being optimistic? I have a SIN-DEL-JFK Aeroplan award in early October. Unfortunately, last time Air India changed the schedule (11 pm departure instead of 2 am) on the same routing, they kept the *calendar* date of the flight. So instead of arriving in DEL at 8 pm and departing at 2 am next day, I ended up with a 27-hour connection instead of a 3-hour connection. After several phone calls, Aeroplan were nice enough to rebook me on SQ24, skipping Air India altogether. I hope not to have to deal with this again.
Has anyone figured out if you do a status match with flying blue and then get the credit card if the Bonus qualifying points from the credit card go towards the next higher tier?
@chris you have to get the credit card first, then match to gold, then complete the SUB. you need the SUB XP and the anniversary XP to all post within the same gold status year, which is why you need the card first. So a schedule could look like-
Month 1 - Credit Card
Month 2 - Match to Gold
Month 3 - Complete SUB; Get another 40XP from activities.
Month 12 - Get anniversary XP (assuming you meet spend requirements)
That should get you to FB Plat