Business Travel: Maybe I just really like my own bed, my house, and desktop computer

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Business Travel: Maybe I just really like my own bed, my house, and desktop computer

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Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Hi all! Just noticed this thread, thought I'd chime in.

Buckhead posted:

I only fly domestically for work and stick to the majors, and Delta is far and away my (and everyone else's) favorite. United is a distant second, and American an even further distant third. I don't think American has renovated any of their plane interiors or terminal areas in decades. DFW is a dump. United does seem to have the most space in coach though. Also, Delta seems to have wifi on all of their planes, while United and American seem to have wifi on none of their planes. I can't do any work without the internet, so it really annoys me when I get to a hotel at 9 p.m. and have to catch up on a day's worth of e-mail.

I don't have much experience with United (*), but I've flown American, Delta, and US Airways a lot. Before I got status, my opinion was American >> Delta >>>> US Airways. A few years ago, I got entry level status on American and Delta, and the experience was much better with American than with Delta, so I consolidated a lot of my travel on American.

(*) United's regional jet system is really odd in some states resulting in me having to make extra connections.

TouchyMcFeely posted:

I know in my case the cost of my time to take an extra flight or route less efficiently is significantly less than the cost to lose status.

For example, if I fail to maintain silver medallion on Delta I will start getting hit with the $25.00 bag fee increasing the cost of travel by $50 per trip. The total cost of baggage fees would end up costing more than a quick turn around flight between SLC and DEN to keep my status.

I agree elite status rocks, but I don't understand all the people talking about the free bag. You can get that with a credit card :confused:

dexter posted:

It just needs to be at more airports (I'm looking at you, JFK.) I haven't had a chance to use precheck yet (NEXUS was stupid easy to sign up for except for driving to the Mexican border for the interview) but I've used the hell out of Clear. It sure makes you feel like an rear end in a top hat though while they're escorting you past 150 people at SFO Terminal 1 since there's no dedicated line.

PreCheck is at JFK. I used it on AA months before you posted this, although the PreCheck lanes at some airports are airline-specific.

Lyon posted:

Hah I promise US Air isn't that bad.. I pretty much only fly US Air and United and I have never noticed a major difference. I am very curious as to what will happen if US and AA merge, sounds like US Air would leave the Star Alliance which will suck.

Have you AA guys been keeping tabs on the talks at all?

I disagree. I've flown US (even paid for an F upgrade a couple times), and AA beats it hands down. Both mainline and regional jets.

I've been keeping tabs on the merger situations, and have discussed it with some folks in the industry and a few fellow business students. The situation with the AA merger is this:

US Airways's CEO (Doug Parker) is really gungho on mergers, and US Airways has a lot of outstanding labor problems that management can't resolve, although a merger with a much larger employee body might.

When the other legacies went through bankruptcy, AA's unions agreed to pay cuts but it ultimately wasn't effective, the airline lost market share and eventually ended up in bankruptcy anyway. A big chunk of AA's staff has no confidence in the current management team, and Mr. Parker (of US Airways) has dangled them significant incentives to support a merger with US Airways.

However, it's very possible that Mr. Parker's offers will make the merged company ultimately unprofitable, resulting in another bankruptcy down the road, although the investors who believe this to be the case can sell their stocks/debt before that happens.

In any case, a merger is likely to be bad for the traveling public: the loss of another major carrier will result in less competition and higher fares, plus AA and US's award redemption chart has not been updated in a long time, and US Airways' management believes the current amounts are far too low.

EDIT: The merger discussions are purportedly largely stuck on the money and who is charge. If it occurs, regardless of which side comes out on top, the merged airline will be named AA, headquartered in Dallas, and a member of OneWorld. Both sides have promised this, and it makes sense -- American's brands are more well recognized, it has ATI/JV (Anti Trust Immunity/Joint Ventures) with several alliance partners, and it sits at the head of its alliance. Furthermore, government regulators are not likely to approve a merger that would leave OneWorld without a major North American airline.

Lyon posted:

I live in Philadelphia and have never seen a OneWorld alliance member be the most cost effective flight. AA and British Airways occasionally have flights for about the same price but I've never seen them significantly beat US Air or United in all of my trips. US Air and United seem to have the strongest presence at Philadelphia and since they are both Star Alliance this means I get to credit all my miles back to US Air/Star Alliance. If US Air went over to OneWorld it would potentially cause me to lose a lot of miles in my preferred program. I just ran a bunch of dummy flights from PHL to all over the country/world and US Air was the cheapest for every spot except Seattle and Berlin where United was the cheapest. Even PHL-ATL US Air was the exact same price as Delta and Southwest/AirTran.

In my experience, US Airways has the cheapest flights in and out of a lot of markets.

Small White Dragon fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Feb 2, 2013

# ¿ Feb 2, 2013 08:42

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 21:07

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

sellouts posted:

In terms of using miles on these carriers, Qantas aside, I'd put availability for redemptions better than a lot of the StarAlliance carriers.

Here's the thing about Qantas. They are notoriously stingy on US - Oceania redemptions, but they are very generous on some of their other routes.

sellouts posted:

There's no evidence that they're going to severely devalue or erase the miles. Too much competition with UA domestically to piss off that many frequent flyers.

Your miles are safe. However, the US and AA charts haven't seen a major update in quite a while, meaning they're probably overdue.

sellouts posted:

I hate to agree with FT here but I can't see American removing their hubs in the biggest 2 markets (LAX & JFK) for regional flights in PHL and PHX. LAX and JFK passengers don't have time to connect in smaller markets and there's too premium traffic between them. LAX is a great connection to CX or QF's network as well. AA's also announced a serious upgrade to the LAX and JFK route specifically and there's no reason to think they're going to abandon this.

There's a lot of overlap network-wise between DFW/PHX/LAX and PHL/DCA/JFK/LGA.

For whatever it's worth, AA's hubs are generally considered more "valuable" than US's, and the people internally that seem most concerned are at the PHL and PHX hubs, which might tell you something.

Also re: LAX, AA's network feeds a lot of international traffic into and out of LAX, including a lot of partner flights, which are unlikely to follow to PHX. In general, in every category, LAX wins out over PHX with the sole exception that there's not many gates for AA to expand to at LAX at the moment, although this is solvable within a few years.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2013 10:40

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

sellouts posted:

Yes and no. For my most recent trip it was a lot easier to go SIN-SYD. SYD-AKL was booked up except for the 6:15am flight at 320 days out and I got out of the south pacific by doing AKL-HKG on Cathay.

Interesting.

I booked 5 people business/first class to Australia on OW, but had to route them through Asia. (Note this requires extra miles.)

The domestic and international non-English speaking availability was pretty good if you looked far enough out, at least when I was monitoring it.

But I concur, US-AU and AU-NZ availability on Qantas was bad.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 03:49

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Lyon posted:

I am starting to use up my miles on US Air before they adjust all of their award charts. Upgraded my flight back home from Boston with miles just as a guarantee. Strangely the flight to Boston hadn't been released yet but it is early Sunday morning out of DCA so I think I might just hope there aren't many preferred travelers on the flight and see if I get auto upgraded.

I think the spring will be really busy for me so I'll at least get to keep my Star Alliance for a little while! I don't image we'll see the full merger until the 3rd quarter at the earliest and potentially stretched into next year (but I doubt that).

Supposedly there is a six month transition period out of Star Alliance, and I think they're waiting until they have approval on the merger before "giving notice."

# ¿ Feb 20, 2013 22:34

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Belldandy posted:

How did everyone do this month? Just hit 50,000, slow month for me due to lots of cancellations and reschedules of meetings.

50k actual miles (EQM/PQM/MQM/.etc) flown this month?

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 11:02

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Lyon posted:

Yeah Belldandy has the craziest schedule of all of us (so far). He said he does roughly 250k/yr so 50k in two months makes sense.

And here I thought my 100k miles/year was impressive.

(Combined business and pleasure, I log maybe 80k+ miles but often tack on a few status runs because top-tier status is awesome.)

# ¿ Mar 2, 2013 01:48

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Morby posted:

I'm 646 miles short of Silver status on Delta this year, but I've been to Puerto Rico twice and NYC once this year. Really hoping that changes soon. I need status!

Some of the Delta credit cards can earn you MQM, I believe.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2013 00:29

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Cocoa Crispies posted:

I'm waitlisted for a business class upgrade for the transatlantic part of my trip to Scotland in a couple months

That isn't at all uncommon. Can we ask what airline?

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 06:15

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Pissingintowind posted:

Do you guys know exactly when US Airways will be leaving *A? I have an extremely long-haul flight in mid-July that I want to book, and it seems the best routes are through US Airways. I definitely want to collect MileagePlus miles for it, and I'm worried that if I book now and they leave before mid-July, I won't be able to collect. Safer to just pay a bit more and go Air Canada or United from the get-go?

I believe there's a six month transition period, and the merger hasn't even approved yet so I'm guessing that hasn't started. You should be fine.

Cocoa Crispies posted:

AA; I'm not too worried about being waitlisted, I've never had one not go through when I pay with miles. Those 500-mile vouchers are worthless though.

Really? What's your status and/or what routes do you travel? I work with several AA elites of varying levels, and they seem to get good use out of them.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2013 06:46

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Cocoa Crispies posted:

That would be it; the only reason I fly AA is because MIA is a hub for them.

The MIA-LAX route can be a difficult one for upgrades, in my experience.

Belldandy posted:

Are you based out of MIA? I am thinking about moving there cause, well, it's warm and I'd pay a lot lot lot lot less taxes and MIA is a good AA hub. Any "gotchas" I should know about hubbing out of MIA with AA?

Where are you based out of, now? The AA upgrade procedure does, within the same elite status group, prioritize connecting passengers.

But no state income tax is loving AWESOME :hf:

(I'm from another part of the state.)

# ¿ Mar 25, 2013 22:23

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Belldandy posted:

Actually saw it on FT in one of the CK threads. It's apparently experimental now on select CKs. I am not sure if I got chosen or not but my upgrade rate has been 100% this year with the exception of a time I booked a flight ~3 hrs before takeoff.

A lot of EXPs on FT have been reporting 100%. In fact, I was at 100% for the year until a recent MIA-LAX run, but the premium cabins were completely sold out before the upgrade window even opened.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2013 18:11

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Pixelboy posted:

Best $50 I'm probably going to spend for traveling over the next 5 years.

It's $50 now? I thought I paid $100, but I could be wrong.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2013 07:24

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

taco show posted:

Speaking of credit cards, I'm considering dropping my Citi AAdvantage for Chase Sapphire Preferred. I get enough miles from work travel, and I think UR points are way more valuable than what I get from my Citi. However, I don't know if I like the idea of having to book fun travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards. I've heard hotels are often more expensive, it's a huge hassle, etc. Thoughts?

One advantage of the Citi card is the annual 10% rebate on redemptions. (Assuming you're already elite on AA, in which case the other benefits are less interesting.) You can, of course, always have multiple cards. You can typically even sign up for a second AA or US card and get the signup bonus all over again. :ssh:

Nifty posted:

The value of the Sapphire Preferred is far more in the flexibility of transferring points to multiple airline/hotel partners than it is booking travel through the portal. You get 1.25 cents/UR point in the UR portal, but for example a United mile or Hyatt point are worth about 2 cents.

The downside for you would be that, since you have the AAdvantage card I'm assuming that's your airline, the Sapphire Preferred doesn't transfer to AA.

Don't forget that the Sapphire Preferred gets a 7% annual "dividend" so any point earned is really 1.07 and travel/dining spend is 2.14 points.

While these points do not transfer to AA, they do transfer to British Airways, and you can book AA saver awards via BA. (Typically not a good deal for long-haul flights, but you can often get short-haul AA domestic flights for very few BA points.)

Nifty posted:

Booking award travel through United is so much easier than AA though.

Really? I feel it's the other way around, personally.

# ¿ May 22, 2013 10:16

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

taco show posted:

Congrats! I'll make gold, but probably not until late August. At least the Hilton Gods take pity on me with occasional drink tickets. Unfortunately, hotel bars are a minefield... today, some old drunk guy followed me from the lobby bar and tried to kiss me in the elevator. Free drinks =

As for miles, I have discovered that AA Plat gets me practically nothing over Gold, and Gold gets me nothing over having the Citi credit card.

AA Plat gets you double miles flown, and gold gets you 25% bonus :confused:

# ¿ May 23, 2013 07:42

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:

In our case, they almost never show up in our travel booking site.

Once they did, and I decided to try to book them, both to see what the Southwest experience was like, and because it gave me a trip through Midway, which was an airport I had not yet been through. Our travel agent called me half an hour later, saying that Southwest had refused our ticket purchase. According to her, for whatever reason, they often reject purchases from our system, and she doesn't know why we continue to list their flights.

Southwest is famous for not allowing their flights to be listed/sold on third party sites -- you can often only book a ticket through them directly. This has proved very advantageous now that Southwest is no longer significantly cheaper than the legacies.

Small White Dragon fucked around with this message at 21:29 on May 23, 2013

# ¿ May 23, 2013 21:26

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

To Vex a Stranger posted:

The thing I hate about southwest now, is that literally starting last Friday, my most flown trips increased by 18% each way through the rest of the schedule (January 5th), and I can't find anyone else that has actually noticed this. Flights that were $250 are now $316. Looking at trips that i've taken before and comparing them to now the prices are also significantly more money, which is why I'm trying to see if there is a better airline to get on, but the points from SWA just seem to be way more rewarding and flexible.

What do you want to do with your points?

To Vex a Stranger posted:

"I need 30 legs to get status on United and then get a free flight" is what my coworker said last night.

Eh? As an AA Plat or higher, you can get ~10,000 miles on a round trip transcon, plus several hundred extra if you charge that to an AA credit card. That's almost enough for a one-way saver ticket anywhere in the domestic US (12,500 miles).

I believe it's similar for other legacies but I haven't done the math lately.

# ¿ May 23, 2013 21:59

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

To Vex a Stranger posted:

I want to go on vacation with my points, but they can also get me the companion pass.

Some of the legacies do offer companion passes, but they're typically only for paid (non-award) domestic travel.

Basically, with AA/US/UA/.etc, the biggest "bang for your buck" is to redeem for international and/or premium cabin flights. As a frequent flier, you're eligible for free upgrades on paid domestic travel, so it's often not worthwhile to use your miles domestically, anyway (IMHO).

NOTE: British Airways does offer a companion pass for international award travel, and you can credit flights on AA to your BA account, but the companion pass is only good on actual BA flights and they do levy fuel surcharges.

To Vex a Stranger posted:

And I'm just repeating what they said about United, they don't have status anywhere so they won't be getting platinum level points, they are getting standard lovely levels of points.

Okay, well, that just doubles points, so it would take 2 transcons instead. However, the legacies programs are based on miles flown, so if you're flying a bunch of 45 minutes puddle jumpers or something, it could very well take you 30 flights.

# ¿ May 23, 2013 22:23

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Shadowhand00 posted:

Southwest shows up on Concur if you do very specific searches for it. Otherwise, you won't find it if you do a standard search through it. I managed to finally get status on Southwest. Since most of my personal flights are to LA (yay LD relationshiup) from SF and my business flights are SF - BOS, its advantageous for me to build up with SW. That being said, I've been very seriously thinking about building up status with United since I have a Sapphire Preferred card and figure I can leverage the United Points transfer there. If I get status with United, that status carries over to their partners correct?

Yes, although keep in mind there are sometimes a few privileges airlines extend only to their own frequent fliers (especially domestic upgrades).

# ¿ May 23, 2013 23:27

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Tai-Pan posted:

I am sure this has been asked, but I cannot seem to find it.

I have 120K points on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card (whoo hoo for the 50K signup bonus!).
I have a trip to Paris coming up and I planned to use the points to get our hotel room. However, when I look at the Chase point reservations system I have noticed that, in general, I am better off converting it to cash and booking on Hotels.com

I can also transfer the points to other major hotel groups and it seems to be the same deal there. I am better off on Hotels.com

Am I missing something or should I just take the $1,200?

Can't you convert Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt points (or something like that) and then book with that?

# ¿ Jun 7, 2013 22:38

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Pissingintowind posted:

I never understood people valuing their airline miles at some absurd multiple because they were redeeming 100K miles for a business class ticket that was being priced at $20,000 (20 cents per point!?). I would never pay $20,000 for a business class ticket if I could fly in coach for $2,000. Maybe I would pay an extra $2,000 ($4,000 total) to avoid coach, in which case the actual value of my points would be 4 cents per point, still very high, but much more realistic.

Valuation is very subjective. If you can get something better with the points, and that difference matters to you, then you can't really compare in the matter you suggest.

Small White Dragon fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Jun 8, 2013

# ¿ Jun 8, 2013 04:10

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Pissingintowind posted:

I disagree. What I proposed accounts exactly for subjective value. Note that I said you should be basing value off of what you would be willing to pay, not some standard agreed upon value for "room" or "flight". So if Thoguh's willingness to pay for the $450 MSRP wasn't the $450 MSRP, and it also wasn't the $250 "comparable" room next door, but it was $300 because that's what the convenience of that particular room was worth to him, then his value calculation would be based off of that $300.

What? No, it doesn't. What you're willing to pay need varies from person to person, and does not necessarily have a relation to what the cost of the item may be.

The value should be based on the cost of the cheapest acceptable substitute.

If you really want to use your points to fly business class to the other side of the world but aren't willing to pay for it, the value you got isn't 0. If I'm willing to a pay a million dollars for a room I got for 1600 starpoints, the value certainly isn't 62,500 cents per point.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2013 07:47

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Thoguh posted:

You're confusing PreCheck with Global Traveler, or whatever that customs streamlining thing is. PreCheck is something your preferred airline sponsors you for if you have status. You don't actually do anything to get it other than fly a lot and make sure your name and birthdate are properly entered in your frequent flyer profile.

No. You can get PreCheck through Global Entry, too.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2013 19:22

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

kitten smoothie posted:

Now that United's done it, I assume post-merger American will dump the "elite qualifying point" concept and will be the next to add an annual spend requirement.

Doug Parker has a known strong dislike of frequent fliers and FF programs, so whatever "enhancements" his guys come up with certainly won't be in your favor.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 05:11

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Lyon posted:

How is everyone doing mileage wise?

About 85% of the way to requalifying for EXP.

Question - Does anyone here feel they're getting a good deal out of their hotel loyalty program? I'd like to hear why and how.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2013 04:49

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Belldandy posted:

Without knowing anything, I'd recommend the Rimowa Salsa Deluxe Multiwheel.

Which size?

# ¿ Jul 26, 2013 23:28

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

So the DoJ has filed to stop the AA/US merger.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 06:33

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Fryhtaning posted:

That would really piss me off, because I was looking forward to having Charlotte as a hub for getting around the eastern US on AA from TN. I avoid ORD like the plague.

FWIW, the DoJ filing has some interesting emails from US leadership. This should not surprise anybody, but they are planning to reduce service (quality AND quantity), and raise both prices and fees.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 00:28

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Mackieman posted:

UA just issued a pretty massive devaluation to MileagePlus in the form of increased (in some cases, dramatically so) award prices, especially for partner metal. Earn 'em and burn em', folks.

Airlines devalue their charts every few years. We were overdue from UA, AA, and US -- the latter two will probably wait until there's some resolution on the merger case.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2013 20:15

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Mooecow posted:

Hows everyone doing so far? Only a couple more months to make status!

I've requalified for my status on AA although I might be able to make some of their elite rewards.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2013 02:18

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

sellouts posted:

Spend those AA miles before the devaluation happens!!

You do have a little time, they're unlikely to do so with the government breathing down their back about the merger. If the merger occurs, they'll wait a bit before they introduce all the awful changes. If the merger is blocked, anything is possible.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2013 19:45

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Belldandy posted:

All flights in DTW on Delta are really expensive. Try going DTW > ORD > BOS on AA, they generally have a really cheap route.

Ah, the joys of hidden city ticketing.

For those of you who aren't aware -- airlines have figured out that
(1) a lot of people will pay a premium for non-stop flights, so they charge more for this. Often, making a connection on these routes can reduce prices.
(2) people in fortress hubs (ATL, DFW, DTW, MIA, CLT, IAH, etc) are a captive audience with regard to the above.

Competition can often alleviate some of this, but we're getting less of that rather than more.

(Fun fact: A couple of the major airlines actually give upgrade priority to connecting passengers.)

Thoguh posted:

I spent about a month wavering on it but at the end of the day it was looking certain that I'd end up about 1,500 miles short of Gold on Delta for next year. So I found the cheapest place to fly to from my home airport on Delta and am doing a one day turnaround. 3 hours in San Fransisco here I come. I feel kind of stupid doing a mileage run but if it gets me a single upgrade over the course of next year, or if I run in to any IROPs, it'll be worth the price.

Welcome to club mileage run.

For the future, it may be worth looking into an airline credit card that nets you preferred/elite/whatever qualifying miles. Delta has several.

Small White Dragon fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Nov 25, 2013

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 05:29

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Uncle Jam posted:

Hell, even DTW-> FRA was only slightly more.

Spirit flies DTW - LAX, and Lufthansa flies DTW - FRA. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

JetBlue is starting DTW - BOS service in March, so you might see a nice fare cut. (Edit: I compared a couple random dates before and after, and the price on some of the flights was slashed pretty heavily.)

Yay, competition!

Small White Dragon fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Nov 25, 2013

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 06:28

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Thoguh posted:

The miles from the Delta American Express cards don't count towards status. I could have upgraded from the Gold AmEx and gotten some miles, but the increase in annual fee would have been more than the cost of the ticket. I'm probably going to drop the card next year anyway since they got rid of the $99 companion ticket offer.

Yes and no.

The miles you get from basic spend do not count towards qualification, but several of their cards do give you a specific amount of Medallion Qualifying Miles when you spend a certain amount -- e.g., spend $15,000 this year, get 5,000 MQM. Of course, there are like ten different Delta cards, and they each have different variants of this.

Some people get massive amounts of MQM every year by splitting their spend between like three Delta cards.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 18:45

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Cocoa Crispies posted:

American Airlines is going to stop giving AAdmiral's Club privileges to American Express Platinum cardholders next year D:

US Airways too by virtue of the merger.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2013 00:08

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Mackieman posted:

With the AX lounges going in at many AA gateways (like DFW), I don't know that this is a really terrible downgrade.

Right now there's only two domestic AX lounges at DFW and LAS. SFO and LGA are supposedly under construction, and several more in the works (ORD has been rumored).

There are some more internationally.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2013 22:46

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Uncle Jam posted:

Also why does the DTW Delta lounge suck so much when its a hub?

Domestic Lounges (USA) really aren't that great compared to the ones you find elsewhere. Plus, I think Delta and US Airways have been in a race to the bottom for a while now.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2013 08:56

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Ynglaur posted:

Does anyone know if Platinum Amex can still use Delta Skylounges?

Yes, if you're flying Delta.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 04:04

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Welcome to 2014. Delta and United MQD/PQDs are officially here.

sellouts posted:

Man. Malaysia airlines and to a lesser extent Royal Jordanian really blow

What happened?

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 18:37

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Shbobdb posted:

So, I'm hopelessly naive about status and things. Now that everything has zeroed, how can I maintain my statuses and such? I've heard there is a way to keep these things going without grinding through all the flights again. For reference, I'm US Airways Gold and Hilton Diamond. Also, I'm thinking about switching from Hilton, any suggestions?

Hotel elite status (except top tier) is easy to get. You can just get the Hilton Citi Reserve ($85 annual fee) and get gold as part of it.

Airline status, not so much.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2014 02:35

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 21:07

Small White Dragon: Nov 23, 2007; No relation.

Sorry to hear that. I flew AirBerlin a couple months after they joined OW, and there were certainly a lot of issues with alliance benefits.

sellouts posted:

Then again, Qantas is almost as bad at least they get lounges right.

Huh, I just did two legs on Qantas, one domestic business and one international short-haul in economy. In the later, the FA knew I had status, offered me some of the first class amenities, express immigration passes and offered to move me and the rest of the group to roomier rows.

The Qantas First lounge in SYD was quite nice though.

Small White Dragon fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Jan 3, 2014

# ¿ Jan 3, 2014 06:21

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Business Travel: Maybe I just really like my own bed, my house, and desktop computer

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