Personal and business Platinum and Centurion card holders will now be extended access to US Airways lounges.

from bankingdeals.com

Note: this is the Platinum and Centurion charge card, not various American Express credit cards that have used the word Platinum throughout the year and not American Express cards issued by anyone other than AMEX (e.g. Bank of America).

The US Airways lounges will not require a ticket on US Airways unlike some of the other airlines that participate.  This actually might not be a bad deal since the annual fee is $450 and grants one access to Delta, US Airways, American, and Continental’s lounges.  Membership for the US Airways lounge (which reciprocates to other Star Alliance lounges, but not to Delta or American) is also $450 for a non-status flyer.

Thanks Wandering Aramean

I had 2 weeks of office weeks due to projects pushing back so today is my first day back out.  Since the last time I flew they have closed the A Checkpoint in CLT and it is Monday so I was afraid of security lines.  I left my house 2 hours before my scheduled departure and tried to see if there was anything I could do about my 3 hour layover in CVG.  The other options required departing 40 minutes before my scheduled departure so I was afraid I wouldn’t clear security in time and stayed with my original itinerary.

Got through security, waiting for my flight, boarding my flight.  The suspension sounded pretty bad with every bump on taxi sounding like an old car, but I’ve had flights like that before and thought nothing of it.  After takeoff it turns out our landing gear never went up.  Since our takeoff weight was higher than landing weight we had to fly around for about 30 minutes before we could actually land.

I stood in line and tried to fix my connection, but the Delta website didn’t realize we had returned to CLT and just thought we were delayed into CVG so I called the Gold Medallion line.  Delta was able to interline me to a direct flight on US Airways (see previous posts about original mileage credit), but now CLT is under a tornado watch and has severe thunder storms so the ramp is closed.

…hopefully I get out of here eventually

Charlotte Observer Article

Just a friendly reminder…Anything that requires refrigeration is not a good inflight snack
Anything that hasn’t been inspected for vermin is not a good inflight snack
Anything that has a way of finding its way out of the overhead bin should not be put in the overhead bin

I may not like US Airways, but I never imagined they would attract the kind of passenger who would put rotten meat in an overhead. They also don’t deserve this publicity because recently their planes have been very clean.

from Wikipedia

…oh…and if you find out what a Durian is…don’t bring those onboard either. Thanks.

The other day I had a 121-mile flight on a Dash-8.  The flight was almost done boarding when a lady in the back got up and said “I can’t stay on this, I can’t stay on this!” over and over and ran off.  There was no jetbridge so the FA proceeded after he saying she can’t leave unescorted.  The FA was yelling from the plane and the lady was yelling from outside.  I guess eventually the gate agent joined the fray to escort her back to the terminal and we were able to proceed.

I started to wonder if this was like the movie “Final Destination”, but since my flight landed just fine obviously the lady just had issues with being on a 30-seat plane.

They had been renovating the Check-in area between the B and C checkpoints for a while (the short-lived Midwest check-in area). Now I find out why. Before Delta, United, American, Continental, and Airtran were crammed in between the A and B checkpoints. Now United and Continental have jumped into the area between the B and C checkpoints and they are really emphasizing the Star Alliance affiliation.

I did not wander down to see if any changes have been made to jetBlue, Lufthansa, or US Airways.

Link here
Travel between April 13, 2010 and June 15, 2010

As opposed to other DEQM offers this offers double Preferred (elite status) and redeemable (used for trips) miles.

The Consumerist is running a contest to determine which airline is worse.

How did I vote: US Airways.  They seem to lead the race to the bottom and Doug Parker seems to push for unbundled pricing more than the other CEOs.

Once you get on the plane there is nothing like the Delta experience as far as legacies go.  Delta added WiFi and has seat-back TVs while US Airways took out that crappy Cranium trivia that I’d memorize and look smart on my next flight.

Continental ends free food domestically

On my flight from MEL to SYD and SYD to LAX I started thinking about how United offers free alcohol on those routes due to competition.  US Airways stopped charging for beverages quickly after starting due to no other airline following suit.  The industry seems to stay competitive by following the leader in service cuts and new fees.  Continental seemed to be the lone holdout on US carriers though since they still offered free hot food on flights in the US.  While we can argue about the quality of the “Not dog” and the cheeseburger, it was still free and hot.

Who would have thought that by the time I landed this announcement was released.  I need to only think happy thoughts about airlines even though I never fly Continental.  I must admit there was a connection that went from 40 minutes to 20 minutes and my time to eat lunch disappeared so I appreciated the free cheeseburger since I didn’t have any cash on me which was the standard for other airlines’ buy-on-board at that time.

Now most airlines accept credit cards and I never leave home without them.

Delta still offers free snacks (peanuts, pretzels, biscoff cookies).  I honestly wouldn’t notice if that changed since I refuse that part of the service, but for all those biscoff addicts out there they may miss it.

This move by CO has little to no affect on my travel.  I hope it brings better paid choices or maybe lower ticket prices.

When I lived in upstate NY I had no issue calling US Airways “Useless Airways” because the odds of misconnecting in PHL are so high for me.  Since I’ve moved to CLT and connected in PHX I really haven’t had too many issues.  It had been a couple years since connecting in PHL and I was actually starting to like US Airways.

My flight from SWF to PHL was delayed an hour causing me to misconnect.  Upon arrival into PHL I noticed the queue at the gate was quite long since 5 flights were all being serviced by 1 desk.  I set off around the F concourse to find a staffed customer service desk instead since I didn’t recognized anyone in the queue from my flight and didn’t want to burden agents working outbound flights.

There were no customer service desks I could find in F so I took the shuttle over to B/C.  I walked around B and couldn’t find anything resembling a customer service desk.  It was only 9 pm and there were flights departing after 10 pm so I took my chances and left the secured area at B to talk to someone at check-in instead.  The marquee stated that check-in area was open until 10:30 pm, but only 1 person was working the whole B concourse check-in area.  I had to wait a minute in line behind someone else and there was 1 other person in the whole concourse check-in area, but he was on the phone and motioned me ahead of him.  I approached an agent we’ll call YL and stated I had misconnected and needed assistance.  She looked up my information and I stated that I was due a hotel voucher.  In a snippy voice she asked why I thought I was due a hotel voucher and I clearly stated my flight was mechanical.  She repeated back with a rude tone “Your flight was from Canada?” so I restated that my flight had a mechanical delay.  She said it wasn’t in the computer that way and I’m not due anything.  The agent back at SWF specifically told me he had put that in my record so I asked her to look at my record.  At that point she actually took my BP stub and looked me up, then stated “which gate did you arrive in”.  I said F.  She stated that I was in the B concourse and asked how I got to B.  I wanted to say “what difference does it make, just do your job” but figured that wasn’t the way to get a voucher.  Instead I said I was trying to find a customer service desk and couldn’t find one in F or B.  She said someone should have met my flight.   I didn’t respond because no good response could come from me at that point.  I have a common last name, but not a common first name so it’s not like I can sell my hotel voucher to someone else named Grace and it’s not like she personally has to pay for the voucher so I don’t know what her issue was.

I will probably draft a letter to US Airways and then just let it sit on my hard drive.  I’m really more annoyed that there wasn’t a single special service desk open in F at 9 pm when several flights were scheduled to go out.  If the gate I arrived in only had 1 flight leaving I would have probably stayed there, but when 5 flights were being assisted it changes the game.  Last time I misconnected in PHL (which I think was the last time I connected in PHL) I met an agent in F who was working the gate and didn’t even know how to issue a hotel voucher.  She had to call her supervisor and he did it for her.  I hoped to avoid that situation at a customer service desk because that’s their job.

Waiting for the shuttle bus I met up with others who were on my flight (and managed to find customer service in B) who got an amenity kit and breakfast voucher.  I’m on an expense account and I didn’t check my bag so those amenities don’t matter to me (meal vouchers are just a pain), but the fact remains that YL didn’t do her job and offer/issue them to me.

This is the long end to a very long week.  I just want to get home, but I’m on an imaginary flight tomorrow so we shall see.

During my mileage run I had the opportunity to fly US Airways and United for the Lunch/Dinner buy on board times.  Here is a recap of my experience.

US Airways:  For lunch/dinner they had 2 options: a turkey club sandwich or a cheese plate.  I don’t eat pork, but the sandwich sounded like a better lunch than the fruit and cheese plate so that’s what I went with.  The cost was $7 and included chips and a drink.  I peeled off the bacon and wiped off the turkey since the bacon left a brown residue.  The sandwich came with lettuce and tomato.

In the past one of the biggest problems with US Airways catering was the lack of it.  It seemed like the money from meals was not getting back to the caterers and the accounting setup described at one time of flyertalk made it sound like the whole system did need to be scraped.  Now US Airways does use devices to swipe credit cards which should also track sales.  If not, I know a company their catering company should contact to get their whole system into shape.  An A319 full of people at lunch time probably still leads to sell outs before row 20, but that’s better than selling out before row 10.

United: United had a few sandwiches on the menu to choose from, but the flight attendant said my only choices at that point were a salad or the roast beef sandwich.  I had really wanted the turkey sandwich to do a taste comparison, but I was stuck with roast beef instead (although you can’t tell from the picture).  I didn’t pay enough attention to know if they ran out of turkey or just didn’t cater it to begin with.  The sandwich was $9 on United (also conveniently placed on a credit card) and was just a sandwich and chips, no cookie.  I was in the exit row so I was at the end of Economy Plus, but still near the front of economy as a whole so I’m not sure how far back the buy on board meals last on United.

As a whole, the sandwiches were of good quality.  The presentation was fine (the pictures were taken as provided with no manipulation from me).  From a value perspective I could have purchased a better sandwich at Panera for the same or less.  The reason I buy this stuff is mainly convenience.  I’m not hungry at 10 am when I board a plane so I’m not interested in buying food from an airport restaurant.  By the time meal service begins it’s around 11:30 am which is prime lunch time.  I’d like to know how well the catering companies forecast how much to provide and if airlines are really the ones limiting the supply so much.  Using the point-of-sale devices to track sales is a new concept for onboard catering so hopefully the field will only go up from here.