It IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas in airports and in the air. Here are some of the fun holiday items we spotted today.
Alaska Airlines’ Holiday Perks
Alaska Airlines has a new special-edition aircraft in the skies decorated with snowflakes, the words “Merrier Together,” and those festive red Starbucks holiday cups.
Through December 12, passengers on 50 of this aircraft’s flights will receive reusable holiday cups and some bonus treats. The airline will also be offsetting the carbon impacts of these flights.
On National Ugly Sweater Day – December 17 – the airline will be offering early boarding to any passengers wearing an ugly sweater.
Holidays take flight at Alaska Airlines
And throughout December, passengers wearing ugly sweaters may purchase a day pass to any of the airline’s eight lounges around the country for $25, which is 50% off the regular price. The lounges are located in Anchorage (ANC), New York (JFK), Portland (PDX), San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), and Seattle (SEA).
An Elf is Roaming Reno-Tahoe International Airport
We’re decking the halls and fa la la-ing throughout the terminals here at #ATLAirport 🎄 If you're traveling ✈️through #ATL this holiday season, grab a selfie or picture in front of our tree located in the Domestic Atrium 🤳📸 pic.twitter.com/yTXjtpDFsc
Here are some of the travel tidbits we’ve gathered so far this week.
Delta extends middle seat block
Most other airlines have stopped blocking the middle seats. But Delta Air Lines says it is extending its policy of blocking middle seats on all flights through April 30, 2021. Perhaps others will do the same.
“We want our customers to have complete confidence when traveling with Delta, and they continue to tell us that more space provides more peace of mind,” said Bill Lentsch, Chief Customer Experience Officer, in a statement. He added that the airline will “continue to reassess seat blocking in relation to case transmission and vaccination rates.”
SkySquad partners with At Your Gate
As Valentine’s Day approaches, here’s a nice match-up of airport services.
SkySquad, a service that provides airport assistance services from the curbside to the plane door, and from the gate to the curb, is partnering with airport food delivery company At Your Gate.
SkySquad’s customers include families with young children, seniors, pet owners, and anyone who needs a helping hand through the airport.
The company currently operates at Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA), Dulles International Airport (IAD), and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). The partnership with At Your Gate extends the SkySquad services to JFK, Newark, Boston, and Philadelphia airports. At those airports At Your Gate staff will step in to escort SkysSquad customers through the terminals.
Bonus United Miles for donations during Black History Month
In honor of Black History Month, United Airlines, Chase and Visa are giving bonus miles for donations made to select non-profits that provide educational opportunities to Black students and which support human and civil rights policies.
Now through March 15, 2020, United Explorer and United Club cardmembers will receive five miles for every dollar up to $1,000 donated to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and The United Negro College Fund. More details here.
New Centurion Lounge at Denver Int’l Airport
American Express has opened its 14th Centurion Lounge. This one is at Denver International Airport (DEN) on the Concourse C Mezzanine, near Gate C46.
The new lounge is 14,000-square-feet (the second-largest Centurion Lounge location to-date) and has some enticing amenities, including Italian-inspired cuisine, a live-action cooking station, a Craft Beer Bar with seasonal selections from Colorado breweries. The lounge also includes a new feature: a game room with pool and shuffleboard tables, and other activities.
Commercial passenger service begins March 4 from Paine Field in Everett, WA., about 30 miles north of downtown Seattle. And travelers in the area are pretty darn excited.
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines will be the only airlines flying from this upscale, two-gate terminal. But their offerings stretch pretty far:
Alaska Airlines has a schedule of 18 daily roundtrips to 8 west coast cities – Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. Service starts March 4 with flights to Portland, Las Vegas and Phoenix and expand to the full schedule by March 12.
United Airlines will begin flying six daily flights from PAE on March 31: two daily roundtrips to Denver and four daily roundtrips to San Francisco.
I’ve got a column posting shortly on USA TODAY with more information, but here are some snaps from my visit to the terminal, which looks more like an upscale lounge than a small airport.
Solari board behind in check-in lobby will have the retro flipping sounds.
Waiting area has a very upscale lounge feel. But it’s for everyone. Jet-bridges at both gates are glass sided.
Great seats for the great views out the windows: the passenger terminal sits on the same airfield where Boeing has a giant assembly plant.
Front of the new Paine Field passenger terminal in Everett, Wa.
My column for CNBC this week is a round-up of options for finding a place outside airport lounges to sleep, have a quiet conversation or just have a little quiet time to yourself.
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Business travelers once looked to airline club rooms as calm
oases offering quiet areas to relax, work, conduct important phone calls or,
perhaps, catch a nap.
But now it’s not unusual for airline-operated and
independent lounges to be as crowded and noisy as the congested airport
terminals and gate hold areas many frequent travelers are willing to pay a fee to
avoid.
Alternatives exist. Sort of.
Outside the United States, travelers seeking alone time
might check into one of the Napcabs equipped with beds,
worktables, touch screens, WiFi and baggage storage inside Germany’s Munich or
Berlin-Tegel Airports.
Elsewhere, Yotel offers cozy, cabin-like hotel
rooms equipped with futon-like beds, WIFI, flat screen TVS and bathrooms inside
airport terminals in Amsterdam, London (Heathrow and Gatwick), Paris CDG and,
soon, Istanbul and Singapore.
In the United States, travelers seeking sleep, a place to
work or a quiet place to have a phone conversation have an increasing range of
options.
Downtime at Dulles?
Boston-based Sleepbox plans to cut the ribbon on a post-security
micro-hotel on Concourse A at Dulles International Airport next week.
The 16 stand-alone modules have no bathrooms, but are soundproof
spaces with mood lighting, WIFI, Bluetooth capability, fold-down work tables, space
for storing luggage and beds with memory foam mattresses. Bookings are made via
the same smart phone app that allows guests to unlock their room and control
features such as the temperature and mood lighting in their unit
Pricing: Average hourly rate for compact rooms (about 30 square feet) is $25 per hour. Standard rooms (45 square feet): $35 per hour. After the first hour, additional 15-minute increments are $5 for the compact room, $7.50 for the standard-room. Rates top out at $120 for a 12-hour stay in a compact room and $140 for 12-hours in a standard room.
Room to relax
Minute Suites is a short-stay hotel chain with six post-security
locations in four airports: two
in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (Concourses B&T); two
in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (Terminals A&D), one in the
Charlotte Douglas International Airport atrium and one in the A/B Connector at
Philadelphia International Airport.
The basic
56-square-foot suites have sofa daybeds with a
pull-out trundle beds, sound-masking systems, HDTVs (with DirectTV and Netflix)
that can also be used as computers, WIFI, and desks. A few suites in the DFW
location are larger.
The company is adding four additional locations in ATL airport,
a second location in Charlotte and has just announced Baltimore/Washington
International Airport (BWI) as its next city. Plans to open branches in four additional
airports are being finalized now.
An uptick in the number of millennial travelers is helping drive
Minute Suites’ expansion.
A recent Hipmunk
travel survey found that more than half of all millennials (54.4 percent)
would like airports to offer nap
rooms
“The
second most requested amenity was board games,” said Minute Suites co-founder
and CEO Daniel Solomon, “And we have now added board games and other desired
services such as exercise cycles and yoga mats to our locations.”
Rates for Minutes
Suites start at $42 per hour and drop to $32 per hour after two hours. The overnight
rate (8 hours) is a flat $155. Showers (available in DFW Terminal D) and
Charlotte Douglas International Airport are $20, with suite rental; $30 without.
Want to be
alone? Step into a Jabbrrbox
Phone-booth sized workspaces from Jabbrrbox, offering
travelers private, quiet places to work and make phone calls, are available at
New York’s LaGuardia Airport Terminal B, Pittsburgh International Airport
(Concourse B and C) and on Concourse B at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky
International Airport (CVG).
Two new booths were installed in New York’s
John F. Kennedy International Airport Terminal 4 this week.
Users
make reservations using touchscreens on the exterior of each unit and, once
inside, will find WIFI, a desk, chair, power panel and another, larger,
touchscreen that is used to control the color and brightness of the booth lights,
track flight status and take photos.
Jabbrrbox pricing is $10 for 15
minutes, $15 for 30 minutes, $30 for an hour and $60 for two hours.
Work, stand, stretch
Business travelers who need to work but who also want to stretch
their legs before or between flights can do both at the complimentary Varidesk
co-working space at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Opened in December and located in Terminal C, the staffed
workspace has about two dozen height-adjustable standing desks, 75 charging
ports and a conference room with moveable walls.
Varidesk chief marketing officer, Sean Scogin, says the company plans to open co-working spaces at other airports soon and may add its new state-of-the-art phone booth to the mix.
Have you found a good way to get out of the fray when you’re stuck at the airport? Share a tip below.
On my way to London via British Airways from Terminal 7 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday, I was invited to tour the newly refurbished British Airways First lounge, look inside the exclusive Concorde Room and spend time in the Galleries lounge.
Here are a few snaps from the day:
The new First lounge is now 60 percent bigger than the previous lounge – and includes a pre-flight dining area (shared with the Galleries /business lounge), a pleasant quiet work area and this lovely large bar area.
When I passed through it seemed to be both self-serve, with bartenders nearby.
Around the corner from the bar is a Wine Room with an enomatic dispenser serving 1-ounce tasting pours of a variety of specially chosen wine. Right now “Chardonnays of the World” are featured.
In addition to a quite bountiful buffet in the dining area, there was this dim sum bar nearby.
And (my favorite, after the complimentary 15-minute facial offered in the Elemis spa) – a roving Gin and Tonic cart that was visiting both the First and Galleries loung areas.
Have you visited these lounges? Let us know what you think of the new and improved (and almost finished…) spaces.
