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  • Kuala Lumpur’s MH ‘Golden Lounge,’ which BA travelers will soon be using on the way from London to Melbourne

    Speaking of that new London to Melbourne BA flight, check out the Malaysia Airlines ‘Golden Lounge,’ which Sapphire and Emerald passengers will use when connecting through Kuala Lumpur.

    Highlights of the satellite lounge:

    • Noodle station
    • Shower suites
    • Nap rooms
    • Family playroom
    • Luggage storage
    • Sports bar

    There’s also a dedicated section for Emerald passengers that MH calls an “intimate space offers quiet luxury, personalised service, and thoughtful touches” with “an elevated dining experience with a bespoke menu.”

  • Flying London to Sydney? It costs 40% more to fly through Singapore

    Matthew Lynn, writing for The Telegraph:

    Browsing Expedia on Friday morning, the cheapest return flights from London to Sydney for May were on Etihad, Emirates and Qatar.

    If I wanted to stop in Singapore instead of one of the Gulf airports, it would cost me about 40pc more to fly with Qantas. There is no great surprise about that. The Gulf carriers all have great service and modern fleets with the latest planes, but even so, all things considered, if I were planning to make that trip, I don’t think I would want to risk getting stuck at Doha or Dubai airport for a week or two watching the drones fly overhead.

    Sure, it may not be as risky as some of the more alarming reports suggest. Even so, I would not want to take the chance, and neither, I suspect, would many other people.

    Lynn’s piece argues that this is an opportunity for BA, who just announced a new route from London to Melbourne, stopping in Kuala Lumpur. Rather than gouging customers, he says the British flag carrier should keep prices steady and use the war to regain lost market share. Good read.

  • TSA chaos in New York

    Tara Terranova and Ellen Yan, reporting for the New York Times:

    The national shortage of Transportation Security Administration workers made for a miserable Sunday at New York City airports, where confusion, exasperation and impatience reigned as travelers waited in line for hours.

    The T.S.A. crisis, tied to a partial government shutdown that has meant thousands of employees have been working without pay, hit especially hard at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, where passengers were waiting at least three hours to go through security.

    Brutal tales from individual passengers in the piece, including this four hour horror story:

    Stephanie Kisgen, 44, an interior designer from Richmond Hill, Ga., and her husband, Patrick Kisgen, arrived at the airport four hours early for their 6:30 p.m. flight and weren’t sure if they would make it.

    This is the result of a dispute over policies and funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the TSA. Democrats have offered a bill that would simply fund the TSA, but do not support legislation that would fund all of DHS.

    The US is the only developed country in the world where this regularly happens.

  • New Qantas lounge rules for Jetstar passengers

    From July 1, Qantas will not allow passengers on international Jetstar flights into lounges unless they’re booked on a Business Max fare or have Platinum One status.

    Sounds reasonable to me. Shared ownership aside, Jetstar is a budget airline. The previous rules were unusually generous compared to other oneworld airlines.

  • The odds seem low for a new lounge to go with AA’s DFW Terminal C expansion

    American talked a little more today about their nine new gates at DFW, scheduled to open this June. Vice President of DFW Hub Operations, Rich Ashlin, is promising some nice things: larger waiting areas, charging stations, and a new baggage system.

    No talk of a lounge, though, which I’d wondered about when writing about American’s lounge roadmap earlier this year.

    The existing Admirals Club at C has its charms – it’s spacious, centrally located, and hasn’t shown its age as much as others from its design era – but it’s certainly outdated, and it’s about to get more crowded.

    Felt like a good spot to trial another Provisions.

  • Malaysia’s Transport Minister wants to ensure the “survival” of local airlines as fuel costs rise

    Bloomberg, Thursday:

    Malaysia said airlines may need to suspend some flights if the Middle East war pushes fuel costs significantly higher.

    Jet fuel accounts for almost half of airlines’ operating costs, Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Facebook late Thursday.

    …The transport ministry “will discuss with airports and relevant stakeholders to support the survival of local airlines,” he said.

    …“All parties also agreed to meet weekly as this crisis remains volatile and requires rapid action in the event of new developments,” he added.”

  • Wallpaper* on the new gates at Taiwan’s Taoyuan Airport

    Tianna Williams, writing for Wallpaper*:

    The eight new gates (which extend from D10 to D18) are generous in width and offer long, clear sightlines to allow for smooth, pleasant and efficient travel.

    …The colour palette is a mix of yellow, orange and burgundy, and you progress from one hue to another as you move along the concourse, allowing for easy gate identification. The silver façade, designed to control glare and heat, allows natural light to shine through the double-height space, offering views across the airfield.

    The building’s structure helps form a variety of internal volumes through the use of different ceiling heights. This creates a wave-like visual effect when travelling through its spaces. The bespoke halo light fittings animate the ceilings. The final touch is the 300m length of public artworks, nodding to Taiwanese culture.

    Taipei is a hub for China Airlines, EVA, and Starlux; it’s also a focus city for Cathay.

  • A list of places that’s worth your time

    TIME’s World’s Greatest Places is a cut above the many, many lists you run into on travel websites: the team behind it likes the interesting as much as the luxurious, makes unexpected choices, and gives you just enough information about each to want more. They’re also not in the affiliate link business.

    The list goes well beyond sub-$1,000 hotels (Brisbane’s Bluey’s World gets a mention), but I saved these:

  • American re-announces its new Admirals Club in Austin, which now has an outdoor terrace

    American Airlines, today:

    American Airlines is continuing its investment in premium customer experiences and the Austin, Texas, community with plans to open a new, expanded Admirals Club®lounge at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS).

    The new lounge will span more than 12,000 square feet on the west side of the terminal, doubling its current footprint at AUS, and introduce a first for American’s lounge network: an outdoor terrace space. Guests will enjoy expansive views of downtown Austin and the airfield, creating a uniquely local and elevated atmosphere for customers.

    Construction starts this year.

    This has been in the works for a while: AA first announced an expansion in 2021, shelved those plans, then Austin’s airport revealed the new lounge footprint while announcing its own expansion plan in 2024.

    New, this time, is the outdoor terrace:

    The outdoor terrace will be a standout feature, marking the first time American has introduced open-air lounge space in its network. It’s part of a broader effort to reimagine the Admirals Club®experience with locally inspired touches and enhanced service.

    Star Alliance and SkyTeam alliance travelers know and love the outdoor decks; they look great at Star Alliance’s LAX lounge and Delta’s T4 lounge at JFK (when we’re not in the middle of a snowstorm).

    Qantas is also building its first outdoor lounge area this year.

  • In latest Middle East update, BA cancels its flights to Abu Dhabi until “later this year”

    British Airways, today:

    Due to the continuing uncertainty of the situation in the Middle East and airspace instability, we’ve had to temporarily reduce our flying schedule in the region. We’ve cancelled all flights to and from Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv until later this month and to and from Abu Dhabi until later this year.

    Not the kind of decision you’d make about a “little excursion.”

  • Toronto’s smaller airport gets a pre-clearance facility

    Speaking of possible oneworld members, good news for travelers in Toronto, where Porter operates a hub. Ethan Lang, reporting for CBC:

    Starting Tuesday, travellers flying to the U.S. from downtown Toronto will be able to go through customs before departing Billy Bishop airport.

    That’s due to the opening of a new pre-clearance facility at the island airport, which politicians and officials announced at a news conference Monday. Canada’s Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon told reporters the addition would make travel “faster, more convenient and more reliable.”

    …The new facility is opening as Porter Airlines and Air Canada expand the number of U.S. routes from Billy Bishop, said Roelof-Jan Steenstra, CEO of Toronto Port Authority, the airport’s owner. The authority has been trying to add pre-clearance at the airport for over a decade, he said.

    Billy Bishop is the smaller, regional airport for Toronto (if you’re flying internationally, you’ll be more familiar with Pearson). The pre-clearance facility mostly benefits Porter, which operates flights to Boston, Chicago, Nashville, New York, and DC from here.

  • More IndiGo codeshare routes with BA and Qantas

    Aeroroutes has the details. 22 new domestic routes with BA including multiple Delhi and Mumbai routes. Three with Qantas; all from Singapore. The airline has codeshares with several oneworld and SkyTeam members, and oneworld’s former CEO implied it was a top target for membership late last year.

  • Hawaii wants to diversify its economy

    Christine Hitt, reporting for SFGate:

    “There’s still been growth in visitor numbers but the per person in real inflation-adjusted terms, spending was at its highest actually in 1988, so it means tourists now are spending less than they did individually in 1988,” Steven Bond-Smith, an economist at the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawaii, told SFGATE by phone.

    Bond-Smith said a healthy economy in the US averages about 2% growth over long periods of time, but Hawaii is averaging much lower, at around 0.6%. Because the state hasn’t kept pace with the continent, residents are driven to leave.

    “You need higher- and higher-value jobs and activities being done here,” Bond-Smith said. The jobs that tend to offer higher wages are in very large US cities and they’re particularly in tech or biotech, he explained. “The main activity here is obviously tourism, and it hasn’t had that kind of income growth that other places have had.”

    Simple Flying, reporting on Alaska’s hub strategy after acquiring Hawaiian:

    Following the airlines’ merger, more than 20% more seats are now on offer between Seattle and Honolulu, with three of the six daily flights operated by widebody aircraft. Further down the coast, Portland now sees three daily nonstop flights to Hawaii, representing an increase of 25% more seats.

    Two daily flights now take off between San Diego and Maui, with new routes from San Francisco to Kona and Lihue. This will see the group now offer four daily nonstop flights from San Francisco to the main airports in the state. The Hawaiian A330 will also add a once-daily service between Honolulu and Sacramento.

    So, one upshot of Alaska’s purchase – so far – has been more seats between Hawaii and both Seattle and San Francisco, two cities with thriving tech sectors. Approving that acquisition was a no-brainer.

  • Qatar PM: “We will continue trying ​to seek de-escalation”

    Reuters:

    Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in a ​Sky News interview aired on Sunday ‌urged all sides involved in the Iran conflict to de-escalate.

    “We will continue talking to the ​Iranians, we will continue trying ​to seek de-escalation,” the prime minister said ⁠in the interview.

    …”For the U.S., we would like to see ​a de-escalation, we would like to ​see … a diplomatic solution that addresses our concerns ‌as ⁠well as their concerns,” he added.

    “We need to ensure, first, that Iran should stop all attacks against Gulf countries ​and other ​countries ⁠that they are attacking and are not party of this ​war,” he said.

  • Choose your Wi-Fighter: AA vs BA

    David Flynn, writing for Executive Traveller:

    British Airways will join a global shift to Starlink Wi-Fi this month when the Oneworld member’s first Starlink-equipped Boeing 787 takes to the skies.

    And based on results to date, passengers can look forward to download speeds in excess of 100Mbps.

    Even better: Starlink Wi-Fi will be free for all passengers, from the coveted first class suites in Row 1 to the very last row in economy.

    However, nobody will have to enter their credit card details or even be a member of the British Airways Club loyalty program to log on.

    Compare AA and BA’s Wi-Fi rollout plans:

    FeatureAABA
    Speed1~50-60mbps~150mbps
    AccessCreate or login to an Aadvantage accountNo login
    AdsVideo ads after loginNo ads

    Once BA rolls out Starlink across its fleet (date TBA), I’d watch the impact on load factor on AA and BA’s joint venture flights between JFK and LHR. There has never been a clear advantage to flying one over the other. Soon there will be.

    1. According to Ookla’s latest In-Flight Wifi speed test results for Intelsat and Viasat. I get speeds between 1-15mbps when flying American, but I’m trusting their data over my anecdote. ↩︎

  • WSJ: Americans are leaving the U.S. in record numbers

    Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson, writing for The Wall Street Journal:

    The U.S. experienced net negative migration—an estimated loss of some 150,000 people—in 2025, and the outflow will likely increase in 2026, according to calculations by the Brookings Institution, a public-policy think tank. The number could be larger or smaller because official U.S. data doesn’t yet fully capture the number of people leaving, Brookings analysts noted. The total in-migration was between around 2.6 and 2.7 million in 2025, down from a peak of almost 6 million in 2023.

    Trump is part of the why, but that’s not the full story:

    Do these émigrés personify a loss of faith in America’s future and way of life? Across dozens of interviews, U.S. expats described their motivations as a tangle of economic incentives, lifestyle preferences and disenchantment with the trajectory of America, citing violent crime, cost of living and turbulent politics. Trump’s re-election was a factor for many—although others voted for him. But the structural and societal shift runs much deeper. When Gallup asked Americans during the 2008 recession how many wanted to leave the U.S., the answer was one in 10. Last year: One in five.

    “It undercuts this American exceptionalism, ‘we have the best quality of life, we’re the best country in the world, everyone wants to move here,’” said Caitlin Joyce, one of two researchers at Temple University who have spent years studying the trend. “Well, Americans move abroad and find they like life better abroad. They like the social democratic policies.”

  • Qantas’ new safety video isn’t likely to last

    Robyn Ironside, writing for The Australian:

    Qantas has quietly rolled out its new safety video which ditches the unlikely locations and frequent flyer cameos of past years, in favour of actual aircraft settings.

    Introduced to flights over the weekend, the video runs just under four minutes and includes recent changes to rules about the use and carriage of power banks, delivered by cabin crew and pilots.

    …“When developing safety videos, the primary objective is to ensure customers understand what the safety procedures are, but we also need to capture their attention so safety is front of mind, particularly for regular flyers who might otherwise tune out,” Qantas said.

    Here’s the video, which curiously, Qantas hasn’t publicized on its own channels. The song you hear in the background is an updated instrumental of Alex Lloyd’s “Amazing.”

    Qantas’ “magic place” video was gorgeous, but seems to have caused some anxiety at the airline and the unions for being too distracting. I’d argue that a more cinematic safety video gets people to look up from their phone in the first place, so I’d love to see what the research says.

    These videos are also marketing tools, and on those grounds, the new video is effective. I’m convinced1 that the best advertisement for Qantas remains its impeccable safety record.

    In any case, I don’t think this specific version of the video will last long. It prominently features the current Qantas uniforms, which the airline expects to retire next year. I’d expect at least a minor refresh soon after.

    1. Nearly 40 years after the film’s release, the comment I still get the most when I mention Qantas here in the States is about Rain Man. ↩︎

  • Capital One has a new restaurant at LaGuardia

    Business Traveler:

    Capital One partnered with [José] Andrés and the José Andrés Group to open the first Capital One Landing in 2024, at Washington Reagan National (DCA). In February, the partnership opened a second tapas-style restaurant—more than twice as large as the first—within a fully refurbished, 12,500-square-foot space at LaGuardia Airport (LGA).

    The collaboration is far more hands-on than the average celebrity chef deal, according to Gary Leff, the industry watcher behind the View from the Wing blog. “José Andrés Group actually has staff on-site,” Leff says. “They’ve sourced plates and insisted on specific ingredients, such as the jamón ibérico.”

    That translates into a high-end experience inside Terminal B, just before the bridge to gates 11 through 31. Andrés said at a media preview that he enjoys serving business travelers.

    If you’re flying American at LaGuardia, you’ll get a glimpse of this space, and its exciting menu, on your way to the Admirals Club.

  • Gold and Platinum will soon be even harder to keep than Qantas’ tables suggest

    Qantas overhauled its Frequent Flyer program yesterday with these major changes:

    1. You’ll need to earn more status credits to keep Silver, Gold or Platinum
    2. You can earn up to 140 status credits on the ground, primarily by making purchases with partners
    3. You can roll over some status credits when you reach more than the number required for your tier
    4. Points Club and Green Tier are gone

    Minor changes include an additional lounge pass for Silver members, a new reward seat finding tool, and a lifetime ‘milestone’ system.1

    The first item is what matters most for members, and as Qantas announced, it’s about to become harder to retain most tiers. Here’s the table the airline provided to the media (headings and percentages mine):

    Published Tiers

    TierCurrent credits to retainNew credits to retainPercentage change
    Silver25030020%
    Gold60070017%
    Platinum1,2001,40017%

    (The credits needed to upgrade to each of these tiers will stay the same, which is why Qantas is framing all of these changes as a “single target” for each tier.)

    But those tables don’t quite tell the full story. In a section about status credit rollover, Qantas also said that benefit would replace the loyalty bonuses that are offered to “some” members.2

    The existing loyalty bonus gives members 50 status credits for every 500 they earn, as long as they’re earned on Qantas or Jetstar. Reach 500 credits on those airlines, for example, and your total becomes 550. As long as you’re regularly flying on those airlines, it lowers the effective number of credits required at each tier.3

    Apply that to the credits table, and the three major tiers get even harder to keep:

    Effective Tiers

    TierCurrent effective credits to retainNew credits to retainPercentage change
    Silver25030020%
    Gold55070027%
    Platinum1,1001,40027%

    Ouch.

    Qantas wants to split its customers into two camps: those who are more loyal than their tiers need them to be, and those who do just enough to get into each tier. The former group gets rewarded, the latter gets punished. That’s their decision to make, but let’s be clear: this is a steeper hill to climb for what I’d bet are many members who want to keep Gold or Platinum.

    1. The lifetime milestones give members a year of Platinum for every 10,000 credits they earn above Lifetime Gold. The idea must be to incentivize lifetime flyers to keep pursuing credits, since the 75,000 credit threshold is so absurd that members are giving up the chase. It’s a shame these milestones are no less absurd. ↩︎
    2. I think “some” is an understatement when it comes to the members for whom this matters. I read “some” as “not many,” and I doubt there are “not many” Qantas Gold or Platinum customers who receive these bonuses. ↩︎
    3. Without the loyalty bonus, there’s also less of an incentive to fly Qantas or Jetstar metal. That means more flexibility to fly with other oneworld airlines or take a codeshare flight. ↩︎

  • American is expanding at Miami Airport

    American Airlines, yesterday:

    Set to break ground in 2027, the Gate D60 project charts the next chapter of travel at MIA, with a new concourse expansion designed for a premier airport. Currently equipped to support ground operations for smaller regional jets, the new three-level Concourse D extension will create 17 new aircraft gates to accommodate larger aircraft and eliminate outside boarding. The project will expand a single shared boarding area to include adjoining boarding spaces for every gate to improve flow and provide customers with more space and comfort.