Lounge Review: Alaska Airlines Board Room at LAX

This past weekend, I had a quite extended layover at LAX, made even longer thanks to a delay on American Airlines. I always find myself on the receiving end of flight delays when flying from either SFO or LAX to DFW!

While I was overwhelmingly impressed with their Seattle Board Room lounge, I really enjoy their LAX location. My main dislike with the Seattle Board Room is how crowded it gets. Located in Terminal 6 near Alaska Airlines, Delta, US Airways gates, you can reach the lounge without leaving security from Terminals 4, 5, and 6. You can either use the hidden tunnel network or ride the AA shuttle.

You enter the lounge via private elevator and access is permitted by purchasing a day pass, or for Board Room members, Priority Pass members, and The Club members. The lounge is warm and inviting with cozy leather chairs, spacious work desks, clean restrooms, and expansive views of the incoming planes. There are TONS of electrical outlets and the WiFi is blazing fast.

You can receive 3 house drinks like beer, wine, or well cocktails at no charge. There are basic snacks, coffee, tea, and soda available. Food is fairly standard for domestic lounges with just drinks and snacks. They do have their famous pancake machine here. For breakfast, they have bagels, toast, and yogurt. In the evening, they have soup and salad. For a charge, you can order a full meal like salmon or pizza but nothing seemed worth ordering to me.

Fancy some robot pancakes?

This lounge is definitely a place of peace and relaxation amid the chaos of LAX. I have to say connecting at LAX is not my favorite thing but the Board Room makes it much less stressful. Stop by and have a craft beer while you watch the planes go by!

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Cheap! DFW to Doha – British Airways #FlightDeal or #MileageRun – Jan 2015 – $701R/T – 4.3 CPM – #OneWorld

This is a very quick turnaround mileage run from Dallas to Doha, Qatar on British Airways. You can credit to Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan or American’s AAdvtange if you are U.S. based. You’re only on the ground in Doha for about 2 hours so a hotel stay is definitely not needed.

Sample Departure Date: Sat, Jam, 24. 2015

Sample Return Date: Sun, Jan 25, 2015 (arrives Mon, Jan 26)

Airline: British Airways

CPM:  4.3 CPM 

Total Base Mileage Earned: 15,982

Routing: DFW-LHR-BAH-DOH-BAH-LHR-DFW

Total Roundtrip Fare: $701

First 250 bookers, Save an extra 25% on our best hotel deals with code TRICKORCHEAP. Offer valid: 10/27/14 – 11/02/14.

Preferred Seating on Delta for Alaska MVPs

Update 9-19-2014 : I booked a flight to Hong Kong this week on Delta and did not need to wait until the next day to access Preferred seating. Once I completed booking (with my Alaska Mileage Plan number added) I was able to immediately head over to Manage My Reservation and select Preferred Seating.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, I’m not a big fan of calling up Delta Airlines unless I must. I’m an Alaska Airlines MVP which gives me access to varied reciprocal benefits on Delta. While these benefits have reduced over time thanks to the strained friendship between Delta and Alaska, the perks are still better than no status at all.

While I automatically have access to Preferred seating on partner flights when booking through AlaskaAir.com, when booking on Delta.com, their site does not immediately recognize my MVP status during booking. On the seat selection page, you will find that standard and Economy Comfort seats are the only available option in Economy. Therefore, unless I pay for Economy Comfort or a paid upgrade to Business, I’m relegated to the standard, back-of-the-plane or middle seats. However, the trick is to return to your Delta reservation on Delta.com 24 hours later and you will suddenly find that the dark blue Preferred seats are now at your disposal at no cost.

Now, I’m standard MVP, not Gold or 75K MVP, so if you have higher status, your experience may be different.I was able to snag the aisle seat in an exit row for no additional cost. I booked a flight from TPA to DFW last week and 24 hours after my original  booking, I was able to snag the aisle seat in an exit row for no additional cost.

Calling into Delta is an alternate, immediate option after booking to request Preferred seats. But if you’re in no rush and your flight is only half full like mine was, calling into Delta wasn’t worth the trouble.

I was able to snag the aisle seat in an exit row for no additional cost. 

Earn 16 Miles per Dollar Spent on Bentgate.com through the Mileage Plan Shopping Portal

A few of you may have seen this promotion in your inbox this week but here’s a decent promotion for shopping on Bentgate through the Mileage Plan Shopping portal. You earn 4x the usual accrual for 16 miles per dollar spent. Not bad! Bentgate is a great site for outdoor clothing, climbing, and mountain gear. It’s great for all four seasons. Personally, I plan checking the site out for some clothes for an upcoming trip. Here’s the direct link to the promotion to earn your Alaska Airlines miles.

 

Today Only, No Fees! Father’s Day Promo for Amex Gift Cards through Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping Portal = 3 points/$

If you need to order a  last minute gift card for dad today or you just want to stock up on Amex gift cards, head on over to the Alaska Airlines shopping portal for Mileage Plus. There is a promo for today only for 3 points per dollar spent plus when you use promo code FPDAD, there are no gift card fees. Shipping still applies for mailed gift cards.

This an excellent offer to accrue Mileage Plan points plus additional points through Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, etc! Direct link is here.

 

 

United Status Match Success!

With all the recent buzz about the negative changes to United’s Mileage Plus last week, I did get a glimmer of good news from United. I had recently gained elite status with Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan and decided to put it to good use with United. I’ve been a fairly loyal United customer over the last few years which is quite rare for a DFW based flyer.  United is currently advertising their status match program through July 31, 2014 at no cost on United.com. American Airlines also offers status match but they do charge a fee based on the status level you are requesting.

Email of course is the fastest and easiest way to send in your status match request. I simply sent in my personal details, Mileage Plus number, and a copy of my Alaska Airlines MVP card. The site says 7-14 days to process, but in less than 24 hours I logged into my United account and I was Premier Silver! Yes, for all you seasoned road warriors out there, I know Silver is quite amateur but it’s still pretty cool to me! Now you must achieve a certain number of United  premier qualifying miles in 90 days to maintain your new status for the remainder of the elite year. I should be set for this as I have enough United travel booked in the next 90 days to maintain my elite status.

With Premier Silver, of course I’m not expecting my flight experience to change dramatically with United. However, 10 minutes worth of work will now save me a couple hundred bucks in checked bag fees, upgrades to Economy Comfort, and who knows, perhaps First on a very empty flight!

1,000 Bonus Alaska Mileage Plan Miles with Budget Car Rental

For those of you who are fans of Alaska’ Mileage Plan, you may have noticed that there are rarely any decent bonus mile offerings for car rental partners. Untied and American seem to have them going on all the time. Well I received this one in my inbox this morning for 1,000 bonus miles when you book for 4 days+ on rentals that begin before Aug 30, 2014. You can book through this link.