There's been a bit of blog chatter lately about a special Alaska Airlines is running - offering a 5,000 miles bonus - to join the Alaska Board Room (their airport lounge club).  The basic membership costs $450 for a year, though could be as low as $295 if you have high status on the carrier.

American, Delta, United and US Air all have about the same rate card for joining their clubs.

I scratch my head as to why anyone would pay this sort of money to join a single lounge. ...

Lounge Membership comes with a price, however the best part of traveling internationally is most international airports have a Diners club lounge! My Diner’s Club card, provided by my work, allows me free access to these lounges while traveling! Although this does very little for me in the United States, due to the limited numbers, it’s great when traveling outside the country.

On my trip home from Manila, I had a chance to check out the PAGSS lounge at MNL. This ...

Targeted to residents of Hong Kong and mainland China, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is offering a hassle-free status match to EuroBonus silver or gold status through June 30, 2012. The matched status will be good through April 2013. Simply join EuroBonus here (it's free), then send a status match e-mail request to [email protected] with a copy of your elite card or a recent account statement.

Here's a summary of what the status will get ...

 Today I drove from Germany to England via the Euro Tunnel. I’m moving to England and work picked up the bill for the Euro Tunnel and approved the FlexiPlus ticket for me & my car to get to the UK. The Felix Plus ticket provides complete flexibility it and has a few extra perks;

Turn up at anytime and board the next train Dedicated check-in Priority BoardingLounge access Free boxed lunch with drink

All this has it’s price, it is around 199GBP that’s ...

The news that Air Canada is restricting elite status to those who fly at least 10,000 miles on Air Canada metal got me thinking about my habit of crediting 38K miles each year to British Midland (bmi).

Even before Lufthansa (bmi's parent company) announced plans to devalue its award chart, I figured that I'm probably wasting a lot of time and benefits just to save a few hundred dollars on domestic lounge access. The process ...

I'm at the point of the year again where I've reached a fork in the road. I've re-qualified for 1K status on United, so my elite benefits are safe through at least January 2012, but now I must decide whether to continue to credit to UA (where I earn double RDMs on most flights) or pursue status on another Star Alliance carrier.

Lounge access is very important to me when I fly so I have appreciated holding Star Alliance Gold status with British Midland the last two years. That status ...