Aviation

United Lounge Access with ITA Airways Volare

September 18, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel Leave a Comment

In advance of ITA Airways (AZ) goal to join Star Alliance next year, on September 8th they made a joint announcement with United (UA) regarding mileage earning/redemption, and lounge access, among other topics. Needing to get to Mexico for a project, I wanted to avail of my AZ Club Executive status to test United lounge access with ITA Airways Volare.

Note: this benefit applies to Club Executive and Club Premium, respectively the two highest tiers of Volare.

With the caveat that this itinerary took me through San Francisco (SFO) and Houston (IAH), i.e. home of majorly rubbish examples of United Clubs, they were still…places to get unlimited mediocre cups of coffee. On that note, given the long layovers at both airports, I tested out every single non-Polaris United lounge (I wasn’t in business class).

My first attempt at United lounge access with ITA Airways Volare was the SFO E gates United Club.

San Francisco E gates United Club entrance

This is where I had the most trouble, although it was one of the friendlier agents who likewise wanted to know more about the entry requirements.

n.b. the United Club scanners are a joke. Whether or not you’re allowed to enter, they flash a green check mark. What a system!

The agent brought up the employee e-mail mentioning the new tie-up. He first believed that it would only work if I were seated in business/first. After a few minutes, I said to him, just manually put in the number, and then let me scan the boarding pass.

It worked!

San Francisco E gates United Club interior

San Francisco United Club dinner/snacks for later

That was the key. Subsequent lounge entries were simplified by recommending a manual input of the ITA Volare frequent flier number; with that advice, it all went without a hitch.

By the way, in spite of the fact that my trip was international, domestic United travelers should also have United lounge access with ITA Airways Volare.

Until those purported SFO hub lounge renovations start, AA’s flagship LAX lounge mogs your versions something fierce.

Lounge Review: Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX

September 9, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: I was invited to review the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX.

Having only opened on November 12, 2024, the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX is the newest addition to the Phoenix lounge roster. Open daily from 04:30 – 22:30, it is located in Terminal 4 by the corridor to gates D11-D18.

Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX (Phoenix) ad

Given that it’s the smallest option in the Chase Sapphire network thus far, The Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX was chosen to be the first to offer reservations. Between 14 days – 24 hours prior to your planned visit, you can reserve a spot on the Chase Mobile® app, as long as:
1) You hold a Chase Sapphire Reserve, J.P. Morgan Reserve, and/or The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card
2) Your booking must be within three hours of the scheduled departure time.

There’s a grace period of 20 minutes for those passengers with reservations, but you will have to head to the back of the queue if there’s a significant flight delay.

Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX exterior

Some of you might be wondering what that metal mass in the middle of the photo is.

Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX Airstream

It’s an Airstream, that is, an aluminum travel trailer first popularized decades ago. In a vast and topographically diverse state beckoning people to hit the open road, Arizona’s Chase Sapphire Lounge opted to make an Airstream its signature feature.

Whaddya know, it doubles as a small kitchen. Currently, the Airstream chefs are preparing dishes from the now-closed the larder & the delta, the Phoenix restaurant that availed of Arizona ingredients to make Southern U.S./Louisiana favorites.

Airstream "food truck" — Airstream “food truck”

Upon checking-in, a nice staffer by the name of America helped show me to my table, and provided a brief run-down of lounge amenities. For those of you wondering what the QR codes at the tables do, they let you order wine, champagne, and beer, but not food.

Cozy bench seating (the QR code is on the edge of the table)

There’s a variety of seating options, ranging from booths and backless cushions, to seats with views of the apron, bar stools, and the hot-ticket item, the rattan chair.

As there were a handful of families seated at the time, I wasn’t keen to go around taking photos. That said, Arizona artists and craftspeople were called upon to added in their flourishes, whether through art, ceramics, or food brands.

Sacred Stave Arizona Bourbon Whiskey (with a Southwest Airlines tail in the background)

Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX "Cardinal Cooler" cocktail — Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club PHX “Cardinal Cooler” cocktail

Plus, the coffee was all sourced from Phoenix-based Press Coffee.

Diving deeper into food options, I made a short video of the lunch buffet.

Apparently, one of the staple menu items for Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club is a noodle bowl, made with a “sapphire sauce.” The PHX noodle bowl had chickpeas and soybeans, and the sauce reminded me of a sesame-tinged cucumber noodle dish from Xi’an, China.

Food choices included esquites, or Mexican street corn, braised chicken and beef plates, broccoli, couscous feta salad, ricotta & honey (mmm), and onion slaw, as well as brownies and fruit. This is all in addition to the Airstream kitchen.

I had a good time overall at this lounge. The staff was pleasant and readily cleared tables, the food was good enough, and the coffee kept me awake (even after that 2am alarm). Not to mention, the apron views from the lounge will get that much more exciting once that pair of Transpacific flights commences.

Lounge Review: AA Admirals Club NY LaGuardia (LGA)

September 9, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel Leave a Comment

Not being so familiar with American Airlines’ lounges, I was looking forward to my rare Admirals Club visit (following Greensboro, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Boston). Without further delay, let’s have a look at the AA Admirals Club NY LaGuardia (NY), only at Terminal B.

Admirals Club New York LaGuardia (LGA) entrance

Open Sundays – Fridays 04:30 – 21:30, and Saturdays 04:30 – 19:30, the sizable lounge at NYC’s third-busiest commercial airport is still in good shape. Not to mention, the AA Admirals Club NY LaGuardia has showers, buffets, a number of tea/coffee/snack areas, and a full bar (alcoholic drinks cost extra).

That day, my flight was scheduled to depart around 06:30, so I endeavored to get to the lounge early to take photos devoid of other guests.

Variety of seating in the middle section

I would have made it earlier, but I missed both a 7 train and a Q70 link bus by a total of 30 seconds. On the other hand, after spending months in Japan, it’s nice to be in a place with 24 hour public transit…even if the public transit isn’t necessarily nice.

The lounge agent was nice, but I can’t say that the rest of the staff appeared too thrilled to be on duty. Nevertheless, recently finished buffet items were quickly replaced, and I did have a couple of helpful conversations with some of the Spanish-speaking employees.

On the topic of food, you might be curious to know what the lounge had for breakfast.

Admirals Club New York LaGuardia (LGA) breakfast

After grabbing some bagels with lox, capers, and the all important cream cheese, I hoofed it to the “quiet room” in the back of the lounge.

I have to wonder, to what extent is it a quiet room when the lounge/audible terminal below is packed to the gills? Now, if they had a Faraday Cage room, then we’d be in business.

The seating spread across the length of the terminal (and lounge) gets higher marks, but the food offerings were a bit weak. I’m still waiting for the day a U.S. lounge gets its own security queue — or even immigration — à la Turkish Airlines at the old IST airport.

A Brief History of KLM asia (and Taiwan)

September 1, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel Leave a Comment

KLM asia airplane — KLM asia Aircraft, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport AMS

In 1995, KLM set up KLM asia specifically to fly to Taiwan. This was because the Chinese government wouldn’t allow national carriers to fly to both Taiwanese and Chinese destinations. Basically, to capitalize on growing business and tourism demand from both Taiwan and China, a number of airlines set up subsidiaries to appease the mainland; to wit, British Airways created the now-defunct British Asia Airways.

It also meant that such subsidiaries had to remove national symbols on a plane’s livery — aka the colors and designs; that’s why you don’t notice a Dutch crown anywhere on KLM asia.

two KLM asia aircraft — Two KLM asia Aircraft, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport AMS

These Taipei-bound flights generally operated as the second leg of regional hubs, e.g. Amsterdam – Bangkok – Taipei, or London – Hong Kong – Taipei. ‘Tis a good reason why 400+-seat 747s regularly flew the ~1.5 hour route between Hong Kong and Taipei.

In 2008, due in large part to Beijing-friendly Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou, charter flights began between China and the island state. The following year, the charter flights turned into scheduled flights, which meant that KLM asia and its ilk turned into novelties.

For history buffs, here’s a little background regarding the Dutch presence in Taiwan.

Formosa (present-day Taiwan) was considered just another backwater island of bandits and pirates, without much to offer the Dutch when they first made landfall in 1624.

At that point, the Dutch East India Company started to build Fort Zeelandia in Anping, today’s Tainan city. It became their island base to trade with the Spanish (in the Philippines), the Japanese, and the Chinese, as well as native aboriginal tribes. Unlike the Spanish, since the Dutch had welcomed settlers from Fujian province in China, they had a bit of a co-colonizing thang going on. Thus, due in part to getting along better with their neighbors, the Dutch were able to say adios to Spanish influence in Taiwan after the battle of Fort San Salvador in 1642.

fort zeelandia tainan taiwan — Fort Zeelandia, Anping (Now Tainan), Taiwan

That is, until a sharp increase in taxes on the Chinese catalyzed a rebellion against the Dutch East India Company. Koxinga (國姓爺), a Ming dynasty loyalist, became leader of this rebellion, and along with aboriginals who were tired of compulsory Dutch education, helped kick out the European settlers in 1661-1662. Although the Dutch briefly allied with the Qing dynasty (the Qing dynasty was ruled by a non-native Chinese group, the Manchu) to take over the northern port of Keelung, they were given their second and last boot in 1668.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m craving a pineapple stroopwafel.

Have you ever seen and/or flown with KLM asia?

Looking at Three Non-Traditional Benefits of Priority Pass

August 31, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel 2 Comments

I have been a Priority Pass member for a number of years, owing to a couple of credit cards. In that time, I have visited countless airport lounges — and a few restaurants — around the world, mostly through Priority Pass membership.

Click here to skip down to the main topic

It’s fair to say that many of those latter choices haven’t been a pretty sight (on that note, Japan, why do you even bother?). Never mind issues of crowding (i.e. the one aspect for which we can blame ourselves), but what exactly should an airport lounge provide? Let’s take the dining area as an example– how about one long trough for everyone?

The lede has been buried, so here on in we will get to the crux of things

For a brief moment, forget about those traditional lounges (and restaurants/other services, depending on the type of membership that you have). What I have for you today is a few other options through which the alliterative company can help you whittle down your layover time.

A place to sleep?

Unfortunately for me, unless I’m seated in a lie-flat, I’m unable to sleep on a plane. I think there has been one absurd exception this– a few years ago on a Chicago ORD – Dallas DFW – Vancouver YVR – Tokyo NRT/HND – Bangkok BKK sanity-be-damned routing, I passed out while on the Bangkok leg. Other than that, it’s bad news.

Enter: the nap room. In U.S. airports, there’s a chain called Minute Suites. In Doha DOH and Dubai DXB, it’s sleep ‘n fly.

Dubai International Airport sleep 'n fly — Dubai International Airport sleep ‘n fly

Swipe your card, and you might get anywhere from 1-3 hours to get a little shut-eye, and/or a shower.

sleep 'n fly single room — sleep ‘n fly single room

sleep 'n fly double room — sleep ‘n fly double room

Cynical me wonders if these chambers are cleaned as often as one’s plane seat. Yeesh.

At the end of the day, they’re just a place to flop.

Work on your putts

I haven’t been to this one, but if you’re into golf, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport MSP has a PGA Lounge.

I am decidedly not into golf, but driving ranges are neat. At this place, you can try out both a putting green, a golf course simulator, have a drink or a quick bite, or impulse buy at the Pro Shop.

PGA Lounge golf course simulator — PGA Lounge, source: https://www.mspairport.com/airport/eat-shop-relax/pga-msp

Hours are 08:00 – 19:00 for the golf stuff, and 13:00 – 20:00 for the lounge.

As for renting one of those golf carts around the terminal…no dice.

Beat a 5.51 in Dragster

I discovered Gameway on a whim while awaiting a Delta flight at Los Angeles LAX. If you’re into video games, then this is arguably better than a standard issue airport lounge. Plus, you get a drink/snack (but no caffeinated ramen … yet).

Gameway Los Angeles International Airport, source: https://gameway.gg/

The one time I visited the Delta LAX outlet, no one else was playing. I ended up inviting someone in so that I could have competition in Street Fighter.

Gameway also has branches in Dallas – Fort Worth DFW, Houston Hobby HOU, Charlotte CLT, and soon, New York JFK T8; all have different hours of operation.

As I discover more uses of Priority Pass — no, I don’t mean using the card to keep your hotel room’s electricity on — I hope to update this page to keep you informed.

Meanwhile, if you have any other germane suggestions, why not leave a comment?

New EVA Air Southwest Interline Agreement Simplifies Travel

August 27, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel Leave a Comment

Good news for many passengers traveling between the United States and Taiwan: a new EVA Air Southwest interline agreement has been announced.

But what exactly does interline mean, and whom does this help?

Let’s say you want to fly from Taipei TPE to Las Vegas LAS. EVA Air can get you across the Pacific, and Southwest can get you to Las Vegas. But EVA Air doesn’t fly its own metal to Vegas, nor does Southwest head to Taiwan.

With this brand-new EVA Air Southwest interline agreement, you are now able to book a TPE-(U.S. hub)-LAS itinerary only having to check-in once. This also means your luggage will be checked through to the destination.*

*For now, this only works through four EVA Air transit hubs: Seattle SEA, San Francisco SFO, Los Angeles LAX, and Chicago ORD. Not to mention, when coming from Asia, you will still have to pick up your bag at the first U.S. port of entry, then place it back on the belt after immigration.

Southwest Boeing 737 at Las Vegas LAS, 2024

Nevertheless, it’s a good step towards making travel a bit easier for many TPAC (Transpacific) fliers, particularly those heading west across the big pond.

Which U.S. Airline’s Booking Engine is Best?

August 26, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel Leave a Comment

I’ve covered U.S. airline booking engine travel hacks before, but now I’d like to take a broader look into things. How do the United States-based airline flight search experiences stack up, and is there any reason to be optimistic?

There are three main attributes I want to see in any U.S. airline booking engine. (Really, it’s all booking engines, but today’s post is expressly about those in the United States.)

The three-part checklist is:
– redeem miles
– multi-city/open-jaw functionality
– the slug

The first two might be a given for most of us, but the latter is where I can really cook with gas. Briefly, the slug is the part of the weblink that specifies a page. For instance, whereas the complete link is https://noworkalltravel.com/2025/08/26/which-u-s-airlines-booking-engine-is-best/ the slug for this post is “which-u-s-airlines-booking-engine-is-best.”

***Learn some three-letter airport codes, and your searches on some airline websites will be expedited.

n.b. I’m not going to go into the deeper dive of finding out which partner airlines can be booked on each website, for that’s a different issue.

Alaska Airlines

On Alaska Airlines’ homepage, redeem miles is clearly marked. Multi-city is hidden behind the “all search options” button.

I’ve had mixed-success with their multi-city, because it occasionally asks for a third and fourth flight to be added before a search can be realized.

Alaska Airlines Flight Search Results Fubar

Thanks for that.

That’s where I curse the system, and avail of the slug. Yes, fortunately Alaska Airlines rolls with the airport code slug.

Replace the three-letter airport/city codes (in this case, CHI is Chicago, and GDL is Guadalajara), and you’re set. Phew!

American Airlines

American Airlines’ booking engine is a painful chapter.

You’d never know that at first glance.

Redeem miles and multi-city are clearly marked.

The search goes off without a hitch.

But then, what if you want to search another routing? Ugh.

You have to click “new search,” which takes you to another page, which then takes you back to the flight results page.

Message to all airlines: let us modify the search on the same page as the results page. Dealt.

Oh, and American Airlines’ slug is 100% user-unfriendly.

Their website begs you to start at an OTA (e.g. Google Flights), then send you on a shortcut to the booking page on the official American Airlines website.

Delta

How about that?! On Delta’s homepage, not only is redeem miles visible, but also one can easily choose between Round Trip, One-Way, and Multi-City.

You can even modify the flight search parameters on the flight results page. Delta’s “sort & filter” option is woeful, but that’s a horse of a different color.

As for their slug, seems Delta is bedfellows with AA.

You can’t win ’em all.

Frontier

As more of a point-to-point carrier than one focusing on hubs (although there are “hubs” like Denver), Frontier doesn’t quite do the multi-city thing. But redeem miles, that’s an available option.

Like Delta, Frontier also wants to relieve your wallet of excess funds, so their modify flight search feature overlaps with the search results page.

But their slug, well…it just laughs at you.

In other words, they can’t lay a claim to my wallet just yet.

jetBlue

Hmm, although it is ironically the one U.S. carrier I don’t enjoy flying, thus far it seems that they have the most NoWorkAllTravel-friendly booking engine.

On jetBlue’s home page, one can redeem miles, and seamlessly choose between one-way/roundtrip/multi-city options.

Even modifying flights is a cinch. Just click on the downward-facing caret (arrow), and switch up the itinerary.

Get this, the slug is practical (from a user experience perspective), too.

If only jetBlue had a more robust network, then I’d have to consider them again.

Southwest

Not a particularly useful airline for me, nor did I like hearing about their “enhancements.” Nevertheless, I should probably take a gander at their website again.

Multi-city and redeem miles are present, so that’s a start.
In unrelated news, I just noticed the Cruises tab. I don’t want to imagine a cruise with Southwest’s current boarding arrangement (i.e. if you boarded too late, no berth for you).

At least Southwest makes it easy to modify a flight search, right on the flight results page.

In theory, I approve of their website slug. For pragmatism’s sake, it’s tricky. Note that the destination airport code comes before the origin airport code. Which paragon of back-end development intellect hatched that idea?

Spirit

Spirit is in the uh-oh camp these days. As in, uh-oh, who’s financing them?

Meanwhile, how does their homepage look?

Redeem miles & multi-city can quickly be selected. If only I still had “status” with them, I…really don’t know how they’d help me cross the Pacific.

I was surprised to see that Spirit has the most accessible modify flight search screen. It’s right there, above the flight search results.

Buuuut, the slug kills me. 2 for 3, Spirit.

United Airlines

In spite of being my used airline website, United Airlines’ version is more eldritch than welcoming. In my experience, for years it has been plagued by bugs.

For example, here’s the Jekyll side of their homepage search engine.

And the Hyde.

Why is it Hyde? How is 29 August not a valid departure date?

In any event, United Airlines’ flight search box shows where you can redeem miles, and hit up the multi-city option. Good.

Modifying the airports and date is also seemingly approachable, since it’s right there on the flight results page.

However, as mentioned earlier, United’s website is really buggy.

To wit, when I changed the origin airport from UIN to Denver DEN, the dreaded slug bug manifested.

Obviously, these are all desktop versions of U.S. airline booking engines. I’ve had routinely bad sessions using airline apps. Not to mention, many apps just don’t have all of the capabilities as desktop websites do. (e.g. Alaska Airlines sent me away from its app to use my Wallet) Moreover, absent are a number of smaller carriers, namely Breeze and Avelo.

As I much prefer to book airline tickets on the official airline website, I don’t have much other choice here. Thus AA can continue to look like a contemporary with Prodigy, and United has no reason to quit being the airline analog to Goldeneye.

I reference above a slight cheat, that is, using Google Flights to get you to the booking page on an airline’s website. Of course, that, too isn’t foolproof. Many times, I’ve tried booking a flight overseas, only to be told that the price has increased due to my credit card not being from the country of departure.

It pains me to say it, but it looks like jetBlue has won the mind-numbing battle of U.S. airline booking engines.

Seattle Alaska Airlines Lounge – Concourse N

August 19, 2025 by NoWorkAllTravel Leave a Comment

Open daily from 5am – 11pm, the Seattle Alaska Airlines Lounge at Concourse N is an airy outlier at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). That is to say, at an airport with a mostly unpleasant user experience, the lounge is quite a step up.

Entry Requirements

Before getting into lounge specs, let’s briefly cover how one can visit.
Besides being a OneWorld airline alliance lounge, any Alaska Airlines passenger can buy a single-entry pass (presuming there’s space available) for $65. Furthermore, Alaska Lounge members can enter with immediate family members, or two guests.

Access

Once you navigate through that long, cramped SEA check-in corridor, accidentally stumble upon the correct security queue, and then question how many trains you have to take to get there, the lounge’s floor-to-ceiling windows and fireplace will seem other-worldly.

Here’s a hint: once you make it to Concourse N (which, along with Concourse S, is an “island”), head up these escalators:

Once you see this sign, you’re cooking with gas:

The Seattle Alaska Airlines Lounge Concourse N entrance will be on your left.

Food & Drink

In terms of beverages, the lounge has a nice bar where — get this — tips are unwelcome. Is this really in the United States?

In addition to the stalwart liquor brands, a number of Washington state beers and ciders are available. Not to mention, seasonal cocktails and mocktails make an appearance; since the Hawaiian Airlines Tokyo Narita to Seattle flight had just been launched, a cocktail celebrating that flight was available for purchase.

The food section, however, was sorely lacking.

Apparently, pancakes and clam chowder were the recommendations. The pancakes have their own dedicated machine; it would have been nice to see local huckleberry jam to accompany them.

As for the chowder, I forgot to try it, but I was pretty turned off by the rest of the food.

Again, to honor the Tokyo – Seattle route launch, some Chinese take-out style saccharine goop took the place of something edible. Many questions.

But, if salad is more your thing, you might not be disappointed.

Unsurprisingly, I had just disembarked from that Tokyo flight, so I was in the mood for caffeine. There’s always an employee by the coffee machine, so order up an espresso or three.

It’s not the most convenient lounge, given the requirement of taking the train, and the food options are uninspiring. But the staff were nice, the natural light very welcome, and the fireplace somewhat soothing. Ultimately, it’s still the preferred Alaska Airlines lounge at Sea-Tac.

United Lounge Access with ITA Airways Volare

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A Brief History of KLM asia (and Taiwan)

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