Showing posts with label Denver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Denver. Show all posts

April 30, 2016

Review: Denver A Line Train to the Plane

After nearly 30 years of planning, twelve years since a successful ballot initiative, and six long years of construction, Denver finally has a rail line connecting downtown and the airport.


RTD's University of Colorado A  Line opened to long lines and great fan fare on 4/22/2016.  Note that the nod to CU in the line name comes from a paid sponsorship.


The commuter (heavier gauge than light rail) rail train leaves every 15 minutes for most of the day (30 minutes in the early morning and late evening hours) from both Denver's Union Station and Denver International Airport.


The entire ride takes 37 minutes, stops 7 times on the way to the airport, and costs $9 each way.

February 17, 2016

Starwood Grows Presence In Denver

The hotel scene in Denver is blowing up.  Sorry if this will be of limited use to some.

Starwood just announced a new Tribute property in Denver...actually located pretty close to where we live in the Lower Highland (LoHi) neighborhood.  This project has been in the works for awhile and I'm very excited to have another hotel close to home.  Even better, to have a Starwood property where we can earn/burn points.

The 164 room "upper upscale" hotel will be developed by Denver's own St. Charles Town Co.  No name yet but they hope to announce one later in 2016.

Rendering courtesy of St. Charles Town Co.

Neighborhood hotels are awesome.  If done right (and I'm confident they will do this one right) they can provide a neighborhood living room for both locals and visitors.  The fact that they won't be bound by Sheraton/W brand standards means they should be able to do more to fit the hotel in with the neighborhood.  And that is a good thing.

It will be interesting to see how the hotel progresses from a branding standppoint given that completion is scheduled for 2018.  Marriott will likely have completed their purchase of Starwood by then.

October 31, 2015

Lufthansa's Denver to Munich Service is Back!

Denver International Airport (my home airport) has been on a tear of late.  United's service to Panama City was announced last year although has since been scaled back to a seasonal route.  British Airways upgraded their service from a 3 class 777 to a 4 class 747.  We had an opportunity to fly the route in May and it was pretty awesome to take a long haul flight from our home airport.

Lufthansa A330 First Class

And now Lufthansa is set to bring back direct service (previously cancelled in 2008) from Denver to Munich (in addition to current service to Frankfurt) on a 4 class A330.  We flew the aircraft in first to Frankfurt in 2013 and were wowed by the entire Lufthansa experience.  The service will start in May of 2016 - I look forward to a long weekend in Munich at somepoint in the future.

DIA's been working hard to expand international service for both tourism and business purposes.  This is pretty phenomenal route in that it opens up direct service to Munich and yet another option for 2-stop service to a number of locations in Europe.

October 22, 2014

British Airways 747 Coming to Denver!

British Airways announced yesterday that they will be up-gauging the current daily 777 Denver - London (LHR) service to a 747 in March of 2015!  This is awesome for several reasons:


1)  Denver International Airport will see additional 747 service - the only current 747 at DIA is Lufthansa's Denver - Frankfurt flight and equipment varies by day
2)  This represents an increase in capacity of 23% - more award seats anyone?
3)  I've been working on earning the BA "Travel Together Ticket" and I would love nothing more than to redeem it for this flight

British Airways 747 Seat Map Key

But the biggest news is that the 747 will add first class service to the Denver market.  The current 777 service provides three classes (business, premium economy, economy) but doesn't have first class.  Very exciting!

Courtesy of seatguru.com - BA first on the 747

I am kind of surprised to see BA adding capacity on the route but it must be doing well and there must be demand for first class for them to make the swap.  I'll keep you posted as award availability becomes available.

May 10, 2014

United Launches Denver to Panama City Service

Earlier this week, United announced brand new daily, non-stop service from Denver to Panama City (PTY).  Outside of Mexico and Canada, the route to Tokyo (NRT) was the only international route United was serving from Denver so this is exciting news.


City and economic development officials have been working on this route for a long time.  Panama City has been on our list for several years and we've almost pulled the trigger (previous United options would have routed through Houston) on a trip a few times so this is an exciting development. The route will be served by a 737-700 with 118 seats - 12 in United First and 106 in Economy.  There will be 40 E+ seats so 52 of the 106 are "premium" seats.  This will also be a great way to get from Denver to other South American destinations as Star Alliance partner connects to over 30 cities from Panama City.

The is expected to begin November 2nd after receiving government approval.  As a reminder, round trip saver award tickets go for 35,000 miles in Economy and 60,000 in First.  I haven't seen the flight times yet but this route clocks in at about 6h30m so I would expect at least one direction to be a redeye.

This is a great development for Denver and United and I hope to try this route in 2015!

March 19, 2014

Denver Hotel Market is HOT

HotelChatter has a great post out today on 6 new hotels being built in Denver.  I figured I'd pass along since so many readers live in Denver/visit often.  I can actually see two of these projects (The Crawford and the unnamed Kimpton project) from my office window.

Crawford Hotel Denver Room

The Crawford is being built in Denver's historic Union Station and is set to open in July.  Really exciting stuff for Denver!