Monthly Archives for September 2015.
Instead of increasing the density of reconfigured Boeing 777-200 planes from 260 seats to 289 seats (and reducing the number of business class seats onboard), American tells me they’ve decided those 260 seat aircraft will stay in that configuration as a subfleet. That’s great for passengers.. and for upgrades.
Panama City-based Star Alliance airline Copa, which used United’s MileagePlus as its frequent flyer program until this summer, is getting up and running. They’ve been aggressively status matching especially United elites and folks with Latin America mailing addresses and with status in competitor programs.
They’ve handed out free miles just for joining. And they have reasonable award charts.
Now they have a big 150,000 mile offer for flying to Copa’s ‘new destinations’.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The American Airlines Boeing 777-200 retrofit project has been slow. Deliveries of the 787s had been delayed. And that’s long been though to be the result of slow deliveries of seats from Zodiac.
Now comes news that American has dropped Zodiac as their seat supplier.
If you’re like me, you need a hotel suite upgrade and don’t really care what room you get on a short business stay. My only really strong preference is not to have a connecting room, those don’t tend to isolate sound very well, and what I want most is a quiet room. Most of the time my elite status gets me into club lounges, and ‘club level’ upgrades are nearly meaningless. With most city hotels I don’t much care about the views. My work-related stays are generally short. But traveling for leisure, I’m generally not alone, the stays are often a bit longer, and I really enjoy an upgraded room. A hotel suite upgrade matters. Some people don’t share me feelings in valuing that, and that’s cool, they think “I’m on vacation and I’m not…
One of the best ways to check availability on oneworld airlines (which are partners of American Airlines) is to use the British Airways website. That’s because BA.com shows the most partners online — including Japan Airlines flights that are not available on the other good site for award searches, Qantas.
Unfortunately the British Airways site is given to ‘break’. It will either not show entire airlines (for awhile US Airways flights didn’t show there but fortunately those show at AA.com!) or will show ‘phantom’ award space, it will appear as though awards are available but in the end the space isn’t bookable and will error out at BA.com (or if you call a partner airline, you’ll be told the space isn’t available).
Reacting to the news that the moving walkways on United’s C concourse at Chicago O’Hare are being removed after the walkways in DFW’s D terminal were taken out in order to encourage more retail shopping, David B. e-mails,
“[Moving walkways are] already gone from Terminal C in Newark, makes traveling with the three kids much worse. And as much as foodies love the new restaurant selection in Newark, it’s terrible for families, expensive, slow, and not the sorts of food kids want to eat.”
Here’s why.
The four most important words in travel are Hang Up, Call Back.
But seven words line up right behind those: You don’t get if you don’t ask. Sometimes you just need someone to help you get something you’re entitled to or at least not unentitled to. Other times you need someone to bend the rules, or go out of your way.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
I took great umbrage at a very silly column by Christopher Elliott suggesting that coach passengers were ‘subsidizing’ the comfort of business class passengers.
There’s one flight, though, for which Elliott could be right: the Pope’s charter!
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
