Ok, I’m not sure if this is weird or just plain awesome, but the latter gets my vote. What do you think? Here’s the Google Translate version of the video description (original is German, natch): The new, produced a so-called LipDub image film of Munich Airport has brought to the catchy sounds of the song “Come away with me” the band “The Donots” in all kinds of movement. The result – a real blast: approximately 200 talented performers from the Munich airport family – from trainee to CEO – have participated. Parts of the apron were cordoned off, check-in desks temporarily withdrawn from the market and made a real hotel bed next to an airplane. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts…
General
Category Archives for General.
Worst Case Scenario: Use Your Miles to Escape Terrorists, Avoid Natural Disasters, and Evade the Mob
Miles from Blighty posted earlier about seeing award space into Sana’a, Yemen using United miles. And I wondered, how useful would those miles be to leave Yemen right now? Granted, if you’re in Sana’a right now you’re probably there working for a government, a private employer that’s getting you out, or a non-governmental organization that’s hopefully working to do the same. In Yemen and across the region there are people fleeing because the U.S. has declared that really scary things are about to happen. (And presumably this is in comparison to the scary things that already do happen!) Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines flies six times a week from Sana’a to Istanbul with a 45 minute stop in Aden. And over the next few days availability is good — in coach only on the flight…
AwardWallet Can Track American AAdvantage Accounts Again
AwardWallet will once again be able to track American AAdvantage frequent flyer accounts. They announced this morning that they’ve worked through their disagreements. American Airlines and AwardWallet today announced that together they are making it easier and more convenient for AAdvantage® members to track their mileage balances. “American Airlines is continually looking for new ways to enhance the experience for our most valued customers,” said Cory Garner, Managing Director of Sales Operations and Distribution at American Airlines. “We have worked closely with AwardWallet to design an offering that meets our security requirements, while offering our customers a one-stop shop for tracking all of their loyalty affiliations, including AAdvantage.” It’s great to see that American really ‘gets it’. This is great news for members. As an American Executive Platinum, I don’t log into AA.com daily and…
Don’t Rely on Phone Agents or Airline Websites: Here’s Which Tools to Use to Find Award Space on Your Own
Most airlines offer poor tools for finding and booking award seats. Most airline websites do not include most partner airline flights. They don’t search all conceivable routings, either. But you can’t just call, either, because the tools agents are working with most of the time aren’t very good. Agents will be of variable skills and desire to help (which is why if all you are going to do is call the airline, be sure to hang up and call back if you don’t get the answer you want. As a result of these limitations, you frequently need to search for award seats yourself — find what award seats are available on your own, and specifically request those seats from a telephone agent. But how do you find available award seats that the phone agents may…
National’s New Mobile App Will Let You Choose a Specific Car — and Join Me for a Travel Tech Chat Next Week
I’m hosting a Google Hangout event on Tuesday, August 13th at 7:30pm Eastern to discuss technology and travel, what devices and innovations were important in the past, what the state of the art is now, and what’s missing. It’s organized by National Car Rental, since they’ve announced their new mobile app (can you believe they really didn’t have one before?) and they think it is pretty cutting edge travel technology. There’s one piece of it, being implemented next month, that could be. Now, there are only two real innovations in the rental car space that I’ve been able to think of over the past couple of decades. One is the loyalty program profile where your credit card is on file, no need to stop at the rental counter. National, like all of the other major…
And this is Why You Don’t Book Tickets for Other People Using Airline Websites
Jeanne passes along this complaint about Delta that’s in the early stages of gaining traction online. Bottom-line: passenger is denied boarding by Delta because they couldn’t produce the credit card used to purchase the ticket (her boss bought the ticket). The passenger was enroute to Uganda. Her boss got involved in the call, trying to convince Delta the ticket wasn’t fraudulent. And while we have only the boss’ word for it, she contends Delta’s agent suggested… The talented and adept Delta Red Coat team answered all of my questions and explained to me that my employee was asked to present her credit card because the “country of Africa is full of frauds.” How embarrassing! All this time, I was under the impression that African was a continent full all kinds of different people. Thanks to…
JetBlue’s Transcon Business Seats and Suites Revealed
Via Frequently Flying, JetBlue has released a video of their new Airbus A321’s which will operate on premium cross-country flights from their New York JFK hub. The video first takes you through the coach cabin showing both regular economy and the Even More Space section. It then heads up front to reveal what appears to be a 16-seat cabin with a 2-2 configuration in rows 1, 3 and 5, and solo mini-suites (complete with privacy doors) on both sides of the aisle in rows 2 and 4. Here’s the video rendering of what the cabin will look like. I took a few screen shots from within the video to offer a glimpse into JetBlue’s premium products. Here’s a straight forward shot of the new business class seats, two-by-two, outside of the first row I would…
How to Think About the Value of Mileage Runs — and Why Lucky Should Stay Home
A couple of weeks ago a reader asked whether it made sense to stick with an airline or hotel program after achieving status, or is it better to switch programs and achieve status somewhere else? In other words, do you enjoy the benefits of the status, or do you reach for more status? And my answer was that it depends on what next year’s travel plans are likely to be. How much value are you going to get out of your elite status — either the first one you’ve achieved, or the second one you would go for? You have to figure out what status is actually worth to you, in order to determine whether it’s worth going for. Today Lucky declares on his One Mile at a Time blog, “I Think Elite Status is…
“Is it a Pet.. or is it Lunch?” Chinese Airport Security Edition
The South China Morning Post reports on a Guangzhou man who wanted to bring his pet turtle with him on a trip to Beijing… so his disguised the turtle as a hamgburger. The incident occurred on the morning of July 29, when a man, surnamed Li, was about to board China Southern Airlines flight 345 to Beijing, Guangzhou Daily reported. As Li passed through airport security, X-ray screening machines detected a few “odd protrusions” sticking out of a KFC burger that the man had packed in his bag. Airport staff determined that the protrusions looked suspiciously like turtle limbs, and asked to inspect Li’s luggage. “There’s no turtle in there, just a hamburger,” Li reportedly insisted. “There’s nothing special to see inside.” Ultimately he had to leave the turtle with a friend to care for…
@UnitedAirlanes is Better at Social Media than @United
I follow (and often copy my United commentary to) @FakeUnitedJeff, a parody of United CEO Jeff Smisek. I had not been familiar with @UnitedAirlanes though. That account has really taken off since it’s gotten exposure from BuzzFeed. And it’s actually pretty funny (sometimes). People tweet at United via a misspelling (the correct United twitter account is @United — those social media geniuses created a new twitter account with no followers when they merged with Continental instead of changing the name on one account or the other). This account is clearly a parody, in the vein of Untied.com, United Airlanes. And my favorite: (HT: rwoman on Milepoint) (Update: I wrote this post last night and scheduled it for this morning. I see that Hack My Trip has now written on this as well.) You can join…
