My pictures of this lounge aren’t going to be very good, but that’s actually the crux of the review. I got off a regional flight from Denpasar and when I arrived at the train which moves passengers between terminals I realized that I left my camera on the flight. I froze. What should I do to get it back? I hadn’t even paid attention to which gate I had gotten off at, but I could have figured that out. Should I return to the gate? While Singapore flight attendants provide outstasnding service, I find that their ground staff do not always and out of the box thinking isn’t usually a strong suit. I was flying business class for the short hop but connecting to Singapore Airlines first class on an award ticket. The lounge I’d…
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…
How Do You Feel About Bare Feet on a Hotel Wall?
Last month I asked how you feel about bare feet on a plane. I feel very strongly that I never want to see male toes in the office. That’s about the only dress rule I seek to enforce at work. I also do not want to see male toes on a plane. This was a very controversial controversial claim, debated heatedly in the comments. While my claim is a sexist one — it’s usually limited to men — I realized it’s possible for women to take things too far, too. This morning I received an email from reader Andrew. Given the occasional discussions / rants about feet on the wall on your blog I thought you might find this picture amusing. It is from an actual catalog that greeted me in my room last night.…
Man Builds Fully Functional 737 Flight Simulator in His Son’s Bedroom
This is simply awesome. (HT: Milepoint) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. Don’t miss out!
American’s New Large Regional Jets Are Roomier, With Seat Power and More Bin Space, and Will Get Inflight Internet
When I first covered American getting these large regional jets, I noted the press release said nothing about internet. I tried to confirm whether the planes would have internet or not, and the folks at American I spoke with hadn’t heard anything about equipping them with internet. It turns out that there will eventaully have internet. I suspect this is a decision that was made after the initial aircraft order. Current aircraft deliveries don’t come internet-equipped. However, they do have 37-inch pitch in first class which is fairly close to mainline standard. Hat tip to AAdvantageGeek, here’s a video tour of the aircraft. The video was posted by the Chicago Tribune and their interest stems presumably that the aircraft will predominantly be service Chicago routes. (American’s revenue out of Chicago tends to lag United’s, and…
American Changing its Upgrade Priority for International Tickets – and Possible Future Changes with the Impending Merger
Domestic upgrade priority on American Airlines is based on: Elite status level Whether the passenger is connecting off another American flight Whether the passenger is full (Y or B) fare Time of request Time of check-in does not matter for domestic upgrades. When you check in, your upgrade request time carries over from the list prior to the airport — even though you are asked whether or not you want to be added to the airport standby list for an upgrade. Prior to August 1, international upgrades were different. If you did not clear an upgrade in advance, the “time of request” tie-breaker for an upgrade was based on time of check-in rather than time of original request. Getting Status is reporting that American’s international upgrade priority changed on August 1, aligning with domestic upgrade…
Club Carlson Gifting Concierge (Black Card) Status to Nordic MegaDO Participants
MegaDO frequent flyer trips are billed as once in a lifetime types of experiences, the kinds of things you don’t get to experience anywhere else. Last fall the group chartered United’s first 787. Folks got to sit in United CEO Jeff Smisek’s chair. They had a barbecue on the tarmac in Houston. Last January in Dallas American Airlines set up flight simulator time, and the group practiced a water evacuation into a pool. Some participants even changed into American Airlines first class pajamas first. In addition to all the pre-announced activities, there are often surprise and delights that come along after folks have booked. The next (sold out) MegaDO is the Scandinavian event in September. Participants already knew they’d be gifted Club Carlson Gold status, but they got an email letting them know that Club…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 1, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Two months of free Hulu Plus 250 free Virgin Atlantic miles for downloading their shopping toolbar Extra person charges for having more than 2 people in a hotel room are quite common in Europe. So I thought it would be useful to share this discussion of how to use points for your family to stay in one room in Europe. Starwood’s fall promotion is double points between September 1 and December 15 plus 2500 bonus points for every five nights during that period (up to 10,000 points for 20 nights). Registration, which is not yet open, will be required. TSA Union Says Frequent Security Lapses Are “A-Plus” The AP‘s David Koenig writes about ‘gate lice’. The Starwood American Express 30,000 point offer may be coming back? I’m beginning…
