I’m need to buy Lucky who writes the One Mile at a Time blog, this t-shirt. He shared his experience checking into the St. Regis Abu Dhabi, a Starwood hotel. First he was (incorrectly) told that his American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts booking wasn’t entitled to a Platinum upgrade. Then he was told that even though the hotel was selling more than 9 St. Regis suites, that none were available. He tweeted the hotel and Starwood Preferred Guest, and he was given one of those suites. Here’s how to ask for – and get – a hotel upgrade. Burj al Arab
100 Free Miles In Your Choice of Program
Bing Rewards, the loyalty program of the search engine no one ever uses, will give you 100 miles for signing up. You can sign up easily via Facebook (though Facebook is not required), and doing so does not give Bing permission to post to your account. I’ve written in the past that Bing lets you earn miles for online search. The programs you can redeem points in Bing Rewards for include: American Airlines AAdvantage Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles Icelandair Saga Club IHG® Rewards Club Avianca LifeMiles My BestBuy Rewards SVM FuelCircle US Airways® Dividend Miles Virgin America Elevate Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (HT: Loyalty Lobby) You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or…
Changes at the Blog, And I Feel Fine
That’s great, it starts with an earthquake Birds and snakes, an aeroplane, and Lenny Bruce is not afraid Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn World serves its own needs, don’t misserve your own needs … Feeling pretty psyched … It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine Growing up I was told that REM’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It was inspired by Michael Stipe’s brother, who was a debater at the University of Georgia and partners with Ralph Reed who would go on to become a prominent political activist and Christian Coservative. The song involves a “plan-counterplan debate.” The lyrics include, A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline That story may be…
Get $400, a Big Step for the 787, Vacation on the Cheap, and What Happens to Dead Passengers? (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 29, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: I’m giving away $400, it’s easy to enter with a comment. Scott Mayerowitz reports that just after the NTSB criticized the FAA for how it had overseen testing of the Boeing 787, the FAA has approved the 787 for 330 minutes “ETOPS” (traveling 5 1/2 hours away from the nearest emergency landing location). How to plan a family beach vacation that won’t break the bank What happens when a passenger dies inflight? (HT: @speakman) Uber is introducing an SUV option for their lower-cost UberX in the DC market You can join the 40,000+ 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. You can also follow me…
How to Choose an Airport Hotel.. and How to Do it in Abu Dhabi (the Premier Inn)
Previous trip report installments Introduction: Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost Etihad Lounge and First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi My flight from Washington Dulles was scheduled to land at 7:45pm, and we were a few minutes late. I’d have to clear immigration (easy enough with no line at fast track), and I’d have to be back at the airport early for my 9:35am departure. Now, on this trip I had checked a bag. I almost didn’t need to, and a little more thoughtful packing I wouldn’t have. I was going to be gone for 12 nights. I didn’t need a large checked bag, and checking a bag I didn’t also take a rollaboard (just my laptop bag). But having done that I checked my bag…
Why You May Not Be Able to Book The Award That I Did…
I’m in the midst of writing about my trip to the Maldives and Malaysia. Just yesterday I shared details of my Etihad first class suite, complete with complimentary chauffeur and onboard chef. I even explained just how good availability on Etihad can be. Etihad first class is one of the most readily available first class awards there is. … You can search Etihad space on the Etihad website. With only one exception, an Abu Dhabi – London flight over a year ago, I’ve had a perfect match between the low level saver award space Etihad offers its own members and what American AAdvnatage can see. And yet right now you may not be able to book it. I wanted to flag this in case, reading the report, you were tempted to pick up the phone…
$54 Starbucks Drink, My $400 Giveaway Could Buy You 7, a Free Flight and 35% Off in Asia (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 28, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: I’m giving away $400, it’s easy to enter with a comment. The record gets set for a Starbucks free drink American will subleasing gates from United in LAX’s terminal 6. Here’s what it means for travelers. As American tries to grow in such a space-constrained airport, their operations wind up all over the place. CardWatchdog is giving away a roundtrip flight to Europe Club Carlson is running a 35% off sale for stays of 2 nights or longer booked by May 30 and consumed between June 1 and September 30. Of course, nothing beats second night free on award stays with their co-brand credit card…! You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just…
Etihad Lounge and First Class Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi
Previous installments Introduction: Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost Etihad will arrange car service pickup for business and first class passengers. Make your reservation online using your Etihad record locator (something I got from American, who issued my ticket, this confirmation number is different than American’s). You can also make the reservation over the phone with Etihad. The car service will ring you 1-2 days prior to the trip to confirm your pickup time. I had them come get us about 3 hours prior to departure. That way I figured I’d be at the airport about 2 hours 15 minutes out, know that I’d want to spend a little while in the lounge. It’s not a great lounge, but it is a great lounge for Dulles, it’s…
What Award Space Can You ASK American to Release That Doesn’t Show Available?
Over the weekend I explained that it’s possible to ask American Airlines to release seats as award space under certain circumstances. If you have built most of an award itinerary, but you need space on an American flight to complete it, you can ask for that seat to be released even if it isn’t showing award space (“to complete an itinerary”). If you have found space for part of your traveling party, but need one more seat than is showing as available, you can ask for that seat (“to complete a party”). Factors like how full the flight is and your perceived value as a customer affect whether American will approve these requests. They are responded to automatically and near-instantaneously by a system called “QMAX.” In recent times there have been fewer approved requests, and…
I’m sorry.
For the past several hours View from the Wing was unreachable. Many of you reached out by email, starting conversations with me at Milepoint.com, and otherwise. All is well (with me, thank you for your concern) We’re back (the site is live again) I haven’t been able to successfully approve dozens of comments in the pending (possible spam) queue yet, but expect to be able to soon. I apologize deeply for the outage. I appreciate deeply that being offline for a few hours causes concern and withdrawal! You have no idea how much that means to me. Meanwhile, it’s incredibly vexing for me as well. No comments! No ability to post and share thoughts on the day’s developments. Frankly, I’m addicted to my blog too. Apparently some system upgrades were being done over the weekend…
