News, notes, and minor items from around the interweb: Club Carlson is offering a 50% bonus on points purchases through November 10. That makes the cost of points $0.00467 apiece. You can buy points in 1000 mile increments plus 50% bonus, up to 40,000 points per calendar year. Not a phenomenal deal in and of itself, but I do have a bunch of Club Carlson points from their big 50,000 point bonuses. This might be useful for a top-off. JohnnyJet flew Korean Air on his honeymoon to Bali, and his Toronto-Seoul segment was in first class. Especially timely trip report for me, since I have Korean Air’s first class booked as well and there are very few recent trip reports out there. (He also notes that you can call Korean Air reservations to request a…
Presidential Hotel Preferences
Where do they stay on the campaign trail? FoxNews.com reports on the hotel preferences of the Presidential candidates. Obama leans Hyatt while Romney’s travel spend goes to Marriott (where Romney is a former member of the Board of Directors). Ann Romney has said she likes Hampton Inns for free Wifi, but Fox News can find no indication that she’s ever stayed in one. Luxurious digs aren’t limited to the Romneys, however, with the piece reminding that shortly after the last election Michelle Obama took the kids to the Presidential Suite at the (Marriott…) Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas. (HT: uggboy on Milepoint)
Cathay Pacific Introducing New Regional Business Class Product
Yesterday Cathay Pacific announced their new regional business class product. Cathay Pacific has an outstanding long haul business class.. fully flat, direct aisle access, they took the innovative seat that US Airways first introduced and improved on it. But their regional (intra-Asia) product is fairly antiquated. I’ve written about it in the past, such as here and here. I’d liken it to flying in United’s old recliner-style business class seats, better than US domestic first class for sure and better than flying business class inside Europe by miles, but not the same seat you get for transpacific or transatlantic flying on better carriers — and not what Singapore offers on its new regional (Airbus A330-300) product, examples here and here. Here’s how Cathay describes the new regional product: The principal feature of the new product…
US Airways Offers Free Elite Status Challenge With New Lounge Membership
US Airways is certainly one of the most creative airlines in monetizing the benefits of elite status. They were the very first ones to come out with getting a credit card equating some of the benefits of bottom-tier elite levels (priority checkin and boarding). They once ran a promotion where all miles earned through their shopping portal counted towards status at the end of a year. They’ll even straight-out sell you status – if you literally have one mile flown during the year they will sell you top tier elite for $2999. (You can’t buy preferred miles and segments to meet one of their status challenges, however.) US Airways doesn’t offer status matches (giving you the status you hold on another airline in order to entice your business). Instead they offer a status challenge —…
Would a Mitt Romney Administration Require Retrofitting Aircraft Windows?
Dan R. passes along comments Mitt Romney made at a fundraiser. Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical malfunction. “I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing…
United.com’s “Expert Mode” is Back!
So-called “Expert Mode” at United.com has returned. That’s the functionality which lets customers see how many seats are available in each ‘fare bucket’ on a given flight, including for award and upgrade space. And it’s what United took away and then caved in the face of sigificant consumer protests and agreed to bring back. When logged in at United.com you can choose to enable expert mode here. Then once you’ve opted-in, when you search for a flight you can click on the highlighted “fare class” in blue to see detail for that flight. The cheapest fares are generally listed down farthest in the list. And the ‘special’ fare classes are: ‘R’ is upgrade from coach to the next highest cabin (‘RN’ is the bucket that elites can use, generally the two buckets are equal) ‘ON’…
New Addition to My Laptop Travel Bag: External Battery Charger
Earlier in the year I wrote about the (mostly) technology that’s in my laptop bag. So I thought I’d share that I’ve added something to the list. Which is sort of the wrong direction, I’d always rather be taking things out and lightening the load. Fortunately with my Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer bag, which unclips to go through the security checkpoint flat instead of having to take my laptop out of the bag when I don’t get to use Precheck, I have an absolute shoulder strap which stretches to make the bag feel substantially lighter. With my belated move from a Blackberry to the new Samsung Galaxy S3, one of the major tradeoffs is battery life. When I’m working out of my office and not on travel, the battery lasts me a full day without…
Conde’ Nast’s 25th Anniversary Gala & Visionaries Awards
I was fortunate to be invited to attend Conde’ Nast Traveler‘s 25th anniversary gala honoring 12 visionaries who work to make the world a better place, and also presenting their World Savers Awards to travel companies that combine social work of a variety of kinds with their hospitality efforts. I imagine the invite was extended because I’ve been on Conde’ Nast‘s list of world’s top travel specialists (for my award booking service) since 2010. Wendy Perrin further invited me to the VIP reception. Unfortunately my flight’s diversion to Connecticut due to insufficient fuel meant that I wouldn’t make it for the VIP event or even cocktails before the start of the evening’s ceremonies. And by the time I arrived, the place was packed. So I got only the briefest glimpses of Olivia Wilde, Richard Branson,…
Avis Sued for Sexual Orientation Discrimination Over its Rental Rates
Eugene Volokh notes that the lawsuit Evenchik v. Avis Rent a Car Systems is moving forward. The plaintiff claims that Avis charged her more to rent a car because she isn’t gay. According to the Complaint, Plaintiff rented a car from AVIS in July 2011, in the County of San Diego, California. She was charged $311.36. According to the Complaint, at that time AVIS gave large price discounts to members of two groups: the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Plaintiff is not a member of either group. The Complaint further alleges that AVIS did not give her the gay and lesbian group member price discount. Plaintiff alleges that California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act … prohibits a business from discriminating between its customers on the basis…
Diversions, Delays, and Mechanicals All to Fly 213 Miles
Last week I got to visit the American Airlines Flagship Lounge at JFK for two different meals. Which is never what I’m looking to do. Especially when it means that travel is taking a bit longer than it’s supposed to, and which is uniquely inconvenient when you’re doing what’s supposed to be an out-and-back trip. But spending a delay in a first class lounge, even a domestic one, is a pretty good way to while away a delay. It’s easy to stay productive, there’s snacks available, and relative quiet. Plus in a domestic lounge I’m always uncomfortable leaving backs behind or personal items strewn about while using the facilities, in a first class lounge I generally have no such concerns. Turning back the clock a day, though, I was heading up to New York last…
