This sounds like fun! Via lisamcgu on Milepoint, the Orange County airport offers free guided tours. Tours begin at the John Wayne statue on the Arrival (lower) Level (bring your camera!). Groups view and receive explanations of how planes fly, the Wright Brothers flight, terminal architecture, historical photo displays, rental car areas, baggage carousels, airline ticket counter areas, security checkpoints, flight display monitors, paging, and skycap activity. The last stop on the tour is an area where the participants can view the airfield and planes taking off and landing. Due to heightened security, tour groups are currently NOT permitted entry to the secured side of the Terminal. (The FAA does not permit tours of the Control Tower. The Fire Station does not allow tours.) Schedule your tour a couple of weeks in advnace, usually for…
Flying Solo in First Class Again! Thai Airways Phuket – Bangkok – Tokyo and the Bangkok First Class Lounge & Spa
This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn” Past installments: Prologue: The decision-making and booking process Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite In and Around Singapore Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore Iggy’s Restaurant in Singapore JetQuay Departure from Singapore Changi Airport Thai Airways Business Class Singapore – Bangkok – Phuket Sala Pool Villa at the Westin Siray Bay, Phuket The hotel’s (outsourced) car brought us to the Phuket airport, again about 45 minutes…
Priority Club Second Quarter Promotion for Up to 15,000 Bonus Points
The Priority Club Insider blog has details of a new stay X nights earn Y bonus points offer. You have to pick one, that’s all you can register for, and you cannot change your mind later. So determine the most number of nights you’ll safely be able to stay between April 1 and June 30 and register accordingly: Register: -Stay 3 nights earn 5,000 Register: -Stay 7 nights earn 10,000 Register: -Stay 15 nights earn 15,000
Sala Pool Villa at the Westin Siray Bay, Phuket
This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn” Past installments: Prologue: The decision-making and booking process Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite In and Around Singapore Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore Iggy’s Restaurant in Singapore JetQuay Departure from Singapore Changi Airport Thai Airways Business Class Singapore – Bangkok – Phuket Having landed in Phuket, grabbed our bags and walked through customs, we exited the terminal and found the man holding the Westin sign…
American Expands “Five Star” Airport Meet and Greet and Personal Escort Services
NYBanker posted on Milepoint that American has expanded the availability of their VIP meet-and-greet “Five Star” service, and now offer details online. At 9 domestic and 5 international airports, for $125 per person ($200 for a party of two, or $200 minimum for one or two people international), American will provide airport meet-and-greet and escort services as well as flight monitoring and assistance during irregular operations. Of course, one flight segment must actually be on American in order to use it.. They have a departure, arrival, and a connections service: We’ll do more than meet and assist you in the airport. Our representatives will work behind the scenes to monitor the status of your flights and make any accommodations that may be necessary. Your personal representatives will also: Coordinate with your car service Meet you…
Air France/KLM Flying Blue Offering Status Match up to Platinum
Lucky and TM Travel World have mentioned that Air France/KLM Flying Blue is offering a status match from most competing airline programs, including up to their Platinum level. The proof they ask for is for you to upload a scan of your elite membership card. Here’s Troy’s explanation: Lucky mentioned this offer, which you can get status match to up AF top status Platinum tier. you must include proof of membership in another customer loyalty program that includes the status name and validity period. It can be any program on earth except SKYTEAM members offer valid until March 31st, 2011 I had seen this and thought about blogging it, I didn’t. And then I saw Ben post it, so I emailed him the following thought.. I thought about the Flying Blue status match… I thought “Ah,…
1000 Free Delta Miles
Straight from Lucky: Through March 31, FedEx is offering 1,000 Delta SkyMiles for enrolling in their Fedex and Delta SkyMiles program. You just have to register, which takes all of two minutes, including entering a valid credit card number (though it won’t actually be charged unless you ship stuff). Apparently miles post within a few weeks of registration.
New Competitours Dates Announced
Steve Belkin sends me a note to let me know that the next Competitours trip is a go for July 23 through August 1. Last Spring Conde Nast‘s Wendy Perrin featured Competitours on her blog, it’s “the Amazing Race” for the rest of us, with mystery itineraries and challenges and competition against other teams. Here’s how Steve describes the variety of teams that are already signed up: from iowa, michigan, florida, saskatchewan, texas, california, missouri; father/son, mother/daughters, married couples, best friends, sisters; from mid 20s to early 60s in age There’s a maximum of 17 slots. Steve’s a good guy, and he’s confident enough in his product that he only asks for payment after the trip. And he’ll even book award tickets for you with your miles to reduce your travel costs. So if this…
South African Airways Award Chart Price Increases
Via Milepoint, United isn’t the only one making changes to its award chart. The South African Airways Voyager Program will see some pretty steep increases in award prices effective April 15. Of course, there’s a formula to these announcements. They always begin with some modest improvement. In this case it’s improvements in mileage earning on some discount fares within South Africa, and to Addis Ababa, Dakar, Accra, Douala, and Lagos. Woo hoo! (Ok, I guess this is good for short-haul South African Airways flyers, though by definition short-haul means that the full earning won’t amount to a whole lot of incremental miles earned on each flight.) Then the hammer drops: Below is an advance look at the SAA Award Chart revisions and on average, the following can be expected in our new SAA Award Chart:…
United’s Mileage Upgrade Awards Will Get More Complicated — And More Expensive — Come June 15
Earlier today I detailed the upcoming June 15 changes to the United Mileage Plus award chart. On the whole it really is just tweaking, some awards up a few thousand miles and some down a few thousand miles and actually the ones I’m most interested in are going down. Middle East and Northern Africa become as expensive as Southern Africa, but business class to Europe and premium cabins to Asia get less expensive. I’m good with that, especially considering that it’s been a couple of years since the last bloodletting and twice that long since the one before that. It could have been time. Of course, that might have been unlikely given the merger euphoria and that they’re about to combine Continental and United programs, but it was cause for alarm that turned out to…
