Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home There’s little detail to share about the start of the trip. Since we’d be taking the morning Cathay Pacific flight, a 9am departure, we flew up to New York the night before. Since I was using British Airways miles (in their pre-Avios incarnation),…
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Reader Question: Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt as a Connecting Passenger
After sharing some of my e-mail back and forth with a reader about Citibank debit card mileage earning on Wednesday, something pretty obvious occurred to me. I get reader questions all the time, every day, and I’m sharing answers with individuals that others may find interesting or useful. And at the very least, even if they aren’t interesting or useful at the moment I publish them, The Google means that folks asking the very same question in the future will find the answers quite easily. If I blog them. So I might start sharing reader email questions and answers more regularly, towards that end here’s a question that came in and an answer I shot back from my blackberry while walking my dog today. R.F. asked: Hey, if I fly in First Class Newark-Frankfurt and…
Star Mega DO 3 Chicago Launch!
Last night was the launch of the Star Mega DO. For most folks, anyway, about a third of the participants went on a pre-Mega DO trip to Germany, and I understand that it was a mind blowing experience, especially for the gang that found themselves in Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal. One person was pretty proud of the (4) rubber duckies that they brought home. A couple of participants even managed to talk their way into an upgrade from business class to first class on the aircraft, after pushback. That may truly have been a first. The flight from Frankfurt to Chicago was delayed about three hours, and a massive backup at immigration, meant that those of us starting in Chicago had the full spread and the airline and hotel executives to ourselves for the start…
New DOT Consumer Protection Rules Are Virtually Meaningless
New Department of Transportation ‘consumer protection’ rules went into effect on Tuesday, and they don’t amount to much — mostly codifying practices that are already in place, and imposing penalties for things airlines rarely do. A very small number of people will be better off, others will be worse off. Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle quotes my bottom line: the rules “won’t change the travel experience for the vast majority of passengers,” says Gary Leff, co-founder of Milepoint.com Major components of the new rules are: Airlines will be required to disclose more of their fees clearly on their websites. I struggle to find many examples of airlines that don’t already do this. Besides, while transparency is appealing it’s not clear that greater information influences consumer behavior, travel is complicated already and it’s not…
Delta Should Have Stood Firm: No Obligation to Provide Fourth Checked Bag Free to Military
Plane Reality says take it easy on Delta over the recent kerfuffle that the airline has been charging for fourth checked bags for soldiers returning from combat. He thinks they ought to get that fourth bag free, but c’mon, Delta is really patriotic! Delta already provides the military with more free checked bags and ‘regular’ customers. There was a YouTube viral video about a soldier who had to pay to check his grenade launcher. The outrage, though, seems misplaced. The military is causing him to carry weaponry, Delta is already extending a courtesy with three free checked bags, and it strikes me that the government is the one that’s unreasonable here in not covering the transportation cost for military equipment. Not Delta. If the government wants Delta to carry rocket launchers, the government should pay…
The craziest mileage earning schemes and where you should focus your points earning
In a story about Flyertalk and Milepoint.com frequent flyer communities, Greg Lindsay regales of many great mileage accumulation schemes in the May/June issue of Executive Traveler. Now, every frequent flyer story should begin… Steve Belkin was in trouble with the law. It was 2001, and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wanted to know why he’d hired 20 Thai farmers to fly four times a day, every day, for six weeks straight between the cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, only 80 miles apart in the infamous Golden Triangle, a hotbed for heroin smuggling. Sufficiently scared, Belkin showed them his spreadsheet—it was all part of a plan, he explained, to earn five million frequent-flier miles. For only $8 per round trip, his employees were racking up miles he then processed legally through Air…
The Voyage Home: ANA First Class, Tokyo – Washington Dulles
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 Fly Solo in First Class Again! Thai Airways Phuket – Bangkok – Tokyo and…
Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo – Singapore
(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”) Last weekend I began a trip report on my recent mileage redemption vacation to South Asia. Here’s my flight to Chicago, and the greatest airport hotel I’ve ever stayed in, the Intercontinental O’Hare. And here’s my flight in All Nippon First Class where we were the only ones in the forward cabin. After landing in Tokyo we headed over to the ANA “Suites Lounge” nearest to the Singapore gate. First it was through transit security, where we were asked to show boarding passes for our onward flight. I was happy to have printed my Singapore boarding pass at the Intercontinental O’Hare before departing…
Basic Tips for Getting Organized and Getting Rewards in the New Year
Regular readers of this blog know that many of the things I often write for for intermediate travels than for beginners. But I’ve been evangelizing the benefits of miles, points, and free travel more often to colleagues and friends of friends more frequently lately, and I thought that passing along some of the basics that I’ve found helpful for the not-already-converted might be useful to some of y’all having similar conversations with family over the holidays. And thus I offer some basic tips for getting your rewards house in order for the New Year, since most everyone can set a goal to have their dream trips inexpensively with a little bit of attention to rewards programs. Sign up for frequent flyer programs. If you’re flying cross country and back, why not sign up for a…
Delta Execs Share their Views of and Plans for the Skymiles Programs
Yesterday I posted links to notes on presentations by Delta Executives to members of Flyertalk. Since I’m not really much of a Delta flyer, the specifics weren’t hugely engaging for me, but I passed them along for those of you out there hub-captive to Delta for whom the nitty gritty of the Delta experience matters a great deal. Flyertalk member ND76 has posted notes of a couple more presentations, and these are much more up my alley. Bob Kupbens is Vice President of e-commerce and offered significant feedback on the airline’s IT priorities. I was most interested in the following comment: 16. When award calendar showed up on the screen, the house almost came down. There will be a new look to the award calendar by end of first quarter 2011, with emphasis on accuracy…
