Finnair is offering a status match (.pdf) after you take a flight on Finnair to Asia. You need to scan the boarding pass and send it to Finnair along with a copy of your Skyteam of Star Alliance elite status card and Finnair will match you to the comparable leve, Silver or Gold. They’ll also give you a fast track to requalify, This is marketed to French residents (via Finnair in Paris). TM Travel World says that it’s limited to French residents but I don’t notice that in the offer. Your mileage may vary on whether you need to make a friend in France to use the status match or not.
ASIA
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Asiana Brings First Class Back to Frankfurt
Beginning April 1, Asiana returns 3-cabin equipment to Europe with a 777 flying Frankfurt- Seoul. Even though the 777 has only 8 first class seats, award availability is excellent, they release two seats up front on plenty of flights.
Hilton 50% Off Weekends (Many Hotels Weekdays, Too) in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia
Loyalty Traveler points to the new Hilton 50% off weekends sale for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The sale is valid for bookings made throughout January. Hotels in the Americas are excluded. Rates are fully prepaid and non-cancellable, and include breakfast and late checkout. And while perhaps this will be corrected, currently many hotels are offering the weekend 50% off rate during the week as well.
The Hidden Value of the Asiana Award Chart and Asiana American Express
In my extensive post discussing the best rewards credit cards, I briefly mention the Asiana American Express card from Bank of America (which earns 2 miles per dollar spent!). I posted my credit card commentary on Flyertalk this morning, and Flyertalk member Guava went into extensive detail on why he values the Asiana Amex more than I was giving it credit for in my post. Because this advice is rather unique I will quote at great length. Bottom-line the card is useful especially to those who earn their miles predominantly from credit card spend and who want to redeem in particular from the Eastern U.S. to Europe or for upgrading from full fare coach or paid business class on Star Alliance partners. Not my redemption pattern, but it does match that of some readers, so…
The End of My Asia Trip, Los Angeles to DC on United
2:06 pm Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to Chicago (ORD) United Flight 843 First Class Seats:3A, 3B Duration: 4h 6m Airbus A320 1745 miles traveled We were originally scheduled for the 4pm non-stop back to Dulles, United decided to no longer operate it on Saturdays. So we were changed to a connecting flight back through Denver, the last non-redeye non-stop of the day just missed the minimum connection time for international-domestic at LAX. No big deal, the Denver connection shortened the layover in LA and we were scheduled to get back within minutes of our original schedule. Another schedule change and we wound up on the 2pm Chicago flight, again arriving within minutes of the prior schedule. The Airbus was full, plenty of folks on standby looking to get on the flight. We boarded and the…
Asiana First Class, Seoul – Los Angeles
4:30 pm Seoul, South Korea (ICN) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Asiana Flight 202 First Class Seats 4E, 4F Duration: 11h Boeing 747 5,999 miles traveled The last time I flew Asiana first class, in July 2007, we were escorted onto the plane skipping the planeside security check. This time we were subjected to it, but it was certainly polite. On boarding a flight attendant offered to assist with our bags, and to put them in the closet, but I prefer them in the overhead for easier access during flight. The cabin was full 4/10 including the two of us, and we had had no difficulty securing the two seats together in the cabin. Others have had much greater difficulty, Asiana seems to block much of their assignable seat inventory for some reason (perhaps because…
Back to Incheon and the Asiana First Class Lounge
We asked about late checkout from the W when we checked in – by which I mean 1pm (!) – and was told they would ‘have to see’ because they were quite full. I didn’t push, and didn’t ask again, I just took late checkout and certainly they knew I was doing so as we had reserved a hotel car for 1pm. I suppose it’s possible that the hotel had become a designated conference property listed in advance with SPG for the dates in question, and I didn’t specifically rule out that possibility, but it was sufficiently unlikely that I wasn’t worried about it. We had the same driver for our return to the airport as for our pickup. He never spoke to us on the drive to the hotel, and didn’t speak to us…
Asiana Business Class, Hong Kong to Seoul
1:10 pm Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) to Seoul, South Korea (ICN) Asiana Flight 722 Business Class Boeing 767 1,269 miles traveled The Thai Airways agent brought the three of us across the terminal, dropping her off at immigration and us at the transit desk where another staff member was waiting for us – he already made sure that Asiana had printed our boarding passes, they just needed to enter our luggage information into their system and assured us that our bags would make it onto the aircraft. He then escorted us through transit security. We wanted to make a stop in some of the shops, so we excused him from further service. Then we made our way down towards the gates and lounge. Asiana issues a lounge invite for the Dragonair lounge near gate…
Connecting Flight, Tokyo – Hong Kong in ANA’s Club Asia
We arrived at Narita right on time around 3:25pm. After a quick transit security screening we headed up towards the ANA lounges. We weren’t given a lounge pass at check-in, and were continuing in two-cabin business class on ANA subsidiary Air Japan’s 6:40pm Hong Kong flight. I decided to walk towards the First Class lounge, even though ANA treats their lounges as departure rather than arrivals lounges and thus technically I would only be entitled to use the business class lounge. I approached the woman standing outside the lounge to greet passengers, ostensibly looking for directions, and showed her my first class boarding pass stub from my arriving flight. That was the only thing I showed her, she saw first class on it, and indicated I was in the right place! She escorted my to…
Air Asia $0 Fare Sale (No Fuel Surcharges)
It’s clearly Flyertalk morning, because hat tip to Flyertalk Air Asia is offering a true $0+tax (no fuel surcharges) fare sale. Book by November 16 (which comes earlier over there than it does here in the U.S.) for travel between June 22 and October 24 — so lots of advance planning required — and you can fly just for the taxes. By way of example, here’s an availability chart for flights out of Kuala Lumpur and here’s a chart for flights in and out of Bangkok. Specific flights, with total price, booked by the person starting the Flyertalk thread were: Clark-Kuala Lumpur one-way: $7.08 all-in (airport tax payable at airport) Kuala Lumpur-Tawau (Borneo)-KL RT : $19.22 all-in (airport tax incl.) Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok one-way: $15.31 all-in (airport tax incl.) Bangkok-Jakarta-Bangkok RT: $33.89 all in (BKK airport…
