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…
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United Details Award Chart Changes Effective June 15 — And it Really is Just Tweaking! No Big Changes.
Wow, that was fast. Right after I published my post on upcoming changes to the United award chart on June 15, Mileage Plus comes out with their actual new award charts. It really makes me wonder why they’d put up notice of coming changes, lots of marketing speak, without publishing the actual charts themselves — when they were planning to publish the charts a very short while later? Why not just wait and stick up the new chart all at once? And why scare everyone with marketing speak in the first place, talking about how some awards will go up and a couple of regions will stay the same when several awards were even going to go down in price? In this case, I read the marketing speak and assumed the worst, based on past…
Thai Airways Business Class, Singapore – Bangkok – 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 We boarded and found Thai’s international business class seats, which are perfect for a short hop like this but I wouldn’t want to sit in them for true long-haul. Leg room was ample,…
Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in 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” 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 One of the best meals I’ve ever enjoyed was at Tetsuya’s in Sydney several years ago. So when we heard that Tetsuya had opened a second restaurant, at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, we decided we wanted to give it a try on our visit. The restaurant does two seatings per evening, 6pm…
In and Around Singapore
Touring 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” 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 I wasn’t to bed until nearly 4am, the internet wasn’t working properly in my room and I needed to have the outsourced company that manages it for the hotel reset the connection. I had somehow gotten frozen out of my work server, and even after getting the internet going I still needed to get on Skype,…
JetQuay Planeside Pickup in 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”) My wife’s parents are taking a cruise next month in Asia, and they begin their trip in Singapore. They’re not seasoned international travelers and I’ve wanted everything to go as smoothly for them as possible. I have them booked in Cathay Pacific First Class to Singapore via Hong Kong using Alaska Airlines miles, and decided to have them picked up and taken to their hotel, the Intercontinental Singapore. I chose the Intercontinental because the best bang for buck for someone without status, at least when I booked for them, was the Intercontinental friends and family rate for a club level room. Now, if…
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…
Earn 18 US Airways Miles Per Dollar for Travel Purchases
Booking Buddy is a participant in the US Airways Skymall portal and they are offering 18 miles per dollar spent. Not sure how I missed this a couple of weeks back, other than that I was in the air enroute back from Asia when it was posted on Milepoint. A $500 ticket is worth 9000 US Airways miles. As Keri pointed out to me, a W (systemwide upgrade-eligible) fare on United to Sydney for $1300 will get you enough miles for a free domestic coach ticket. BookingBuddy is a free service designed to help travelers search all their favorite travel websites with fewer clicks and in less time. And restrictions? There aren’t any: Restrictions There are no restrictions at this time. The site offers air, hotel, and car reservations. It’s hard to imagine earning 18…
Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare
Intercontinental OHare Hotel: (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”) I kept checking for a first class award seat on Washington Dulles – Chicago, my seat was booked in business and my wife was in first. It’s a short segment and doesn’t much matter, but why not try to upgrade to the international first class cabin on a 767? Unfortunately not only did another first class award not pop up, but the aircraft was downgraded. To an Airbus. Now we were together in the same cabin, at least. Though the whole reason for heading out to Dulles was blown to bits. I really do despise Dulles and will avoid it…
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
Prologue: The decision-making and booking process I’m just back from South Asia, where my wife and I had a nice pretty par for the course first class redemption. But there were some high points, and some lessons in award redemption that I hope to be able to share. Some things I’d do again, some things I’d do differently, so it seemed worth writing up a trip report and hopefully it’ll be worth reading and even helpful to a few folks. I started out looking for first class transpacific award seats on Star Alliance, planning for a trip that was a little bit less than two weeks. The plan was a getaway towards the end of the cold winter season, maybe miss the final snow (we lucked out and did!) and to come back as DC…
