Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for March 2012.

American Airlines extends DEQM for ORD/DFW to LAX/SFO (and SNA)

If I weren’t totally committed to reaching million-miler status with United Airlines this year and spending every dollar with them, I’d be particularly keen on jumping on the bandwagon Mommy Points discovered today. American Airlines extended their double elite qualifying mile promotion for residents of California, Illinois and Texas today offering those AAdvantage members double…

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A word of caution about mileage accrual on United Airlines direct flights

A couple of weeks ago, I flew legacy Continental Airlines from Los Angeles to Houston and overheard the gate agent at LAX announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll shortly begin boarding for flight XXXX to Houston with continuing service to Denver…†I was a bit taken back by the fairly significant backtrack routing for the flight’s…

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American Airlines brings back Elite Rewards for 2012

This morning I received an email – as I’m sure many of you did – announcing the return of American’s AAdvantage Elite Rewards for 2012. As it was in the past, it’s based on your elite qualifying point total on December 31, 2012, so those who purchase lower-bucket fares will have a significantly more difficult…

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Positive first United Airlines trip post-system conversion

Yesterday I flew my first trip with United Airlines since the system conversion this past weekend and while I witnessed other people having issues (check-in, upgrade priority, United Club access), I had absolutely no problems. Granted, I called in advance to clear up a ticketing issue a few days ahead of time and was already…

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Mileage Run Opportunity: $228.80 nets 6,470 United PQMs SFO-LAX-CLE-MCI r/t

Kansas City has been a very popular fare war market recently and there are some pretty nice mileage run fares out there today from SFO & SEA on American, Delta and United from either $89 or $99 one-way base roundtrip. The routing rules are again generous on United (and even Delta from Seattle allows SEA-ATL-MCI!),…

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Vintage Airline Seat Map: Delta Air Lines L-1011 TriStar (Domestic)

I previously posted an international configuration L-1011 TriStar flown by Delta Air Lines in the 1980s, and here now is one of their domestic versions from the same period for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. Seating 32 passengers in First Class and 270 in coach, you’d find me in 3A or 3F up…

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The new United Airlines upgrade & award fare buckets

Now that United Airlines converted to Shares and the old upgrade and award fare buckets no longer exist, I thought it might be helpful to summarize the new ones as shown in the below chart. The new alphabet soup has gotten a touch more complex depending on your elite status, so I’ve broken out the…

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Noteworthy United, American, Delta & other airline news last week

In other airline industry news last week… United Airlines will launch daily nonstop service from Chicago to Sarasota beginning November 4, 2012 using Boeing 737-800 aircraft. This marks the ninth city United is slated to serve in the Sunshine State and a company spokesperson was particularly keen on mentioning the route’s ability to open up…

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Nostalgia: United Airlines Mileage Plus cards 1990-Present

If you haven’t already figured me out, I’m an airline geek to the max and save absolutely everything related to my travels. As such, I’ve kept every frequent flyer card issued to me from any airline no matter its expiration. My favorite, quite honestly, is my Pan Am card, but given I received my new…

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