A brief sampling of industry news that caught my attention today: Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic received approval from the DOT for their joint venture. Of particular interest to business travelers will be new harmonized flight schedules on the ultra-competitive New York JFK-London Heathrow route. Reciprocal frequent flier earn and burn benefits can now…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2013.
United’s Social Media Team Wows With a Fantastic Million-Mile Congrats
Earlier today, I landed in San Francisco on United Airlines flight 892 from Seoul and officially rolled over one million lifetime miles in the MileagePlus program. I’ll have a full trip report in the future with some additional background, but I have to quickly post about the fantastic response I received from United’s social media…
Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: September 19-20, 2013
While I’m traveling, here’s a briefer than normal sampling of industry news that caught my attention during the past two days: United Airlines rolled out a revived “Fly the Friendly Skies” multimedia ad campaign on Friday. It tugs at nostalgia for me given I grew up with that slogan, and actually think it’s a decent…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: USAir Boeing 737-300
Earlier this year I posted the seat map for USAir’s 737-200 seen flying the skies in 1987, and now bring you the airline’s Boeing 737-300 for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. As was the case with the -200 version, row 1 here was also aft facing complete with “poker†tables. Also, I asked…
United Airlines Family and Friends Day at SFO: Swag Alert!
United is once again holding its annual Family Day Open House for employees and their friends & family. And for the past several years, United has graciously opened up spots for a select few enthusiasts on Flyertalk and MilePoint. Yesterday, the great folks at United again extended an offer to attend this year’s event: We’re…
Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: September 18, 2013
A brief sampling of industry news that caught my attention today: Lufthansa will announce the details of its newest aircraft order in Frankfurt tomorrow. Sources close to the negotiations say the $10-17 billion order for new widebody jets will be split between Airbus and Boeing. Turkish Airlines opened its Arrivals Lounge at Istanbul’s airport. It’s…
LAX Upgrades: New Star Alliance Lounge, United Terminals, TBIT
My former hometown airport has several long-needed projects underway or in the plans that will make it worthy of world-class airport status – at least in some terminals. Today, Los Angeles International Airport’s new Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) saw its first flights arriving at the complex featuring 18 new gates, nine of which can…
Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: September 17, 2013
A brief sampling of industry news that caught my attention today: Boeing’s stretched Dreamliner, the 787-9, took to the skies for the first time. A live video feed was available and I imagine very few #avgeeks got any work done for a while today. Delta Air Lines tweeted out a rather amusing comic/graphic showing various…
United Premier Gold Elite Status Wins Over Platinum, Unless…
Last month I wrote a post questioning if I should aim for United MileagePlus Premier Platinum elite status over simply holding Gold for 2014. And I’ve come to a decision. As I mentioned: Whether or not to strive for a higher (or any) elite status really comes down to two considerations: Your planned flying in…
Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: September 16, 2013
A brief sampling of industry news that caught my attention today: Bombardier’s CSeries jetliner took to the skies for the first time today in Montreal. The CS100 jet and family is designed for the 100- to 149-seat market and it will certainly provide new competition for Airbus and Boeing. American Airlines inaugurated Airbus A319 service…