Advertising is an art and I always take a critical eye given my minor in marketing in college and additionally earned a Master’s in Marketing Communications. It’s impossible to create a campaign that everyone equally finds effective and appealing, but that’s just the way people are. I recently posted a disagreement over on Matthew’s blog…
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Amenity Kit Review: Thai Airways Royal First Class (Summer 2011)
I wish U.S. airlines invested in upgrading their amenity kits to compete with many of the foreign carrier ones I’ve scored in my Amenity Kit Reviews series. Here’s another great one featuring Thai Airways’ Royal First Class offering. For a better description of each category, and the 7-point scale for scoring, please review my introductory…
United optimistic, pilots union not; American fears recession; mileage runners; ridiculous lawsuit; hotels rejoice; DOT changes and Australia’s woes
In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week… United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek claims he doesn’t see any signs of an “imminent recession” when looking at advance bookings. A combination of capacity discipline and fare increases has kept the carrier in the black. Smisek remarked, “We’re not seeing it in our bookings [or]…
Citibank offering up to 23,500 AAdvantage miles for opening a checking account: Targeted?
As with most debit card airline rewards programs this year, Citibank recently announced they’ll be ending mileage-earning capabilities December 9, 2011. It’s no longer profitable for banks to bestow mileage on us for our checking account debit purchases due to the Durbin Amendment. I’m sad to see this perk go and the cost for buying…
Travel tips from an expert murderer: Showtime’s Dexter Morgan
I’m a huge fan of Dexter on Showtime and when I saw an article this week entitled “Travel Tips From Dexter Morgan,†I had to find out how the author linked the gruesomeness of the character with travel tips. If you watch the show you know Dexter follows a code to avoid having his “dark…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: United Airlines Boeing 727-100 from 1978
Narrowbodies deserve their love here on my blog and this one definitely comes in as one of my favorites given its generous seat pitch pre-deregulation. This United Airlines Boeing 727-100 seated a total of 96 passengers, 10 in First Class and 86 in Coach. I flew on a slew of United’s 727-100s when I first…
American Airlines Citi Executive MasterCard givaway event in L.A. through Thursday
In August and September this year, United Airlines held a special event promoting their new Chase Explorer credit card in various cities where they gave away prizes and oodles of Mileage Plus miles. American Airlines is now also holding an event in Los Angeles tomorrow through Thursday similarly plugging their Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite…
Booking airline tickets online: Easy or irritatingly difficult?
As a blogger I bookmark and follow a huge amount of travel-related websites that feature news and reviews in the airline and travel industry. One of them is Tnooz.com whose tagline is “Talking Travel Tech.” It really is a fantastic site and they frequently cover global distribution system (GDS) issues and stories for which I…
United Airlines to order Airbus A321neo aircraft as eventual 757 replacements
Last month a story was leaked claiming United Airlines will be placing a major order for narrowbody aircraft early next year. Industry analysts predict it will be for up to 200 aircraft in what would equate to a list price deal of approximately $18 billion. The article also notes Boeing and Airbus will be pitted…
Vintage Airline Menu: United Airlines Business Class – Paris to Chicago 1991
In 1991 I flew from Chicago to Paris to spend a couple of weeks with the family of an exchange student I befriended in high school. It was my first international trip (besides Canada) and I was so excited to finally leave North America. On the day of departure I got a phone call advising…