After a 13-year hiatus from flying American Airlines, and in part to achieve Platinum status through February 2012 via a challenge, I flew AA this past Saturday from Los Angeles to Chicago to Los Angeles. I was excited to compare my experience as a top-tier elite with United Airlines to that of being a non-elite…
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United Airlines presents at the Global Transportation Conference
Yesterday, several airlines presented at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference in Boston. Zane Rowe, Executive Vice President & CFO, and Gerry Laderman, Senior Vice President – Finance & Treasurer, spoke on behalf of United Airlines. Zane and I actually attended the same undergraduate university concurrently, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach,…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: Continental Airlines DC-10-10 Pub Configuration
Here’s a pretty unique variation of a Douglas DC-10 Tri-Jet from the 1980s for this edition of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. Operated by Continental Airlines, this DC-10-10 was configured with two classes of service seating 22 up front and 262 in coach. Special to this bird was the lounge area commonly referred to as the…
United Airlines announces streamlined travel updates today
Today, United Airlines added a merger integration update as one of the six main featured articles appearing in the center of the main landing page. While this isn’t quite “Customer Day 1†of a fully merged carrier, it summarizes the progress United and Continental Airlines have made to date. Full details can be found here,…
Going for the American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum elite challenge
Last week I mentioned I was going for Gold status with American Airlines in their AAdvantage frequent flyer program. Having basically locked-in renewing my 1K status with United Airlines, my addictive behavior for flying even more is getting the better of me and I’m starting this week to fly American for the first time since…
My United Airlines mileage tracking spreadsheet
A couple of months ago I noticed the spreadsheet I maintain that tracks my United Airlines mileage didn’t add up to what was showing online. I was able to quickly compare each segment’s mileage and discovered Continental Airlines and United use different mileage amounts for flights out of Denver. As far as I know that…
Airline acronyms & review of an online Travel Industry Dictionary
Many industries are loaded with acronyms unique to their line of business, and the airline industry is no exception. I do my best in always trying to spell each one out when I use an acronym in my postings, but they still might not make much sense to infrequent flyers or people unfamiliar with the…
United adds SFO route, Qantas strike looms, American streams, flying with cancer & a GDS gets the boot
As I continue to develop my blog, I plan on creating a separate “ticker-style” page dedicated to airline, airport & travel industry news perhaps not deserving of a unique posting, but otherwise important to follow. In the meantime, here is another summary of such articles that caught my attention during the past few days: Economic…
United Airlines basically pays for my first class travel around the world
I thought I’d post an update as to where I am in re-qualifying for Mileage Plus 100,000-mile 1K status for 2012, and reveal just how much I’ve spent to get there & the end return-on-investment for my passionate hobby. As of this morning, here are my total elite qualifying miles (EQMs) and segments (EQSs): I’ll…
Going for Gold AAdvantage elite status with American Airlines this summer
If you read my blog you know my airline loyalty lies with United Airlines. I’ve been a 1K since 2008 & all other elite levels during most years since I first became a Premier in 1990. This summer, I’ve decided to focus my flying on American Airlines and go for Gold elite status in the…