Instead of posting someone else’s video from YouTube this week, I’ll post one of my own. Here is part one of my video trip report from September this year, where I flew First Class from Los Angeles to Seattle to Frankfurt to Bangkok. I’ve heard good reviews of the Lufthansa soft product, and definitely wanted…
My travels/observations
Category Archives for My travels/observations.
Hotel loyalty programs and why I started with Radisson
Up until this year, I haven’t paid too much attention to loyalty programs on the hotel side. I generally would just research historical winning bids over at betterbidding.com, and go on a bidding spree on Priceline. I got pretty good at it, actually, and enjoyed the challenge & frequently won lower winning bids than those…
Listening to air traffic control onboard United Airlines
As a former student pilot, I appreciate listening to “From the Flight Deck” (Channel 9) onboard United Airlines flights. While it is the captain’s prerogative as to whether or not to offer it on each flight, I have found it available more often than not. It brings the flights to life and enables you to…
Stranded at an airport and need a cheap hotel?
One of the perks of being a 100,000-mile flyer on United Airlines each year is the level of service and accommodation they provide during irregular operations. In addition to getting me re-booked quickly and effortlessly, they have consistently provided hotel accommodations to me as a 1K even in the case of weather. While this is…
Get ready for winter weather and travel waiver season
The snowflakes are falling in parts of the country, making this a good time to bring up the power of airline travel waivers. Generally, these policy exceptions are issued by airlines when known weather systems or other operational disruptions will prevent the majority of a carrier’s flights from operating on-time, or at all. They are…
What is a mileage run?
Stated simply, a mileage run is an airline trip taken solely to accrue more miles or points with a given airline. The destination is in this simplest definition is irrelevant, and often isn’t a destination at all, with the majority of mileage runners never leaving the secure area of the transiting airport(s). They will simply…
The wilting tulips of United Airlines
Last month on one of my mileage runs through Chicago O’Hare, I noticed something very saddening. The majority of the tulips were missing from the various United Airlines backdrops throughout the F-concourse of terminal two. Granted, the E & F concourses are the non-mainline ‘United Express’ operated gates, but still… I felt like something very…