In this installment of Amenity Kit Reviews, I take a critical look at the business class offering of Star Alliance member Air China. A very special thanks goes out to Very Good Points for sending it my way. For a better description of each category and the 7-point scale for scoring, please review my introductory…
Seats Are Aplenty on Re-Debut of United 787 Dreamliner Flights May 20
United Airlines will operate its first post-grounding Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights in just about two weeks on May 20. And the seat maps are currently wide open. As reported by Jack Harty for Airchive, flight UA 1 will depart from Houston on Monday May 20 at 11:00 a.m., arriving in Chicago at 1:35 p.m. The…
And the Winner of 5 United Drink Vouchers Is…
Thanks to everyone who entered and particularly for some of your fun comments. Hopefully these will help diffuse any upset over missing an upgrade or paying more for change fees. Without further adieu, the trusty random number generator picked: Well how about that, Phil… I’ve broken your string of failed drawings… congrats! I’m emailing you…
United Club Membership Using Miles to Return, Plus More
United Airlines will soon bring back the ability to buy or renew membership in the United Club by using MileagePlus miles, according to UA Insider’s post on Flyertalk this morning. Also returning will be the ability to purchase annual subscriptions for Economy Plus, as well as an annual option for checked bags. Here’s the synopsis…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: United Airlines Boeing 747 Royal Pacific Service
United purchased Pan Am’s Pacific Division in 1985 and along with it came a fleet of 11 Boeing 747 aircraft (among others). I previously posted United’s Royal Pacific 747 seat map with a higher concentration of premium seats, and here now is the standard Royal Pacific configuration for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps.…
My Top 3 Travel Credit Cards for Airline and Hotel Redemptions
When I first started applying for travel-related credit cards, I focused exclusively on airline-branded cards. That was years ago and as a newbie at the time, I missed out on the more lucrative mileage and point-earning capabilities for everyday purchases that more traditional cards offered. Fast forward several years and I woke up to the…
Hotel Review: Hilton Tokyo Narita Airport, Deluxe Plus Queen Room
This past January I took a mileage run on United to Tokyo and stayed at the Hilton Tokyo Narita Airport for one night. The online rate I booked was shockingly low at only 8,000 yen (about $85) for a fully cancelable standard Hilton Queen room. The non-refundable advance purchase rate was only 1,000 yen less,…
Frontier Airlines: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them
As many of you know, I typically focus on legacy airlines when reporting on news, but something shocked me earlier today by Frontier Airlines that warrants a post and apology for a tweet I sent out: My initial reaction was shock because I still hold Frontier in a class above Spirit and Allegiant, who basically…
May Day Giveaway: Five United Airlines Beverage Vouchers
I can’t believe it’s already May and I just realized that I have another batch of United drink vouchers from my 2013 Premier 1K kit just lying around gathering dust. Why not kick off the month with a giveaway?! [Edited May 4 at 12:00pm PT] Thanks to everyone who entered! There were 137 entries at…
US Airways to Debut New Amenity Kit in July, Just Before Extinction
US Airways held its annual Media Day event in Phoenix today and several people I follow on Twitter were present providing updates throughout the day. Among them was Jake Redman, a BoardingArea blogger, who sent out the following that piqued my interest given my obsession with amenity kits: And he followed that tweet up posting…