Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel Industry News: January 30, 2013

American’s inaugural of its Boeing 777-300ER occurs tomorrow flying from Dallas to Sao Paulo. We’ve all seen the exterior and interior images from American, but here are some new ones from the Dallas Morning News blog. Sheraton Hotels (part of Starwood) will open 30 new hotels over the next 12 months. Half of the new…

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United Airlines Global First Lounge Shower Room Amenities

I visited United’s Global First Class lounges in Tokyo and San Francisco on my mileage run last week and I took advantage of the shower rooms offered in each in hopes of adding to my amenity kit collection. Truth be told, I had freshly showered at my hotel in Tokyo before arriving at the airport,…

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Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel Industry News: January 29, 2013

Southwest Airlines is now a Club Carlson partner. Yeah, I’m a week late to report this news, but I just learned about it last night. Now through March 31, Rapid Rewards members can earn double points in a promotional offer. The 2012 United Nations WTO traveler numbers are in and 1.035 billion tourists crossed international…

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Save Time Using Hipmunk for Multi-Segment Mileage Run Bookings

I’m a creature of habit and when I find a tried and true method to book multi-segment mileage runs, I stick with it. Too much so that when it doesn’t work, I fluster around with it far longer than I need to. Having recently moved from Los Angeles and accepted my fate that I’ll no…

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Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel Industry News: January 28, 2013

I didn’t learn about this until yesterday and was very saddened to hear of the loss of fellow aviation geek and editor of NYCAviation.com, Matthew Molnar. The New York Times ran a very respectful article yesterday (linked above) of his passing noting his incredible passion for aviation. Delta Air Lines will debut outdoor terrace ‘Sky…

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The Reality Check That Is United Airlines Global First Class

I’ll post my full flight review in the coming days, but I feel compelled to dedicate a post on the less than international first class service I received and observed in United Global First last week. It’s no secret that United is remarkably inconsistent when it comes to in-flight service and I think it’s most…

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I’m Off on a Weeklong Mileage Run… In Style!

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I’m off on a mileage run of sorts that began Saturday. I’ll be crisscrossing the country numerous times and traversing the Pacific Ocean on a pair of flights. And I say “mileage run of sorts” since it doesn’t fall into the ultra lowball cents-per-mile category, as well as my…

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United MileagePlus, TSA Secure Flight Names Must Now Match

This morning I arrived off a red eye, went to the United Club and had a mini panic attack when logging into United.com and seeing this: I’m in the beginning of a mileage run (of sorts… more on that in a future post) that includes international travel and that was a message I didn’t want…

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Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel Industry News: January 18, 2013

Following up on the big reveal of their new image yesterday, American Airlines launched a redesigned website today. Appropriately sporting the new logo, it’s much cleaner and very attractive, in my opinion. And more importantly, everything seems to work. American is reportedly matching Delta’s Diamond Medallion SkyMiles members to Executive Platinum, according to reports on…

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Vintage Airline Seat Map: Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-300

It’s time for another Vintage Airline Seat Map and I’ve selected a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-300 from 1987. I previously posted Delta’s 737-200 seat map, which offered 12 seats in first class unlike the eight here. Coach on this bird seated 120 passengers. In first class, you’d find me in 2D as I preferred…

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