It’s no secret that I horde amenity kits and a fellow blogger that knows my unique passion for them reached out to me a couple of days ago looking to spread the word that he’s giving away an extra Air New Zealand Business Premier kit he received recently. I already have one in my collection,…
Hilarious “Hitler’s Rage” video about United Airlines’ MileagePlus changes
One of my good friends sent me a link to a gut-busting version of the “Hitler’s Rage” video showing how “Hitler” reacts to the 2012 United Airlines MileagePlus program changes. If you understand German it might not be that funny, but the captions are brilliantly written and perfectly timed for a highly entertaining four minutes.…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: American Airlines Boeing 727-100 from 1977
I’m sticking with a narrowbody again for this week’s Vintage Airline Seat Map and bring you the American Airlines Boeing 727-100 from 1977 appearing below. Seating a total of 100 passengers, this pre-deregulation configuration offered 14 first class seats and room for 86 in coach, which probably had nearly equivalent seat pitch as that found…
Video: Tribute to United Airlines’ Oakland maintenance base (and DC-10s)
In follow-up to my post this morning about United Airlines seemingly discontinuing service to Oakland this June, here’s a video photo tribute of DC-10s and 747s as seen at the OAK heavy maintenance base back in the 1990s.
United Airlines discontinuing Oakland service effective June 5, 2012
While no official announcement seems to have come down the pike, United Airlines’ only flight out of Oakland – a daily OAK-DEN Airbus – no longer shows up in availability beginning with the summer schedule on June 5, 2012. The last flight with seats for sale is UA352 on June 4 departing Oakland at 5:30am…
Hilton HHonors announces Q2 double your points or miles promotion
As Deals We Like and View From the Wing have already posted, Hilton announced their second quarter 2012 promotion this morning offering either double points or double airline miles for stays April 1 to June 30, 2012. Registration is required and once you pick either double points or double miles, your selection cannot be changed…
Amenity Kit Review: Air Tahiti Nui Poerava Business Class (March 2012)
Fellow blogger and very, very frequent flyer The Mr. Pickles generously gave me two Air Tahiti Nui kits he picked up on his recent trip with the airline and I offer my review of the Poerava Business Class offering below for this installment of Amenity Kit Reviews. For a better description of each category and…
Delta’s Trip Extras, Virgin to PDX, Southwest’s Q1, DCA slot war, Google Flight Search & Hyatt’s TV technology
In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week… Delta Air Lines introduced new ancillary options available at booking called Trip Extras. The initial offerings are priority boarding starting at $9 per segment, a mileage booster starting at $29 for 1,000 miles (terrible value!) and a 24-hour Wi-Fi pass for $12. Since Delta’s own…
Incredible airline nostalgia: Freeman of the Air certificates
Knowing I collect airline memorabilia, one of my readers contacted me last week and asked if I might like a piece of her family’s history – two certificates issued to her recently departed grandmother bestowing “Freeman of the Air†rights for crossing the equator. My reader’s grandmother, originally from Australia, was married to a U.S.…
Insight from Jeff Smisek’s United Airlines presentation this week
Earlier this week, United Airlines and many other carriers presented at the J.P. Morgan Aviation, Transportation & Defense Conference in New York, and once again, Jeff Smisek was very engaging as he’s willing to go off-script a bit adding more than what the bland presentation slides provide. I listened to the 40-minute audio of his…