United Airlines purchased Pan Am’s Pacific Division and acquired several aircraft in 1985 and I’ve selected a 747-200 from that time period featuring United’s Royal Pacific configuration for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. This particular layout – one of several in United’s 747 fleet at the time – was likely seen flying the…
ExpertFlyer upgrade & award alerts for United-Continental flights post system conversion
If you haven’t already guessed by reading several of my recent posts, I’m closely monitoring my reservations and other ticketing concerns as the United Airlines system conversion creeps closer. I’m a big fan of ExpertFlyer and have several “Flight & Seat Alerts†saved that are monitoring upgrade and award space on future itineraries beyond the…
Mileage Run Opportunity: $69 o/w base fare AA/DL/UA from LAX/SFO/SEA to MCI
Kansas City has been “on sale†for some time now out of LAX, but a $69 one-way base fare is also now available from SFO and SEA on both American and United. Delta has only filed a matching fare in the LAX-MCI market as of this posting. Travel must be completed by May 9, 2012.…
How to navigate your MileagePlus account… ERROR 404
Just a quick post to note my discomfort with United’s homepage this afternoon. You know that central windowpane that features scrolling specials and other updates? Here’s one of the items appearing right now and it looked new to me, so I decided to click in to see if it contained any information different from what…
Redeeming United Airlines customer appreciation certs post system conversion
This past weekend I completed another mileage run with United rolling me past the 45,000 EQM mark for the year and I – as well as many other passengers in Business Class – scored a customer appreciation certificate for a faulty video system onboard a new configuration 777 from Los Angeles to Washington Dulles. Movies…
Hilton, Hyatt & Sheraton news, Economy Plus deactivated, car rental profits, another celeb disses American & idiot of the week
In other hotel and travel industry news last week… Hilton Hotels & Resorts completed renovations of the former International JFK Airport Hotel and officially opened its doors last week as the Hilton New York JFK Airport. This marks the chain’s sixth property in the New York metro area (excluding New Jersey). The JFK hotel features…
TV commercial from 1972 showcasing American Airlines’ Luxury Fleet
This week, the fine folks over at Gadling posted an American Airlines commercial from 1981 themed “Full service no matter what you pay.” It’s a quick look back at what air travel used to be like, with (relatively) low fares, free meals in coach and a swarm of airline and airport employees with smiles on…
United to Istanbul, Delta’s Wi-Fi & codeshares, American to re-gauge, US Airways objects to PHL expansion and more airline news
In other airline industry news this week… United Airlines announced new daily nonstop service from Newark to Istanbul effective July 1, 2012. Initially the route will be flown with United’s current international 767-300ER aircraft with three classes of service, but beginning August 28, the airline will swap in a new configuration that features BusinessFirst, Economy…
The winner of the SPG 50% off rack rate certificate is…
On Wednesday, I posted a giveaway for the last remaining 50% off rack rate Starwood Preferred Guest certificate I have in my possession and here’s the winning comment via random.org: Congrats to “goheerow!” I’ll be sending you an email momentarily. Thanks, everyone, for your interest and stay tuned as I’m sure I’ll be offering more…
Meet “Premier Status Peter,” birthed by a consumer airline study
The PR firm for PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwCâ€) sent me a link to an interesting study PwC recently completed and published focusing on strategies the airlines should be incorporating to ensure they’re meeting the needs of both business and leisure travelers. I could write-up multiple posts covering the entire Experience Radar 2012: Customer Insight for the US…