United Airlines yesterday released their annual 10-K report as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – a light 238 pages of company history, industry information, financial statements and more. I geek out reading through these and will take some time to do so as there are often noteworthy nuggets of information not released…
Amenity Kit Review: Cathay Pacific First Class women’s kit (Summer 2011)
I previously reviewed the Cathay Pacific amenity kit provided to male First Class passengers and here now is the female offering for this installment of Amenity Kit Reviews. I received both on my flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong in September last year. For a better description of each category and the 7-point scale…
Giveaway: SPG 50% off rack rate certificate good for up to 5 nights
There are oodles of BoardingArea and other bloggers giving away hotel points and other great travel items, and I uncovered another Starwood Preferred Guest 50% off rack rate certificate I’d like a lucky reader to have. As you probably know, rack rates are definitely more expensive than the cheapest best available room rates, but the…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: Continental Airlines DC-9-10 (1987)
In the next couple of weeks, the Continental Airlines name will retire into the history books, so I’m devoting this week’s Vintage Airline Seat Map to one of the carrier’s DC-9-10s seen flying the skies in the 1980s. Delta Air Lines took delivery of the first -10 variant in 1965 and it was designed to…
Behind the scenes at United Airlines’ test kitchen
Last week, the Chicago Tribune published an insightful article focused on a United-Continental merger related item not often reported in such detail – the consideration given to airline meals and galley equipment. Reporter Gregory Karp spent a day at the United Airlines test kitchen in suburban Chicago speaking with chefs, executives and other staff who…
United Airlines to convert some international 767-300s into two-cabin aircraft?
United Airlines today announced new daily nonstop service from Newark to Istanbul, Turkey effective July 1, 2012, pending government approval. More interesting, however, is the planned aircraft configuration the route will experience effective August 28. According to the press release: Now here’s the revealing part: Unless I missed a previous release, this is the first…
My personal airline and travel amenity kit
If you follow my blog, you know I horde collect airline amenity kits and review them in my Amenity Kit Review series. As such, I generally don’t use the products in the kits with the exception of sampling each item at the time I post a review. When I travel, whether it is a single…
U.S. airlines improve stats, United sells a hotel, mind-picking hotel execs, IHG changes and more airline, hotel & travel news
In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week… The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics released 2011 full-year data for a variety of airline metrics last week. Among them are several positive results when compared to 2010 and previous years, including the best on-time results in a December for the past 17…
Vote for your favorite airline & hotel loyalty programs in the Freddie Awards
If you haven’t already started receiving email solicitations from airline and hotel loyalty programs regarding the Freddie Awards, here’s a link to the home page explaining the prestigious awards and another link taking you directly to the voting portal. Additional information appears below. The awards ceremony will take place April 26, 2012 at the Renaissance…
Delta’s 747s, PeoplExpress returns, American’s loss, pets flying cargo, Spirit reenters Denver & more airline news
In other airline industry news this week… Delta Air Lines announced this week new interiors featuring lie-flat seats in BusinessElite and “slim line” seats with individual entertainment units as well as an Economy Comfort section in coach will be seen on all 747-400 aircraft by October 2012. A total of 48 seats will occupy the…