There has been some interesting airline news the last week or so from Australia, and here’s a recap: The pesky ash cloud from the Chilean volcano made at least two passes over Australia & New Zealand in the past 10 days causing widespread flight cancellations and reroutings. From shutting down the major airports at Sydney…
United Airlines “Mileage Plus” name remains & dedicated merger updates website
Via Wandering Aramean & United’s tweet from about an hour ago, United Airlines will retain the ‘Mileage Plus’ name as its frequent flyer program. I’m in agreement with Seth that Continental’s ‘OnePass’ doesn’t carry the same strength of brand & name as Mileage Plus, so I’m happy with the not-so-shocking decision to keep it as…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: TWA Boeing 747-100
It’s time for another Vintage Airline Seat Map and I bring you a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747-100 from the early 1980s. Divided into three cabins, this workhorse of TWA’s international operations seated 21 passengers in First Class, 52 in Ambassador Class (Business) and 359 in coach. Pan Am also filled the pointy section up…
Airline collectible show and United Airlines DC-8-52 in Los Angeles
The Saturday before last I attended an airline collectible & memorabilia show in Los Angeles and then took a side-trip to the California Science Center to visit the United Airlines DC-8-52 on display. I arrived at the show shortly after it opened at 9:00am and made a couple of passes through the various tables. The…
Ridiculous edit appears in newspaper’s response to “Can I recline my seat” question
I was flipping through the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday this week and came across the title, “Can’t recline on plane†under the ‘Ask Amy’ column. Anything airline, hotel or travel industry related always gets me to stop and read the article, and this one had me running to my computer to send in a…
The evolution of elite level qualification in airline frequent flyer programs
Qualifying for elite status with an airline requires meeting a certain threshold the carrier has published, whether it be point, mile or segment based. Those thresholds have been periodically raised, lowered and adjusted even to the point of birthing new tiers. Delta’s fairly recent addition of the Diamond level at 125,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles is…
ANA reveals cabin layout for their Boeing 787 Dreamliners
Launch customer All Nippon Airways (ANA) unveiled the cabin layout for their Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft at the Paris Air Show this week. A short video appears below highlighting some of the amenities of their long-haul version of the aircraft in a two-cabin layout. Business Class features fully lie-flat beds, 17” touch screen LCD monitors,…
Delta Air Lines granting elite status to top Georgia elected officials
I’ve seen a couple of reports in the last month where Delta Air Lines has upgraded several of Georgia’s current and former politicians with Gold, Platinum and even Diamond Medallion status. The first report surfaced last month when a WSBTV Channel 2 story slammed Delta for giving out Gold and Platinum status to several top…
Trip report: American Airlines LAX-DFW-LAX in first class and economy x2
The weekend before last I completed two mileage runs in my quest for Platinum status on American Airlines. It was a bit like Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day in that I flew Los Angeles-Dallas-Los Angeles on consecutive days making it feel like deja vu, although they weren’t the exact same flights each day. Two…
A tribute to my Dad this Father’s Day on Frequently Flying
If you recall from my Mother’s Day post, I am fortunate to have a wonderful Mom who basically broke into United’s headquarters to buy me something unique for my birthday as a youngster. My Dad is equally fantastic and did everything he could to encourage and foster my passion for airlines, airports & travel, and…