One of my readers sent me an email shortly after I posted my amenity kit review of Lufthansa’s First Class Bogner kit from earlier this year. She, too, really enjoyed the lotion found in the lavatories during her first class trip and wanted to know if I knew the brand. Most carriers nowadays team up…
Airline collectible & memorabilia show in Los Angeles this Saturday
As I mentioned in this post, I am a self-proclaimed airline geek and love to collect all kinds of airline and travel-related items. If you have a similar fascination, be sure to check out the various airline collectible and memorabilia shows held throughout the year. The World Airline Historical Society published a list of the…
Vintage Airline Seat Map: United Airlines DC-8-52
I’m taking you back to the 1970s for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps with a United Airlines DC-8-52. Seating a total of 12 passengers in first class (four more in the lounge) and 124 in coach (five additional in the rear lounge), this aircraft exited service with United around 1980. The most shocking…
Analysis of United Airlines’ lowest coach vs. upgradable fares using a Systemwide Upgrade
United Airlines has long required the purchase of at least a W-bucket fare on international flights for which a person wishes to upgrade into Business Class using a Systemwide Upgrade instrument (SWU). SWUs, for anyone that doesn’t already know, are bestowed upon 100,000-mile 1K flyers once hitting 100,000 elite qualifying miles (EQMs) in a calendar…
Review: United Airlines premium service portable media digEplayer
Earlier this year United Airlines replaced the media players handed out to first and business class passengers on their premium service (p.s.) flights between New York’s Kennedy Airport and Los Angeles/San Francisco. I’ve flown four flights now with the new players manufactured by digEcor and offer my review here. These are similar players to those…
American Airlines website issues “zeroed out” some AAdvantage accounts yesterday
I received an update yesterday morning from PageOnce, a service I use to track both my financial and travel loyalty programs, that my American Airlines AAdvantage account balance had been wiped to zero. I figured it was a bug with the service, and went to log in to my AAdvantage account to see the following…
Frequently Flying is now on BoardingArea… hello & welcome!
Today, I am very honored to become part of the BoardingArea family of bloggers and look forward to writing airline, hotel & travel industry news, reviews & opinions for my regular & new readers. For those of you meeting me here for the first time, a proper introduction is in order. My name is Darren…
Video: Thai Airways Airbus A380-800 virtual cabin tour
Here’s a video of the planned layout for the Thai Airways Airbus A380-800 once it enters service sometime next year. Seating a total of 507 passengers in three classes, the video takes you on a tour of each cabin highlighting some of the features & amenities. I love the Royal Silk Class (Business Class) layout…
Virgin Australia partners with Singapore Airlines yet still “big alliance” shy
In the words of Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti, yesterday’s announced alliance between the carrier and Singapore Airlines will “unequivocally†be bad news for Qantas. Speaking mainly in terms of the scope and connectivity to the rest of the world Singapore will bring to Virgin’s passengers wishing a seamless travel experience starting within Australia, he…
Alaska Airlines flying profitably with no interest for merger or buyout
An article about Alaska Airlines appeared in last week’s Los Angeles Times that I think is worth a read. It quotes CEO Bill Ayer as basically saying Alaska is not for sale nor interested in a merger, effectively shunning away any courtship attempt from another carrier or entity. They do have codeshare arrangements with both…