There was no photo incident on this outbound trip, but a photo finish at San Francisco International Airport rescued my Singapore Airlines trip from the jaws of destruction. In July 2012, almost 11 months ago, Singapore Airlines updated their...
New Thai Airways Flight – Los Angeles to Osaka
Thai Airways no longer flies to Bangkok non-stop from Los Angeles, its only U.S. destination, but does provide service via Seoul and starting next year, via Osaka as well. With the new flights just loaded into the schedule, Thai...
New York JFK to Jeddah in Saudia Economy Class
Flying on a new airline for the first time is always fun. There’s a bit of apprehension—will the service be good? How about the IFE? And the food? You can eliminate a lot of the guesswork through Google, Flyertalk,...
Memorial Day 2013: Remembering Gettysburg
I do a special post on Memorial Day each year not to be jingoistic or political, but because the ultimate sacrifice made by so many members of the military throughout the American experiment is so easy to forget in...
TSA Embraces "Abuse The Elderly Day"
I will be traveling with my 86-year old Uncle next week and a thread on Flyertalk about the TSA treatment of another elderly passenger caught my attention today. This weekend my wife and I accompanied my 87 year old...
Singapore, My 100th Country
I never got around to posting that I recently surpassed the 100-country threshold in my quest to explore as much of this world as humanly possible. Last month Singapore became my 100th country visited, as I spent about 28...
Aeromar Award Space Now Bookable with MileagePlus at united.com
Transportes Aeromar, a Mexico City-based carrier that serves various cities in Mexico as well as McAllen, Texas, formed a partnership with Continental Airlines in 2010 and uses MileagePlus as its loyalty program. With about 100 flights a day within...
United Airlines Unveils New Uniforms at Newark Airport
As part of its commemoration of 25 years in Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport, United Airlines set up a catwalk this morning in order showcase new uniforms for pilots, FAs, and ground staff. With CEO Jeff Smisek on-hand,...
Last Day to Order FREE Bluebird Checks from American Express
For several months American Express has offered Bluebird account holders either 50 or 100 free paper checks that can be used to make routine payments and even pay credit card bills . Today is the last day of the...
More Hilarity from US Airways: "I love a man who knows what he wants"
Readers: if you are getting bored of posts like this, just leave a comment below, but I cannot get enough of the US Airways call center when it comes to booking a complex international award tickets. Here’s how my...
5 Reasons to Purchase a United Club One-Time Pass
United Airlines offers one-time passes to its United Club for $50, available online or at the club check-in counter ($45 if purchased on the United mobile app). Is it worth it? With clubs in 38 airports around the world...
Alitalia MilleMiglia Partner Redemptions: A Cautionary Tale
Alitalia’s MilleMiglia loyalty program has some gems on its award chart and is an oft-overlooked American Express transfer partner. Highlights include: North America-Southern South America 75,000 miles roundtrip in business class North America-North Asia 90,000 miles roundtrip in business class North...
Video: Woman Kicked Off an AA Flight for Singing
A JFK-LAX American Airlines flight made an unscheduled stop in Kansas City on Friday after a woman refused to stop…singing Whitney Houston songs. AA quickly issued a statement stating, “The woman was being disruptive and was removed from the...
United Airlines Shines in Transatlantic Business Class
I returned home from Europe yesterday and would be remiss if I did not mention what superb flights I had on United for both the outbound and inbound journey. You’ll have to wait on the trip reports—Afghanistan and the...
New Seats, Wi-Fi, Streaming IFE Coming to United Airlines Airbus Fleet
United Airlines is refreshing its Airbus fleet and UAInsider has provided a bit more insight into the pending changes. New RECARO seats in United Economy and Economy Plus, which will result in an additional half-inch of headroom an almost...
Captain Weighs In on My Removal from United Airlines Flight for Taking Seat Photo
James Fallows offers a piece in The Atlantic today following up on the family who was removed from a United flight for complaining about the in-flight movie and also following up on my own expulsion from United flight a...
Up To 40,000 US Airways Dividend Miles with Barclays Mastercard – Worth It?
There has been a kerfuffle of posts lately about the potential elimination of the US Airways Mastercard from Barclays as American Airlines and US Air sort out the details of their post-merger credit card program. But is it really time to...
Delta Agent: No Connections Allowed on Award Flights
While I technically provide a *research and consultation service* to help people effectively use their miles and points, I do offer to book tickets as an incidental complimentary service in correlation with the research and most take me up...
Farewell Philadelphia!
Sometimes your life can change in ways you least expect it. Mine changed nearly four years ago, while sitting with my uncle and brother in a guesthouse near the Galilee in northern Israel. I had taken the LSAT (Law...
10 Days in Europe
The last few days have been hectic—travel from coast to coast, the Freddies, final exams, and a term paper. Thankfully, that is all behind me now and I will be taking a breather for the next week and a...