United Airlines is launching new service from Houston to Sydney, Australia, an ultra-longhaul route that showcases new markets made possible by the 787-9. The new route will be daily and begins on January 18, 2018. Tickets are already on sale on united.com and award space has been loaded. Tuesdays are the best day to snag […]
United’s Secret New Invite-Only Restaurant at Newark Airport
United may not have a Polaris Lounge yet at Newark’s Liberty International Airport, but it now has an invitation-only restaurant called Classified. Do you have access? I don’t. You can input your MileagePlus number and last name at the address above. Most will recevie this message– Yes, a tad ironic that you can bolster your […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: August 13, 2017
Hello from Tashkent, where I am spending several days checking out Uzbekistan. The country has defied expectations…in good way. I don’t recommend the national airline, though. On Monday I will finish my current trip report with a review of JetBlue Mint class from New York to LA. Before I transition into the current -stans trip […]
Sorry TPG, I Can Assure You United Business is Better than Economy Class on ANY Airline
I have a great deal of respect for the The Points Guy and the empire he has built. I know Brian Kelly personally and am friends with Zach Honig, the site’s Editor-in-Chief. But I’m so disappointed by a review of United Business Class posted earlier today. I’ll give you the executive summary: staff writer JT […]
United Airlines Serves Best Champagne in the World? I’m Skeptical
United Airlines recently won Global Traveler’s 2017 Wines on the Wing award for serving the best champagne in international first class. The winner: Joseph Perrier Brut Cuvée Royale 2004. While I don’t purport to be a champagne expert, I’m skeptical. My beef is not “Krug is better” or “Dom is better” or “Salon is better”. It is […]
United Airlines Cuts Service to Hangzhou
United Airlines is finding its mission to expand to secondary cities in China is not as profitable as initially hoped for. The carrier will suspend service to Hangzhou effective October 16, 2017. We have no official announcement from United yet, but the flight has been pulled from the schedule after 10/14/17 (leaving SFO) and 10/16 […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: July 17, 2017
I’m hardly in full relaxation mode, but after another week in beautiful Germany I’ve acclimated back nicely to a life of paying in cash and not being able to buy groceries on Sunday! As we start thinking about the trip home, I still have nothing booked. Tomorrow I’ve prepared a post discussing two options: Greenland/Iceland […]
Why I’m THANKFUL for Latest United Mileage Plus Devaluation
I hate all devaluations. But United’s latest devaluation could have been much worse. Much worse. Let’s review what will change on November 01, 2017. For over a year now I have been predicting another United MileagePlus devaluation. While both Delta and American Airlines have introduced rather substantial devaluations, United has not touched its award chart […]
Cheap Flights on WOW Air: I Just Couldn’t Do It
As I wait for last-minute Lufthansa first class award tickets to open for Germany in the coming days, I seriously entertained just booking a cheap economy class ticket earlier this week on WOW Air. But ultimately I just couldn’t do it. There is no disputing the fare sale was tremendous: $99.99 one-way from Los Angeles to Berlin– But […]
Afternoon Tea: United Airlines vs. British Airways
United Airlines no longer serves afternoon tea onboard its westbound flights from London. Still, I thought I would compare tea service on United and British Airways this week for my Meal of the Week installment. Why? Rumors are swirling that United may bring back tea service on the ex-LHR flights. I mentioned in my British Airways first class […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: April 30, 2017
Good evening from Los Angeles. I’m home for a few days between trips, trying desperately to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life. I need to do a better job of it… Anyway, I’ve got a great story coming up about my trip home from New York. A truly unexpected surprise that I look forward to sharing with […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: April 23, 2017
Another week, another onboard airline altercation gone viral. I’ve spent most of the day offline today. My goal is to take one day off per week–not always possible, but my wife puts up with a lot during the week so it seems fitting that at least one day per week should not be spent hunched over […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: April 9, 2017
Greetings from Southern California. I’m home again after nearly four weeks in Europe. My family had a wonderful time visiting friends and family in Germany then spending a few days in Greece to end the trip. While I don’t plan a formal trip report for this journey, I will write a few posts about the […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: April 2, 2017
Hello from Franz Josef Strauss International Airport in Munich. We’ll soon be departing for Greece and I’m excited to visit a new part of that beautiful country. The week started off with a huge controversy over leggings — a misunderstanding that morphed into a discussion over pass rider dress code and sexism. I wrote about it extensively: United […]
When a Passenger Steals Your Amenity Kit…
An amusing story popped up on Flyertalk about the case of a stolen amenity kit. The original post: I recently flew BF from EWR to HKG. As we took off my amenity kit fell on the floor and sild down the aisle by about one row. As soon as the chime went off, a passenger […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: March 19, 2017
Hello from Stuttgart. Thanks to these anti-jetlag tips, I quickly adjusted to Central Europe Time and have acclimated back to life in Germany. Little Augustine is meeting many family members for the first time and we’ve had a very pleasant week. The highlight was the flight over — instead of a 10hr nightmare trying to keep […]
Great Flight on United Airlines 787-9 Business Class
I don’t want to be known as the United Airlines fanboy, but I turned lemons into lemonade earlier this week and had a great flight to London on United’s new 787-9. Thanks to a mechanical delay out of Burbank, I was able to reroute my trip to Europe to depart from LAX and make Augustine’s […]
Strange United Airlines Schedule Change
Last week I reported that United Airlines is making Boston – San Francisco a 100% lie-flat route in business class starting in June. This morning, reader Eric W. left a comment stating– Just checked several dates in mid-June and found the usual mix of 737s flying the route alongside a couple of 777s, not exclusively lie-flat planes […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: March 4, 2017
Hello from Santa Monica, CA. I dined with some very dear clients who have become friends last night. Not knowing LA traffic, I hedged my bets and left early. Thankfully, traffic moved much better than my GPS suggested and I made it early. So now I’m writing the week in review in my car as I wait. I […]
Why Flight Attendants Prefer to Work in Economy Over First Class
“I once had a forty-something male passenger who said he was a picky eater and asked me to remove the almonds from his mixed nuts, the shaved Parmesan from his salad and the cilantro from his tabouleh.” That’s from the mouth of a FA and explains — in a nutshell — why many FAs prefer […]
