I Won A FCT Ducky

Lufthansa's First Class Terminal runs a weekly twitter contest and awards the winner a rubber ducky. Here's my new ducky:

Bear Acquired Separately

Happy Travels This Weekend

I'm still grounded at work. I'm considering mileage run opportunities to keep pace.

Airbus in Denver

Denver Airport Back In Business

Denver International is open again.  Snow shut it down yesterday. When was the last time Oslo was closed for snow?

Not A Recent Picture of Denver

Um, Thanks Twitter

I must follow a strange collection of companies to see this ad. Also I couldn't buy anything, strange feeling since all the advertising I see is for things I can buy.

Starwood+Marriott Called Off

A Chinese insurance company made a much better offer for Starwood and Marriott walked away.  Good news for me because if I wanted to be a Marriott loyalist, I would already be one.

A Celebratory Image

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Have a great St. Patrick's Day!

Ireland's Largest Airline and Aer Lingus

Happy Photo Day

It can always be photo day. Pi day is sadly once a year.

United 737 APU

Rimowa and Lufthansa Electronic Tag

This is so cool! Lufthansa and Rimowa, two of my top 10 German brands, have teamed up to make built in luggage tags.  Unfortunately the bag costs over $1,000.

I Love Lufthansa

Just Pay The Pet Fee

Just pay the check a pet fee, emotional support animals are now ridiculous.

Just Pay The Few Bucks

Free Movie

My United Visa offered me free tickets to a movie I don't want to see. Nice offer, but lets keep trying on the movies.

Photo Time

Happy weekend!

Denver to Hawaii - Not Mine

Be Flexible When Redeeming Miles

It’s a great idea to have a destination in mind when collecting miles. Some destinations are much easier reached in some programs and certain award programs give extra space to their members. Another way to stay flexible is to remember your other currencies, including money.  A round trip to Thailand may be the goal, but tickets could be very inexpensive (less than $800/rt from Denver).  It could possibly be worthwhile to send money in some instances and save miles for another adventure.

Not As Far As You'd Think

The month long search on ITA Matrix is a great search tool.

Map + Movie

The remote in business class on United's 787 Dreamliners has an option to show the flight map on the controller. This is a great development because one would have to stop a movie to see where you were and how long until landing.

Keep Spending American Miles

March 21 is the last day of American's current award chart. Prices will jump, especially on premium cabin overseas travel. The longer you wait, the fewer seats will be available.

US Airways' Management is Making Their Mark

Starbucks Rewards Points Inflation

Buying a Starbucks will be less rewarding in April because the Starbucks Rewards program is changing the currency accumulation and redemption math. If your average order is less than $5, then you lose out.

Starbucks Served On Alaska Airlines Not Impacted

Happy Friday

It's a great day to fly!

I Had A Long Delay at ORD and Took Photos for You

Grounded Photo

Still grounded this month.

No Aircraft in my February

United Airlines 787-900 Business Class Seat

I flew United Airlines' new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from Denver to Houston to start a mileage run last month. I had seat 4A, but row 4 is missing a window, so my window seat was extra claustrophobic.  The business class seats are traditional Continental style, all angled, 2x2x2, and front facing.  There is no first class on United's 787's.  On my 2 hour flight, I was able to notice the seat needed more padding, very Continental again, so it would be difficult on a long flight to Asia.

Seat Upright

Reclined Seat

Flat Bed Position

10 Wide in Coach on 777's

The 777 aircraft hasn't grown any wider since it's launch in 1995, but an extra seat in each row has been wedged in. United Airlines was the first 777 operator and had 9 wide seating in coach. Airlines have since increased seating density and now I'm wary of booking a 777 if it isn't not 9 across. Rumor has it that United wants to go 10 wide with their 777-300's on order. This will make me miss the 747 even more; the cabin is 25 in wider than the 777 and has 10 wide seating.

SWISS Wants Less Room in Coach

SWISS is showing off their new 777-300ER in emails, but I was disappointed to see they were 10 wide in coach. Interestingly, there was no premium economy seating.

Funny Flights

Super Bowl 50 was actually played in San Jose, not San Francisco like the B-roll coming back from commercials suggested. The two cities aren't far apart, but the Broncos chose to fly out of SJC rather than SFO. This lead to some interesting flights from SFO (United's hub and a widebody base) to SJC (United narrow body outpost) to support charter flights after the game.

From FlightAware.com

Yay Denver!!!

We Won!

Go Broncos!

United is the official airline of the Denver Broncos, but isn't festive like US Airways.

Go Denver

Boooooooo!!!!

My Alaska Airlines Photos Are Obsolete

Alaska rebranded and now my collection of Alaska Airlines photos is obsolete.

Now the Classic Look

Fun Landing Photo

There's a lot of zoom and crop on a point and shoot through a dirty airport window. I still think it's cool.

Over a Mile Away

Iceland Stopover Buddy

Enjoy a free stopover in Iceland with a buddy! Icelandair will set you up with an airline employee to be your buddy for the day. Really fun idea that I want to take advantage of sometime. Snowmobiling with the CEO would be super cool; fishing seems fun too.

Free Stopover in KEF - Icelandic Friend Included

Frontier Logo Issues

Frontier might need a new contractor to paint their fun animal logos. This one is new and already starting to degrade.

Bad Value Paint Job

Fun Friday Photo

Enjoy!

Lufthansa.com or lh.com for short

Southwest Boarding Spot A2

In theory I was guaranteed an exit row window seat, but I could be the 10th or 20th person on board.

Good, Not Great

IHG Priceless Surprises Pomotion

Almost FREE POINTS from IHG! The IHG Priceless Surprises promotion permits 94 mail in entries and each entry earns a minimum of 500 points. Filling out 94 3x5 cards and envalopes by hand is time consuming, but not the worst way to kill time on a flight. Good luck and get them in the mail soon, entries must be postmarked by February 15.

An Entry Can Win >500 Points

NYC to MXP for $899 RT for 2

Emirates is running a fun promotion for $899 for two roundtrip tickets from New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP). This is a great deal to Europe, connections are easy from MXP, over the slow season. No, you don't have to connection in Dubai either.

A380-800 in Houston

Bad Stats From United

United emailed my stats from 2015. I am not impressed.

Bad E+ Ratio and Worse Upgrade Ratio

South African Airways Business Class Promotion

Grab some free TravelPro luggage when booking SAA business class from the USA. A $280 value, so not worth going out of your way, but good deal if work was buying you a ticket soon anyway.

SAA A340 at IAD

Use Better Photos

Ever see a news story with an overly dated photo? It happens all the time, like the one below. Spirit Airlines is an all Airbus airline and this was several logos ago. Alaska is all 737 so seeing an MD-80 in Alaska colors is also frustrating. It's not hard to obtain newer images. I could sell you some even.

Very Old Image from Airfare Watchdog Email

Only One Livery Old Image from Me

I Hate People

If you are so emotionally fragile that you need a comfort animal companion (like a turkey), you are too emotionally fragile to fly. You are a safety hazard to everyone else on the plane because if you are barely hanging on in normal operations, you could fall apart in an emergency and block, delay, or otherwise hinder the egress of other passengers. Stay home, drive, or get yourself together enough to fly without an emotional support animal.

A Lower Bar Every Day

Part of me hopes this guy was trying to make a mockery of the emotional support animal system rather than needing one or wanting to save $150 on checking a turkey round trip. I doubt it, but am still an optimist being bludgeoned by reality.

New Spirit CEO

Spirit Airlines switched CEO's last week. They haven't been running a good operation or growing outside the south and east much, but that still puts them in the top tier or US airlines.  They brought in the former CEO of AirTran (nee Value Jet) who lead them through their sale to Southwest. This got bloggers talking about Spirit and Frontier merging. I think a merger isn't the goal because AirTran ran a solid operation and Spirit needs help there most.

Don't Get To Use AirTran Pictures Much These Days

Credit Card Questions

What card should I pick up? I'm torn between the Fairmont, Sapphire, and Alaska Airlines cards. You can only pick one up ever 3 or 4 months, so I need to use this strategically. The Alaska card has no minimum spend requirement while the other cards are $3,000 and $4,000.

I Would Use Alaska Miles For BA or AF Travel

Fun Photo

Slow start to the year at work, so no travel in the coming weeks.

One Can Dream

Fairmont Card From Chase

Note: I am NOT compensated for this post.

With Fairmont being absorbed by Accor Hotels, the Fairmont card from Chase is only viable for a short while longer, but I am tempted to get one. I have until Jan 31, 2016 to decide.

Pros:

• 2 free nights at any Fairmont location after spending $3,000 in 3 months.
• No annual fee in the first year, and presumably only year, of card membership.
• Fairmont status boost to the middle level.
• No foreign transaction fees.

Cons:

• Though not officially impossible, don't plan to enjoy a free night at The Plaza or The Savoy.
• Chase's Fairmont points program is separate from Fairmont's President Club program. The Chase points must be redeemed through Chase. The award chart is miserable too. Expect a $25 gift card.  Free nights start at $25,000 in spending.

Twists:

• If your +1 gets the card too, then you have 4 nights and that could make for a nice long weekend in Barbados, Europe, or Canada.
• The merger hasn't been approved by regulators, but this is much less risky than the SPG-Marriott union.

I Don't Have Any Hotel Pictures

2015 - Year In Review

I easily reached my hotel goals in 2015, but then Starwood and Marriott announced a merger. My longer term goal (2 years away) of lifetime SPG Platinum status is now in jeopardy. I made United platinum even with limited work travel, including flights on Delta. This is better than expected and will be hard to maintain. 2015 also saw American and US Airways merge with little drama. Major award programs devalued their programs; since they all did it, I'm still a loyal and frustrated United flyer. 2016 will be a tough year with limited business travel more award program devaluations. I used my American miles to book a RTW trip in the spring, so there will be some fun from the miles game.

2015 Paid Travel - gcmap.com

2015 Total Travel - gcmap.com

Here's some highlights from 2015:

• My DUB-LHR flight was delayed 4 hours and I chatted with the pilots in the cockpit for most of that time. I love the idea of the future pilot program, but my career plan needs an adjustment first.
• While in England I enjoyed plane spotting at London City. I also had horrible food poisoning and didn't want to venture too far from my hotel. The UK forbids personal scanner use, so Channel 9 wasn't available.
• Thanks to a Sheraton free nights promotion, I had a great long weekend in Hawaii. There was a $32 resort fee, so it wan't really free, but low marginal cost.
• New Aircraft - Boeing 787-800.
• New Airports - Dublin (DUB), London City (LCY), Edinburgh (EDI), Omaha (OMA), and JFK.
• Favorite photos of the past year:

Dublin Morning Traffic

View From The Room - Sheraton Waikiki

Morning Flight from DEN to SFO

Runway 18 Center at CLT

EWR Doesn't Always Look Miserable

Fun Photo

I'm grounded until 2016, so enjoy a fun picture from earlier this year.

CRJ at MCI