It’s time for another Vintage Airline Seat Map and I’ve selected a “guppy” seen flying the skies in 1987.

Formerly a People Express aircraft, Continental Airlines flew the Boeing 737-100 appearing below in an all coach class configuration seating 118 passengers.

I flew on a bunch of -200s in my early years of flying and did occasionally sit towards the rear of the aircraft because I liked to watch the engine “come apart” after landing when reverse thrust kicked in. The -100 had the same engine configuration.

Seat 2A looks to be the best window seat on this aircraft, so you might also find me there.

Where would you sit?

Over the weekend, Henry Harteveldt – a top airline industry analyst – tweeted a link to a pretty incredible resource for United Airlines enthusiasts that details their entire fleet and includes information on each aircraft’s progress through interior modifications.

It’s a nifty resource to bookmark and when you click into a specific aircraft type, it displays a table showing each aircraft’s specifications and even includes whether or not it has been repainted into the “new” United livery.

Based on the 767-300 page, it appears that the first domestic “ghetto bird” (N674UA) is in Hong Kong undergoing modifications for conversion into an ETOPS aircraft with BusinessFirst seating and AVOD. The remaining 13 aircraft in this sub-fleet are also scheduled for the same conversion and these aircraft will eventually be seen flying international routes.

A couple of weeks ago, I flew legacy Continental Airlines from Los Angeles to Houston and overheard the gate agent at LAX announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll shortly begin boarding for flight XXXX to Houston with continuing service to Denver…” I was a bit taken back by the fairly significant backtrack routing for the flight’s continuation to Denver and I doubted anyone – besides a mileage runner – would be taking this “direct” flight to Denver.

Last week, a reader contacted me about his same-day mileage run flying DEN-SEA-IAD-DEN and he was concerned over the mileage accrual showing up on his online reservation for the SEA-IAD-DEN portion. It, oddly enough, is another rather circuitous “direct” flight using the same flight number.

Early last year – or maybe it was in 2010 – United switched its policy about mileage accrual when taking a direct flight to provide credit for each segment’s mileage flown. It was a happy day for many, but it appears now we’re back to the old (or rather, Continental’s) policy.

My reader called United and received confirmation that he would only get the 1,020 miles for flying SEA-IAD-DEN, so ended up cancelling the reservation as losing the originally expected 2,724 more Premier Qualifying Miles made the trip pointless.

I find it just crazy that United is recycling flight numbers like this, so let my reader’s loss come as a word of caution to those who aren’t familiar with how direct flights will now be credited.

Kansas City has been a very popular fare war market recently and there are some pretty nice mileage run fares out there today from SFO & SEA on American, Delta and United from either $89 or $99 one-way base roundtrip.

The routing rules are again generous on United (and even Delta from Seattle allows SEA-ATL-MCI!), so there are some opportunities out there for sub-4.0cpm mileage runs.

Here’s an example (below) on United from San Francisco. Be sure to check out your options on American and Delta, too. I’m on the road today, so can’t commit the time to check further.

Routing: San Francisco to Los Angeles to Cleveland to Kansas City roundtrip

Travel period: Now through May 23, 2012 (no restrictions out of SEA!)

Dates I found available: 5/1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 15, 22

Number of nights stay: 1

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA7CN, 7-day advance purchase

Fare: $228.80 all-in

Premier Qualifying Miles earned: 6,470 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.54

Example itinerary:

I woke up about an hour ago and opened my blinds to see the 7:10am United Express flight take to the skies out of Burbank airport, so knew at the minimum United was getting flights out this morning. Then I booted up my Mac and took a mini-tour of United.com and saw just a few things out of whack, such as my mileage balance, but wasn’t worried assuming everything will work itself out.

I then asked the Twitterverse how things were looking and Seth (Wandering Aramean) said things were just fine at CLE and LGA this morning and others reported that United is aware of the mileage balance issue and claims correct figures should appear within the next 24 hours. One follower reportedly had a 55-minute wait when calling the Premier line, which definitely seems excessive, but hopefully he got through.

Taking a closer look at United.com, all of my reservations made the transition successfully, though they display this message at the top.

I actually doubt I need to call to have the tickets reissued, so will just let things play out and check back. Curious about the rest of the day’s Burbank flights, I went to look up flight status only to find Burbank doesn’t exist.

That’s probably because Continental didn’t fly to BUR… another minor bug they’ll certainly work out in time.

I’m sure as the day progresses we’ll hear about some issues, but at this point, things seem pretty quiet and uneventful. How have you fared?

It might seem petty to be anxiously awaiting the arrival of my 2012 MileagePlus credentials, but as most of you know, Star Alliance “lounge dragons” demand a valid card for entry. I’ve witnessed many people turned away after not being able to present a current card even though their Star Gold status is clearly evident on their boarding passes, and since I still haven’t received mine with today’s mail, I called MileagePlus to complain.

As usual, calling more than once tends to yield different results, so I placed two calls directly to the MileagePlus Service Desk. Here’s a recap:

Call #1:

Agent: “Hello, this is Ms. Davis… am I speaking with Mr. Booth?”

Me: “Yes, hello.”

A: “Thank you for being a valued 1K, how may I assist you?”

Me: “Well, I’m a bit concerned I haven’t received my new card yet and I have a flight tomorrow on Singapore Airlines in economy (okay, I lied). Singapore’s lounge agents have always needed a valid card for entry, so given I haven’t received mine, I’m at a loss of what to do.”

A: “I’m so sorry. We mailed the cards and I know many still haven’t received them, so I’d recommend printing your activity from United.com to show that you’re a current 1K member.”

Me: “I’ll hope for the best with that. Do you show when my card was mailed?”

A: “No, we don’t have specifics for individual cards, but they were mailed.”

Me: “In previous years, they were always sent via Standard mail, which can take up to a month… do you know when they were sent?”

A: “Oh, I don’t think they’d mail 1K cards Standard mail. Hold on.”

After about three minutes on hold…

A: “Thank you for your patience. They were mailed First Class, so you should receive it in within the next week.”

Me: “Okay, thanks… I’ll hope for the best with the lounge agent.”

Here’s how the second phone call went.

Call #2:

Agent: “Hello, am I speaking with Mr. Booth?”

Me: “Yes, hello.”

A: “How can I help you?”

Me: “Well, I’m a bit concerned I haven’t received my new 1K card as of today’s mail and I’m flying with Singapore Airlines tomorrow in economy. The lounge agents have historically always required a valid card for entry, so I’m a bit worried I’ll be denied access.”

A: “I’m sorry, Mr. Booth, but they were mailed last week.”

Me: “Last year they were sent via Standard mail which can take up to a month. Do you know if that’s the case now?”

A: “No, I was told they were mailed First Class. I can send you an email confirming your status if you like.”

Me: “Yes, please, that would be helpful. I just hope the lounge agents accept it.”

A: “Well, with the merger, we’ve advised Star Alliance that things are going slow, so hopefully the email will be accepted.”

Me: “Thanks for your help.”

Here’s the email as it was sent to me. Quite honestly, it’s not very official looking, but if you still haven’t received your credentials it might not hurt to give MileagePlus a call to request the same.

Finally, if you’re a million-miler… be sure to check your doorstep for a FedEx package. This Flyertalk thread is reporting many MMs received their credentials and a gift today.

[Edited to add: Definitely follow Gene's recommendation in his comment below to print a temporary card. Also, a friend here in Southern California received his Gold kit today and his, anyway, was sent standard mail...]

There have been oodles of articles this week noting United Airlines’ system migration from Apollo to Shares this coming weekend, but very few offer any type of inside scoop as to what exactly will be happening. I found this one from a travel agency perspective that sheds a bit more light on the process and thought a few points are worth sharing.

Among the highlights:

• An estimated four-hour disruption to United’s automated systems and access to flight information in GDSs will begin at 1:00am EST March 3.
• Website functionality will be down during the same time period.
• During the “dress rehearsals” when issues popped up, manual workarounds had to be setup.
• United will have “hundreds of employees” on hand to deal with post-conversion issues.
• Some flights from points in Asia will depart earlier to later to avoid the transition period.
• PNRs containing CO segments will automatically change to UA segments.
• PNRs containing CO segments with schedule changes for UA segments will need to be manually updated.
• Changes to Continental tickets issued on 005 stock after the integration will require special handling.
• United will continue to accept 11-digit Mileage Plus numbers through the end of March.
• Travel agencies will not be able to sell Economy Plus seats through their GDSs after the integration (no ETA for a fix).

According to the United representative this reporter spoke with, “In general, we think we’re ready for it.” Not exactly the most reassuring statement, actually.

Here are my recommendations to best prepare your own itineraries before the changeover:

• Print (or save to a PDF) all itineraries with Continental and United and ensure the ticket numbers are included (they’ll start with either 005 or 016).
• Print (or save to a PDF) both your Mileage Plus and OnePass account activity to-date.
• Clear any schedule changes appearing on your Continental and United itineraries.

It will be an interesting few days (or weeks?) ahead. I’m flying mid-week next week, but I actually wish I had planned flights for this weekend just to experience the airport scene first-hand on Day One.

If you haven’t already guessed by reading several of my recent posts, I’m closely monitoring my reservations and other ticketing concerns as the United Airlines system conversion creeps closer.

I’m a big fan of ExpertFlyer and have several “Flight & Seat Alerts” saved that are monitoring upgrade and award space on future itineraries beyond the planned March 3 cutover to Shares. I emailed ExpertFlyer last week asking whether or not they’ll automatically convert the alerts to match the new class-of-service codes/buckets and received the following reply.

I’m glad to hear they’ll be proactive and adjust all saved alerts, as well as send out a confirmation email. As they mention, it’s always a good idea to double-check your own alerts after the cutover, so I’ll be doing just that next Monday or Tuesday.

To access your saved alerts, just click on the View Saved Alerts link under the Flight & Seat Alerts section found along the left-hand column after signing into your account, as shown below.

This past weekend I completed another mileage run with United rolling me past the 45,000 EQM mark for the year and I – as well as many other passengers in Business Class – scored a customer appreciation certificate for a faulty video system onboard a new configuration 777 from Los Angeles to Washington Dulles. Movies would begin to play, but then freeze partway through without being able to restart them or do virtually anything else but get to the airshow.

I’ve already flown more than 30 flights this year without so much as a bump or any other type of irregular situation, so was pleased to get the “We’re sorry…” certificate assuming it would likely yield the usual choice of miles or an e-certificate.

As I always do, I chose the $200 domestic e-cert knowing I’ll be able to turn that into about 6,000 EQM in the coming months.

Then I got to thinking about the system conversion scheduled to take place this weekend and wondered if Continental’s website was already programmed to accept United e-cert numbers. I made a dummy booking and discovered the answer is a definitive “No.”

Neither of the two United reservations agents I spoke with this morning knew whether or not these type of certs will be redeemable online once the legacy United website goes away next week, but assured me they’ll still be valid and intervention by web support will likely be necessary to complete a booking.

I’ll be certain to make a follow-up posting once “the switch” occurs and outline the steps necessary to redeem these types of certificates. The next couple of weeks at United-Continental will be very interesting, to say the least.

In other hotel and travel industry news last week…

• Hilton Hotels & Resorts completed renovations of the former International JFK Airport Hotel and officially opened its doors last week as the Hilton New York JFK Airport. This marks the chain’s sixth property in the New York metro area (excluding New Jersey). The JFK hotel features a total of 356 rooms, which includes 64 Executive Level rooms and 11 suites. Separately, Hilton will reportedly open 500 new restaurants at its properties during the next three years. Included among the options being considered is Ruth’s Chris Steak House at hotels where it would make sense based on guest demographics. Yes, please!
• Still more than two years from opening, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts released a rendering of their planned Park Hyatt property in Bangkok. Shaped like a coil, it will mark the chain’s third property in Thailand and feature 222 rooms with a top-floor restaurant and lounge, along with more than 15,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.
• Starwood Hotels & Resorts plans to open 20 new properties this year through a combination of conversions and new construction. Twelve of the new hotels will be located in China, all of the Sheraton brand. According to Starwood’s President of Global Development, Simon Turner, “Sheraton’s impressive global pipeline is being fueled by phenomenal demand in China and India as well as by a surge in high-quality conversions in developed markets.” Eight new Sheraton Resorts will also open this year.
• On the car rental front, both Hertz and Dollar-Thrifty reported impressive fourth quarter results for 2011. Hertz enjoyed a $52.1 million net income for the period versus a $23.6 million net loss the year prior, and Dollar-Thrifty reported a $33.9 million net profit for the period this year. Dollar’s CEO, Scott Thompson, feels optimistic about the first quarter in 2012 mentioning he expects the “rental rate environment to improve in the first quarter of 2012 versus the fourth quarter of 2011.”
• As widely reported and blogged, United’s switch to the Shares GDS is right around the corner and it was reported last week that the conversion will temporarily deactivate the ability to book United’s Economy Plus seats for users of Sabre and Travelport. This is actually a pretty big deal given the volume of corporate agencies that subscribe to the impacted GDSs. There is no ETA for when this critical ancillary and loyalty mechanism will be restored.
• It was reported another ’30 Rock’ star had an issue while flying American Airlines a week ago. Katrina Bowden tweeted on February 21, “Flight attendant on American just refused to give me more water because ‘I had enough already’ what the what?! These people are the worst!” While I’ve never been refused water, I have in the past noticed a bit of attitude when asking for more. This is total speculation, but I think many FAs like to bring “extra” full bottles of water with them from the galleys on their layovers and tend to horde them near the end of longer flights. This might have been what happened to Katrina.
• And finally, the airline-traveling idiot of the week goes to a Saudi teenager who refused to turn off his e-cigarette when a flight attendant advised him to do so. The Continental Airlines flight from Portland to Houston turned around and the man was arrested upon landing in Portland. The disruptive passenger also allegedly took a swing at one of the attendants and “sang of bin Laden.” Eek!

United Airlines yesterday released their annual 10-K report as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – a light 238 pages of company history, industry information, financial statements and more. I geek out reading through these and will take some time to do so as there are often noteworthy nuggets of information not released elsewhere.

While I do that, I thought I’d share the carrier’s operating fleet as it existed on December 31, 2011, which includes Continental and United aircraft, as well as those operated by regional carriers on behalf of UACO (listed as “Capacity Purchase” below).

In addition to the aircraft appearing above, United and Continental own or lease the following aircraft, which are either parked or subleased:

• Five owned 747-400s, including one to be inducted into charter service;
• One leased 767-200, which is being subleased to another airline;
• Three Airbus A330s, which are subleased to another airline (this was news to me);
• Two leased 757-200s, which have been returned to the lessor;
• 16 737-300s, of which four are owned and 12 are leased;
• 18 owned 737-500s; and
• 30 leased ERJ-135s, five of which are leased to another airline.

It’s fun for me to study these tables and add a few items of trivia to my United knowledge. Next week, I’ll be flying on the carrier’s second youngest fleet type – a Boeing 757-300 with an average age of 6.6 years. I hope you find something interesting for yourself.