As we continue our qualifying rounds for the 2011 Airline World Cup, please vote for your favorite airline for the Oceania region. The polls will be open for 48 hours.

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This is a guest post written by my wife and travel partner. She takes many of the photos that I show on MilesQuest and also books all of our reward travel. As the mother of our three small children, she felt it was important to discuss something we’ve all probably overlooked – what to do in case of a plane crash.

According to recent articles, British Airways is planning to offer a course on how to survive a plane crash! The information has been in several newspapers and online magazines, however I have called several U.S. based agents and even the UK based agents and they don’t know anything about this course. I have some calls in at the head office and I will post an update when I learn more.

Meanwhile here are some Tips for Flying and Crash Safety:
1. Clothing and Shoes-Although heels may look nice and be more professional for arrival at your destination they can puncture the inflatable emergency slides. If you do wear heels, take them off before using the inflatable slide otherwise passengers behind you won’t be too happy! Also, if you see footage of crash survivors they are often freezing, long pants and long sleeve shirts, even a jacket stowed close is a good idea. Always get your coat before landing. (First and Business Class-the flight attendants usually bring your stowed coats around to all passengers.)

2. In my opinion the most important decision is at booking. Consider where your seat is in relation to an exit. Often people survive impact but then die from smoke inhalation or burns, so you want to be close to the exit. I see mixed results on whether the back of the plane or the front of the plane is safer.

3. Pay attention to the safety message, those of us who fly frequently get pretty jaded to the inflight instruction, but it would be good to take note of the type of plane and features every so often.

4. Wear your seatbelt all the time, even turbulence can cause injury, and it probably doesn’t need to be said to the frequent long haul traveler but keep your buckle outside of your blanket if you are going to sleep so the flight attendant doesn’t have to wake you up to check your seatbelt. If you hit unexpected turbulence, you really can get a head injury by slamming into the overhead bins.

5. The brace position has proven to be effective in a crash, however most people don’t think to put their hands on the back of their head and neck not the crown, if your hands are on your crown and hit the seat in front of you on impact you will have many broken fingers. Don’t lace your fingers either, more likely to have broken fingers.

6. Lap infants-The old policy was to put your infant on the floor of the seat in front of you—“yeah right who is going to do that?” It has now been changed to hold them with one arm and use the other arm to protect their head. Some airlines have an attachment safety belt, but the United States actually thinks this is more dangerous and does not allow them. Of course, having them in their own seat would be the most safe. I was in an emergency situation with two children and a lap infant flying alone. In my mind I realized that there was no way I could handle all three of my children in an emergency situation.

We even had a flyby from the US Air force to get a visual on the plane while we were airborne, My son saw the fighter jet outside our window. I had to play it cool, all the while making a plan in my head how to protect all three, and hoping for a good Samaritan if we indeed had a crash landing. We did land safely escorted in by two fighter jets and greeted by fire trucks spraying the plane and countless police and security cars.

7. I admit that I have never really checked to see if I have a floatation device under my seat or if my seat could be used as a floatation device. If you watch footage of the Miracle on the Hudson you will note that almost none of the passengers actually brought their life vests or seat cushions with them!

8. Interesting to note- Although red universally means STOP, red lights are used as emergency lights in the aisle of airplanes because red is easier to see in smoke. It has been reported that the biggest delay in evacuation of an aircraft is people trying to get personal belongings. So in the event of an emergency- Really leave your stuff behind, people first.

As reported by Plane Simple – Hilton Honors will soon launch a service via Topguest where you can receive 2500 Hilton Honors points for simply connecting your Facebook account with them.

Photo courtesy of TechCrunch

The website will be www.socialhhonors.com (site not live yet).

You will be able to earn additional points for sending partner content to your contacts via Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare checkins.

Hilton Honors will be the first TopGuest partner to debut the new service while the other partners are expected to follow suit.

This will be a great way to earn more points through social media.

Tumi has an online coupon for $100 off any $400 or more purchase off any regular priced item on Tumi.com

Enter code TUMI11 while ordering online or print the coupon and use it in store.

This offer expires November 20th.

I personally still travel with my Samsonite outlet luggage but I hear that Tumi products are extremely durable and perfect for the frequent business traveler.

Vote for your two favorite Latin American airline. Polls will close in 48 hours.

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The end of the year is quickly nearing and I still haven’t used my $200 airline credit offered by the Platinum American Express card.

I decided I was going to try and purchase Delta Airlines gift certificates to see if possibly the credit would count for that purchase and I needed to buy a plane ticket anyways.

I went to Delta.com to try and find where I could purchase Delta Airlines gift certificates. I found that you can not purchase the gift certificates online, only at a Delta Ticket office or an airport location (except for these states: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island). I also learned that gift certificates are not redeemable at Delta.com and only at a ticket office location, your travel agency, or an airport.

The fortunate thing about living in Utah is the airport is easy to get to and short term parking is cheap and so I decided to make the trek up to the airport. I waited in the Medallion check in line and went to the agent to buy my gift certificates.

She didn’t realize that they could even sell gift certificates and told me that she has never had anyone buy one. A call to the supervisor and she was shown how to purchase the gift certificates. I told her I wanted one for $200 and she asked who the “from” name should be. I told her it was from me. She asked me who the “to” name as from and I said it was me as well. She looked at me with a really puzzled look. I explained to her what I was doing and why, and that I was going to turn around and use the vouchers to purchase a ticket. She didn’t understand at all but issued the gift certificate none the less.

I was then passed on to another, more experienced agent in order to book my tickets. He also questioned why I was using the gift certificate after having just purchased it and informed me that the gift certificates are incredibly difficult to use for them when booking tickets. He also told me that there would be a $35 fee for booking the ticket.

So to recap – if you are looking to give Delta Airlines gift certificates to your loved ones, you must first drive to a Delta Airlines ticket office or an airport to purchase it. They in turn must also go to a Delta Airlines ticket office or an airport to redeem it and will be charged a fee to issue the ticket. I can imagine why Delta doesn’t sell any of these certificates! Why would anyone bother?

The agent ended up being able to book my ticket and he waived the $35 booking fee. The gift certificate purchase ended up not counting as an airline purchase either and therefore I did not receive the American Express Platinum credit.

So there you have it, don’t buy Delta Airlines gift certificates because they’re a pain to use.

I apologize to all who correctly pointed out that I failed to add Cathay Pacific to the Asia Region.

I sincerely apologize, have reset the poll, and ask you to go vote again.

Sorry

Please vote for your 6 favorite airlines from the Asia region for the 2011 Airline World Cup. The poll will be open for 48 hours.

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Here are the candidates to make it to the 2011 Airline World Cup. Three of them will join the field, vote for your favorite three Middle Eastern airlines below. The poll will be open for 48 hours 72 hours.

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Please vote for your favorite airline in the Africa region. The winner will advance to the field of 32. The polls will be open for 48 hours.

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