Happy New Year!  It’s been quite the year.  Job changes put me back on the road a little more, which I like.  I re-earned AAdvantage Platinum, but alas, I’m losing Delta Medallion status.  I’m sad to see Medallion status go, but am hopeful that I will be able to regain that this year.

I’ll be back on the road January 5th, and heading to Atlanta.  Flying Delta and staying at the Embassy Suites Atlanta Centennial Park for the first time.  I’ll be sure to post a review here.

Again, Happy New Year to you, and thank you for reading.  Here’s to a successful 2009 for all of us!

Just happened to be cruising spg.com today and found the following:

Starwood Preferred Guest members are eligible for a 3-month trial membership in Clear (R).  Click here for details.

I apologize profusely for not getting this posted before now.  Register for the “Night After Night” promotion beginning January 7th and earn 500 bonus points for each night you stay between January 7 and April 30, 2009.

You can follow the latest chatter on this promo on FlyerTalk by clicking here.

Earn double HHonors Base points on your Hilton stays between January 6 and April 6, 2009.  Click here to register.  Be sure to check the list of participating hotels.

Tip of the hat to One Mile at a Time for this information.  I’ve already changed my hotel plans for early January to take advantage of this promotion.

And it feels like it’s almost 80 degrees out!  A slight stretch, but trust me, it’s warm out.  I don’t know if traffic conditions on I-95 represent any kind of barometer of the overall economy or not.  The trip down from DC should take about 5 hours.  At Christmas, it is usually a 6-hour plus, profanity laced odyssey of stop and go traffic.  Today, the drive took exactly 4.5 hours, and we did not slow down once for anything.  I won’t complain.  On the other hand, getting into the local Wal-Mart parking lot was something akin to driving to the Super Bowl.  Yes, I’m living on the edge in rural eastern North Carolina for a few days.

Based on the news stories, trying to fly somewhere right now is an ordeal.  My heart goes out to those of you that are stuck at an airport or train station right now.  I’ll work on posting something more meaningful after tomorrow.

The weather outside is frightful…yadda yadda.  Welcome to the holiday travel crunch.  Predictions of fewer travelers may be true, but weather-related cancellations are playing havoc with any spare seats that airlines may have had.  Pack your patience along with your other belongings if you are traveling this week.

If you are flying be sure to have your airline’s 800 number, your confirmation number AND your electronic ticket number either stored on your PDA or in hardcopy somewhere on your person.  Be nice, and try to remember that yelling will not install more seats on the airplane.

MJ on Travel will be driving this Christmas so I won’t have any war stories to share (I hope).  I’ll be back in the skies on January 5th.  In the meantime, happy holidays to you and yours.  I’ll post again after 12/25, or before if there’s some breaking news that just cries to be blogged about!

AAdvantage Elite members who are a little shy of re-earning their elite status for the new year have a glimmer of hope.  American Airlines is once again offering the opportunity to members to “buy back” their status for the upcoming program year.  This is a one-time deal.  You can’t buy the status back two years in a row.  This offer is only made to Gold and Platinum members.  Executive Platinum members are not eligible for the “buy back” program.  It isn’t cheap, but the more miles you’ve flown this year, the cheaper it could be as American is offering a two-tiered pricing scheme.  Prices start at $349 for Gold and go up from there.  The priciest option is Platinum if you’ve flown less than 40,000 miles or 48 segments.  This will set you back $649 dollars.

“Buying back” your status can be an ok deal if you came up short this year, but are fairly certain your travel plans will pick up again in the new year.  You can read complete details of the offer here.

Crude closed under $40 dollars yesterday.  I will admit it here first, I never thought we’d see $30 dollar oil again.  I knew oil would come down from the stratospheric levels of this summer, but I never envisioned what has happened.  While it is easy to cheer the “pay raise” we’ve all received from this decline, I have to wonder what the long-term consequences of such a decline will be?  Energy projects are being shelved left and right in response to the fall in oil prices.  I hate to say it, but this short-sighted thinking will not serve us well in the long run.  Eventually, the economy will recover, and so will demand for energy in all forms.  Will we be ready?  I hope so.

What’s this got to do with travel?  Just about everything.  Every annoying surcharge invented by the airlines in the last year has been directly attributed to $100+ dollar a barrel oil.  When a lot of smart people were saying things that made $145 dollars a barrel seem cheap, airlines started hedging at “high” prices.  Then, prices collapsed and airlines got caught with their hedging pants down.  Long story short, airlines are stuck paying above market prices for some of their fuel needs and have to front the cash to cover their losses.  Granted, most airline CEO’s have indicated that they are still better off overall even with hedging related losses, they are not realizing the full benefit of the reduction in oil prices.  Don’t expect very many changes for the better in the way of reduced fees and surcharges anytime soon.  I don’t think “unbundling” has cost the airlines any customers, and until it does, these fees are here to stay no matter what a barrel of oil costs.

Now for the $64 billion dollar question, will airlines be smart enough (or financially viable enough) to take advantage of what I believe is a temporary reduction in the price of oil?  Time will tell.

Reading today’s Wall Street Journal reminded me that I am not the only one left in the world who still sees value in earning (and burning) frequent flier miles.  Scott McCartney’s weekly column, The Middle Seat (subscription required), broached the subject of maximizing the value of your miles today.  It’s a worthy read if you are a subscriber.  Long story short, forget those 25,000 mile coach awards and sit thyself in the pointy end of the airplane!  That’s a strategy I’ve long followed.

I think that burning miles on domestic coach tickets with few exceptions is a lousy use of miles.  Buy the ticket and sit in First Class instead.  Most airlines charge 15,000 miles for a one-way domestic upgrade from discounted coach.  Some, including my airline of choice, American, also charge a co-pay.  Currently, that’s $50 dollars each way on AA (more if booked less than 3 weeks in advance).  Still a good deal as long as the flight is at least 3 hours in length.  Three hours is my personal minimum flight length before I consider mileage upgrades to be wise.  Yours could be different.  I have used miles to upgrade slightly shorter flights, but that was a special occasion trip to Miami and I did not want to chance clearing the comp upgrade at the 72-hour window for AAdvantage Platinums like me.  Upgrades to a premium cabin on international flights can be an even better value.

There are plenty of very valuable options out there for using your miles.  Upgrades are among the best.  So next time you fly, spend some miles and sit in First Class!

For the airplane nerds among us….  I found this thread on FlyerTalk.  Apparently, Delta operated a “proving run” into Reagan National (DCA) using a 767-300.  There’s some discussion in the thread but the best thing is the links to video of the whole thing.  Pretty neat.  I hope this becomes a regular occurrence.

Good news for American Airlines premium customers in Miami.  American has re-opened its Flagship Lounge effective December 16th.  Details about the lounge can be found here.  The Flagship Lounge is for First Class passengers on international itineraries as well as transcontinental flights on three class aircraft.  Oneworld Emerald customers are welcome to enjoy the lounge when traveling on eligible flights.