Looks like we’re going to have heavy snow in DC this weekend.  That’s a good thing, because I owe you a review of my stay at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta this week.  Look for that over the weekend as well as my thoughts on the 787′s first flight, the end of Citi AAdvantage Card churning, and more.

I’ll post a full review after my trip, but I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you how much I like this hotel.  If you’re into the miles and points game like me, Omni’s loyalty plan might be tough to use, but I’ve been impressed with my experience here so far.  Details soon.

I know this has been widely blogged about, but that pesky day job of mine has simply kept me from posting much this week.  In short, I’ve been busy!  But I wanted to post about the latest news from Continental and OnePass because I think it’s important.

Earlier this week, Continental Airlines announced a couple of key changes to its OnePass elite benefits.  First, Continental will begin rewarding its Platinum Elite members who earn at least 100,000 elite qualifying miles or 120 elite qualifying points with 4 systemwide upgrades.  These upgrades are confirmable on any fare systemwide.

Additionally, Continental announced the creation of an invitation-only, revenue based “Presidential Platinum Elite” tier.  Continental went one step further and published the initial qualification requirements for the new tier which will be $30,000 dollars in annual spend in 2010.  Perks of the new super-status include top priority for upgrades and standby as well as a VIP phone line.  The status will also include an annual fee waiver on the Continental Presidential Plus MasterCard from Chase.  This card includes an annual membership in Continental’s President’s Club.

OnePass members can start earning these new benefits in 2010.

You might not have picked up on it, but other than a couple of personal trips, I haven’t traveled since September.  I won’t blame it on anything other than just “happenstance,” but I’m happy that my 3-month dry spell of business travel is about to wind down.  Sunday afternoon, me and my newly minted Delta Medallion self jets to Atlanta for a quick 2-night business trip.  Shockingly (happily), my Medallion upgrade has already cleared for the flight down.  Incidentally, the first months of 2010 are shaping up to be borderline monumental as far as travel goes.  Not to mention, my 40th birthday extravaganza starting at Disney World and ending with a 3-night group cruise aboard Monarch of the Seas to celebrate!

I’m struggling with lodging decisions for my Atlanta trip.  Currently, I’m booked at the Omni CNN Center which happens to be the most convenient hotel as far a location goes.  Omni doesn’t have the same kind of loyalty plan that the other hotel chains have so I hate to miss out on points.  But this time, I think convenience is going to win out over playing the hotel points game.

OK, perhaps my headline is a tad over the top, but still….   The biggest news I’ve heard in a while is United’s announcement this week that they have ordered 50 new widebody aircraft.  The order is evenly divided between the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787.  As I understand it, the A350 is targeted to replace United’s fleet of larger 747s while the 787 will replace the smaller 767 fleet.  Don’t pack your bags just yet as the first of these new aircraft aren’t set to arrive until 2016.

That said, I applaud United for taking a step towards remaining in the airline business by ordering new aircraft.  I know the A350 and 787 serve different market segments, but I would have expected the airline to focus on one aircraft type with an eye towards reducing fleet complexity and costs.  However, I suppose if you look at these 2 aircraft types replacing the 747s and 767s AND even the 777 down the road, United will be reducing from 3 fleets to 2.  I still don’t think it’s ideal, but I wasn’t consulted on the purchase decision by United either. 

We’ll see if these orders stick, or one of the fleet types gets cut as part of a potential merger transaction that United seems keen to execute…..someday.

Yesterday, I completed what was, for me at least, the world’s easiest mileage run.  December found me 3,530 Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) short of Delta Silver Medallion status.  At this point in the year, there isn’t much one can do about that other than fly somewhere, so I did.  As I noted yesterday, I found a pretty reasonable DCA-CVG-SFO-DTW-DCA fare and I flew the trip, which nets me just over 5,000 MQMs.

The whole trip went very well.  We were ontime or early for every segment, the inflight crews were uniformly friendly, and things just could not have gone much better.  This morning, I awoke to find that the first half of my trip has posted, but return portion (SFO-DTW-DCA) has not.  Therefore I sit a frustratingly short 994 MQMs short of Silver Medallion.  My return flights were on NWA metal, and Delta now takes at least 24 hours to post miles, so I’m hopeful that the miles show up this evening, or tomorrow morning at the latest.  If not, I’m calling SkyMiles.

Mileage Running

I’m mileage running today for Silver Medallion status with Delta Air Lines.  While I’ve found SkyMiles to be a little less user-friendly than AAdvantage, I’ve always enjoyed flying Delta.  Their people are for the most part pretty darn good, especially inflight.  It will be nice having Medallion again.  Silver is pretty far down the totem-pole for upgrades, but they’re nice when they happen…and they do, even as Silver.  Mileage running even made the paper this week.  See, I’m not crazy.  There’s even a movie (well, kind of) about it.  Can’t you see the resemblence between George Clooney and me?  Come on now, take a good look.  I’m still waiting for my Concierge Key card from AA though!

My route of flight today is DCA-CVG-SFO-DTW-DCA yielding  5,103 Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs).  The price was $234.90 all-in.  I’ve heard of better deals, but this ain’t too shabby considering I booked it a week ago!  This will put me over the top for Silver Medallion, and even give me a headstart on next year with SkyMiles’ new MQM rollover benefit.  Now, I wonder if my upgrade for next week will clear since I’ll be requesting it quite late? 

Delta’s CVG Hub

Today’s flight offered the opportunity to check out Delta’s Cincinatti hub.  It’s my second transit ever through the Delta hub there, and boy it sure has changed since I was last there.  Delta has closed the old Comair concourse and moved a whole lot of RJ’s into the mainline gate area.  I’m neither an industry analyst nor an airline executive, but experience tells me that when that much of a hub is pushed down to regional carriers, it is not a good sign for the long term.  The pundits are already speculating that CVG is next on the chopping block, and people far smarter than me have been mentioning it in their blogs for sometime.  If I were in charge of running CVG, I’d have a contingency plan in my back pocket for life after hub status.  No one asked me, but I’m just sayin’…..

We Really Have Turned a Corner

The monthly traffic reports for the airlines were trickling out this week.  I won’t list each of them here, but my take overall is that things have finally stopped getting worse.  Indeed, several carriers reported improved traffic.  You all know that passenger airlines carry cargo too.  That’s one number I’ve been watching with great interest.  Why?  The more goods being shipped, the more general economic activity there is.  I won’t name names, but there’s one pretty big airline that I pay the most attention to in this regard.  And frankly, over the last 18 months, the rate that cargo traffic was falling was…well… somewhere between bad and downright ugly.  This airline’s latest report?  Cargo traffic has turned around and actually grew year over year.  Obviously, we’ve got a big hole to dig out of, but things are finally turning towards the right direction again.  No one asked me about this either, but I’m just sayin’….

My other economic indicator?  Starbucks.  Specifically, my local Starbucks.  Last year at this time I could fire a cannon through the place without fear of hitting a customer.  This year, crowded, and at times packed.  I’m not an economist, and I haven’t stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in over 5 years, but I think we’ve finally turned a corner.  Notice I didn’t say “the” corner.  But we’re getting there.  Watching how the airline industry evolves as things turn around will surely be interesting.

Well, they say no one wants to pay for inflight internet.  I’m not one who minds paying for it, but I’m using it for free right now aboard Delta Air Lines flight 1129 from CVG to SFO.  I’m mileage running for Silver Medallion status today.  I debated doing this, but as I posted previously, I’m just too close to let it pass me by.  Flights so far have been on time, and the service aboard both flights has really been stellar, which is what I expect 99 percent of the time when I’m flying Delta.  Even my Comair CRJ-700 flight was nice this morning.  Delta’s chariot of choice for today’s flight to SFO is the 737-800.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t have inflight TV, but it does have GoGo inflight wi-fi, and I love it so!  I’m typing this post and chatting with fellow Boardingarea blogger Dan Webb at the same time from the comfort of my coach chair!

Leave it to me to pick the weekend of DC’s first snowfall of the season to mileage run.  I brought a change of clothes just in case I get stuck somewhere.  My routing today is DCA-CVG-SFO-DTW-DCA.  I only have 58 minutes in SFO and 36 minutes in DTW on the way home.  Couple that with the weather, and I thought the potential was there for “issues.” 

Well, let me close for now.  I’m feeling random musing on travel coming on.  Let me see what I can come up with.

According to Delta’s great blog, the new Sky Club at Raleigh-Durham (RDU) is now open.  Delta travelers have been without a Sky Club at RDU since Delta’s moved to the beautiful new Terminal 2.  The Sky Club is on the upper level of the concourse and shares elevator access with American’s Admirals Club.  The picture of the new club really looks great, but I have to ask, am I the only one who is having trouble transitioning from saying “Crown Room?”

OK, not really.  But I am having a big week at my day job.  I apologize in advance for the dearth of new information this week.  I’ll be back on track during the weekend.