InlawsofMJ are sailing aboard Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas this week. They departed Boston this afternoon and snapped this picture of an American Airlines Boeing 737-823 on short final for Boston Logan (BOS).

I love American’s 737s for their wi-fi, in seat power, and comfortable first class seats. That this shot was taken from a cruise ship….even better.

I like blogging and sharing experiences. Hopefully, readers will learn something as helpful as the information that I’ve received from other blogs. Readers don’t always agree with me, and they aren’t shy about letting me know when they do. That said, they are almost always polite and respectful about it. Then, there are emails like this.

“ak airlines…..bogus reviews……lived there for over 25 years…ever fly in a plane unheated at 50 below?  Yea..thought not…try ak in the winter….on their cargo/passenger bs flight fbks to Anc…..walk outside to board….no effin heat for the entire flight a**hole!!!!  Price to travel over 2x per mile what it cost in the lower 48….what did they give you a complimentary drink for your review????  btw no service at all for these flights…..pls jet blue come to alaska…..ak airlines whould be renamed seattle’s worst!!!”

I first had to think for a second, when in the world did I review Alaska. Then I remembered my trip out to Seattle just before Christmas. I took a look at what I said. This review begat that email. Love it! Nothing like a little spam not from the can to give me a good laugh. Happy Sunday!

In the next few weeks, the MJonTravel juggernaut hits Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Atlanta again. A little Delta here, a little American there, and maybe even some US Airways salted in between. It’s been a long slow crawl to get to this point, but soon, MJ is getting out of the office and on the road for both business and pleasure.

I’ll be taking in the inaugural festivities for one of several new “beyond perimeter” nonstop flights from Washington National Airport (DCA) to do a little research on behalf of the blog. In between I’ll take both a business and a personal trip to Atlanta, which include stays at my favorite Atlanta W hotels! It’s been a long time coming, and I’m so happy to be getting back on the road that I just had to shout about it on the blog.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Yes, I’m an airplane nerd from way back. Love this video of a 787 visiting DCA this week.

I’m very sorry for my irregular posting this week. It’s not like nothing is going on in travel, but I have been very busy with my day job, some maintenance work on MJ on Travel world HQ, and all the stuff that comes along with that. After a visit to the gym this morning, some more tinkering with world HQ, and plenty of coffee, I decided it was time for an Aprihop at my local hangout and a little blogging. I thought some quick hits from other blogs might be in order while I get myself together after this week.

USAToday has discovered what I blogged about days ago. US Airways is offering Preferred Access for a fee.

Gary Leff offers excellent commentary on why the very different SPG and Marriott Rewards programs both scored well at The Freddies. For what it’s worth, I like both programs and stay at both hotels, but SPG will always be my favorite.

MommyPoints offers some scoop on earning even more Ultimate Rewards points. And by the way, Ultimate Rewards is evolving into my near favorite points currency.

And my buddy Rene over at DeltaPoints blogs about the test run of the new international terminal in Atlanta.

There are just a few of my favorite posts around the blogs this week. Theoretically, I should be back on a regular blogging schedule after this week! And oh yeah, I’m booking another cruise.

Well, this morning’s news about deals in the works between US Airways and the unions representing the majority of employees of American Airlines surely turned a lazy Friday on its head. I don’t comment on the viability of mergers, airline business plans, or anything else semi-controversial as a matter of practice. Not that I can’t, just that I don’t…and I have my reasons. That said, watch this one closely. I’ve predicted it for at least 3 years in private conversations. Could a three-way deal between US, BA and the money people known as TPG be in the offing, only time will tell. And no, I don’t know anything. Just speculating.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think a business combination between US and AA is the end of the world as we know it. In fact, I’ve often wondered what a bunch of outside the box thinkers might be able to accomplish with just such a franchise. I think I’ll pour myself another glass of cab, light a cigar, and watch with great interest. This could be an enlightening adventure for all of us.

Yes, it’s come to this. During my 10-day adventure on a special project at work I’m blogging about the arrival of my Starwood Preferred Guest Gold membership card. I picked the Le Meridien Bora Bora for the “design your own card” choice. Now I have to go there. In addition to the card, I received 4 “You Made my Stay” certificates to give to employees for exceptional service, and a brief guide describing the program’s benefits. I really believe that SPG’s entry level status may be among the best of the major hotel loyalty programs with their recent addition of perks like a choice of internet access, a complimentary cocktail, or bonus Starpoints.

Tuesday was a big day at work for more reasons than a special project too. As you probably know, NASA delivered the retired Shuttle Discovery to Washington Dulles for display at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. On the way to Dulles, the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, an ex American Airlines 747-123 made several passes around DC. I expected one pass around town, but there must’ve been 3 or 4. Imagine my surprise when I looked outside the office window to see the Shuttle and her 747 carrier heading directly over. A colleague was able to snap some decent photos.

I’m trying to round up a few more shots. I still remember the first launch of Shuttle Columbia. It was big news, and it makes me just a tiny bit sad that we currently do not have a manned space flight program we can call our own.

Courtesy of a coworker.

Another Saturday morning, another cup of coffee on the porch with my MacBook Air. Life is good. There’s a good bit of upcoming fun stuff in travel so let’s talk about it. First, The Freddie Awards are coming soon. It will be interesting to watch who this year’s big winners are. I cast my vote, did you? Following the Freddies is the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit on Friday, April 27.

This event offers an opportunity to hear from loyalty industry big guns. Last year the executives from the major airline programs like AAdvantage, MileagePlus, and SkyMiles were presenting. This year, the focus will be on mileage/points as a currency in the morning with American Express, Points.com, Loylogic, and Swift Exchange participating in the discussion. The afternoon will be dominated by the big hotel programs, Marriott, Starwood, Hyatt, Choice, Best Western, IHG, Wyndham, Hilton, Carlson, Accor, and Taj Hotels. The cost to attend is $99 dollars, which includes lunch. If you are a Milepoint.com member, you can attend for $49 dollars. Proceeds from the event will be donated to charity. This promises to be a very interesting session, and I’m hoping I can arrange my schedule to attend before it sells out.

Following the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit is this year’s Frequent Traveler University. Beginning Friday evening, April 27th, with a cocktail party, and ending Sunday, April 29th, you’ll hear from miles and points pros on everything from how to get started to credit cards and award booking. You can check out the full schedule of events here. I don’t know about you, but I think I’m looking most forward to that debate between Brian (The Points Guy) and Gary (View From the Wing) on whether or not SkyMiles represent a good value! Yes, I will be there to learn more about miles and points from the best in the business as well as socialize and have a good time. As previously promised, the first person to find yours truly at the event gets a highly sought after MJ on Travel key chain, and a cocktail of your choice!!

Now, a word about the next week and a half here at MJ on Travel. I am entering a brief period of what one could describe as madness at my day job. It won’t last long, but it will be intense. As a result, you may see some “Best of” content popping up here for the next week or so like I sometimes do when on vacation. But trust me, I won’t be vacationing….just working….a LOT. I’m going to try very hard to post once per day, but we’ll have to see. But before Monday, I’m working on a special post about my effort to convince someone who shall remain nameless that she needs to dump her Royal Caribbean Visa card (not an affiliate link) for something more lucrative, primarily the Chase Sapphire Preferred or British Airways Visa.

Disclosure: If you apply for the British Airways Visa or Chase Sapphire Preferred card through the links provided in this post, I will receive a referral bonus.

I was flying on a CRJ-200 today that just gave me the willies. Seriously, from the awful lavatory to the excessive amount of moaning snapping and groaning popping (in retrospect, snapping and popping seems to be a more appropriate description) and creaking from the underside of the airplane underneath my feet in 8C, the exit row, I just couldn’t stand the thing. Every bump, it creaked. Every movement of the flight controls, it creaked. This was especially noticeable in the descent which was slightly bumpy. The guy across the aisle remarked that he was writing down the tail number for his files so he wouldn’t fly on this particular airplane again.

Seriously, I’ve flown countless flights on 50 seat RJ’s and smaller turboprops. I myself have over 2,000 hours in aircraft of various sort as both pilot in command and second in command. I know airplanes make noises, but this one was just beyond anything I’ve experienced. We landed in PHL. One of the gentlemen on board remarked to one of the ground crew about the odd noises. I have no idea if there was really anything wrong with the airplane or not. If I had truly thought it was dangerous, I would have said something. But I did make a silent decision. I said to myself that if this aircraft was the one flying me on to Baltimore, I was taking the train. I deplaned into the terminal and turned around to see that this, indeed, was my aircraft to Baltimore as I had suspected based on my arrival and departure gate information email. I thought for a minute, and then I said I’m done flying today. I told the agent I wasn’t going, got in a cab, and headed to 30th Street station and Amtrak Acela to DC.

I got home, and that airplane got to BWI. Do I feel a little silly? Not one damn bit. Make fun of me in the comments if you want.

Sitting here on the front porch in NW DC pondering the day ahead over coffee and my MacBook Air. Of course, I’m flying out this afternoon for Ohio, but other than that, I’ve been perusing the blogs and message boards for information. The big news of the 50,000 point Amex Business Platinum was only good for one day (yesterday), but the bigger news was the reemergence of the 100,000 Avios British Airways Visa (now my affiliate link!) (Hat tip to Gary) 100,000 Avios is pretty snazzy, biz class across the pond anyone? Unless I change my mind, I won’t play this time. I’m pretty much loaded up with all the credit cards I can manage for the moment. But if you are in a good spot with your credit and spending, you should consider this offer.

You will have to do some work for it. You get 50,000 Avios with your first purchase, then 25,000 for the next $10,000 in purchases and the final 25,000 with the following $10,000 in purchases. In other words, you have to spend $20 grand in a year to get the full 100,000 Avios. The card does have some extra bennies that make it worth considering. Companion certificate, chip technology for spending abroad, and no foreign transaction fees. I could make the spend if I tried, but I just did a Citi AAdvantage application and am working on meeting the minimum spend for that card now. Not to mention I really want to hit $25K in spending on my US Airways MasterCard this year for the 10,000 preferred qualifying mile benefit. Living 15 minutes away from US Airways’ large operation at Reagan National (DCA), it’s just too handy to have US status, and anything I can do to keep it and build on it, I will. All this coupled with most of my dining/travel expenses being charged to my Sapphire Preferred card, and there’s only so much money I can throw around.  But that’s just me. If you’ve got the spending capability, I’d jump on this BA offer right now. You never know how long it will be out there.

In cruising news, Royal Caribbean has a pretty good deal available for a limited time. If you book by April 15, you can book a European cruise AND air fare starting at $1,349 dollars per person. Seriously, if I didn’t have a big vacation commitment this fall, I’d be on this one. As you know, I think cruising represents an amazing vacation value, especially in Europe. See fantastic sights, but use the ship for your “hotel and restaurant.” Cruising can also be a great way to sample the fabulous Mediterranean and Europe to give you an idea of where you might want to take your next land-based vacation.

Well, that’s all for my Saturday morning musings. Time to get ready for the airport. Next post will be from the Southwest Airlines elite lounge at BWI aka the Vino Volo with a cheese plate and wine.

Disclosure: The credit card links in this post are not my affiliate links and I do not receive any kind of referral bonus if you apply for and receive the card products mentioned. These simply represent the best available offers that I am aware of for the card. Updated on 4/11/12 to note that the BA Visa offer is now my affiliate link. It is the best offer available to my knowlege.