Based on this FlyerTalk thread, it seems like we’ll see reciprocal elite upgrades for DL/NW elites as soon as this coming Tuesday, October 28! All the details can be found in that thread, but it seems pretty straightforward. It seems like Platinum members will be treated as Platinum members on the other airline as far as upgrades go, or at least very close to the equivalent status.

There are two things that really surprise me with the arguments people are making. First of all, some are arguing that a NW Plat should only be upgraded after a DL Silver, for example. That makes zero sense to me. These airlines are about to operate as one, and as far as the new airline is concerned, a Plat is a Plat, regardless of whether they haven’t given a dollar to Delta in the past, or on the NW side of things whether they qualified using the DL double EQM promo. It’s time to treat elites equal, and I think it makes perfect sense to prioritize a NW top elite over a DL mid-tier elite, for example, and vice versa.

Second of all, there are plenty of people acting as if they’ll never see an upgrade again. Now, I’m not the brightest guy in the world, but I simply can’t rationalize that argument. We have the same number of elites and the same two airlines, so on average everyone should come out even. Sure, maybe it’ll adversely affect upgrade chances for people with certain travel patterns, but for the most part everyone should come out even. As a NW Gold maybe you’ll be beat out by a DL Plat one day, but the next time you fly DL you might beat a DL Silver. It goes both ways.

Lastly, you really can’t beat the position NW Plats are in right now. They’ll get upgrades on CO, DL, and NW, along with a few upgrades for Alaska Airlines. That’s what I call options!

For those that haven’t status matched to NW yet, are you sure you don’t want to jump in on the fun?

Now through October 31 you can earn 1,000 Delta miles just for registering for Thanks Again.

Thanks to Frugal Travel Guy and View from the Wing for pointing this out.

The most painful part of the sign-up process, in my opinion, is their cheesy marketing: Thanks Again for joining Thanks Again!

After several mishaps with the Leading Hotels of the World 1928 promotion, I’m happy to report that I finally won! For those not familiar with this promotion, LHW just had their 80th anniversary, and to celebrate they were giving away rooms for $19.28 (the year they were founded). Unfortunately they totally underestimated the response they’d get, and their site crashed the first time around. After several more mishaps, the promotion finally happened yesterday morning, and I just received a room confirmation!

I actually entered on my brother’s behalf, since I have no use of hotel nights at any of the destinations offered, while my brother and mom have an overnight in Zurich on the way back from their Egypt trip. Therefore my first choice hotel was The Dolder Grand, which usually retails for $600USD+/night. Now they’ll be staying there for a mere $19.28 a night, which is incredible. Even a mediocre hotel in Zurich is $200-300, so getting a top hotel for such a price is awesome.

As far as I’m concerned, all is well that’s end well. Thanks LHW!

For details please see here.

Correct Answer: Tokyo, Japan
Winner: Hodgie

Via Japan Today:

TOKYO — The breath alcohol level of an All Nippon Airways copilot exceeded the company’s upper limit Wednesday, causing a 90-minute delay to a flight from Naha airport in Okinawa Prefecture for Tokyo’s Haneda airport, company officials said Thursday.

The airline detected about 0.327 milligrams of alcohol in 1 liter of his breath, which surpasses the company’s in-house allowable limit of 0.1 mg, in the test conducted at 7:16 a.m. Wednesday, about 50 minutes before a Boeing 747 for ANA’s Flight 120 was scheduled to leave Naha.

…….

The level fell below the limit in the retest held after 9 a.m.

Since there was nobody at the airport who could replace him, the airline had to put off the departure and allowed the copilot on board only after confirming that his alcohol level had lowered, they said.

So, to make sure I understand this correctly, a 747 pilot that was about to have the lives of 400 people in his hands showed up intoxicated, and instead of having him arrested or put on “leave,” ANA decides to wait about 90 minutes until he sobered up a bit?

Best of all is ANA’s apology:

‘‘We apologize to the passengers for the trouble,’’ an ANA official said. ‘‘We will take care so that such a thing will not happen again.’’

I think it goes without saying that we don’t have the full story here, but it mentions nothing about an investigation, the pilot being suspended, etc. If that’s true, I fail to see how ANA is making sure such a thing doesn’t happen again. If anything, they’re encouraging such behavior.

I’d like to know which pinhead decided on the course of action here.

‘‘There was no safety problem but we verbally cautioned ANA because the incident caused a delay,’’

OK, is this source the Japanese version of The Onion? When a pilot shows up intoxicated to work the transport ministry is more concerned about the delay than the safety issue?

As much as we’d all love to see the airlines get rid of all the BS fees that were put into place over the past few months on account of “high oil prices,” I think many of us have come to the realization that the fees are here to stay. Given that, I think CO is onto something in exempting their Chase cardholders from the first checked bag fee.

This is a very smart move on Continental’s part. While there’s no press release on it yet, the internal memo was posted on FlyerTalk and confirmed by CO Insider. By doing this, CO is providing an additional tangible benefit for their cardholders, and at the same time probably getting a few more people to sign up. Win-win, and I’d bet we’ll see several of the legacies following CO’s lead on this.

I posted a couple of weeks ago about some great ANA award redemption options, probably the best of which is using miles for Virgin Upper Class. Since I have enough miles in my ANA account now to book almost any award I’d like (100,000+ miles), I’ve decided to start doing some experimenting. Next week I’ll be calling to see how readily available awards are on Jet Airways and Qatar in premium cabins, but this evening I called regarding Virgin.

I was specifically eyeing an itinerary from LAX-LHR roundtrip. I called them up, and for once got a very friendly, Japanese agent. In my experience the Japanese ANA agents are great, while the others are awful. Anyway, she explained the process of having to request the award space directly from Virgin, which means she has to type in the flight number and wait a few seconds to see if there’s award space.

Based on my small sample size, ANA’s award availability for Virgin Upper Class mirrored what Virgin offers through their frequent flyer program.

I’ve heard that taxes from the East Coast of the US to London tend to be in the $250 range, so I was really curious how much it would be all the way from LAX; I was expecting somewhere around $400. I was totally shocked when the agent told me $191! That means an award from LAX-LHR roundtrip is 85,000 miles and $191, while booking it directly with Virgin would be 100,000 miles and $713.

I’m very tempted to book an award on Virgin, and from LAX no less. The alternative is JFK, and JFK-LHR is just too short of a flight, in my opinion Furthermore, since fares from Tampa to the West Coast are similar to TPA to New York, I might as well rack up some extra miles.

I’ll report back on Jet and Qatar.

While I posted a few days ago about the addition of new PointBreaks properties, I’m happy to report that they added even more today.

As luck would have it, one of the hotels just added is the InterContinental Citystars in Cairo, coinciding perfectly with my brother’s trip to Cairo. He was actually going to shell out around $300 (including tax) for a one night stay, but now that they made the property available for 5,000 points, it’s a no brainer. Not only that, but he switched all three nights in Cairo to that hotel, since it seems like it’s one of the nicer properties. That’s three nights for 15,000 points, which is half of what they typically charge for one night (30,000 points).

Gotta love well timed PointBreaks! For the full list, go to priorityclub.com/pointbreaks.

It never ceases to amaze me that loyalty program still choose to use the term “enhancement” nowadays when they announce changes. Of course with the way they try to package things, it might seem like an enhancement on the surface, but even a minute of investigating reveals otherwise. I wish these programs would just be straightforward and start hitting us with the changes the way they are, but of course that’ll never happen.

Anyway, via Marriott Concierge on FlyerTalk:

Based on feedback from our members, I am excited to announce a number of program enhancements being made effective January 15, 2009 – and we are announcing it here first. The official announcement will be made tomorrow on Marriott.com and by email.

Blackout dates will be eliminated. Starting on January 15, 2009, every hotel will have standard rooms available for redemptions every day. While this does not mean you will never again have difficulty booking a redemption stay, it does mean these difficulties will be rare. Hotels will only be able to limit the number of rooms available for redemption on a very limited number of nights.

Platinum Elite Bonus will increase from 30% to 50%. In order to strengthen our elite program and recognize our most valuable members, the platinum bonus will increase from thirty to fifty percent of the base points earned.

Redeem for 4 nights and get the 5th redemption free. You will also see changes in the way hotel rewards are priced. We will migrate to a one night award structure with redeem for 4 nights, receive the 5th night free award option.

We are very excited about these program changes. I encourage all of you who are interested in knowing more to look over the information that has been posted online at: http://www.marriott.com/marriott.mi?…tRoomAvailable and let us know what questions you have. It is our goal to make this program upgrade as simple and rewarding as possible.

Now, there most definitely are some real enhancements here, but they come at the expense of more points being required for free nights. First of all, Marriott has created an eight category of hotels, which will make the top hotels more expensive. Furthermore, one of the great things about the Marriott program has always been the ability to redeem at a substantial discount for longer stays. That’ll be a thing of the past, and is now being replaced by the fifth night free.

Overall these changes will probably balance out for Platinums with the extra points they earn, but all others have nothing to look forward to with these changes. Of course I’m certain I’m wrong, since these ”enhancements” were made “based on feedback from our members.”

Given that it’s Tuesday, it’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to 21H21J for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Krakow, Poland (Czartoryski Museum)
Winner: JLO

If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.