Reader Dave received his monthly e-statement from USAir, which advertised the return of free drinks in coach as well as two free months of club membership when purchasing a 12 month membership. Dave decided to rewrite this email to reflect what it meant to him. Enjoy!

Dear Dave:

Congratulations, we are offering you an extra two free months on a membership to the award-winning US Airways Club, rated one of the best airline clubs in the industry by US Airways Dividend miles members (because they typically only have our offering to choose from). Our Charlotte flagship lounge is a wonderful, large and airy place where you can simply relax, get some business done, or huff down some smokes in-between your segment runs on US. Don’t worry about the smell permeating the main room from our large smoking area, most people don’t even notice it (this is North Carolina, we invented cigarettes, and you know we believe in freedom!) But no matter your choice, remember that you can probably get into our club using your United Red Rug card or a number of other ways, so membership is not always required… and in fact doesn’t even offer you much over the other ways to gain entrance. In fact, if figures tell me correctly, we don’t even offer free internet access to our members. OK, forget about that promotion, but let me tell you more about how exciting US is, especially for our frequent guests.

I notice you have zero miles toward DM Preferred Status. May I remind you that you have the ability to purchase enough elite-qualifying-miles or segments (we’re not sure which–up to you to decide) in order to earn status to any level in our esteemed status program—yes, even up to the level of Chairman Preferred Level (yup-that’s 125,000 mile level) that you can have for not much more than $4500. Yes, that’s right: you can buy what others have worked to earn, and walk right in front of them and seat yourself in our first class cabin with a sense of true pride. Most excitingly, we can guarantee that you’ll be upgraded for free on nearly any of our US Airways flights (due to your donation in-kind, of course, noted above) to our award-winning First or Envoy ™ class service, both of which have been rated shabbily-poor by most–if not all–frequent travelers (except those who only fly US, of course!!). Once you experience first, you’ll never want to go to the back of the plane again. Imagine, one of our friendly folks may come by and offer you a cocktail (—a $7 cost to the schmucks in the back of the plane—) in a plastic cup, or if you’re truly lucky we might even come and toss you a bag of sun-chips. Sure, on some other airlines you may experience items like hot nuts, cocktails in real glass, and hot hand towels; but at US, we consider these to be costly frills that we’ve decided our members really don’t want anyway). But in any case, you can imagine that our seats up front are really, really nice and comfortable (they were built and provided by Airbus, not US, but hey, who really cares??).

For added amusement we have ongoing civil war between our Southern Yankees and the dreadful new Kiddos on the Block (A.K.A. the “Sun Fried Cactus Clan”). We know that for Elite travelers (both those that buy travel and those who earn it), it is a shear joy to compare and contrast the teammates as we merge and celebrate/embrace the extreme weaknesses from both our busted corporate cultures, as well as our colorful differences, during our daily service. Frankly, we should be charging extra when the tension blows through the roof and the front-line battles break loose in front of our customers. Heck, we treat our customers to live theatre on a regular basis—for free—that might even be compared to a live Jerry Springer taping, and by far certainly equals or exceeds the excitement than any of the live shows we transport millions customers to Vegas each year to pay to see. We’re not the least bit bothered by the endless attention we attract for what some may refer to as the sub-par aspects of our front cabin product (Heck, those whiners don’t know what they’re talking about anyway… and for goodness sakes we give it away!)

US Airways and our 36,000 somewhat divided workforce look forward to being your airline of choice in 2009. Whether you prefer our old east coast operations or our newer west cost diggs, we promise to get you there with a smile, some cheer (no, silly, not the detergent) and perhaps even hauling your bags with you to you final destination—delivering them to you on-time AND on the same flight.

Regards,
Doug Parker
CEO, US Airways
(previous chair, America West Airlines)

P.S. Did I remind you that we have the #1 on-time ranking of any airline at the Charlotte Douglas International/Regional Airport? We’re quite proud of this (especially since –with a few exceptions– we are the largest and most dominating carrier at this fine institution).

Next month Swiss will start flying their brand new A330-300 aircraft to JFK, which features their new first and business class products. I would argue their new first class product is the best of any US or European airline across the pond, and their new business class probably is as well. The food and service in Swiss First are fantastic, so having a top notch hard product makes this about as solid of a product as they get. Here are the flights the new aircraft will operate:

LX 014 ZRH – JFK 13:00 – 15:45 daily starting April 20
LX 015 JFK – ZRH 20:50 – 10:55 Mon, Tue, Thu starting April 20
LX 017 JFK – ZRH 18:00 – 08:15 Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun starting April 22

I’ve read in the past about Delta sending out emails to SkyMiles members offering them double miles on an itinerary as a birthday present. I got an email today which reads as follows:

Your birthday is approaching—and we can make your wishes come true even before you blow out the candles. As a valued SkyMiles® member, when you register and book a round-trip Delta flight now through April 30, 2009, you’ll receive double miles. But you must travel by May 31, 2009 to receive your birthday gift—so register, book a flight and have a happy birthday!

Terms & Conditions
Eligibility:
Only members who receive this communication directly from Delta Air Lines are eligible to participate in this offer. This offer is non-transferable. To participate in this offer, eligible members must register online by
April 30, 2009.

Bonus Offer:
Earn double bonus miles on your first qualifying round-trip flight purchased between March 26 and
April 30, 2009 and flown between March 26 and May 31, 2009. A qualifying flight includes any Delta, Northwest, Northwest Airlink (includes Mesaba, Pinnacle, and Compass) or Delta Connection® carrier flight. Codeshare flights operated by carriers other than the Delta Connection and Northwest Airlink carriers are excluded from this offer. Bonus miles do not count toward Medallion® qualification or Million Miler™ status.

Travel Period:
Travel must be between March 26 and May 31, 2009. All travel must be completed by May 31, 2009.

Additional Restrictions:
Bonus miles will post to the SkyMiles account of the qualifying member 4-6 weeks following the end of the promotion (May 31, 2009). Taxes and fees for Award Travel are the responsibility of the passenger and must be paid at the time the ticket is booked. Award Travel seats are limited and may not be available on all flights or in all markets. Hotel and rental car additions are subject to the terms and conditions of the service provider. All SkyMiles program rules apply. To review the rules, please visit delta.com/memberguide. Offer void where prohibited by law. Other restrictions may apply. Offer subject to change. Please refer Delta customer service representative to 970633.

I think it’s a nice gesture and a good business decision, given that people might either choose to fly Delta instead of another carrier or fly when they weren’t originally going to due to this offer.

This offer sparked my interest because I’m sitting at around 70,000 redeemable miles with Northwest at the moment, and I’d love to top off my account to have enough for a premium international award. For obvious reasons (upgrades, elite mileage bonus miles, etc.) I’d like to have my WorldPerks number attached to the reservation. Based on the terms it seems like I might be out of luck, but I decided to call Delta for clarification as to whether or not I could credit to Northwest or not.

I decided to call their reservations number, but they couldn’t help me so they transferred me to SkyMiles. SkyMiles couldn’t find the promotion number, so they transferred me to the “SkyMIles domestic promotion department.” After being on hold for ten minutes someone named Oli answered the phone, who seemed to be at least 7,000 miles away (I felt like I was calling United web support).

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: “Hi, can I give you a promotion number?”
Oli: “Sure, go ahead.”
Me: “OK, it’s 970633.”
Oli: “May I place you on hold while I look into this promotion?”
Me: “OK.”
Oli: “Thank you. While I’m searching for you, may I interest you in a Delta SkyMiles credit card, rental car, or hotel room?”
Me: “No thanks.” (How the hell would you offer me any of those three things as you’re searching, by the way?!?)

Five minutes later he comes back.

Oli: “OK, I found this promotion. How can I help you with it?”
Me: “I’m wondering if I can use my Northwest WorldPerks number on a reservation since I’m a Platinum with them and still earn the bonus miles?”
Oli: “Of course you can. The promotion runs its own course, and is completely unrelated to which program you credit miles to.”
Me: “Great, so I can add two mileage numbers to my reservation?”
Oli: “No, you can’t. One moment please.”

He comes back a few minutes later and says he gave me wrong information earlier, so it seems I’m out of luck. Does anyone have any creative solutions here?

After a brief photo break (due to the trip report), it’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Glenn for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Seattle, Washington
Winner: ua_to_ord

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

Travelzoo has a pretty good rate of $175 for the new InterContinental Montelucia for April 4 through the 13 (and it’s only $20 more through June 13), plus a $50 restaurant and bar credit along with a free upgrade. While the hotel has a “resort fee” of $24/night, this still seems like a good deal.

(Tip of the hat to David for pointing out this rate)

Join us for episode 14 of the Upgrd Podcast as we compare American/United and Delta/Continental’s mileage programs. As usual, Hunter makes outrageous claims.

When United first published their double EQM promotion late last week, previously booked travel didn’t qualify, which frustrated a lot of people. Based on this FlyerTalk thread, United will count previously made bookings if you call Mileage Plus and mention code MPW999.

For the past three weeks American has offered extremely generous bonuses on flights between Boston and California. As a matter of fact, they’ve offered triple miles, regardless of the type of fare purchased. Their offer is good through May 31 and only applies to travel booked on or after March 2. Registration is required here.

Oddly enough, a full three weeks later, United just unveiled a similar promotion. The main difference is that any segments between BOS-SFO, BOS-LAX, and BOS-SAN count. That means you can connect, and you don’t even have to be traveling from BOS-SFO. For example, you could theoretically fly from IAD to SAN via BOS and SFO and earn the bonus miles for the BOS-SFO segment. Furthermore, “L” fares don’t qualify. Registration is also required here.

While I’ll never complain about free miles, I’m not sure I follow United’s logic in matching this offer. Unlike American they don’t have a hub in Boston and they don’t have a new route they’re trying to promote.

Now through March 15, 2010, you can earn double American Express Membership Rewards points on gas and grocery purchases. You need to register your card here (note that not all cards qualify), or you can call 1-800-794-1308 and enter promotion code 139150001. That’s a fantastic deal!

(Tip of the hat to Marshall Jackson on Travel)

Gosh, do I love bmi Gold status. It’s so much better than being an RCC member. Instead of just being able to access RCC’s (which would typically require a $400+/year membership), Star Alliance Gold status with airlines other than United and USAir get you into any Star Alliance lounge when traveling on a Star Alliance carrier the same day. In theory that’s exciting because it means you could access a Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge while traveling on a boring domestic flight, but as of now the cases where that’s possible are limited.

Lately, our options have been getting better and better, though. As I previously reported there’s now a walkway between the domestic and international terminals at SFO, and since there’s a Singapore Airlines Silver Kris lounge, non-UA/US Star Gold members can use that lounge while traveling domestically.

Well, as of a few days we have an even cooler option. Lufthansa just opened their new Senator/Business lounge at Washington Dulles (IAD), which means non-UA/US Star Gold members traveling domestically can access it. While it’s not all that close to the United gates, it can be reached airside. It’s open daily from 1PM to 7PM and is located midfield at Terminal B, so keep that in mind, Star Gold members!

Usually I travel through IAD before noon, but I’ll be sure to plan an afternoon layover there sometime soon so I can check it out. There’s just something I love about using “international” lounges when traveling domestically. Most importantly, the lounge has showers. That’s always a luxury when traveling with United domestically!