Yet another “Up in the Air” trailer has been released. While it’s not so much about the whole frequent flyer game, it does a pretty good job of characterizing Ryan Bingham’s personality.

I can’t wait for the movie!

(Tip of the hat to Sam)

Join us for episode 46 of the Upgrd Podcast, as we’re joined by my flying hero, Gene, who travels 425,000 miles/year.

I posted pictures back in January of the British Midland Gold welcome kit. It kind of makes sense. British Midland’s top tier status is “Gold” so the card is…. you guessed it, gold!

Check out this FlyerTalk thread for a picture of bmi’s new “Gold” cards. Yeah, they’re black, which isn’t an issue in and of itself. The card actually looks kind of sexy (hey, it’s the closest I’ll get to a Global Services or Concierge Key looking elite card). But there’s one major issue — it doesn’t have the name of the airline anywhere on the card! It does have the Star Alliance Gold logo and mentions “Diamond Club,” but doesn’t have “bmi” on it anywhere.

Why is this an issue? Because when you try to use your British Midland Gold status to access a partner lounge, the agent has to enter into the computer what airline the card is from. Something tells me Red Carpet Club agents will be thrown off a bit by this, at least at airports like Washington Dulles (where they’re looking for problems instead of solutions). Since they’ve probably never seen the new card before either, they might just think it’s a bad fake.

(Tip of the hat to Murphy)

Sometimes it pains me to blog. I love sharing as much information as possible with my loyal readers, but at the same time there are some things that can’t be posted about until they’re gone. As much as I’d like to share that type of  info with loyal readers while the deal is still alive, anyone can read the blog and it could lead to the deal being pulled in a matter of days (or faster).

Well, it was a good run while it lasted. Specifically, the $550 paid first class fare on United between Tampa and Ontario. Matthew over at Upgrd does a good job summing up the changes.

So let’s talk about the fare a bit. It was a “Y-UP” fare around $550 all-in and allowed up to four transfers in each direction. The fare wasn’t that unreasonable in the past, given that Tampa had Ted and so did Ontario. Matthew in his post above mentions he has a friend that ended up in coach for three of the four segments of his “first class” trip since the flights were operated by Ted aircraft. So that might explain why the “first class” fare was so reasonable. Either way, I wouldn’t pay $550 for domestic first class. It’s just not worth it, in my book, when I can upgrade so easily.

But at the time it was even better thanks to the fact that I was able to fly three cabin paid first class, including Premium Service first class, for $550 roundtrip. You see, it’s all a function of United’s wonderful IT system. Given that three cabin first class and two cabin first class both book into “F” and “A” buckets, the system really can’t tell the difference between a three cabin plane and a two cabin plane. If US airlines were smart they would solve this problem by calling domestic first class business class, and reserving the “first class” name for three cabin first class (which would also eliminate any confusion about first class lounge access).

 The way United distinguishes three cabin flights from two cabin flights is by the flight number. If you look closely at the fare rules, “Y-UP” fares exclude certain flight numbers, which coincidentally are the same flights that are operated by three cabin aircraft. The issue was that they hadn’t added that restriction to this fare, so any flight with first class was acceptable.

So back during the first round of double EQM’s this year, I was flying in style. Actually, it was triple EQM’s for paid first class. I would fly from Tampa to Washington Dulles to New York JFK to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Ontario, all in paid first class (including Premium Service first class). Then I would return the following morning from Ontario to San Francisco to New York JFK to Washington Dulles to Tampa, again in first class. I can’t even begin to say how much fun it was, not to mention what a deal it was. For each trip I was earning around 27,000 EQM’s (9,000 base miles tripled), and the cost was $550 before applying vouchers. I also picked up so many vouchers thanks to all my PS flights, which were frequently oversold.

But seriously, I never had that much fun flying. It was fun to see “FULL FARE” listed next to my name on the manifest in three cabin first class, I got to know tons of JFK based flight attendants (including the biggest maverick of them all, Cookie), and I even ran into some interesting people at the International First Class Lounges at JFK, LAX, and SFO, like Anne Hathaway.

But then around summer United got smart and caught on. They restricted three cabin flights, only allowing domestic first class. But it was fun while it lasted. Anyway, back to $200 “L” fares for me!

Oh, and from now on I expect to be referred to as “Lucky the high revenue, premium traveler” and not “Lucky the cheap-a$$ upgrader.” OK?

Sorry, this has absolutely nothing to do with miles, points, or travel, but I just have to share this.  I’m a huge fan of funny videos on YouTube, and I’m pretty sure I was finally pointed to the funniest one. I was in tears when I saw this (and it gets funnier every time I watch it):

I have a huge collection of funny YouTube videos, and if you guys weren’t opposed to it I’d be up for posting one a week (maybe every Saturday), just to hopefully make someone laugh. But then again the blog is about miles and points, so maybe that’s off topic. Let me know!

I’ve posted in the past about a new CW “reality” show, “Fly Girls,” which revolves around the lives of some Virgin America flight attendants, describing their careers as glamorous and exotic (yeah, an eight hour overnight in Seattle sounds really glamorous and exotic).

Well, check out the trailer:

Um I’ll refrain from really commenting, but are the lyrics to the song in the background really “that girl loves danger?”

I have to say, it looks addictively bad. Kind of like watching Al Roker interview Speidi.

Wendy Perrin is giving away ten pairs of free tickets to an “Up in the Air” sneak peak in New York on December 1. All you have to do is post your biggest mileage dilemma on her blog by noon eastern time on November 25 to be eligible to win. Randy Petersen will even respond to many of your dilemmas.

Check out this awesome CNN article about “mileage millionaires.” Even a couple of familiar people mentioned!

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Eric for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Washington State Ferry, Bainbridge Island
Winner: mindi

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

Oh lovely readers, I need your help for a moment. Remember that awesome British Airways Visa promotion offering 100,000 bonus miles for signing up? Well, I’m trying to take full advantage of it. I had my dad sign up and he got approved. I had my brother sign up and he got approved. I signed up and today my status via the automated phone system switched to “your application is under review.” I gave Chase a call to see what the deal was, and as expected they denied me because I opened a Chase Mileage Plus Visa about four months ago, and they have a policy of only allowing one new Chase card every six months.

The agent gave me options, though. He said I could close my Chase Mileage Plus Visa and they’d allocate the entire credit line to the British Airways Visa. I really do want the 100,000 miles, so I’m tempted. I asked whether he could reallocate just part of the credit line of my Chase Mileage Plus Visa, and he said no. He claimed I would be approved otherwise, though.

So I have two questions I’m hoping you guys can help me with:

1. Any chance Chase would take away the miles I received for signing up for the Mileage Plus Visa card?

2. Is it safe to assume I’d still receive the bonus for the British Airways Visa card?

I hate to ask questions like this on the blog, but I’m hoping someone can help out. If you can, I’d appreciate if you could post a comment here or send me an email (onemileatatime@hotmail.com).

Thanks!