Anyone other than Matthew (who had planned to fly with me) want to come clean on having been on my flight from San Francisco to Seattle last night, along with my flight from Seattle to Washington? It was someone that really liked orange juice and cheese….
There goes ever publishing my flight schedule again!
Alaska has now officially announced the details of their new top tier status level, MVP Gold 75K. As the name suggests this is for those that earn 75,000 elite qualifying miles per year on Alaska, or 90,000 miles or 90 segments on Alaska and their qualifying partners.
Given that the previous highest tier, MVP Gold, required 40,000 elite qualifying miles on Alaska or 50,000 miles or 60 segments on their partners, I can’t blame them for making a new tier to give their super frequent fliers some extra benefits, even if it’s as simple as a higher upgrade priority. Anyway, here are the main benefits with this tier over MVP Gold:
So the benefits aren’t earth shattering, but they do accomplish the goal of providing some extra benefits to their most frequent flyers. I think the name they chose is also interesting. They didn’t name it MVP Platinum or some similar precious metal, but instead built off the Gold level. There are probably several good reasons for this. First of all they won’t have to spend as much money on changing signage, but I think it also reflects the fact that they view this as an extension of the existing Gold level, as opposed to an entirely revolutionary level. So that means most Gold members that won’t be Gold 75K members shouldn’t be too unhappy about it, in my opinion. Your experience shouldn’t change all that much.
(Tip of the hat to Alex)
No surprises here. Starting February 1, United will offer one-way awards for half the price of roundtrip tickets. Initially this will only be available on United and United Express and tickets need to be booked online, but more functionality will be added in summer. Apparently they’ll also offer “Miles & Money” awards, the details of which will be announced on Monday. More information can be found from United PR here.
It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Sam for sending in this one.
Correct Answer: Houston Airport, Texas
Winner: whakojacko
If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.
Yes, that’s PRS, Post Redeye Syndrome, not to be confused with BBS.
It has been one heck of a month so far. The number of miles I’ve flown doesn’t really do me justice (however you want to define that), because it has been all domestic. And not the fun kind of domestic flying either, if there is such a thing. It has been mostly early morning flights combined with redeyes. I just added up my travel this month, and my actual time spent in the air was around 75 hours. That might not mean a lot to most, but the purser on a recent redeye put it into perspective for me. She was complaining about how they’re being worked to the bone and she had to work 100 hours that month. So I guess I’m 75% of an overworked flight attendant. And it is exhausting.
Now I realize I do this to myself. I don’t have to fly that much. But I like it. Well, at least in theory.
So what is this PRS I speak of? Well, let’s just say I’m not in a great mood on the day following redeyes. And it has probably been the all around busiest month I’ve ever had, so add exhaustion and a ton of stuff to do and I’m not someone you want to talk to on Sundays and Mondays. 
Fortunately I got over my PRS yesterday. After three nights totaling about 12 hours of sleep, I hibernated for about 14 hours yesterday. So now I’m well rested and cheery. I wish I could enjoy this state of bliss (and incredibly sunny, mild weather) for a while, but sadly that’s not an option, as I’m off to New York tonight. I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of New York (sorry Dan!), and the thought of the weather there makes me shiver, although it should still be a fun 24 hours there. I’ll be getting in really late tonight, and will be leaving again Saturday morning at 6AM. Nothing beats a pre-4AM ride on the subway, especially when the forecast says it’s going to be 17 degrees (but it’ll “feel like 5 degrees”).
I’ll make it back to Tampa on Saturday at around 11AM, just in time to catch a noon flight to Chicago and then onwards, where I’ll be joining Matthew and Rick for some flying, returning on the redeye from Seattle as usual.
There are a couple of things that have made this schedule tolerable. First of all, I haven’t been sick in a long time. I’ll be amazed if I make it through this weekend without getting sick. And of slightly lesser importance, all my travel has been hassle free. Every single one of my upgrades cleared at my upgrade window, service has been phenomenal, the cabins have been clean, and as usual I’ve memorized the words to the “Parks and Recreation” episode playing on Untied this month. 
And I’m happy to report that February looks like it’ll be equally fun.
While I do my best to only discuss important things on my blog, like the temperature of nuts on United, not getting my meal choice, and Channel 9, I think I’ll make a one time exception for Delta.
They’re making an investment of a billion dollars to improve the “customer experience.” Check out their press release here. They do a great job of breaking it down, so I’ll just hit on the highlights:
Check out the press release for full details. Overall some very nice changes, especially in terms of reducing inconsistency between the various aircraft types. Too bad the ex-Northwest birds won’t be getting pimped out technologically like most of Delta’s domestic aircraft.
No doubt I’ve been a crappy “tweeter” in the past. I’m just not that into Twitter. I used it mostly for aviation/flying/travel related stuff, yet I never accessed it on my cell phone while traveling, and by the time I got home I tended to prefer blogging over “tweeting” and trying to figure out how to shorten words and stay under 140 characters.
BUT, I just got an iPhone last week, and all of a sudden I’m more fond of Twitter. Thanks to the “Echofon” application I’m able to “tweet” with ease and also upload pictures in seconds. So during last weekend’s travels, for example, I uploaded meal pictures from each flight. Not thrilling to most, but I know some of you out there like that kind of stuff. I’ll also do a better job “tweeting” live, from reporting on the lack of Channel 9 to complaining about my nuts getting cold to whining about TSA agents doing “gate searches” to praising great flight crews to bitching about delays.
Anyway, if you’d like to follow along you can find me @onemileatatime.
Doing just a bit better than American, United is offering 500 miles to anyone that makes at least a $50 donation to the Haitian relief effort, and they’ll also match all donations up to $50,000. To receive your miles, email your electronic receipt and Mileage Plus account number to haitimileagebonus@united.com.
I’ve always loved Air New Zealand for being an all around great airlines, but now we’ve gotta give them credit for being really, really innovative. Check out this Gadling article which talks about their new “Skycouch” product. Basically the first few rows of seats in the economy cabin on their new 777-300ERs will be designed in such a way that you can turn a set of three seats into a bed of sorts (plenty of pictures in the link above).
Impressive, right? Well yeah, it is. Kind of. The first thing worth noting is the price. For two passengers sharing a “Skycouch,” the cost is simply the price of two tickets and then half of a third ticket. That raises a question — what am I missing? So they’re losing money on this product compared to just selling all three coach seats? Hmmm. If it’s true it’s one hell of a bargain.
And while this is terribly innovative, there’s one important thing to keep in mind which you can’t really tell based on the above picture. The “couch” isn’t more than five feet long. That’s not to say you won’t be able to get any reasonable sleep, but I’ve tried sleeping many times in an empty row of three seats and haven’t really had any luck. I guess if you fold your knees it’s fine, but then again I hope the two people sharing the bed aren’t too big or there might be space issues in both directions.
Anyway, very innovative on their part, and I look forward to reading some firsthand reviews from passengers that actually fly this product on a 12+ hour flight.
Speaking of Air New Zealand, I really do want to fly with them again, and of course visit one of my favorite countries in the world (and in particular my favorite small city, Queenstown!).
Yes, I realize I promote the InterContinental San Francisco as much as Gary promotes W & Westin bedding and bath products (hey, they’re both great products).
Anyway, the InterContinental San Francisco has a refundable Travelzoo rate of $129 for the following dates for bookings made by February 5:
That’s enough for me to plan a trip to the Bay Area next month (hopefully).
It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to David for sending in this one.
Correct Answer: Atom Bomb Dome, Hiroshima, Japan
Winner: Austex
If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.
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