OK, this is sad and funny at the same time. A Canadian citizen was crossing the US/Canada border to go on a shopping trip in the US with his wife and decided to record the interaction.

Now it’s clear he had an agenda when he showed up at the border with a recording device, and at first I thought the US immigration offer was being very rude, but the second guy had the patience of a saint. It’s rare I’ll agree with the approach taken by US immigration officers, but in this case I will. The guy recording this is a douchebag and I’m betting his body language was even worse than his (verbal) attitude.

Much like Starwood and Hyatt, Priority Club will also be participating in the “Discover America Daily Getaways” promotion on Tuesday, May 25 at 10AM ET. You’ll have the opportunity to buy 10,000 Priority Club points for $60, with a limit of five packages per person. Now, while there is a sneaky way to buy Priority Club points for 0.6 cents each, those points don’t count towards elite status. The points purchased through this promotion, however, should count towards elite status. Priority Club Platinum status, which admittedly isn’t worth the world, requires 60,000 points, so you’re almost there if you take advantage of this promotion.

Top InterContinental hotels cost 40,000 points per night, so at the very least this is a chance to get a real top end hotel for $240. Not too shabby!

I won’t be taking advantage of this (my Priority Club points balance is 200,000+), but I’m sure for some of you this will be a really good deal.

With Lufthansa’s Airbus 380s starting commercial service next month, we finally have some details about what we can expect in terms of the new product. First of all, here’s the seatmap. As you can see, there are eight first class seats and 98 business class seats.

Lufthansa has a pretty cool virtual tour on their website of the Airbus 380. Most interesting is the first class cabin. I hate to say it, but compared to what the other airlines are doing with the Airbus 380, it’s somewhat disappointing. The new first class looks similar to Swiss’ first class cabin, minus the privacy. I was hoping there would be a bit more privacy with the new product, though that doesn’t seem to be the case. On the plus side the bathrooms are huge and they seem to have onboard showers. Not sure how much showers are practically worth, but the novelty of taking a shower aboard a plane doesn’t seem to wear off too quickly.

Also, it looks like Lufthansa hasn’t done a whole lot with business class. As far as I can tell their seats are still slanted flat. Now that’s disappointing…

Either way, I am excited, as this may be the most practical way to get on the Airbus 380 in a premium cabin using miles.

As of May 20, United has eliminated co-pays for elite members on all fares within the continental US, Alaska, and Canada. Even Premium Service flights will have the co-pays eliminated for elites. Non-elites traveling on the same reservation as elites will also be exempt from the co-pays.

This is a very nice change. I’m a bit surprised to see Premium Service included here, though I guess that’s a function of them not filling up business class on many flights anymore since they’re not eligible for unlimited domestic upgrades.

And of course Continental might have something to do with this as well…

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

Correct Answer: Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua
Winner: Iain

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

Put me in any seat on a plane — yes, even a seat in coach — and I’ll be relaxed. Once my phone goes off, my headphones go on, and I watch the same episode of The Big Bang Theory for the eighth time, life is good.

Well, I just got back from a trip to New York with my parents and decided to fly United through Washington Dulles. Admittedly it’s not the most direct routing, but it was the cheapest ticket, I get high baggage allowances, and the miles aren’t bad either.

Every once in a while I travel with my parents, though it’s mostly in international first class on award tickets. Yes, they have it good. I do the redeye-filled domestic flying, and they do the redeye-filled international first class flying. Heck, I’m pretty sure every second security checkpoint they go through is in the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. So that makes flying quite tolerable, when we’re each cocooned away in our own suites.

But gosh, I was legitimately stressed after flying two segments totaling 1,000 miles this past week. And now I can once again appreciate the beauty of flying alone or with very frequent travelers.

Now I shouldn’t get frustrated, but when you do the same thing often enough, the questions that used to seem normal start to sound stupid, like questions about taking off shoes, taking liquids out of bags, when they can put away their ID, whether they need their ID to board the plane, etc.

I did my best to guide them through everything and I think I did a pretty decent job.  They were rather mystified at the concept of us getting our bags when we landed at LGA after leaving them plane side at Dulles. The endless questions about the bags almost got to me.

And don’t even get me started on the return, when our flight from LGA to IAD was canceled due to weather. Fortunately we got rebooked on a flight out of JFK connecting to the same flight, but that didn’t prevent utter panic on the part of my dad. Now I do take a pretty grim outlook on things when I have an hour layover at Dulles arriving on a regional jet from New York, there’s low visibility in New York, and I’m flying an airline that doesn’t have a very good on time record. But then again, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from flying like a crazy person, it’s that there’s no benefit to stressing out. Take things as they come.

But my dad had a mind of his own — “what if our flight is delayed?” Well, then it’ll be delayed. “What if we miss our connection?” Well, then we miss our connection. “What’s going to happen to our checked bag if we miss our connection?” Well, it kind of depends.

I can’t even imagine how tough it is traveling with young kids. I salute you guys…

Much like Hyatt’s “Big Welcome Back” promotion, Goldpoints Plus is offering one free night after every two stays, with a limit of seven free nights (register here). Stays between June 1 and August 31 qualify, and the free nights can be redeemed between July 15 and February 28, 2011. So yeah, you have nine months to redeem free nights, which is awesome.

Now admittedly there aren’t as many super high end Radisson hotels (let alone Country Inns) as there are Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt properties, but I’m sure there are some cases where this promotion can be very profitable.

(Tip of the hat to Alex)

Chris Elliott is a frequent flier program skeptic. Who would’ve guessed? His latest article once again is nothing but paragraph after paragraph of utter garbage, and that’s putting it nicely. In the article, Chris more or less argues that the only types of travelers that should take part in loyalty programs are managed business travelers — those with preferred vendors. As far as Chris is concerned, loyalty programs are a scam and complete waste for everyone else. He argues it causes us to act irrationally. And there’s no doubt it often can cause us to act irrationally.

What Chris completely forgets to mention (which isn’t surprising given his target audience) is that you just have to be smart about using loyalty programs. In many cases it does make more sense to fly the airline you’re loyal to or stay at the hotel chain you’re loyal to, even if they’re more expensive.

Even for a simple domestic trip, I’m willing to pay an extra $100-200 to fly United over another non-affiliated airline. Why? I get elite check-in, elite security lines, free checked bags, free upgrades, lounge access, miles, etc. While there are cases where it might not make sense to fly United (if they were $250+ more expensive than the competition, for example), often it’s smart to pay a premium to fly your preferred airline. Seriously, think about the value of all the things you’re receiving in exchange for your loyalty, and then do the math. If it works out, fly your preferred airline, if it doesn’t, don’t.

Same goes for hotels. It can make sense to stay with your preferred chain, even if they’re more expensive. With Hyatt I get free internet, lounge access, free breakfast, bonus points, etc. That’s incredibly valuable to me, because it saves me a lot of money.

But Chris still argues that “more often than not, the loyalty goes only one way.” For the savvy traveler that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I’d love for Chris to take a look at the Hyatt promotions going on right now and tell me that the loyalty only goes one way there. I’d love for Chris to take a look at the value you get as a top tier elite at an airline and tell me that’s not worth anything (let alone a substantial premium).

And Chris argues that the benefits we get as elite travelers are services that should be offered to everyone anyway. C’mon now, really Chris? Yeah, you’re right, I think everyone should get suite upgrades, club lounge access, free internet, and bonus points at hotels. And I think when flying everyone should get free checked bags, lounge access, free upgrades, priority security and boarding, etc. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that plan?

Sorry Chris, now more than ever, loyalty goes both ways.

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

Correct Answer: Mazatlán Cathedral, Mexico
Winner: Iain

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

I just posted Captain Denny’s flight schedule for June, and as you can see, he has a long layover at SFO on June 19. Anyway, we’ll be having dinner with him that evening at around 5:30PM and we’d love to have as many people as possible join us. So if you’re interested, please let me know in the comments section, via email, or in the FlyerTalk thread. It should be a fun time.