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

Correct Answer: Beijing, China
Winner: Tom

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

Now, I’m completely jinxing myself by writing about this beforehand, but it looks like it’ll be a fun day of flying. I’m headed from Seattle to Tampa via Washington Dulles this afternoon, and both flights are “zeroed out” (meaning the flights are booked out, no more seats are available for sale). The awful weather in the Northeast is certainly helping, though at a certain point it will likely have a negative impact on bump chances, as a travel waiver has been issued and many people traveling from the Northeast will probably misconnect in Washington Dulles.

To those of you in the Northeast that had year end mileage runs planned to requalify for a status level, well, my condolences!

This should be my last couple of flights of the year, at which point I can do the math as to just how much I’ve flown this year. It has definitely been a record year for me, though I’m not sure by how much. I believe I did well over 300,000 “butt-in-seat” miles, though.

Here’s to hoping next year will be a bit more slow paced!

As I’ve mentioned several times now, I traveled to Germany this past week, and ended up flying Delta BusinessElite. As I’m about half way through writing the trip report, one thing has occurred to me, and I feel like it’s worth addressing now: I’ve become jaded.

It’s not my fault, though, so hear me out. First of all, I’m an absolute airplane geek. I’ve loved flying and airplanes for as long as I can remember. I’ll never get tired of the beauty of flight. Years ago Condor (a German low cost carrier) used to fly from Tampa to Frankfurt nonstop, and I remember how excited I would get about flying with them, to the point that I didn’t get a minute of sleep the night before — and that was in coach, usually in a middle seat.

My family was never wealthy enough to afford to pay for premium cabins out of pocket, not that it’s a good use of money anyway. But I slowly got smarter about the miles world, even at a young age. I remember when we finally used our miles for a business class transatlantic trip. I was absolutely over the moon. I couldn’t sleep the night before, and I sure as heck couldn’t sleep for a minute when I finally got on the plane. I was worried I would miss something, as if certain aspects of the service were hidden from those that chose to sleep between meals.

As many of you probably know, miles and points have become a full time obsession of mine. I dedicate most of my life to travel and miles, be it blogging, writing about travel, consulting about travel, reading about travel, or traveling. And thanks to the effort I’ve put into it, I’ve been able to experience some truly top notch airlines and visit some amazing places I could have never otherwise been able to afford. Heck, this ticket to Frankfurt in business class ended up costing me $290 out of pocket, and that includes the taxes and the cost of acquiring the miles. Not bad for business class, right?

I think it’s only natural that the more airlines I fly in first class, the less impressive business class becomes. I mean, after experiencing airlines like ANA, Asiana, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Singapore, Swiss, Thai, etc., in first class, the bar has been set way too high.

So here’s my point — for the most part, nowadays I consider business class travel to be a form of transportation, and typically little more. If I have a flat bed in business class, fantastic, I’ll sleep most of the way. I’m not all that concerned about the service, because my expectations are quite low. On US airlines in business class, I expect the food to not be a whole lot better than it was in coach 10 years ago, I don’t expect much personal service, and I don’t expect to be addressed by name. Give me a reasonably comfortable seat and something that’s edible, and I’m pleased. But in business class, for the most part, the journey isn’t part of the “experience.”

So as you read my reviews, please understand it’s only natural that I’ve become jaded. I try to be as objective about everything as possible, pointing out the minor positives (like a flight attendant saying “my pleasure” instead of “you’re welcome”) and the minor negatives (like a meal not being well presented). I’ve experienced the incredible suites on Cathay Pacific, the precision with which the flight attendants on Singapore Airlines serve, being asked how I want my steak cooked on Asiana, the Thai Airways Spa in Bangkok, the Lufthansa First Class Terminal, and being whizzed through the terminal in Istanbul after and before flying Turkish Airlines.

My advice to readers? If you’ve only flown coach until now, seriously, keep doing it for as long as you can! If you haven’t tried international first class, don’t! You’ll regret it, because you can never go back.

I’ve long been an advocate of the “keep wifi off planes” movement. Airplanes are the place I go to get away, to unwind, to disconnect. Yes, even at the expense of watching the same episode of 30 Rock or The Big Bang Theory over a dozen times in a given month on the overhead monitor.

But darnit, I kind of think I’ve been wrong all along. I’m writing this from a pimped out Delta 737 flying from Detroit to Seattle. My first class seat has audio video on demand (including dozens of movies, TV shows, music albums, etc.), live TV, power ports, and wifi, which is free during the holidays thanks to Google.

I’m literally sweating because I don’t know what to do first. For one, my iPhone and laptop will be fully charged when I land, not to mention my email inbox will be fairly empty!

Honestly, this is a completely different flying experience than any other airline I’ve flown domestically (I realize Virgin America is somewhat similar, though I don’t fly them). Now, there’s a huge amount of inconsistency in the Delta fleet, but flying on a plane with power ports, AVOD, and wifi is absolutely the coolest thing ever. I don’t understand how Continental and United *still* don’t have wifi on almost their entire fleet… though it took a flight on Delta to realize this!

My one complaint about Delta is the first class seat, which is somewhat uncomfortable. There are no headrests, even in first class.

Now, if only Delta had a decent frequent flyer program other than providing plenty of domestic upgrades…

I find the InterContinental Frankfurt to be one of the best hotel values out there, though one aspect of my stay always cracks me up — the Royal Ambassador welcome amenity. It’s not that they’re cheap about the amenity like the Hyatt Regency Mainz, offering four apples, but rather the amenities seem to be the most random things imaginable.

During my first stay, a few years back, I received “coffeepeeling” as an amenity. To this day, I don’t know what it is, though here’s a picture:

This time, in addition to a few bottles of water and bar of chocolate, I received this:

It appears to be liquid chocolate in a jar…? That’ll be great for, uhm, dipping my hot nuts in, on United?

I can’t wait to return, if for no other reason than to see what amenity they can come up with next!

Gosh, in terms of value, this trip has been unbeatable. I spent two nights at the Hyatt Regency Mainz for 108 Euro/night including tax. Because they’re short staffed during the holidays, the club lounge was closed in the mornings, though open in the evenings. In place of the meager breakfast in the club lounge, we were allowed to have breakfast in the restaurant for free, which would have retailed for 27 Euro/person. And it really was a fantastic spread. So while you always get restaurant breakfast when the lounge is closed at Hyatt hotels, we had the best of both worlds — we got the restaurant breakfast and the evening club lounge appetizers. The highlight had to be watching the crews of a major Asian airline at breakfast every morning, and how they interacted. While the flight attendants (with the exception of one older flight attendant, who I assume was the purser) all sat together, the pilots sat separately alone in the corner.

The InterContinental Frankfurt has been even better. For the first night I used a reward night, and for the second night I was on a 107 Euro rate. The club lounge has been open throughout the stay, though not serving anything other than the drinks in the fridge, except for the first night, where there was normal service. Instead, we’ve gotten restaurant breakfast every morning (retails for about 25 Euro/person), and the highlight no doubt was this evening, where we got to enjoy their restaurant Christmas buffet. As a club guest you got a table at the sold out 52 Euro/person buffet. Not a shabby deal at all!

And I’ll say that I’m quite happy to be returning to the US in the morning after a Nutella-pretzel-Fanta-wienerschnitzel overdose for the past several days.

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to return to the States from Germany, with a slight detour to Seattle on my way home (since I couldn’t find award availability to Tampa and figured I might as well try Delta on a transcon flight). As many of you probably know, I’m on a Delta business class award ticket. I was scheduled to fly from Frankfurt to Atlanta to Seattle tomorrow, though while trying to check in today got a message saying that my Atlanta to Seattle flight has been canceled. I’m not sure why a domestic flight would be canceled 36 hours in advance, given that the weather is fine, though that’s a different story.

Anyway, something that I do have to give Delta credit for is that the website displayed several reasonable alternatives that could be confirmed instantly online. No need to call them, and no being rebooked on a totally crappy routing. I actually had a few one-stop options, as follows:

• The same Frankfurt to Atlanta flight in BusinessElite on Delta, and then Atlanta to Seattle on Alaska Airlines in first class after a near four hour layover
• Frankfurt to Paris to Seattle on Air France in business class the whole way
• Frankfurt to Detroit to Seattle in BusinessElite and first class on Delta, leaving Frankfurt 30 minutes later than my original routing and arriving in Seattle a few hours earlier

As much as I’ve wanted to try Alaska Airlines, I decided against option one because they don’t have power ports. My laptop has awful battery life, so even if the flight had wifi, I wouldn’t be able to connect for very long. Over four hours on Alaska without a laptop just doesn’t sound like fun.

Air France business class? Nah. I’ve done Air France first class before, and it took 45 minutes to get a pre-departure beverage. No way I’m doing business class on them.

Now, the last option didn’t sound particularly attractive, though Detroit to Seattle is operated by a 737 with audio video on demand, wifi, and power outlets. I always find the domestic flight after an international flight to be a drag, so that will at least keep me busy. At the same time, if you follow me on Twitter, you know that my outbound layover in Detroit was, well, less than stellar. Fortunately my layover in Detroit on the way back is only 1hr45min, probably not enough time for my blood pressure to rise too much.

At the same time I was really looking forward to flying through Atlanta since I wanted to give Delta a fair shake for my trip report. I always still assume that the service will be better through Atlanta (“true” Delta employees) than through Detroit (I assume largely ex-Northwest employees), or at least I hope so. The purser on the flight out (Detroit-based) was nothing short of abrasive. For example, he took meal orders before passengers even had time to settle in. The gentlemen in front of me was asked what he wanted for dinner before he could even take his seat. When the passenger said he wasn’t sure, the purser said something along the lines of “well you better hurry up, because I need to start cooking soon.”

I guess I’ll just cross my fingers for a better crew on the way back and be thankful that my travel time was cut by over four hours.

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

Correct Answer: Ronda, Spain
Winner: gsch

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

I’m staying at the InterContinental Frankfurt at the moment for two nights. Originally I booked both nights as a revenue stay, but ultimately decided to switch to a “Sweet Dilemma” night for the first night. “Sweet Dilemma” was Priority Club’s “stay two get one free” promotion in the fourth quarter, whereby you could make two stays at a Priority Club property, and then receive one free night to redeem at a later date at any Priority Club property outside of Asia Pacific. While there are more high end properties than the InterContinental Frankfurt, I found it to be a good use for a free night since they’re generous in honoring all Royal Ambassador status benefits on award stays (something they don’t have to do, per the terms and conditions). So I booked the highest room category available using my “Sweet Dilemma” night, and then booked a basic room for the second night (revenue stay). It’s worth noting that usually only basic rooms are bookable on award nights.

I noticed online that my reservation showed as being upgraded to a panoramic suite for the first night. When I checked in, I mentioned that I had two reservations, and that one was an award stay and one a revenue stay. After the agent talked to her colleagues for a few moments, she said that for the first night, I was upgraded to a panoramic suite, and for the second night I was upgraded to a deluxe studio (basically a large standard room). I was a bit confused, though it seemed that my first night booked into a higher category, despite being an award night. Bizarre.

She gave me the option of either paying 50 Euro for the second night to upgrade to the panoramic suite, or switching rooms after the first night. I instead asked to have the more basic, deluxe studio room, for both nights.

This was just a first for me in that I was asked to downgrade on a revenue night. I’ve been asked to downgrade on an award night (which, on an unrelated note, I consider to be tacky), but never a revenue night.

The other funny thing about the InterContinental Frankfurt is that they give Royal Ambassadors club lounge access, though only upon request, in a pretty twisted way. I forgot to ask at check-in, so showed up at the front desk a bit later to ask if it might be possible to get club access. The agent called the guest relations manager, and then our conversation went something like this:
Me: “I just wanted to confirm that I have club access on this reservation as a Royal Ambassador, as I’ve had in the past at this hotel.”
GRM: “Club access is not a Royal Ambassador benefit, you have received a two category upgrade.”
Me: “True, though I’ve always gotten club access at this hotel as a Royal Ambassador. Also, I don’t remember the last time I’ve stayed at any InterContinental where I didn’t get at least a suite OR club access, and sometimes even both, and I definitely only got a large executive room on this stay… though it is technically a two category upgrade.”
GRM: “While club access is not a Royal Ambassador benefit, we are happy to grant it to you because of your loyalty.”

…okay?

Anyway, a perfectly nice stay as always. The InterContinental Frankfurt isn’t the most modern hotel in the world, but it’s reasonably priced, well maintained, and is a great value.

For the third year in a row, Marriott has announced that they will once again offer Elite Rollover Nights. Through Elite Rollover Nights, all nights earned beyond the status level qualified for will count towards next year’s elite status. It’s certainly a nice reward which doesn’t dilute status, since Marriott has by far the highest number of nights required for their middle and top tier status levels, and they don’t let you qualify based on stays. Sadly I don’t expect we’ll see any of the other major chains match, as status is much easier to earn with them. For example, Platinum (top tier) status with Marriott takes 75 nights, while Diamond (top tier) status with Hyatt takes only 25 stays or 50 nights.

(Tip of the hat to Loyalty Traveler)