Chasing the A380: Lufthansa Business Class Zurich to Frankfurt

Introduction
Swiss First Class Lounge Chicago
Swiss First Class Chicago to Zurich
Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich
Lufthansa Business Class Zurich to Frankfurt
InterContinental Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt
Lufthansa A380 First Class Frankfurt to Tokyo
Park Hyatt Tokyo
ANA First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita, Lufthansa A380 First Class Tokyo to Frankfurt
Westin Grand Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt, Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Orlando

We lucked out given that our departure gate, A62, was located adjacent to the lounge. Boarding was announced within a few minutes of arriving at the gate. While there was a mad rush for the jet bridge, there was a priority boarding lane which made the process painless.

Gate A62

Our plane

Lufthansa 1191
Zurich (ZRH) – Frankfurt (FRA)
Tuesday, December 27
Depart: 1:45PM
Arrive: 2:50PM
Duration: 1hr5min
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 2D (Business Class)

Once aboard I was surprised to see that the business class cabin was only a total of three rows. For those of you not familiar with intra-Europe business class, it’s basically coach with a blocked middle seat and better service. The benefit for the airline is that they can adjust the size of the business class cabin after every flight based on demand. It’s efficient, though rather uncomfortable. For many flights between the hubs (Zurich/Frankfurt/Munich) I’ve seen business class go as far back as the exit row, so this was by far the smallest cabin I’ve seen in a while. I guess it’s because we were traveling right after Christmas.

I settled into 2D, and within moments was offered newspapers and magazines by the cheery flight attendant. I talked to her for about a minute (in German), at which point she started talking to my friend. He doesn’t speak a word of German, so stared at her blankly, and said “I don’t speak German.” Her response was priceless. Literally instantly, without so much as a pause to formulate a witty comeback, she said “well why not?” It’ll never sound as funny as it actually was, though I nearly had tears in my eyes based on her presentation.

Business class cabin

Despite our delayed inbound aircraft, boarding was fairly efficient, decreasing our delay to about 10 minutes. As the cabin door closed the captain came on the PA to welcome everyone aboard, advising us of our flight time of 45 minutes, putting us back on schedule.

Our taxi was quick and once we broke through the clouds it was a fairly nice afternoon.

Climb out

As soon as we leveled off the snack was served, consisting of a prawn, some sort of curry dish, roll, and an apple pastry. It was tasty compared to my recent intra-Europe flights on Lufthansa. That was quickly followed by the beverage cart.

Snack

The highlight was the chocolate served afterwards, though I pocketed it for enjoyment at a later time.

Milka chocolate

About 20 minutes before landing the seatbelt sign was turned on, and after a smooth descent and a 10 minute taxi to the gate, we pulled up to our stand just a few minutes behind schedule.

Approach

Unfortunately it was our unlucky day, since we were assigned a remote stand. The flight was empty, given that everyone fit on a single bus.

Plane from bus

After what must have been a five mile bus ride with a wannabe Formula 1 driver, we arrived at the terminal. From there it was a 10 minute walk to the train station, where we boarded a train for downtown.

Posted on January 21st, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, Lufthansa, Travel, Trip Reports | 8 Comments »

Chasing the A380: Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich

Upon arrival we headed down the long corridor to the transfer area, where we had to switch terminals by train. The trains at Zurich Airport are pretty awesome, since they make cow noises and have animated scenes of the alps. You can always tell who’s an American in the airport train, since they’re usually giggling uncontrollably (that includes me)!

Upon arrival

The Zurich terminal is beautiful and airy (everything I’m not), though we headed straight for the first class lounge.

Terminal

First Class Lounge entrance

We were welcomed at the entrance of the lounge and tried to find two seats together. The first class lounge isn’t especially large, though very nicely appointed. It has a main seating area overlooking the tarmac, a restaurant area, several sleeping rooms, and showers. In a way it’s very similar to the Lufthansa first class lounges, though I’d say just a notch below in terms of service and the food/drink offerings.

At the time we arrived the lounge was packed, as several flights were leaving to the Middle East, India, and the US. The pictures below were snapped at the end of our layover, when we had the lounge to ourselves.

Lounge

After briefly checking my email I requested a shower room. The showers feature Bulgari amenities, which happen to be my favorite.

Shower room

Bulgari amenities

After a shower I snagged one of the nap rooms for a bit of shut eye. The lounge attendant asked what time I wanted to be woken up, and I requested 1PM, which was 45 minutes before our departure.

Swiss nap rooms are a lot better than Lufthansa’s, since they’re actually beds, unlike Lufthansa’s day beds. They also have pretty cool lighting.

Day room

Sure enough, with Swiss precision there was an angry sounding Swiss lady outside my door at 1PM sharp — “VAKE UP ITS VUN PEE EMM YOU VILL FLY SOON.”

After waking up and getting ready to leave the lounge we were informed that our flight to Frankfurt was actually delayed by about 20 minutes due to fog.

Knowing how crappy Lufthansa’s intra-Europe catering is, I had a look at the buffet.

Buffet

Who cares about the rest, I see Fanta!

Salad bar

I settled for a bit of salad and lasagna, accompanied by an almighty Fanta.

Lunch

At around 1:30PM we left the lounge and headed for our departure gate, which was a 30 second walk away.

Posted on January 20th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, Swiss, Travel, Trip Reports | 14 Comments »

How to redeem British Airways Avios points (reader question)

Reader Yuliya asked the following question on the “Ask Lucky” page of the blog, and I figured I’d answer it here since I assume at least some others can benefit from the answer:

Hi Lucky,

I am very happy to learn about your blog I am new to the mileage concept.

I have about 105,000 avios points (mostly came with the credit card promotion). I would like to use them for Europe so I tried using ba website but it seems that taxes/surcharges are higher than the actual ticket.

Thank you so much for your help.
Yuliya

There’s no doubt British Airways miles have been devalued massively since the program’s rebranding a couple of months ago. Nonetheless if you do still have a balance of Avios points, like Yuliya, there are some things to keep in mind.

First, it seems like Yuliya is trying to use points for economy, given that the taxes and fuel surcharges are about as much as the actual ticket. And unfortunately Yuliya is correct, since fuel surcharges make up the majority of a fare between the US and Europe nowadays.

In the past British Airways would only impose fuel surcharges for award redemptions on their own flights, and not their partner airlines’ flights. But in the meantime they also impose fuel surcharges for award redemptions on their partners for transatlantic flights. For example, a coach award between Miami and London on American will run you over $600, in addition to the miles:

So obviously that’s not a very good use of miles. Along the same lines, British Airways imposes fuel surcharges for redemptions on all of their partner airlines in the meantime, with the exception of LAN (on all routes) and American (though they do impose fuel surcharges for travel to Europe and Asia).

This raises the question, how do you get more value out of Avios points?

Use miles for first or business class

$600 is a lot to pay for a coach award, but if you can pay a similar amount in taxes and fuel surcharges for business class to Europe, it becomes a comparatively better value. Nonetheless if flying to London in first or business class the taxes will be a good bit higher, given that the UK charges a high air passenger duty for premium cabin passengers. Still, I’d rather pay $800 for a business class ticket than $600 for a coach ticket, given that a business class revenue ticket could be over five times as much as a coach ticket when paying cash.

But not everyone values first and business class travel, and would rather stick with visiting as many different places as possible, even if it’s in coach.

Use miles to travel to South America

British Airways doesn’t impose fuel surcharges for award travel on American or LAN to South America, so you could save a ton of cash by instead using your Avios points to travel to South America. For example, New York to Buenos Aires roundtrip will only run you about $100 in taxes.

Travel to Hawaii

In many instances, Avios points actually leave you best positioned for award redemptions to Hawaii. Since their award chart is distance based, British Airways only charges you 25,000 miles plus about $20 in taxes for a roundtrip ticket between Los Angeles and Honolulu. That’s the lowest redemption rate among any airline.

Use miles for a last minute award/short distances

It’s no secret that the biggest benefit of the new Avios program for shorthaul flyers is that the award chart is distance based, which makes some routes a real bargain. But another thing to keep in mind is that many airlines charge close-in ticketing fees of up to $75, so you can save quite a bit bit by booking through British Airways, since they don’t have close-in ticketing fees. Los Angeles to San Francisco roundtrip is only 9,000 miles plus $5 in taxes/fees. When booking last minute, that’s a real bargain.

Anyway, nothing earth shattering here, but those are just a few alternatives to using Avios points to travel to Europe, and there are tons more.

Posted on January 20th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Advice, Awards, British Airways | 26 Comments »

Chasing the A380: Swiss First Class Chicago to Zurich

We made it to our departure gate at around 6:45PM, 25 minutes before departure, where boarding was well under way. We headed straight for the priority boarding lane, where our passports were checked and we were wished a pleasant flight.

Departure gate

Swiss 9
Chicago (ORD) – Zurich (ZRH)
Monday, December 26
Depart: 7:10PM
Arrive: 10:55AM (+1 day)
Duration: 8hr45min
Aircraft: Airbus A330-300
Seat: 1D (First Class)

At the door we were greeted by the purser, who directed us to our seats in row one. There was only one other passenger in the cabin today, so it was a light load. Last time I flew this route I had the cabin to myself, so while it wasn’t quite as empty, I’m not complaining!

First class cabin

Within moments of settling in we were greeted by our two flight attendants. The one working the galley was super-friendly, while the one working the aisle was a bit less enthused to be there.

We were offered an amenity kit along with some Christmas cookies, and also asked what size pajamas we wanted. Swiss has my favorite airline pajamas. I find it funny that they very clearly state “SWISS FIRST” where a logo would normally appear on a polo, just to make sure everyone’s aware of where you’re seated.

Amenity kit and cookies

Pajamas

This was quickly followed by a glass of champagne and small starter, consisting of some sort of crab dish, which was delicious.

Pre-departure service

Swiss has one of the classiest first class cabins, in my opinion. I especially love the world map on the wall at the back of the cabin.

First class cabin

Our seats

After the drinks and snack were cleared, we were offered hot towels.

Hot towel

As departure time approached the captain came on the PA to welcome us aboard and advise us of our flight time of eight hours, anticipating an on time arrival in Zurich.

The flight attendant working the aisle took our dinner orders before takeoff. I ordered the fillet of beef, while my friend ordered the sea bass.

She then asked which appetizers we wanted. My friend had never flown Swiss before, and I wanted to make sure he had the full experience. Last time I flew Swiss the appetizers were brought around on a cart and I could pick and choose what I wanted, and it was plated at my seat. I asked the flight attendant if we could see the appetizers on a cart, and she somewhat begrudgingly agreed, stating she doesn’t usually do it on overnight flights, but since the load was so light it wouldn’t be an issue.

After a rather long taxi to the runway we were number one for takeoff, and moments later airborne. About 15 minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off and flight attendants sprung into action, starting immediately with the meal service.

This started with the purser coming around to welcome us aboard. She was charming, engaging, and had a great sense of humor, and joked that we could practice our “proper” German together in the galley later on if I couldn’t sleep.

The dinner menu read as follows:

And for those of you that are interested, the wine list read as follows:

There are no two ways about it — Swiss has the best in-flight food of any airline I’ve flown. Asiana is perhaps a very close second, but Swiss still has the edge. To say their meals are spectacular would be an insult. And keep in mind that this flight is catered at an outstation — their food is even better departing Switzerland.

Service started with a glass of champagne and peanuts, follows quickly by the flight attendant setting our tables. Swiss has massive tray tables in first class, which can comfortably accommodate meals for two passengers. Swiss also has full sized salt and pepper mills they place on each table, which I love.

Champagne with nuts

Table setup

Since we had asked for the appetizers to be put on a cart it took a bit longer than usual for them to be brought out. Just about everything looked good, and since there was a ton of food, I requested a little bit of everything. The flight attendant happily obliged, and her attention to detail with plating was phenomenal.

Salmon and king crab legs

Air-dried meats and artichoke hearts

Once those plates were cleared the salad was served, which was equally delicious.

Salad

The fillet of beef was served next, accompanied by a baked potato, butternut squash, and roasted parsnip. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve had a baked potato in-flight, and it was excellent.

Fillet of beef

My friend ordered the sea bass, which he enjoyed.

Sea bass

For dessert the flight attendant brought around a cheese cart, and I once again ordered a little bit of everything, though was stuffed at this point so barely even nibbled.

Selection of cheeses

For dessert I had the ice cream with mixed berry compote, which was simple and delicious.

Vanilla ice cream with mixed berry compote

Given that I was flying Swiss, I had to order an espresso after dessert, which was served with a praline.

Espresso

The whole meal service took a bit over two hours, and at this point we had about 5.5 hours till landing in Zurich. We both requested that our beds be turned down, which was taken care of promptly.

Turndown service

Swiss has excellent bedding, and I got a solid three hours of sleep (about as much as I’ll ever get on a transatlantic flight).

When I woke up the flight attendant quickly appeared to offer me something to drink. I ordered a glass of apple juice, and moved over to seat 1A to enjoy the sunrise.

Apple juice

Sunrise

I watched a couple of sitcoms on the entertainment system, and about 1.5 hours out of Zurich breakfast service started with a berry smoothie.

The menu read as follows:

Berry smoothie

The flight attendant first set my table, including the bread basket, and then came around with a cart consisting of several cold options. I ordered some berry yogurt and fruit, and had a mimosa to drink.

Breakfast

Bread basket

For the main course I ordered an omelet, which was delicious. They even had Tabasco sauce in a full size bottle!

Breakfast

To finish off the meal I ordered another espresso, which the flight attendant served (unsolicited) with a cinnamon roll, the same ones Continental has.

Espresso and cinnamon roll

At this point the cabin was bright so I snapped another quick picture before landing.

First class cabin

As we began our descent I changed out of my pajamas and stored my carry-ons.

It’s no surprise that the views on approach were spectacular, as they always are in Switzerland.

View on approach

As we continued our descent the visibility was very limited, and we didn’t break out of the clouds until about 500 feet above the ground. After a smooth landing and quick taxi we parked at our gate next to a United and Thai plane.

Foggy weather on final approach

Turning off runway

Plane being deiced

Reaching our gate

As usual, my Swiss experience was spectacular. The food is always the highlight with Swiss. I have to be honest and say that the service wasn’t great. It was acceptable and by most airlines’ standards on par, but by Swiss standard sub-par. The flight attendant was perfectly happy to fulfill any request we had, though at the same time didn’t go above and beyond in any way.

Nonetheless, Swiss remains one of my favorite airlines, if not my favorite.

Posted on January 19th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, Swiss, Travel, Trip Reports | 18 Comments »

Chasing the A380: Swiss First Class Lounge Chicago

I got to Terminal 5 about 75 minutes before departure, only to find Swiss check-in completely deserted. I briefly had one of those “oops” moments where I questioned whether I didn’t convert the time properly, showed up on the wrong day, or something else.

I weaseled my way up to the check-in counter, where the agent had my boarding pass waiting for me and said “you’re the last passenger to check-in.” I was surprised so asked if I had missed the cut off, to which she responded “you’re in first class. What cut off?” Love it!

Check-in counter

I headed straight to security, where the regular queue was a mile long, though fortunately the premium security line was a more reasonable 15 minute wait. I was in line behind the rather spunky Aer Lingus crew, and I have to say, I kind of want to fly them now.

Security line

I was chosen for the full body scanner, and as usual requested a private pat down instead. When you get a private pat down the TSA agents carry your belongings to the screening room for you, and one of the agents tried to place my bag on top of my laptop. I asked him nicely not to do that and explained it could damage and scratch my laptop to which he responded “really, your laptop is going to be damaged?” At this point the other TSA agent snickered at him to be quiet, and I asked “am I being unreasonable to not want my laptop to be scratched?” The other guy quickly jumped in and said “of course not.” At least one person was reasonable…

After a most pleasant three minute massage (the only thing missing was spa music and a relaxation fountain) I was on my way. The Swiss lounge is located just past security. At the entrance I was pointed left to the first class section, where I met my friend since he had a different inbound flight.

It’s worth noting that I took the same exact flight on Swiss back in 2009, and you can read that review here. Last time the lounge was pretty awful, featuring nothing more than rabbit food (not that you really need a meal before boarding an international first class flight, but it’s still nice to be given the option if you want to sleep aboard).

This time they had changed the setup of the lounge. Not only was it remodeled, but they changed the layout as well. Instead of just having a few seats, they added some dining tables to the lounge, and substantially improved the food selection.

First Class Lounge

Dining table

The lounge now also featured a real buffet, including salad, appetizers, and even a menu with a handful of options.

Buffet

Drink selection

Snack selection

Wine selection

The menu read as follows:

Obviously the menu isn’t worth ruining my appetite over prior to an international first class meal on one of my favorite airlines, though the waiter convinced me to go with some shrimp, and in preparation for heading to Germany I figured I had to have a pretzel roll.

Pre-flight snack

Given how late I got to the lounge we had only about 20 minutes before boarding was announced.

On the whole I was impressed at the improvements they’ve made at this lounge since the last visit. Kudos!

But the real highlight would be awaiting us aboard the flight to Zurich.

Posted on January 15th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, Swiss, Travel, Trip Reports | 20 Comments »

What does it take to convince a US Airways agent that you can go back in time?

As many of you know I book award tickets for a living, and occasionally I share my more entertaining interactions here. 99% of my bookings are boring, while 1% of the time I run into an agent that just doesn’t get it… and it kind of brings to a smile to my face. They usually have one common theme — they involve either Delta SkyMiles or US Airways Dividend Miles agents.

I called US Airways earlier in the day to make a booking for a client. I should have known immediately that the agent was pretty clueless, but then again that’s the case with a majority of US Airways agents. Usually I can spoon feed them enough so that even if they are clueless they can still get a ticket on hold fairly quickly.

Agent: “Sir, where are you traveling to?”
Me: “Seoul Incheon.”
Agent: “That’s NHN, right?”
Me: “It’s actually ICN.”
Agent: “ICM?”
Me: “No, India, Charlie, November.”

When an agent doesn’t know a basic Star Alliance hub airport code, I try to make their lives easy and give the information to them in a language they’ll understand.

Agent: “So which flight are we looking at?”
Me: “It would be OZ flight 202 in “I” class from LAX to ICN” (for those of you that don’t know “I” class is business class award space)
Agent: “You flying Austrian Airlines from Los Angeles to ICN?”
Me: “No, Asiana Airlines.”
Agent: “Asian Airlines? I don’t think that’s an airline.”

Fair enough, after putting me on hold briefly she confirmed that they are in fact part of Star Alliance.

That should have been my sign. But I’m a bit of a masochist, so I played along.

Then we get to the return, which involved the ANA flight from Tokyo Haneda to Los Angeles. What’s “tricky” (if you can even call it that) about the flight is that it leaves at 12:05AM (on the 2nd of the month) and arrives at 5:55PM the previous day (on the 1st of the month).

So in this case we were booking Tokyo Haneda to Los Angeles to San Francisco. The agent is totally fine, until I mention the connection from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Agent: “Okay, so you’re flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco on the night of the 2nd.”
Me: “No, the flight would actually be the evening of the 1st, since I just want to connect off the Tokyo Haneda flight.”
Agent: “Sir, that can’t be, the flight leaves Tokyo on the 2nd, you can’t go back in time.”
Me: “The flight actually lands in Los Angeles the previous day. It leaves just a few minutes after midnight, and because it crosses the international date line, lands the day before.”

She paused for a moment — I assume she had never heard of the international date line or time zones before.

Then she said: “Sir, you don’t understand what I’m saying. There’s no such thing as time travel. Let me talk to my supervisor and double check.”

So the agent puts me on hold. I spend 30 minutes listening to the classy US Airways advertisements about how I can have a luxurious vacation at a US Airways partner hotel with liquor dispensers and minibars that are refilled daily (the true sign of luxury, my friends!), until I decide to hang up. Nothing ticks me off more than being placed on hold and not having the agent check in with me at least once every five minutes to say they’re still working on the reservation and didn’t take a bathroom or Angry Birds break. I mean, what the heck was she even “working on?”

So I hang up and figure I’ll get a more competent agent. Nope, guess who answers…

“Sir, you’re the one that thinks you can travel back in time, I just spoke to you and your reservation is still on my screen.”

Crud. Of all the US Airways Salem based reservations agents, what are the chances I’d get this one twice?

She continued: “I had a supervisor confirm that the flight lands on the 2nd and we’ve notated the record to reflect that.”

It took a third call before I found an agent willing to permit time travel.

It is Friday the 13th…

Posted on January 13th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, US Airways | 42 Comments »

Chasing the A380: Introduction

Back in May I had the opportunity to fly first class on the Qantas Airbus 380 (see this trip report), and ever since I’ve been obsessed. I remember first seeing pictures of the Airbus 380 when it was in production and thinking “okay, what’s the big deal?” It wasn’t until after I flew it that I realized just how passenger-friendly the plane is. Not only is it spacious and does it usually have cutting edge first class products, but what really sets it apart for me is how quiet the plane is and the awesome tail camera, which takes the flying experience to a whole new level.

The thing is, I’m not just obsessed with first class, miles, and travel, but my first passion was actually aviation and planes. I started working on my private pilot’s license at the age of 14, and my love for planes hasn’t died off one bit since.

So I’ve made it a personal mission to ~~stalk~~ fly the Airbus 380 every opportunity I get, at least in a premium cabin. Hell, if there were an Airbus 380 with first class award availability flying to Topeka with a forced six day layover I’d take it in a heartbeat.

Which brings me to this trip. With the exception of Qantas, no airline consistently releases first class award space on the Airbus 380 to partner loyalty programs. That doesn’t stop me from looking ~~hourly~~ every now and then to see if there’s a mistake or change in policy. During one of my late night sessions with the ANA tool and Continental award search tool, I happened to stumble upon some Lufthansa Airbus 380 first class award space between Frankfurt and Tokyo. It was a complete coincidence, though woke me up pretty quickly. I was actually shocked to see that most dates in late December and early January had multiple first class award seats on the Airbus 380.

I assumed it was a glitch, so opened a different browser to verify availability with ANA, Aeroplan, and Continental. Yep, the space was actually there.

Now, admittedly there’s probably a reason there was first class award space to Tokyo right after Christmas — Tokyo isn’t exactly the warmest place that time of year. But still, this trip was about the Airbus 380, and even if it would be cold in Tokyo, I’d deal with it and still enjoy the city.

After playing around with availability I found a flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo with first class award space, and then two days after arriving a flight from Tokyo to Frankfurt with first class award space. Since there were two seats, I convinced a friend to come along.

I should mention that this all occurred just three days before departure, so there wasn’t all that much time to plan. Now the challenge became finding award space between the US and Germany. Since I was only planning a few days in advance I was confident the space would open up, as Lufthansa is great about opening up unsold first class seats to awards last minute. So for the time being I just held the flights between Frankfurt and Tokyo using US Airways miles. They allow a three day courtesy hold, so I left the reservation like that until Christmas Day, the day before I knew we’d have to depart.

And sure enough, award space did open up that day between the US and Europe. For the outbound, Swiss had space between Chicago and Zurich in first class (their new product no less!), while Lufthansa opened up award space from Frankfurt to Orlando for the return. I really lucked out with that, since US Airways doesn’t allow any changes after the original departure flight, and that return award space opened up literally the night before I was leaving. The stars had aligned and it was meant to be… or something like that.

In the end my itinerary looked as follows:

12/26 Swiss 9 Chicago to Zurich departing at 7:10PM and arriving at 10:55AM (+1 day)
12/27 Lufthansa 1191 Zurich to Frankfurt departing at 1:45PM and arriving at 2:50PM
12/28 Lufthansa 710 Frankfurt to Tokyo departing at 1:25PM and arriving at 8:35AM (+1 day)
12/31 Lufthansa 711 Tokyo to Frankfurt departing at 10:25AM and arriving at 2:15PM
01/01 Lufthansa 464 Frankfurt to Orlando departing at 1:35PM and arriving at 5:55PM

Given that we were looking at travel the day after Christmas, it’s no surprise that there was no award space to Chicago. However, as some of you may remember, I was 13 miles short of requalifying for Executive Platinum with American, so this worked out perfectly. While American charged $200 for the one-way ticket from Tampa to Chicago, it was well worth it to lock in Executive Platinum status for the following year.

My favorite thing about the whole trip was the cost. I used just 120,000 US Airways miles, which I had purchased through one of their mileage purchase promotions for under $1,800. Taxes and fees were roughly $200, so I paid about $2,000 for four longhaul international first class segments on some of my favorite airlines, including two on the Airbus 380. I always live in fear of US Airways devaluing their award chart, so this was a nice way to burn some miles guilt free.

As far as hotels go, in Tokyo I redeemed 22,000 Gold Passport points per night for the Park Hyatt Tokyo — an absolute no brainer, given the number of good things I’ve heard about this place (and it didn’t disappoint). We also had two overnights in Frankfurt, one in each direction. I decided to book the InterContinental for our outbound stay at a rate of 107 Euros, and the Westin Grand Frankfurt on the return at a rate of 129 Euros.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy, and see you in Chicago tomorrow.

Posted on January 13th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, Hotels, Hyatt, Lufthansa, Priority Club, Travel, US Airways | 30 Comments »

My planned travel for 2012 so far…

I’m not usually one for planning travel too far in advance, and typically I have at most one international trip planned in advance at a time, since I tend to be a pretty last minute traveler. Much like any addict, I spend my free time looking for my next “high” in the form of some awesome award redemption, though it hasn’t occurred to me until now just how much travel I have planned for this year, including:

January: A trip to Shanghai on American upgraded to business class, primarily thanks to the double elite qualifying miles promotion.
February: A few days in Barcelona on American upgraded to business class on a pimped out routing, which is a mileage run/mini-vacation.
February: Another trip to Spain, though this time Ibiza, once again on American upgraded to business class, with a short hop on Iberia from Madrid to Ibiza. Once again, it’s a mileage run/mini-vacation
March: My last Aeroplan first class award masterpiece for 120,000 miles to Bangkok and Hong Kong via Europe. This one is going to be bittersweet for me, not just because Aeroplan has massively raised the number of miles required for this award and added fuel surcharges, but also because Lufthansa has more or less stopped releasing first class award space in advance. RIP.
April: A trip to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, Thailand. The outbound is in Lufthansa first class through Frankfurt (including on the Airbus 380), while the return is in business class on the JAL 787 to Boston.
May: A trip to Nagoya/Kyoto in American first class thanks to a cheap business class fare that I upgraded to first class.
September: LAN business class award using British Airways miles before the devaluation to Lima, Santiago, and Buenos Aires.

And unfortunately (fortunately?) I have a few other trips in the pipeline too. Seriously, this is an addiction, and a bad one at that.

Other redemptions I’m eying (though trying to avoid pulling the trigger on) include:

A trip to Australia/New Zealand in November, December, or January, with my dad, if I can find the A380 award space. I love New Zealand, so would love to return, especially to Queenstown. He’s never been to Australia or New Zealand, and I’d like to take him the only good way to get there.
A Cathay Pacific one-way award to Colombo, with a fun return.
A trip to Hong Kong/Bali on Cathay Pacific in first class with my mom, as she has never been to Asia.

On a mildly unrelated note, who’s up for a mileage run/weekend somewhere sometime? I don’t have the energy to host full fledged FlyerTalk/Milepoints “Dos” anymore (I’m getting old!), but if all three of my readers can make it to the same city the same weekend, it could actually be kinda fun. Maybe London, Munich, Berchtesgaden, San Francisco, or Hong Kong?

Posted on January 10th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, Travel | 69 Comments »

Etihad Airways to the UAE: Conclusion

Introduction
Etihad Check-in & The Lounge JFK
Etihad Airways First Class New York to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Dubai
Exploring Dubai
Afternoon Tea at the Burj Al Arab
InterContinental Abu Dhabi
Touring the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Check-in & First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Abu Dhabi to New York
Conclusion

This was another eye opening trip on many levels.

On the airline front this was a trip I was really excited about, since I had heard so many great things about Etihad Airways. While the seat and entertainment were phenomenal, I didn’t think the service or food was as good as that of many Asian/European airlines. Having now tried Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, I have to say that Middle Eastern airlines are a bit overrated, in my opinion. I’d still like to try Emirates and Gulf Air, though, to see if either of them are a bit more consistent on the service front.

As far as destinations go, the UAE was fascinating. It’s certainly not at the top of my list if I’m looking to explore history and culture, though it’s an exciting place nonetheless. Most surprising to me was that I actually found Abu Dhabi to be at least as exciting as Dubai. It’s a city that’s growing quickly, and has much more to offer than Dubai, in my opinion. I also had no clue that Abu Dhabi is actually a beach destination, especially Saadiyat Island, where the Park Hyatt is located. There are literally about a dozen resorts under construction on Saadiyat Island, and I’m certain it’ll be come a world class beach destination when construction is complete.

At the same time, the UAE is a bit like Disney World, in that there’s not a whole lot of substance to it. So while I’m sure it’s a destination I’ll return to, I’m not rushing to book my ticket.

Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned — next up is my quick trip to Tokyo on the Lufthansa Airbus 380..

Posted on January 6th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Awards, Hotels, Hyatt, Priority Club, Travel, Trip Reports | 5 Comments »