Posted by Seth on March 20, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Mileage Run, Review, Trip Reports | 
Yeah, I wish that all my flights were in the pointy end of the plane, but that just isn’t feasible on my budget. And so, once again, I headed off across the Atlantic Ocean in coach, hoping that I wouldn’t be too annoyed. This time it was Air Canada, from Brussels to Montreal. I’ve flown Air Canada a few times long-haul recently and been rather pleased with the experience so this was mostly a case of hoping they lived up to their previous performances. They did.
The Seat
I never did manage to request a seat in advance for this flight thanks to it being ticketed as a code-share and the phone agents not feeling particularly creative. Still, when I went to check in I found myself assigned seat 18H, a non-reclining exit row aisle seat. Yeah, I prefer the window, but I’ll take the exit row without any complaints. The pitch is tremendous and the center seat area there is actually the galley so fewer people (though the galley part can be disruptive on a night flight).
Upon boarding I started chatting with a few other folks who were also on the same mileage run I was on and one was actually assigned the exit window that did recline and he was looking to swap to my side of the plane to be near his family. No problem at all. Without too much fuss I was in one of the best coach seats available.
One interesting thing about the over-wing exit seats for Air Canada’s 767-300s is that they don’t have an armrest on the exit side. That was definitely a bit strange, though it ends up making the seat feel wider than it actually is, which is mostly a good thing.
The seat cushion didn’t feel quite as soft as I remember of those from the non-exit seats, but it wasn’t particularly bad. I did find that the exit row was VERY cold, even with my thick travel socks on. I actually ended up wedging a blanket between my shoulder and the wall to insulate myself from the chill.
Food & Beverage
The flight, scheduled for 7:30 in the air, included three distinct meal/beverage services. The first was a lunch, served hot, where I chose the chicken over the pasta option. The ginger chicken was pretty good, most notably for actually having the taste and texture of chicken, more than I can say for the last time I ordered chicken in coach (Thanks, United Airlines!). It wasn’t anything special, but it was actually what I was expecting, so that was nice.
As an added bonus, drinks are free, even in coach. That’s not to say the wine I had with lunch was any good, just that it was free. My seatmate and I shared a laugh over that fact (he agreed that free was the only redeeming quality of the wine). Also, the flight attendants were offering up the whole can of soda when ordered; I generally have no trouble requesting such if I want it but it was nice to see them being proactive on that front. Also, the meal tray comes with a small bottle of water, in addition to the drink cart, so hydration is not a problem at all.
The second service was beverages plus a snack which was actually just a bag of pretzels. Not particularly filling, but they are pretty good pretzels, with a buttery flavor to them that I quite enjoy.
The third service was a hot snack, presented as the option between a beef or tomato wrap. I went with beef and was presented a box that mostly elicited memories of McDonald’s Apple Pies from many years ago.
It was most certainly hot, and it seemed to have flavors of all the things on the ingredients list at one point or another – mostly beef and veggies – but it was also somewhat difficult to eat without making a complete mess. The filling of the wrap was incredibly hot and reasonably gooey (the corn flour, I’m betting), and biting in on one side meant it would ooze from the other. Not the worst thing I’ve ever had on a plane, but a bit of a let down after the first meal. Then again, I’m not Canadian so maybe I’m missing something there.
In-flight Entertainment
When it comes to IFE systems, the options for coach customers are getting better and better. And Air Canada has one of the better products I’ve seen in that regard. It offers large screens, a good selection of movie, TV and audio titles and one of my favorite moving map interfaces. If none of that suits your fancy there is also USB power at every seat and 110V power in every row, one outlet per 2 seat group and 2 outlets per 3 seat group. The touch-screen interface can be a bit pokey at times in terms of performance and the commercials before the shows are annoying, but both of those are outweighed but the quality of the rest of the product.
Lounge/Ground Services
I had done online check-in the night before but didn’t have a printer so no boarding pass. I decided to get one from an agent rather than the kiosk so I could take care of the passport check formalities as well. Plus I figured with the elite line it should move pretty quickly. I should never underestimate the ability of the more frequent travelers to make for a slow experience. It didn’t help that the agents working that line were also handling calls from the transfers desk and a myriad of other tasks while also trying to check customers in, but it did seem that they were somewhat understaffed.
Air Canada makes use of the Brussels Airlines lounge in the Brussels airport. This makes sense as they are a Star Alliance partner so I cannot really hold that against the carrier. But the lounge is not particularly impressive. It is small for the number of flights and passengers heading to the USA every morning, meaning finding a seat can be a challenge. We managed to find a few in the business center which was empty thanks to the computers being out of service. The snack options in the lounge were OK, with pastries and cereals available, though the pastries weren’t particularly tasty. The croissants I had from the grocery store out in the terminal were much better, even if I did actually pay for them. On the plus side, there is self-serve booze, including Leffe beers. A Leffe Brune and pain au chocolate make for a pretty decent breakfast.
Much like my last experience in Air Canada’s long-haul coach cabin, this one was quite pleasant overall. I managed to sneak in a nap after the first meal and generally was ready to hit the ground running upon arrival in Montreal. At this point I’d say that the Air Canada option is the best coach cabin across between North America and Europe, certainly in Star Alliance and arguably against the others, too. I’m not as huge a fan of the AC business class service as some others are, but if you’re slumming it in coach, the connections via Canada are looking pretty nice these days.
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Tags: Air Canada, Belgium, Boeing, BRU2012, Brussels, Dining, Flying, IFE, in flight, Mileage Run, Photos, review, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on March 19, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Mileage Run, Review, Trip Reports |
I never actually bought the ticket from Newark to Brussels. I didn’t even buy a ticket from United Airlines. And yet, on a Friday afternoon, I found myself sitting in the lounge at Newark airport, watching basketball on TV and waiting for my flight to Belgium in the new business class seats that United has on their Boeing 777-200 airplanes.
I originally purchased a flight on Air Canada, connecting in Montreal. I was going to spend the day out sight-seeing prior to my onward journey across the Atlantic. That plan came screeching to a halt when I woke up to an email alert from AC that my flight was cancelled. Oh well. I made use of their excellent online rebooking engine and scheduled myself out of Newark instead. When I got to the airport the agents were chatting about the flights being overbooked and I offered up that I’d be happy to take the non-stop flight on United, if they wanted to free up a seat. Much to my surprise – and great pleasure – they agreed.
Once I had the ticket pushed over to United I was able to apply an upgrade voucher and so it was that I found myself in seat 10K, a rear-facing window, for the hop across the pond.
The Seat
This was my first experience in the new United configuration and my first time flying facing backwards since the party seats on Southwest 737s so it was a good opportunity to try something different. The flying backwards part didn’t bother me at all. I honestly don’t think I noticed, other than while trying to look out the window (not particularly easy from this seat as there is no window aligned with where you are when upright) and during takeoff/landing. From that perspective I’ve got no issues with the United product. There are a couple areas where I do, however.
The width of the seat is pretty tight. The 2-4-2 layout across in business class means that they necessarily have to make the seats narrower to fit that many in. I’d read the specs and understood that, by the measuring tape, they aren’t too cramped, but actually sitting in one it felt like I was. When upright I felt that I was pressed into the side wall of the airplane, with my shoulder resting against it. When in the sleep position the seat was slightly wider thanks to the armrest moving out of the way, but it wasn’t fantastic.
I was somewhat surprised to find that the foot well when fully reclined was a tight fit. It makes sense, I suppose, as when the seats meet each other in the adjacent rows the feet sections can be split between the two sides, reducing the pitch a few inches while still keeping the overall length high. But at the bulkheads, where there is no need to save those 6 inches, the foot wells are still half size, unlike other carriers with a similar product. Probably a few dollars saved on the engineering and manufacturing side there, but a definite loss on the comfort side.
Finally, there is virtually zero storage space available at the seat. The photo below shows my Kindle resting in basically the only place it could. And it was too big to fully fit there. I certainly wouldn’t leave it there longer than a few minutes here or there. Not so great for passengers.
Food & Beverage
Like most business class products, the meal was a multi-course affair. A number of carriers have been stepping things up on the meal service lately (I was quite pleasantly surprised with the Lufthansa meal EWR-FRA a few months ago) and the new United has the advantage of owning the their own catering company with operations in Newark so I was looking forward to trying the meal. The flight attendants took orders by asking for first and second choices, the legacy United approach where they reconcile things in the galley and prioritize by status. In this case it probably worked in my favor as I was one of the last to order, but I don’t know that anyone actually didn’t get their first choice; the cabin was only booked 33/40 so there was some wiggle room.
Like always, dinner started with a beverage and nuts in a warmed ramekin. I don’t get the obsession with this part of the service, other than that some people really love salt. Beyond that, it is really a strange thing to me, I picked out a few nuts and waited for the real meal to begin.
The first course was a salmon appetizer along with a salad. Both were fine, but nothing particularly special. I was definitely missing the Continental version of the appetizers with a few more choices and larger servings offered, especially on the salad.
For my main course I had the Beef Short Ribs. The flavor was actually quite nice, though the meet a tad over-cooked. More sauce would have been useful for helping out with the fact that the meat was a bit dry but no real complaints there. The portion size on the beef seemed quite reasonable as well. The bread basket options were basically white or wheat. No pretzel roll nor garlic bread on offer. Most unfortunate.
Finally, for dessert, the offering was a cheese cart and ice cream. This is a course that I look forward to on most flights. I was rather disappointed. One of the two cheese options (a Manchengo, if I had to guess, and I do because no one knew what they were) was OK. The second cheese was some sort of sun-dried tomato flavored goat cheese-ish spread that seemed more like an Alouette container in the store than good cheese. I like both, but one is for pre-dinner snacks and the other is for dessert with a drink before sleep. This was the wrong one. And the ice cream is just a scoop of ice cream, not a sundae. That was most disappointing. Oh, and seedless grapes, which I like for the convenience, but the flavor of which wasn’t as good. At least the flight attendant was able to find the after-dinner drink I ordered, after initially claiming they don’t stock Grand Marnier on the flights.
Also of note, my seatmate ordered the express meal service. I think he finished no more than 10 minutes earlier than I did. Not that his wasn’t fast but the regular meal service on this particular night was also quite quick, without feeling rushed. I was done well before we cleared Gander, meaning 4+ hours to sleep.
In-flight Entertainment
I was mostly sleeping during the flight so I didn’t play around with the IFE system too much, but I did like what I saw. The screens are large and the movie selection was reasonable. My seatmate watched The Adventures of Tin Tin which meant that I also watched it, though I did so without the audio track. I actually think I came out ahead in that regard, though the animation was pretty good. I’d place the IFE towards the top in terms of relative rankings, though that is also generally pretty low on my priority list. Give me a decent moving map and a plug for my laptop and I’ll stay entertained for hours.
Lounge/Ground Services
The lounge in Newark is nothing special. Never has been. I like the views, but otherwise just somewhere to sit before the flight. I actually got bored and left early to go walk the terminal before my flight. Not bad, just not particularly good. At least I had a couple packs of carrots to up my vitamin intake for the day.
One thing that I’ve always loved about flying Business Class on Continental was the arrivals service they offer. You get access to a shower or day room at most destinations if you’re flying up front. I inquired about this at the lounge (twice, because the first agent was a bit unconvincing) and was told, as usual, to ask at the gate and then again upon arrival in Brussels, but that the facility was the Sheraton hotel (they were reading this out of the DRS screen). I asked at the gate and the lead agent made a call to operations who confirmed that I should ask the arrivals agent and that the Sheraton was the facility. I asked upon landing and the agent confirmed that they had day rooms at the Sheraton and that I should go to the ticket counter to get a voucher.
Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the ticket counter (after a rather ridiculous immigration experience) and the woman informed me that she had never heard of such a thing and that there was no way it was accurate. Oy. After 10 minutes of calling around and checking on various things they confirmed that assessment, leaving me out in the cold, so to speak, without a shower. A rather unfortunate conclusion to the trip on two levels, both that I didn’t get the shower and that no one seems to know what’s going on. The good news is that I was in Belgium for the day and there was plenty of beer and fun to be had.
Overall, I rate the trip as a pretty mediocre business class experience. The flat seats are nice for being flat, but I would imagine that folks taller or wider than me would find them rather confining. And the meal was fine, but nothing special; with both the appetizers and the desserts I think they missed the mark.
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Tags: Air Canada, Belgium, Boeing, BRU2012, Brussels, Dining, Flying, IFE, in flight, Lounge, Lufthansa, Mileage Run, Newark, Photos, review, Trip Report, United, United Airlines, upgrade
Posted by Seth on March 13, 2012 under Flying, News |
Washington, DC‘s National Airport is one of the "lucky few" airports in the country where the government has limited destinations which can be served. The so-called "perimeter rule" keeps the long-haul flights out at Dulles for the most part, but there are a few exceptions to rule and those are coveted by the airlines. As part of the most recent FAA budget authorization bill Congress has added a few perimeter exceptions to the pool at DCA and now airlines are scrambling to grab those slots. The filing deadline was yesterday, and here’s what the proposals look like.
New Entrants
The slots are split into two pools, one for legacy carriers and one for new entrants. In the new entrants category six carriers – JetBlue, Virgin America, Southwest, Air Canada, Frontier and Alaska Airlines have applied.
Alaska Airlines is going big with their application, hoping to offer transcon service from both their Portland, OR hub as well as San Diego. Virgin America is also hoping for hub service from San Francisco. Southwest is aiming to provide service to Austin, TX, with onward connections to San Diego and JetBlue has applied to serve both Austin and San Juan. Air Canada is hoping for Vancouver service and Frontier is looking to serve Colorado Springs.
There is some interesting overlap with the routes being requested and it seems somewhat unlikely that the DoT is going to approve such applications so perhaps the final approval will look something like this:
Legacy Carriers
For the legacy carriers the access to beyond perimeter slots comes with a slightly higher price, as they have to give up service to a destination inside the perimeter to get the new service. On the plus side, the route authorities are more or less guaranteed given that condition so the DoT has less work to do there. Of the eligible carriers, Delta, United Airlines and American Airlines all made their intentions known a couple weeks ago, with service to their Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Los Angeles hubs, respectively. Apparently US Airways has decided to not apply for an additional beyond perimeter slot. They already have service to Phoenix and Las Vegas but it is still somewhat surprising that they haven’t tried for more.
The new routes should be interesting to watch, especially with the potential for competition on the LAX and SFO routes.
Tags: Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Congress, Delta, DoT, FAA, Frontier, JetBlue, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, Southwest Airline, United, United Airlines, Virgin America, Washington DC
Posted by Seth on February 26, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
With just a week to go before the new MileagePlus program launches for United Airlines and the OnePas program of merger partner Continental officially disappears, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the new program. Earning rates for flying on partner airlines is among the major points still unknown. In the past couple weeks a test website for the newly merged web presence of the company has been available (http://pss.united.com) and even more recently some details regarding earning rates for partners has shown up on that site. I am hesitant to consider this data completely authoritative for many reasons, among them that the carrier has explicitly stated that the site is not official, but there is enough information there that I figured giving it a first pass was worthwhile.
Each of the programs had about 500-600 rules for earning on Star Alliance partners; the new program is no different in that regard. Of those, somewhere between 20-40% seem to have at least one aspect of the earning rates changing as part of the new program. That’s a lot of new information to process.
In most cases the changes reflect the company choosing the rates from one of the two programs which is being retired; there are, however, a few instance where the numbers are completely new. And, since many people like to wonder if the program is trending more towards the legacy United or Continental way of business, my rough count suggest that in those cases where the two were different and one of the legacy rates was chosen, Continental "won" at a 2:1 clip.
So, what are the changes of note? Here are a few, broken down by partner:
Aegean
- Four economy fare buckets – P, T, U & V – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
- Two economy fare buckets – Y & B – will earn fewer EQMs per trip. The are now at 100%, the legacy United rate, versus the 150% rate that Continental offered.
- Four premium cabin fare buckets – A,C, D & Z – will now earn 125% EQMs per trip. This is a downgrade from the legacy Continental rate (150%) and an upgrade from the legacy United rate (100%).
Air China
- Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, F, J, Y & Z – will earn 100% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy United program. This is a downgrade from the OnePass program (150%).
Asiana
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
- Two discount economy fares – G & T – will see earnings at 70%. This is an increase from both the OnePass program (50%) and the Mileage Plus program (0%).
Austrian
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program (100%).
- Deep-discount economy fares – S & W – will earn only for flights within Europe, at the rate of 100%. This is a downgrade from the Mileage Plus program and an upgrade from the OnePass program.
bmi
- Two economy fare buckets – L & U – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
- Three full fare economy and premium cabin buckets – I, S & Y – will earn 100% award miles and 150% elite miles. This is in line with the legacy Continental rates and an upgrade from the legacy United rates (100%/100%).
- Six premium cabin buckets – A, C, D, J, P & Z – will earn 125% award miles and 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. The EQM earning rate is an upgrade from the 100% earnt in the legacy United program.
- All fares earn 500 mile minimums, matching the OnePass charts and an upgrade from the United charts.
Blue1
- Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, J, S, Y & Z – will earn 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. This is an upgrade from the legacy United program (100%).
- One discount economy fare bucket – O – will earn at 25% RDMs/EQMs. This matches the legacy OnePass rate and is an upgrade from the legacy United rate (0%/0%).
EgyptAir
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
- Seven deep-discount economy fare buckets – G, L, S, T, U, V & W – will earn no credit, matching the legacy United program; this is a downgrade from the 25-50% rates they earnt in the OnePass program.
- Two economy fares – Q & K – will earn at 100%, matching the legacy Mileage Plus program and upgrading from the 75% rate in the OnePass program.
Ethiopian
- Three premium cabin fares – C, D & J – are upgrading from 100% to 150% EQMs. This is an upgrade from both legacy programs (100%).
Lufthansa
- Most premium cabin fares see an upgrade to the award miles earning rates, in line with the previously discussed earning rates for United flights. These rates are much higher in most cases than the legacy United or Continental rates.
- For discounted economy fares – L & T – the rates will match those of the legacy United program, earning 100% on intercontinental flights and on intra-Europe flights which connect to intercontinental flights. The OnePass program offered 50% credit on all flights in those fare buckets.
Swiss
- Similar to Lufthansa, most premium cabin fares will earn at much higher award miles rates. In addition, the EQM earning rates for those fares will be increased to 150%, matching the legacy Continental rates and improving from the 100% that United used to offer.
- Three discount economy fares – K, L &T – disappear from the earning charts completely, a downgrade from both legacy programs.
US Airways
- No more 500 mile minimums for flights, a downgrade from the OnePass program and matching the United program.
- Only 100% EQMs on Y and B fares, a downgrade from the United program and matching the OnePass rates.
Croatia AIrlines, Singapore, Thai & TAP
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
For Air Canada and TAM the earning rates are not yet loaded on the site, and the TAM page shows some data from bmi and some from TAM. For Copa it does not show an elite earning bonus, though that is unlikely to actually be the case.
The only chart that appears to remain the same across the board is that of partner Turkish Airlines.
Non-alliance partner EVA will see a much broader partnership, with many more fare buckets available for earning. The rest of the non-alliance partners look to be pretty much the same, though I didn’t give those charts as thorough a review.
Again, please remember that the analysis here is from unofficial data and should not be considered necessarily accurate, though it is accurate from what was on the website when I looked at it today.
And, should these rates end up being accurate, it would appear that this is a case where the company being somewhat one-sided in where they favor a legacy program will work out well for customers. In nearly all the cases that the legacy OnePass rates were picked it was an upgrade for the Mileage Plus rates. The same cannot be said for the cases where the legacy Mileage Plus rates prevailed.
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Tags: Air Canada, Asiana, bmi, Continental, Copa, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Lufthansa, points, Swiss, TAM, United, United Airlines, US Air
Posted by Seth on January 2, 2012 under Flying, News |
Not sure how I missed this earlier but apparently Air Canada is matching the 50% off base fare sale that Porter Air launched on Boxing day in markets where Porter operates. The deal on both carriers is good for bookings made through this week and travel through April.
On Air Canada the discount codes to use online are PROMO26DEC11 or USPROMO26DEC11. On Porter Air the code is BOX50.
Happy travels!
Posted by Seth on December 13, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Ethiopian Airlines became the third African carrier to join the Star Alliance network this week, growing the alliance to 28 carriers. Of those 28, 16 provide service to Africa, covering 110 airports in 48 countries. The move also integrates Ethiopian into the fare and award products, though some integration on fare products won’t occur until January 2012.
The move also integrates the carrier into frequent flier earning across the alliance. Thus far I’ve seen earing details for Asiana, Continental, United Airlines, Turkish, TAP Air Portugal, Air Canada, Lufthansa‘s Miles & More and Agean Airlines. Those earning rates have been incorporated into the calculators on the Travel Tools site. Generally speaking most of the carriers are providing 100% earning rates for all economy fares and a bonus for business class fares. Full details about the rates can be found on the Travel Tools Update here.
Tags: Africa, Agean, Air Canada, Asiana, Continental, Ethiopian Airlines, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Lufthansa, points, Star Alliance, TAP Air Portugal, tools, Turkish Air, United, United Airlines
Posted by Seth on December 9, 2011 under Flying, frequent flyer, points |
Honestly, these changes have been a long time coming. Turkish Air changed their fare classes a while ago, adding in their "Comfort Class" premium economy product and pulling out their first class cabin. Many of their partners were quick to update the earning charts; Continental and United Airlines weren’t. That has finally been resolved as of today.
The new earning rates are mostly downgrades on the Continental side of things. Y and B fares no longer earn 150% EQMs and G fares – one of the most discounted economy class tickets – now earn nothing at all. There are a few other changes, with F, W and Z fares also no longer earning but I believe those fares are also no longer published so less of an issue.
The Comfort Class fares will only earn at 100% (US Airways and Air Canada both have an earning premium assigned to those fares) which is unfortunate. That said, the change does at least add all three of the Comfort Class fares to the list; previously one was absent.
On the United side of the coin the earning rules are similar, with one additional downgrade. Elite members will no longer earn the 500 mile minimum credit on flights operated by Turkish. Not a huge deal, as most TK-operated flights are longer than that, but still a minor downgrade.
Also of note is that with both programs the V fare class will be deprecated as an earning bucket come January 1, 2012. This is another discount economy fare bucket and losing it will be unfortunate.
Finally, there has been an addition to the earnings tables. Flights marketed by Turkish but operated by AnadoluJet (a regional/express carrier) will be eligible for earning in both programs. The cheapest economy fares (L, Q, T, V) do not earn while non-discount fares (Y, B, M, K, H, S, E) earn at the 100% rate, again with no 500 mile minimums.
All of these earning rate changes have been loaded into the mileage earning calculators on the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools site.
Posted by Seth on November 9, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Following on the heels of this summer’s award chart adjustments that saw many awards increase in cost it appears that Aeroplan, the loyalty program associated with Air Canada, is also adjusting the surcharges they levy on certain award redemptions. Specifically, it appears that the YQ fuel surcharge, to date only levied against redemptions on Air Canada flights, is now applying to flights operated by Lufthansa, Austrian and a few others.
This trend is not a new one. Recently American Airlines began charging the YQ surcharge on flights operated by partner British Airways. Delta charges a similar fee for flights originating outside the USA, even if flown on Delta airplanes, while not charging where the flights originate in the USA. Needless to say, the development is a costly one for customers.
With Aeroplan as one of the last great redemption options for the American Express Membership Rewards program this move also devalues those points a bit. Not great news at any level.
More over at View From the Wing.
Posted by Seth on August 3, 2011 under Flying, Trip Reports |
It seems that about once a year or so a news piece comes across the wire about a passenger who books a flight to Sydney and ends up in Sydney, only to find out that it is not at all what they expected. Rather than arriving in Sydney, Australia they find themselves in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Quite a difference there.
As part of our Canadian Maritimes adventure I purposefully booked an open-jaw award ticket. This was partly to ensure that we got to see as much of the area as possible without needing to double back with the rental car when it was time to leave. Just as much, however, it was to be able to fly out of Sydney. On purpose.
The flight was completely uneventful. Nothing special at all. Well, except that a woman in the row behind us was on her first flight ever and it was on a DASH-8 prop that took just about every bump along the way and transmitted it right into the passenger cabin. There were a few yelps at those points.
Soon enough we were in Halifax and ready to connect to our onward flight back to Newark. Not nearly as entertaining as the flight from the "other" Sydney.
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Posted by Seth on March 8, 2011 under Flying, frequent flyer, points |
In part one of this report I recounted a great award booking – even though it was all in economy and on small planes – to the Canadian Maritime provinces. Part two will cover my exploitation of the bmi Diamond Club program and their quite flexible routing and award zone rules.
It all started with plans to visit Bangkok in July for a friend’s wedding. With Thai Air still operating their incredibly long LAX-BKK flight I figured it would be nice to get a change to fly that route. Plus I have never been on the Airbus A340-500 so that’s an added bonus. It turns out that Thai has had a TON of award inventory available for westbound travel but nothing available coming back east. Turns out that isn’t much of a problem for me as I’ve turned a long weekend in Thailand into a RTW ticket adventure.
By sheer coincidence a friend of mine is going to be in Capetown, South Africa the week after the wedding. And I have the points available so why not? Even better is that the award cost from Thailand to South Africa is pretty cheap with Diamond Club. Oh, and I am flying via Mumbai, flying in on Thai and out on South African Airways. South African operates the A340-200 on the route which is also new to me.
And then I needed to get home from South Africa. This is where the Diamond Club rules become VERY favorable if you’re willing (or wanting!) a bit of an adventure. Most carriers only permit North Atlantic crossings for that award. Diamond Club permits South Atlantic crossings, too. So I’m taking one. Award seats form Johannesburg to Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo are pretty readily available.
Seats from there back north are a bit harder but I found some availability with Air Canada from Santiago to Toronto. Getting from Toronto to New York City is pretty easy with a ton of frequencies and a couple airports to choose from. To get from Buenos Aires to Santiago there is really only Star Alliance routing. It just so happens to leave 40 minutes before the flight from Johannesburg arrives. So I have a 23 hour 20 minute connection in Argentina. That’ll be fun.
So I’ve made it back to New York City and I’m home. That’s the end, right? Not for me. Diamond Club considers Puerto Rico part of their South America/Caribbean zone. And award flights from South Africa to South America are less expensive than those to North America. Based on straight geography that sortof makes sense – it should be fewer total miles flown – but getting to Puerto Rico can only be done via North America with the existing partners and routes. So I have a stopover in New York (one stopover is free on the bmi award) and then, two months later, a flight in first class from Newark to San Juan. It was actually many fewer miles to take the extra flight. Plus, I’ve been looking for a good excuse to get back to Puerto Rico, possibly in daylight this time. Given that the flight down there is better than free, I see no reason to skip that bit.
Put it all together and I’ve got this 31,586 mile masterpiece:
And all the flights save two short ones are in business class. All but one of the lines are new and a few of the aircraft are, too. All for under 200,000 Diamond Club points. I could’ve done it as cash & points for even fewer but I’m trying to use up my stash and this is a great way to do it.
The booking process was bit more frustrating than I generally enjoy, partly because my Skype connection was flaking out but mostly because the agents at the Diamond Club call center don’t have the best grasp of geography nor of the rules of their program. They initially tried to charge me 5 separate awards rather than the three I booked and all at higher rates than I should have paid. Fortunately I was able to eventually get a supervisor to understand and put it in correctly, but that was two extra hours of annoyance on the phone that I didn’t really need. Still, at the end of the day, completely worth it for this trip. Retail value on the ticket is somewhere north of $10,000; getting it on points for the routes and dates I wanted is just phenomenal.
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Tags: Africa, Air Canada, Airbus, Argentina, award, Bangkok, bmi, Canada, frequent flyer, New York City, points, Puerto Rico, RTW2011, San Juan, South Africa, Star Alliance, Thai Air, Thailand, Toronto
Posted by Seth on March 7, 2011 under frequent flyer, points |
Some folks love the challenge of earning frequent flyer points. To me, that’s just business. I do it and I accrue and I move on to the next flight. But when the time comes for redeeming those points, that’s where the fun begins. Part of it is because the airlines really do make it difficult to book awards. Part of it is because there are quirks and tricks and nuances in every program and understanding the rules of your specific program makes a huge difference. And part of it is that I generally feel triumphant when I can beat the airlines at their own game.
I won HUGE last week.
First up, our annual anniversary trip. Now in its 5th iteration, my wife and I have gone somewhere out of town for our anniversary each year. Ecuador, Philadelphia/Washington, DC Norway and Scotland were the previous four. This year’s goal was the Canadian maritime provinces. Turns out they’re a bit too spread out for us to hit as much as we wanted in the long weekend so we scaled back to just Nova Scotia. Not too disappointed about that at all.
With non-stop flights from New York to both Moncton and Halifax it was actually surprisingly easy to find award seats into the region. Our outbound requires a connection in Toronto but we’re waitlisted for the non-stop flight (shown in red on the map) and I’m betting that it clears. Either way, we get where we want to be on the day we want to get there and at roughly the times we want to fly. No complaints there. Coming back we picked Sydney as the departing airport. No, not that Sydney. There’s another one up in Nova Scotia. Being a tiny town with a tiny airport the prices on revenue tickets can be pretty ridiculous. So even though we’re only going a few hundred miles the cash version of these flights was pretty ridiculous. But award inventory wasn’t a problem at all. Connecting in Halifax and then back into Newark at good times and with no real issues.
As an added bonus, there are flights from Sydney to France (in the form of Saint Pierre & Miquelon, shown in purple on the map) that we just might have to try. If the flight schedules work that is definitely on my radar.
Did I mention that these were a pretty good deal in terms of valuation for the points redeemed? I like that the Continental booking engine gives you the offer to pay cash instead of redeeming miles for the trip. But I couldn’t help but laugh when this was the option it presented me:
Purchase this Reservation in Economy for $4,452.46 without redeeming miles
Instead I cashed in 50,000 points and about $100 in taxes for the two seats. I’d say that’s a damn good deal.
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Tags: Air Canada, award, Continental, Ecuador, France, frequent flyer, Norway, Nova Scotia, Philadelphia, points, Scotland, Sydney, Toronto, Washington DC
