Posted by Seth on April 25, 2012 under frequent flyer, points, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools | 
It was a couple weeks ago, sitting at a restaurant with The Points Guy in Singapore and chatting about my travel tools that I said I wasn’t going to bother developing an award search tool for Star Alliance flights because there were already many others on the market and it wasn’t worth it. So it is something of a surprise even to myself that I’m announcing today the availability of Star Alliance award searches via the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools suite.
Fill in the appropriate information, click the magic button and then sit back and let the good news roll in:
With the "Saver Only" box checked it will only show itineraries that have availability in the discounted award levels. Those are also generally the same awards available to partner programs, though it may vary on United Airlines metal based on whether the MP number used in the query has status associated with it.
Alerts, too!
But what if the route doesn’t have awards available and you don’t want to keep checking back all the time to see if the award space opens up? Well, there’s a tool for that, too. Just click on the My Alerts link and you can configure the system to check for you and email you when it finds seats available. By default all members can have up to 10 active alerts which will be queried daily. First Class members can have up to 50 active award alerts and they will be queried at least 4x daily.
The Alert tool lets you specify specific cabins of service as part of the query. You can easily manage the alerts through the interface:
Should the award be available during the scheduled search time you’ll receive an email that looks something like this:
So come on over and find your Star Alliance award seats today. I’ve got a number of additional features I hope to add, including saved searches and search history online to make things even easier over time.
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Posted by Seth on April 22, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Many warned me about the PrivatAir 737 operating as Swiss for the flight between Zurich and Newark. Beyond the geek factor of an all-business class config (my second such flight of this quick RTW trip) the product is actually not all that amazing. The seats are old and the IFE limited. Still, I wanted to have the experience for myself so I could report first-hand on what it was like. They were all pretty much dead on.
After spending my short layover in downtown Zurich on the lake, joining with seemingly everyone else in town heralding the arrival of spring, I made my way back out to the airport for a quick lounge visit and then on to the plane. The lounge in the main terminal area was pretty nice, but the flight departed from a separate section of the airport, a tram ride away. The lounge there is a contract lounge that isn’t particularly bad, but it also isn’t as nice as the Senator lounge in the main area.
Boarding 50ish folks on to a 737 is incredibly quick and easy and we were underway right on time, with a quick climb out and fly-by of downtown as we left the area.
The flight departed around 5pm, meaning it was time for dinner shortly after departure. Perhaps the best part of the flight is that the food appears to be catered up to the Swiss standards. It was quite good and comparable to the meals I’ve had on their regular flights. Except that they didn’t have ginger ale catered on the plane. That was rather annoying, though I also probably didn’t need any more rum so perhaps a blessing in disguise. Having indulged on meats for my previous flights and also downtown I switched to the fish options on the flight. Quite tasty.
After dinner it was time for a nap. My body was starting to fight back against the crazy time zone shifts and it was time to succumb for a few hours. The seat reclined to its angle-flat position and I grabbed the digEplayer to zone out for a bit. I was rather disappointed with the very limited selection of titles – only 10 – on the player. Fortunately I was asleep pretty quickly so that was less of an issue.
A few hours later it was time for second dinner. Really just a small snack served from casserole dishes rather than individually prepared, at least they were willing to offer up seconds (though I found this out after calling it a day on the meal). Tasty enough, but not particularly substantive as a meal.
Not much later we were making the left turn down the Hudson and beginning our approach into Newark, with the sun setting off to the west.
I expected the seat and the IFE to be iffy. That expectation was met quite easily. I also expected the food and crew to be on top of things. Alas, only the food was. The crew was somewhere between standoffish and outright ignoring me for long periods of time during the trip. Part of that might be just in comparison to the effusive and somewhat over-the-top service levels of the Asian carriers, but I really did feel like a second-class customer sitting on the plane for most of the trip.
Overall, the trip probably rates a C+ to B-. The crew was the biggest surprise, while the seat and IFE weren’t a surprise but still dragged down the score. Given another option, I’d avoid the PrivatAir option unless you really want the all business-class option or that’s what works with your schedule/budget. Also of note, the Zurich-Newark route is no longer served by PrivatAir, so it isn’t as much of an option anyways.
Posted by Seth on April 20, 2012 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Continuing the long trek home from Singapore, I transferred in Rome from Thai Airways to Swiss for the last bit of the trip. First up was a couple hours with the short-haul product, flying from Rome to Zurich. Like pretty much all short-haul flights in Europe this one was just coach seating with the middle seat blocked and upgraded catering. And like most such flights it was completely uneventful, probably a good thing.
Shortly after takeoff breakfast was served. Fruit, yogurt and a croissant were all tasty enough, though nothing special.
And, because they are Swiss, there is the chocolate bar distributed towards the end of the flight.
In the middle, aside from the food, was the opportunity to look out the window as we flew over the Alps. One of my favorite aerial views, to be sure. It doesn’t get much better than this all that often.
Easy flying with beautiful views along the way. Not much to complain about at all.
Posted by Seth on April 19, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Booking my award flight on the non-stop Newark to Singapore flight was a huge win and opened up a ton of opportunities for me. Among them, I had to figure out how to get back home from Singapore within a relatively tight timeframe, and I was searching not too far out from my planned dates of travel, which created some interesting challenges of its own. Fortunately I managed to find several options available, one of which was a routing with Thai Airways via Bangkok and Rome, continuing on Swiss Air from there. My last experience with Thai wasn’t the greatest but I decided to give them another chance. Among other things, the BKK-FCO line was just too fun to pass up.
Getting to the airport in Singapore was reasonably easy thanks to the trains and about 40 minutes after leaving my hotel I was in the check-in lobby of the airport. I also was about 4 hours in advance of my flight – I wanted to check out the lounges – which meant that they were not actually accepting passengers for check-in. Whoopsie. The good news is that there is actually a premium check-in lounge at Singapore’s airport where business class passengers are able to have a seat and go through the process in a much more civil manner than the long queues of the economy cabin passengers. The premium check-in feeds directly into a bypass of another queue for security/immigration, making the entire process rather simple.
From there it was off to the Thai lounge. To say I was disappointed would mean that I actually had high expectations. The lounge was dark and brooding, with a few small snacks. It was quite a step down from the Singapore Air lounges in the terminal or even the British Airways and contract lounges in the same area. I’m working up a full post on the lounges but I would recommend against planning on too much time in the Thai lounge.
Boarding came about soon enough and the 777 was awaiting us for the quick flight up to Bangkok. Getting a long-haul configuration on relatively short flights is much more common in Asia than in the United States. This one had the great seats and IFE systems which make flying up front truly pleasant, though neither system is best-in-class.
The flight was only about 2 hours long but it also included a full multi-course meal service with a choice of entrees. After the snack mix and appetizer I had the prawns with rice; not bad at all.
I also love the way many foreign carriers pay attention to the small touches that make a trip more pleasant. Certainly the orchids in the lav don’t have any concrete impact on the in-flight passenger experience, but they sure go a ways towards trying to make it feel a bit more human at 35,000 feet.
A couple hours later I was on the ground in Bangkok for just long enough to grab a shower, snack and massage and then it was back in the air for the flight to Rome. I had forgotten that the flight was on a 747. I had also forgotten that I booked a seat upstairs. Remembering that as I boarded the plane was quite nice. Walking up a set of stairs upon boarding is always a fun experience.
The seats on the 747 are more or less the same as the business class seats on the rest of the Thai fleet – flat-ish at an angle. Not the best ride out there, but it beats the heck out of coach and these got me home when I needed. Plus, the hot pink and purple is a fun color scheme.
With the longer flight time to Rome there was also the opportunity for a more involved meal service, not that the short hop was particularly skimpy. I started with the foie gras and moved on to the steak. Both were quite tasty.
The cheese plate was not particularly impressive but the chocolates for dessert were. A great finish to the meal.
With that it was off to bed for several hours, waking up just as breakfast was being served.
The fruit was rather disappointing but the noodles were delicious and made for a great base to start the day with the early arrival in Rome.
I mentioned above that the IFE was not the best-in-class. It is an AVOD system with a selection of about 25 movies available. Nothing to sneer at necessarily. At the same time, however, the selection was rather poor and the classifications of the movies were questionable in many cases. "Classics" for movies should not include many works made after 1990. Shutter Island; Monsters, Inc.; Ocean’s Thirteen; Sherlock Holmes; 300; Casino Royale or the new Planet of the Apes are not classics. Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Grease and Goldfinger are. Die Hard is in a gray area, but I’d probably let it slide. Yippie kaiay.
Overall, I think the service was a solid B to B+ effort. The food was on the higher end of the spectrum while the seat and IFE were a bit lower. Ground service was great in Bangkok – I love the pre-flight massage – but not as great in Singapore. Still not the best offering in and out of SE Asia, but they’ve got a lot more award inventory on long-haul flights so there’s something to be said for that.
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Tags: award, Bangkok, Dining, Flying, IFE, Lounge, Photos, review, Singapore, Singapore Air, SINtacular, Thai Air, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on April 6, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Now that the necessary government approvals have been received for the absorption of bmi into IAG, parent of British Airways, the company is confirming its exit date from Star Alliance. In just two weeks’ time – April 20th is the target date – bmi will withdraw from the global alliance group as it transitions into the IAG fold and the sale is completed. The company released a FAQ on its Facebook page with some information.
Nothing particularly surprising in the FAQ, really. They note that existing award reservations will be honored, which is only appropriate. They have also stated that they are working to extend some alliance benefits for members, even after they leave the group:
Q. After completion will I still be able to use my benefits on other Star Alliance carriers?
bmi is working with Star Alliance member carriers to ensure that once bmi begins to withdraw from Star Alliance there are opportunities for Diamond Club members to continue to receive certain benefits on the Star Alliance network for an agreed period of time. We will update you as soon as more information becomes available.
This would likely apply to lounge and baggage benefits for top-tier elites, a useful set of benefits to keep as existing tickets are cycled out of the system. Cutting those benefits when they existed at the time of ticketing would be most unfortunate for passengers.
Oh, and Virgin Atlantic is still considering an appeal of the approval, though it seems unlikely to have any impact.
Anyone have a suggestion for what to do with 58K Diamond Club points??
Posted by Seth on March 24, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
In many ways calling it the short route is silly. After all, it is the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world, clocking in at more than 18 hours. Singapore Airlines flight 21, Newark to Singapore, is simply ridiculously far. But it is the fastest way to get from the New York City area to Singapore and it is a pretty stylish way to do it, too.
The route is flown on an Airbus A340-500 with only 100 seats, all business class. Booking one of those seats used to require a large chunk of cash (or getting lucky with a couple routings out of the Pacific Islands) but recently they started showing up in limited quantities for award bookings. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity and even though I don’t really have any pressing reason to be in Singapore I’m on my way. It seems like a reasonable enough place to spend a couple days. And the flights to and from seem pretty fun, too.
The Seat
With such a low density seat map there is plenty of room on board for each seat and Singapore Airlines takes advantage of that fact. The layout is 1-2-1 across the A340 body, the same spacing as First Class on Lufthansa. The seats are about 30″ wide; it is quite spacious.
When the time came to convert the seat to a bed it actually flips forward rather than reclining all the way back. This is good and bad, as it somewhat limits the reclining positions available, but it also means that the full width is usable for bed mode. I chose the bulkhead seat so the footwell was full width as I don’t really lie my feet going in to a cubby hole. That part worked out well, though there is a gap between the seat and the well, basically forcing you to sleep at a slight angle.
Also, the bed is quite firm. Not a problem for me but I could see how some might not enjoy it too much. With a few pillows and sufficient booze in my system from the lounge and from dinner I had no problem sleeping for a solid 8 or 9 hours. Or again for another few hours after my mid-flight snack.
Checking in for the flight at the counter the agent was somewhat surprised that I had selected the seat I had. He mentioned the proximity to the lavs and the potential noise and smell issues there. That turned out to not be an issue for me, though I can see how it could be annoying.
Food & Beverage
There are three meals served during the flight. The first is a dinner served shortly after takeoff. Next is a lunch mid-flight and finally breakfast shortly prior to arrival. I very much prefer this sequence of service over the option from Thai on their soon-to-be-retired LAX-Bangkok flight. It just makes more sense. Also, the food was much better.
My first meal started with a salad and bread. Fresh veggies and a couple strips of seared fish on top, with a nice balsamic dressing.
For the main course I had the braised pork served over egg noodles in a broth. Excellent presentation and the food was quite tasty, too.
Finally, for dessert, I had both the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate mousse, though I did pass on the petit fours.
Somewhere over Uzbekistan, I was hungry again. Having been asleep for the past eight hours that seemed to make sense and I wandered back towards the galley to see what my options were. Set up in the galley was a nice spread of chips, fruit, cookies and other snacks; I grabbed a couple for later. But I was thinking of something more substantive. The flight attendant greeted me by name (little things like that really make me happy) and offered up a few lunch options. I went with the chicken over udon noodles. About 10 minutes later she brought it out to my seat.
The flavors were great; no real surprise there. But it wasn’t heated all the way through. I actually didn’t mind that too much, but it was somewhat surprising. My seatmate ordered the same a few minutes after I did and his was heated evenly. Go figure.
Oh, and they had Dunkin Donuts on board. They spelled it wrong in the menu, but they had an actual box of Dunkin – the variety pack – and gladly served up donuts upon request.
For breakfast I had another noodle option, sliced beef in broth with noodles. The omelet looked fine, too, but I like the flavors of the soups. This also may have been the first time I’ve had a 4-course breakfast, with fruit, pastries and yogurt all preceding the actual meal. The bagel was actually quite good, too.
In-flight Entertainment
The IFE system on Singapore routinely gets high marks and it is easy to see why. The screen is large – 15.4″ – and the range of titles available is rather extensive. Whether you want TV, movies, audio or games, there are plenty of options to choose from. Me? I just watched the moving map when I wasn’t sleeping. But I like that there were lots of other options available.
Also, there is a universal plug, a couple USB plugs, iPhone/iPad interface and RCA jacks for hooking in to the system. Even if you don’t like what they’re showing, there are still plenty of options.
Lounge/Ground Services
The lounge used in Newark is the SAS lounge. It is pretty nice and for the late departure of the Singapore Air flight there are no other passengers in the lounge. They up the catering a notch to offer a more substantial meal option around 9:15pm, tiding folks over until the dinner served on board. I enjoyed the self-serve alcohol and a bit of a snack and then headed out to the plane.
As I mentioned before, the first agent I dealt with suggested that the seat I had wasn’t so great. I told him I was flying with a friend so I didn’t want to change anything until I could speak with my friend. Turns out the same guy also handled that check-in and remembered that I had mentioned we were flying together. Again, a little thing, but one that was quite nice.
No arrivals facilities in Singapore upon landing at 6am is a bit rough, but that’s how they roll.
Other bits
A couple other things of note related to the trip. First, it is not at all common to see numbers like these on the flight map data page. More than 18 hours and more than 15,000 km left to fly is insane. The flight actually ended up being nearly 19 hours in the air due to headwinds.
Next up, it is somewhat strange that there is no amenity kit on the flight. All the goodies are stocked in the lavs and it certainly reduces waste, but I was still a bit surprised. They do distribute eye masks and socks to all passengers.
Finally, the pilot put the plane down so hard on arrival in Singapore that we actually bounced off the runway. And when we pulled in to the gate the APU was inoperable. Dunno that the two are definitely related, but it was one of the hardest landings I’ve ever experienced. Of course, the FAs played it down suggesting that it just felt hard because we had been flying 19 hours. But the look on their faces when it actually happened belied that smoothness.
Overall there is very little bad to say about the experience, other than that 19 hours in a plane is a really long time. I’m quite happy I got the opportunity to make the trip and look forward to having this as an option for future award travels.
Tags: Airbus, award, Dining, Flying, Lufthansa, New York City, Newark, review, Singapore, Singapore Air, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on March 19, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
It was August 2010 when Virgin America announced their plans to offer reciprocal earning and redemption benefits with the other carriers in the Virgin brand. Alas, the frequent flier market works slowly in some cases and after more than a year there was no real news on the redemption side of the deal. That ends this week, with both Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia and Virgin America announcing redemption rates.
I’m focusing on the the rates for Virgin America here, mostly because I find the ranges they cover to be more intriguing than the numbers from the other two. Virgin America has published a calculator that displays the number of points required based on the city pairs that the two partners serve. Even more interesting to me, however, is that the underlying data is contained in a singe easy to download XML file. Drop that file into Excel and throw some filters on it and the data that comes back is quite interesting indeed.
First up, both one-way and round-trip redemptions will be offered. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, there is a penalty for one-way awards relative to return trips. The penalty is generally 5-10,000 points, based on the samples I saw, though one or two did go higher than that, especially in premium cabins.
As for the actual redemption rates, there are definitely some interesting sweet-spots on the chart. JFK to London return is only 35,000 points in Upper Class, for example, which is pretty nice. The down-side is that it also comes with $1100 in taxes and fees to be paid. Also, it is more than double the price of an economy award on the same route (15,000 points + $650 in fees). The fees do track directly with what Virgin Atlantic charges for a revenue booking (the APD and the YQ are both higher in business class) so that’s not completely ridiculous, but with base fares as low as $120ish round trip in economy dropping 15,000 points seems like a REALLY bad idea.
The real fleecing in the program, however, comes when you try to redeem for Business Class awards on Virgin Australia AND you add a connection in the United States. Los Angeles to Brisbane is a rather reasonable 80,000 points up front. Want to connect onward to Chicago? Tack on another 100,000 points. And if you want to go to JFK rather than Chicago it is an extra 50,000 on top of that. Yeah, it is that ridiculous.
And the taxes aren’t particularly great on those fares either. At least the transcon penalty on Virgin Atlantic is only 15,000 points.
Comparing the rates to the value via American Express Membership Rewards – one of the easier ways to accumulate Elevate Points – shows further examples of the limited value. Getting that JFK-London award is 35K Elevate points, which would mean 70K MR points. Redeeming via ANA would allow the same trip for 63K points and roughly the same fees. JFK-Capetown would be 190K MR points via Elevate or 115K via ANA.
Adding these partners is a great thing, in theory, for members of the Elevate program. With the redemption charts the way they look, however, the numbers are not particularly attractive. I’d stay far, far away.
Related Posts:
Tags: American Express, ANA, Australia, award, Chicago, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Los Angeles, Membership Rewards, New York City, points, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia
Posted by Seth on March 6, 2012 under frequent flyer, points |
Welcome to the new United.com website. For folks used to the old continental.com site things should look pretty similar. For folks surprised to find that things are different this week, well, surprise! There are a few common features that are very useful to be able to do and which are not particularly well documented. So here’s the documentation. I’ve got a couple of these posts in the works and if there are any particular steps you are having trouble with let me know and I’ll put something together for them.
When you’re ready to spend some of those hard-earned points or upgrade credits on someone other than yourself there are a few extra steps involved in the process. You can call in and an agent will be able to handle it, or you can do it online. These are the steps for handling it online.
- Log in to the site as yourself.
- Go to "My Reservations" on the site. At the bottom of that page is a form where you can put in a PNR and passenger last name.
- Fill that in with the info of the passenger you want to sponsor.
- Below the list of flights is a button to redeem an upgrade:
- Click that and you’ll have the option to use either miles or your certs to process the upgrade:
At this point the flight should clear into the upgraded space if the inventory is available (see here for how to search that out). If the upgrade inventory is not available you should see an additional line in the reservation with the notation that the segment is waitlisted.
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on March 5, 2012 under Flying, frequent flyer, News, points |
The rumors of loosened award availability on long-haul, premium cabin Singapore appear to be quite true. Long limited to only the exorbitant rates and only for the carrier’s own KrisFlyer members, things change as of March first. The seats – except for First Class Suites on the A380s – are available for redemption at saver levels now within the KrisFlyer program. Even more spectacular, however, is that they are available to partners, too.
Even better, it actually is bookable!
Excepting the minor error on the meal service designation, this is a beautiful sight to see.
I’m not sure I’ll actually be able to make the trip, but it is nice to see that the award inventory is out there and that it is bookable for partners. Also, this is the same inventory bucket that is used for upgrade awards, so that’s another nice option that should be available.
Oh, and if searching on the new united.com site be wary of connecting itineraries showing premium cabin seats. Mixed-cabin itineraries are showing the higher booking level and no warnings even if one of the flights is in a lower cabin.
Happy flying!
Hat tip to Hartmann for noticing the glory that is these awards online.
Posted by Seth on March 5, 2012 under frequent flyer, points |
Welcome to the new United.com website. For folks used to the old continental.com site things should look pretty similar. For folks surprised to find that things are different this week, well, surprise! There are a few common features that are very useful to be able to do and which are not particularly well documented. So here’s the documentation. I’ve got a couple of these posts in the works and if there are any particular steps you are having trouble with let me know and I’ll put something together for them.
There are four different types of upgrade space available in the new United:
- Miles/Instrument Coach->Biz (R/RN)
- Top Elite B/M->One cabin higher (PN)
- All Elite Y->One cabin higher (JN)
- Miles/Instrument Biz->First (ON)
While that’s a lot to go searching for, the good news is that it can all be found on the same single search results page, and there are no special custom profile settings or parameters that you need to set, though there is one which can help, detailed at the end of this post.
So, here’s the drill, and it really is quite simple.
- Do a normal revenue search for the flight you’re interested in. One way or round trip doesn’t matter. You just need a REVENUE fare search page that shows the results for the flight/date you are interested in.
- On the results page look in the right-most column. The third row should say something like "Fare Class: United Economy (W)" on it. Note that the words Fare Class are a hyperlink:
- Click that link and you will see all the inventory buckets for the flight:
That’s all there is to it. Piece of cake.
If you want to get a bit more fancy and make it even easier – AND if you have a browser which supports GreaseMonkey scripts – I’ve created a script which causes the inventory to always be displayed for all flights and which highlights the award buckets. The downside is that there is no "X" button to close it (though clicking on "Fare Class" will do it) and it obscures some other information, but I like the inventory info more so that’s how I roll. For more information on that script check out my post here. Version 6.1 of the script is the first to support the new United.com and PSS site in it; older versions need to be upgraded.
This is what the page looks like with the script enabled:
Note the red/green coloring of the award buckets. Easy, at-a-glance information on upgrades and awards without too much effort at all.
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on March 2, 2012 under Trip Reports |
At 11:59pm local time tonight Continental flight 1267 will depart from Phoenix headed to Cleveland. This is the last departure of a flight marketed as Continental and it marks the end of an era, with the carrier’s name finally disappearing as the merger with United makes the final customer-facing step – integration of the Passenger Service System. When the final flight was announced I happened to take a look online and there was award inventory available. Plus there were award seats that could get me out to Phoenix to start the adventure. So why not?!?
I’m on my way out to JFK in a few minutes so start my journey west, and I’m well prepared for the event. I’ve got my camera, my netbook, my Kindle, my earplugs and my eyeshade. And, perhaps more importantly, I’ve got emergency supplies for myself and the crews I’ll be interacting with along the way:
I’ve got about 100 so there should be enough for everyone.
Also, because some of us were being rather silly last night (and some of us were also a bit drunk) there was some discussion of biblical verses that might be useful for the travel community as this integration proceeds. I’m not a particularly spiritual person but my sarcasm comes through somewhat often. And that was my approach to the question when posed. Here’s what I came up with:
The Tulip is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in flat-bed seats:
He leadeth me over the oceans.
He restoreth my EQMs:
He leadeth me in the paths of upgrades for His name' sake.
Yea, though I fly over the valley of the shadow of WoS,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy ICCs and thy web site, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a mileage run before me in the presence of sky-high fares;
Thou annointest my account with GPUs; My e-Certs runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Bingo Cage forever.
There are a few bits I might change were I to rewrite it this afternoon while sober, but what the heck.
And now, off to the airport. Catch y'all again from the party in Phoenix.
