One of my readers Jack asked a question after I posted my post on Earning United Miles on Jet Airways flights. In the article I talked about how I did not pay attention to the booking class I was being booked into on Jet Airways and I earned no United miles, as a result. His question was how does one pick a booking class when using online search engines. The answer is that it depends on the search engine. If you are using a generic search engine like Expedia or …

I try to accumulate all my miles on United, my primary airline miles program. So when I learnt that Jet Airways was a United Partner (not a Star Alliance partner, but a code-share and miles partner), I was excited. I flew a domestic flight on Jet on my last visit to India and put in my United MileagePlus number to get my miles. Only, they never showed up. I filed a ‘missing miles’ request and was told that the class I was booked in did not accrue United miles! So, …

There is absolutely no technical reason for aircraft to not allow cell phone use in-flight. The only issue today is the lack of cell service at that altitude or above water, but that is a technical problem that has already been solved. Airlines like Emirates provide cell phone service on almost all their flights, with an on-board cell tower. It is tine for the airlines to get to the 21st century and make some money along the way.
We live today in a ever-more connected world. We have always-on internet on …

Holiday Season is here (already!?) It’s time again to start hunting for gifts for loved ones. I love shopping for travelers (the road warriors and the UN-roadwarriors) in my life. Being one myself, I know how to scratch their itch. Here are my favs for making my travels more comfortable and productive. Gift them to yourself or your loved ones.

The iPad – Whatever new tablet may come out, the iPad is the downright winner. I never leave home without it. I use it as my in-flight or waiting-at-the-gate IFE and …

I grew up in New Delhi. One of the oldest memories I have of this beautiful city is that of traveling by an auto Rickshaw. These are unique three-wheeled vehicles with a scooter style front and a two seater (or six seater, if you are a local) in the back. While these are not unique to New Delhi or to even India for that matter, the way you deal with them in Delhi is unique.
First, unless you are traveling a good distance (not recommended at all. Get a taxi), you …

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Traveling by train in India is an experience. It was something I did on a regular basis when I lived in India, but last week I got to take an overnight train in India after about twenty years. First point to note – nothing much has changed. I think the coach I was in was in use the last time I traveled too. Here are …

After the great response and feedback I got from my last post on This Aircraft came from where?, where I traced the path of a United 767 flying inter nation routes, I decided to do the same for a domestic aircraft. I chose a 757, my favorite single-aisle plane (lots of upgrade room). and traced it back. Apparently one can go deeper than 10 segments. I was able to go 17 for the domestic routes. I guess it is tie based and not segment based. Here it goes:
Some stats:

Total Segments: …

I was sitting waiting for my flight a few days ago and as I was tracking the incoming aircraft on united.com, I started drilling down on the ‘Where is this aircraft coming from?‘ link. I wanted to see far I could go (10 segments) and see where all had the aircraft been in the last few days. What I found was fascinating. Here it is:
Aircraft type: 772
Segments: 10
Cities visited: 6
Continents visited: 3
Longest segment: 6,921 miles
Total miles flown: 53,410 miles
Here are individual segments:
United Flight 925
Status: Arrived Gate 4 Minutes Late

DEPARTS
ARRIVES

City: London, …

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** I got over a 100 requests, between emails and comments. All the codes are gone. I will email them out tonigt in the order I got the requests. Thanks for the overwhelming response!! I love it!!! **
I had posted a few weeks ago, Starbucks was giving the Kayak Mobile Pro App for free as it’s ‘pick of the week’. This is the Pro version of the app that send free updates on flight status, allows searching for alternate flights, etc. As I was walking thru a Starbucks a few …

I love Starbucks‘ partnership with Apple. Every week, there is something free from the Apple iTunes store at Starbucks. It started out with songs (song are still offered), but has grown to include Apps, Books and TV episodes. I have gotten tons of paid goodies for free from Starbucks. The way you get them is for looking for small cards displayed in each Starbucks. The card has a code on them that allows you to redeem it for a free App/song/book…
Now the good news – this weeks free App is …