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, …

We have a winner, who has moved on the next phase of the contest! The winner from UnRoadWarrior.com will be now joining the winners from each of the blogs participating in the Randy Petersen Star MegaDo contest. The final winners will be drawn soon by Randy himself.
The winner from UnRoadWarrior.com was selected using random.org. Only entries made before Midnight MST, Oct. 7th were considered. The winner is comment #18 – LindaRZ.

I wish LindaWZ all the best and hope she is one of the winners of the free ticket on …

If you are an airline mile novice, you have probably never heard of a MegaDO before. It is the Ultimate Mileage/Air travel junkie field trip. It is a trip across multiple cities and countries in commercial and charter planes, with the who’s who of travel and Mr. Randy Peterson himself. Randy is the founder of travel sites like the one hasting this blog – BoardingArea.com and the ultimate travel forum Milepoint.com.
You now have the opportunity to win TWO seats, right next to Randy himself on the next Star MegaDO. All …

More 787 news! After United announced its domestic 787 routes, LOT Airlines of Poland is bringing the Boeing 787 dreamliner to the US. They will start flying the new next-generation jet to Chicago’s O’hare and New York’s JFK airport next year. This is exciting news as LOT is a Star Alliance partner and has also recently announced a partnership with Jetblue. This is great news for loyal passengers of US based Star Alliance members – United and US Airways and those of Jetblue. They can now book flights to Europe …

Skytrak announced its annual rankings for 2012. They rank all the airlines in the world by polling 18m airline cutovers around the world. And for the year 2012 (drumroll please) the top 10 airlines are:

Qatar Airways (Qatar) – No Alliance
Asiana Airlines (South Korea) – Star Alliance
Singapore Airlines (Singapore) – Star Alliance
Cathay Pacific (Hing Kong, China) – OneWorld
ANA (Japan) – Star Alliance
Etihad Airways (Bahrain) – No Alliance
Turkish Airlines (Turkey) – Star Alliance
Emirates (Dubai) – No Alliance
Thai Airways (Thailand) – Star Alliance
Malaysia Airlines (Malaysia) – OneWorld (Starting late-2012)

I am particularly impressed by …

BMI, the one and only UK based Star Alliance member has been acquired by British Airways. BMI has had a tumultuous couple of years. They were first bought by Lufthansa, which bode well for those of us who love Star Alliance, but Lufthansa did not integrate it into it’s suite of airlines (they own Austrian and Swiss) and decided to sell BMI off to IAG, the group that owns British Airways and Iberia.
This is good news for British Airways, as they get additional coveted Heathrow slots and also get some …

The state of Airlines in India is not good. There have been several blog posts by other bloggers on the state of Kingfisher Airlines. They are cash strapped and headed for big trouble if they do not get a cash injection from somewhere. The latest blow is the canceling of most of their international flights. Jet Airways, the largest privater airline in India and usually looked upon as a stable, growing airline, too now has run into trouble. They have been asked to clear past dues in taxes or have …

United and Continental have finally merged. As I pointed out in an earlier post, united.com and continental.com, the websites also merged over to the new site this past weekend. The new site is based on the original continental.com. In fact, most of the operational ascpects of the new United are based on Continental. They are using Continentals operating license, using Continentals reservation system, etc. Looks like all that’s left of United is the name, the headquarters and Economy+ seats (which is not a bad thing to keep at all).
In this …

Star Alliance has announced a contest anyone can enter using their new ‘Publish your upgrade’ app. Prizes range from Around the world trip for 2 to free Star Gold status! To enter, you have to take and post pictures using the app. Entries are open till April 4th.
Here is how it works:
The Star Alliance Picture Your Upgrade app gives you the chance to win exclusive prizes, including designer chairs, upgrades to Gold Status and Round the World Business Class tickets, just by taking photos.
It works like it sounds. Take photos …

The Airline world is made up of three alliances:

Star Alliance
SkyTeam
OneWorld

Understanding the alliances and the airlines that make them up, and which airlines do not participate in an alliance, is key to maximizing miles and status. What alliances allow you to do is pick one airline per alliance and earn miles on that one airline’s frequent flier program no matter which airline in the alliance you fly. That way you can maximize miles. Airlines not only give redeemable miles but also status miles across alliance partners, so this also maximizes Elite …