Through August 31, Hyatt is offering free Platinum status for 120 days for new account signups, and a fast track to Diamond: 5 Hyatt nights within the promo period retains Platinum and 15 nights achieves Diamond.

With the huge improvements that Hyatt announced in April — especially the confirmed suite upgrades for Diamond members — Gold Passport may offer the best elite program currently making this a good time to consider switching to Hyatt.

And while you work on the Diamond fast track you can also earn 2500 bonus points per stay (through September 15).

Hat tip to One Mile at a Time. And as lucky points out, you could wait closer to the end of the promo period to sign up and possibly overlap with Hyatt’s standard Faster Free Nights offer which may come next quarter (two one night stays earn a free night).

Let me forewarn y’all up front, this post is a true meandering rant without focus, just working through some thoughts on why I blog, on helping others, and on my own selfishness that I do feel rather guilty about this morning. It won’t teach you anything about travel, won’t help you in any way to read. So you may want to stop right here…

When I first realized I had a knack and affinity for travel and deals I was about a year into my first job after college. I was the office “web guru” which back then meant that I knew all about “that internet thing.” All things technology interested me, because I was finishing college just as the internet was really taking off and breaking into the mainstream. And at the same time, I began traveling for work.

I loved playing around with Expedia when it was still a project of Microsoft. I flew enough that first year to make the entry level of elite status with United, and loved playing with the United Connection disk-based software. I signed up for iDine (my friends still knew it as Transmedia, and at the time only United’s elites could sign up for free), and earned miles any which way I could. After reading some various e-mail discussion lists about air travel, I found Flyertalk (from a link on Holly Hegeman’s PlaneBusiness site, I think).

At first all the information on Flyertalk was overwhelming. I didn’t know the lingo or have the context for everything the programs had to offer. I knew that miles were worth something instinctively, and I’d looked over award charts, but I didn’t really realize just what I could do with them. I figured out pretty quickly that I didn’t want to redeem my points for cheap domestic roundtrips, and I just loved seeing my balances grow — or rather, hearing my balances grow. After each trip I would call United’s automated phone system and listen to my Mileage Plus balance.

After reading and being overwhelmed by Flyertalk for awhile, I mostly concentrated in the United and MilesBuzz forum the place was just too sprawling for me, things finally began to make sense. I remembered much of what I read, and at some point that I didn’t realize at the time I crossed a tipping point where I generally knew what I was talking about and I went from newbie to veteran. And I was so excited by my newfound knowledge (the limitations of which I didn’t even realize at the time) I just wanted to share that knowledge with others. I was pretty much getting upgraded all the time, I was striving towards higher and higher levels of status and picking my flights based on where I could confirm upgrades or where upgrades were most likely to clear. And I was offering advice to others and answering questions.

I don’t want to sound conceited, but I really did learn a lot and figure out all kinds of ways of maximizing travel experiences and I loved sharing this for anyone interested and at any level — from the basic “how can I get a cheap hotel room in X city on priceline” to much more technical “how can I maximize an award trip with Y miles, flying the most international first class possible and getting the best value at resorts, with upgrades?”

Somewhere in there I started this blog as well, which began as a mixture of weird news, political commentary, and miles offers. I realized htat plenty of other people did strange news and politics and I gradually morphed into primarily miles, points and travel. I was one of the earlier travel bloggers, and garnered more media attention probably than I did web hits. After all, I tend to write at a technical or obscure enough level that there’s probably not that much of a mass market for what I have to say. Others do travel industry news much more than I do. Others do their personal daily flight experiences much more than I do (though I’ve done much trip reporting lately, it tends to be fairly detached, I’m a private person and tend to write even there from a distant voice).

I’ve often said that I don’t care how much traffic I get, and for the most part that’s true. I don’t really promote the blog in any way, I don’t go fishing for links, I don’t advertise. I just write what I write, I hope it’s useful, and if people read it great. (Not that my viewership is small, but I don’t actively promote or grow it, and I don’t think I’ve ever hit 100,000 unique visitors in a month.

But I do like the notes of appreciation that I get at times. I like knowing when I help someone book the dream award trip they didn’t know was possible, save thousands of dollars on their travel, or figure out how to turn left on boarding when they never thought that direction would be possible for them. So I guess I do want to be appreciated.

But people do ask me for a good amount of help, much of which I’m more than happy to provide, and once I do that’s usually the end of the story. I find available award itineraries for people, find them their best luxury hotel deals for less than the cost of the local Best Western, and then… Silence.

While the feedback I’ve gotten from this blog suggests a pretty wide array of experience levels among my readers, on the whole most visitors to the site are pretty knowledgeable compared to the average person when it comes to travel and finding good deals. So I’m wondering how y’all handle these sorts of things?

People ask you for help, it takes a real application of knowledge and their lives are meaningfully better as a result of the help you provide, but most of the time it feels pretty unappreciated. Not that I want gifts per se. But after years of providing more or less unrequited assistance I feel a certain level of frustration. Maybe it’s just my mood on a Friday morning, but…

When friends, colleagues, or random acquaintences ask for help, take that help, and don’t really express appreciation or more than the momentary and cursory “thx” does it get to anyone else? How do you handle it? Do you pull back and make yourself less available? Continue to let yourself be taken advantage of? Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

I think the question was sort of precipitated yesterday when someone asked me for help finding a nice hotel for a night away — they had basically a specific city block in mind, and not one with hotels that are especially pricelineable. They didn’t want to pay much money at all, and they wanted a top-end experience. The hotel they initially had in mind was completely sold out. I found them an actual five-star property for under $150, about one-third the going rate for the hotel. And it wasn’t even prepaid. No, it didn’t take me long to accomplish, but I used my accumulated knowledge to find it. They will be in a much nicer place than they had even contemplated, for much less money than they expected to spend. They saved about $300 on a single night compared to the hotel’s web rate. And I do this every day. Is it unreasonable to think that maybe one of every ten times that I do this someone might make a modest gesture back of real appreciation?

I don’t always need it, and don’t mean to suggest I’m expecting it from you, my dear readers.

I truly enjoy making travel better for its own sake. If I can help make a dream honeymoon, I’m happy to put hours into it. And if I can point someone in a direction, great. Once in awhile someone might say, “let me at least shoot you a drink coupon, the next one’s on me if you ever fly XXXXX airline and don’t get an upgrade.”

Oh well, by the weekend I’ll probably return to a happy place where the unrequited love for my readers, for colleagues, and for random people I meet on the metro returns. But for today I just want to be loved. “Is that so wrong???”

It’s bad enough the government is concerned with what’s in your carryon (liquids).  Now CrankyFlier points to H. R. 2870: To standardize and clarify the dimensions of carry-on baggage and personal items on air carriers.

The proposed legislation will

limit carry-on bag dimensions to no more than 22 inches by 18 inches by 10 inches for a total of 50 inches. It would also make the TSA reinstall those obnoxious bag sizers on the security machines

Cranky points out that most airlines already permit only 45 total inches. But a handful of carriers do permit larger carryons — Southwest, for instance, is more generous allowing proposed maximum of 50 inches, and Airtran allows a full 10% more than that.

The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) issued a press release encouraging the government to get involved.

We applaud Representative Lipinski for his strong leadership on this issue and for his responsiveness to our members’ pleas for help in fixing this exploding problem.

Exploding problem? The Richard Reid-ization of carry-on bags, we’re all shoe bombers now! Seriously, ’exploding’ seems a bit over the top.

Current programs to control the weight, size, number and contents of carry-on bags are inconsistent, inadequate, confusing and outdated.

This union’s concerns with carryons are inconsistent, confusing, and outdated. There, I said it — with just as much explanation and evidence as this union musters!

At the beginning of the decade two carryons were generally permitted, now only one is. So fewer carryons are now allow. Meanwhile, some airlines (eg Continental) have gone to lengths to install bigger overhead bins to accommodate the carryons. And it would seem that more stringent restrictions of carryons is the outdated idea in a world of increasing fees for checked baggage.

Passengers must navigate a maze of carry-on baggage programs that differ at each airline

Navigate is the right word, i.e. on an airline’s website!

Most carriers have standard sizes already, but if the customer gets it wrong, the worst case scenario is having to check their bag — the very same worst case scenario this Flight Attendants’ union wants — to legislatively require for larger carryons.

flight attendants continue to have to settle overhead bin disputes and are often times injured by items that do not meet current guidelines

Injurious are a spurious issue here, the legislation restricts a handful of carriers from allowing carryon baggage that’s at most a few inches in total size larger than is currently permitted. And I don’t know of a single study that’s ever suggested this change would reduce injury.

Meanwhile, “settling overhead disputes” is just the kind of problem that such lofty Chambers of Government ought to be addressing, I suppose. It might prevent them from causing real damage to the world economy.

Current standards for carry-on baggage were established more than a decade ago when passengers brought far fewer items on board with them.

This is just false, prior to 9/11 passengers could generally bring on two carryons. The issue with crowded overhead bins now is a function of higher load factors — a half-empty plane doesn’t fill up overhead bins the way a full aircraft does. (And that leaves aside any effect of checked baggage fees.)

The bill also requires that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) install and utilize a template with depth and width limitations that would prevent items that exceed the prescribed dimensions from passing through the conveyor belt.

If you believe that the TSA is useless in performing a protective security function, then I suppose you need not be concerned about giving the TSA the new mission of policing the size of carryon baggage. So I won’t really complain about this one.

Fortunately, I don’t see this legislation going anywhere. It’s only been introduced, and will be sent to both the Committee on Homeland Security and to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in the House.

Presumably this is just grandstanding by Congressman Daniel Lipinski, a member of Congress since 2005 who serves on the Aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee. His Congressional seat was previously held by his father (1992 – 2004). The transportation committee is a good place to be if you’re a Congressman from Chicago, home of United Airlines (notice that they already comply with the rules this legislation would impose). According to OpenSecrets.org, his top five donors are transportation-related, four of which are unions. Naturally United’s PAC kicks in as well. Gotta keep in the news, though, if you’re a relatively junior congressman from Chicago!

The Flyertalk.com thread on buying coins from the US mint with your credit card (free shipping), receiving the coins and depositing them into a bank, and using that account to pay off your credit card, is approaching 2500 posts.

Fortunately, Flyertalk member crabbing wrote us a handy Frequently Asked Questions summarizing the details of the deal and how it works.

where do i buy direct ship dollar coins without paying for shipping?
the $1 coins available for purchase at face value with free shipping are available here.

why aren’t the most currently available coins listed?
some time, maybe a few months, after the coins are introduced, they usually become available for direct shipping.

what do i have to do to get free shipping?
free shipping is available on qualifying orders of coins listed on the direct ship page. you are allowed to order $5000 of native american coins, and $500 of each presidential issue.

why does it show a $4.95 shipping fee?
keep going until you get to the final screen and place your order. if the order qualifies, shipping and handling should appear as $0.

what happens if i order more than $5000 n.a. coins or $500 per president?
if you have registered and logged in to your account, your order will probably be canceled automatically. if you have not registered or have not logged in, you may be able to receive repeat orders. some FTers have reported greater success by using different credit cards.

but the website says the limit is “per order” so why can’t i just place another “order”?
yes, we know what the website says. in practice, the limits apply per issue, per household. [nb: i am not aware of any data points regarding using the same credit card but shipping to different addresses (i.e., home and office)]

will my coin purchase be counted as a cash advance (and charged a fee)?
no FTer has reported a cash advance fee for buying the coins. the purchases usually appear as “government services” on the credit card statement, and appear to be treated like any other purchase.

how long does it take for the mint to ship my order?
anywhere from 2 days to over a month. the variables are unknown. expect delays any time the mint changes its rules (like when it instituted user accounts) or makes a new line of coins available.

should i register an account with the mint?
the primary advantages of registering are (1) the ability to track your order and (2) your address and billing info are already filled in when you order. but while logged in you are limited to a maximum of $5000 n.a. coins and $500/president.

when i track my order, it says the order is “on hold,” “in process,” etc. what do these mean?
no one really knows. the only status messages that matter are the ones telling you your order has shipped or has been canceled. sometimes the reason for the cancellation can be inscrutable, such as “line canceled,” which can imply that the mint ran out of direct ship rolls for that issue, or has ceased making that issue available for direct shipping.

are the coins circulating or uncirculating
the direct ship coins are circulating.

when i placed my order, the available credit on my card went down by $500/$5000, but i wasn’t charged. what happened?
the mint puts an authorization hold on your account for the amount of your order. this is normal. sometimes the hold expires before the mint confirms the charge, which can happen if it takes a long time to ship.

i got my coins yesterday, but i was not charged! woo-hoo! did i just get a stimulus grant?
sometimes the charge gets processed and posted after you get the coins. no one has reported getting coins for free.

how are the coins shipped? what if i’m not home when they come?
according to the mint, all orders of merchandise in excess of $300 are upgraded to expedited shipping, which means they are shipped UPS next-day, signature required. if you order more than $2500, the shipment will come in two boxes (which do not always arrive together) and they are heavy!

are there any issues with depositing my coins at my bank?
some banks/branches allow you to drop off the rolls ($25 each) without breaking them. at least one FTer has reported being required to put an account number on each roll. some banks require the rolls to be broken and either put into a coin counting machine or in coin bags.

the biggest problem is with the bags, which are measured by weight and not by the number of coins. worse, the bags are not opened in front of you, making it difficult to dispute a recount.

Basically you can run several thousand dollars worth of these coins through your credit card, earning the miles for those purchases, at no net cash cost. Of course you have the hassle of receiving the coins and getting your bank to take them off your hands. So it’s not zero effort.

Several folks use this method, though, to meet the minimum spend requirement when new credit cards stipulate a certain level of spending before you earn their signup bonus (e.g. Citibank American Airlines cards usually have a $750 minimum spend threshold, Chase United Visa cards usually have a $250 spending requirement).

Yesterday it was United extending double elite qualifying miles to residents of Australia. United of course is competing with several carriers now in the US-Australia market (no longer just Qantas, and no Air Canada via Vancouver, Continental Micronesia to Cairns via Guam, and Hawaiian via Honolulu do not count).

Today, I see that Priority Club is introducing Any Hotel, Any Time cards in the Australia market and offering them at half price. You have to have an Australia address on your Priority Club account to take advantage of the offer, and can only ship the cards to an Australia address, so you do need to know someone in Australia.

Priority Club introduced the concept that you can be loyal to them, and take your rewards anywhere. Normally not a good deal, though, a $250 card costs 59,000 points (less than half a cent per point in value). But at half off ($250 card for 29,500 points) you get better than four-fifths of a cent in value and of course these are just Amex gift cards used to pay for hotel stays so those stays earn credit towards status and points towards promotions.

At a time when hotel rates are low, they can be a good value — an Interconitnnetal hotel redemption runs 40,000 points a night but most Intercontinental properties can be had for the same $250 you’d be spending 29,500 points for and since these are paid stays they earn credits and bonuses.

Or, pair the $250 gift cad with a Friends & Family pre-paid rate which doesn’t technically earn credits (though in practice seems to more often than not) and you have some really cheap redemptions. Consider then booking a better room than you’d otherwise get on your free night.

Of course, this half off redemption (which was offered in the US market at the end of 2007) is only currently valid for members in Australia, for shipping to Australia, so just one more reason to move to Australia I guess!

Though rarely enforced, Canadian law actually considered frequent flyer miles earned from business travel to be taxable income.  Miles earned from personal travel were different, but if the employer was paying for travel and the employee was benefiting this was considered to be a taxable benefit.

This rule has now changed. Canada will not consider miles ot be a taxable benefit even if earned from company-paid travel, as long as the frequent flyer member does not convert the points into cash.

It’s just way too complex an issue to tax and handle evenly across taxpayers. Points are earned from multiple sources, both business and personal travel but also credit cards and online shopping to name just a few. Which points are redeemed for travel? How much are those points worth? Does it vary based on the value of the redemption, and what percent of points used in that redemption originated from business travel?

And it’s way too scary and unpopular, what if a taxpayer gets audited and winds up with an ornary auditor who learns the miles were redeemed for a first class international trip?

So good on the Canadian taxing authorities for deciding not to pursue such matters any longer.

As announced in this Flyertalk thread, Air Canada is offering a 10% discount on Canadian domestic flights for travel through December 10 with promo code XJWC63Z1.

I spent last weekend at the W San Diego, which has been in the news lately because the property is being take back by its mortgage lenders. Like many hotels, occupancy and rates are down. This one was acquired at the height of the real estate boom, fetching a real premium, and the owners decided it didn’t make sense to go on making the interest payments. So apparently they believe it’s now worth less than the $65 million they owed on it, despite having paid about 50% more than that three years ago.

At the same time, with recent rates as low as $119 the hotel becomes an exceptional value. I had my own special rate, and when I checked in on Thursday night the clerk at the desk informed me that I was going to love my room, I had “been upgraded to their best suite.”

The Extreme Wow suite carries a list price of something like $3000 a night, though I can’t believe it rents for that or at least does often. Judging from the dust on the toilet paper holder in the entryway guest bathroom, I’m guessing it doesn’t see too many guests, as it’s not in the pool of upgrade-eligible rooms.

The W San Diego is currently an exceptional value, given recent rates. But it’s hardly at the cutting edge of W properties. They replace the floor mats in the elevators during the day, “Good morning/Good afternoon/Good evening,” whereas the W Hong Kong elevators greet you in the same way… electronically.

Like the hotel itself, the room was a few years behind cutting edge. But it was large and functional and comfortable, I enjoyed it and was certainly lucky to have it. Having just stayed at the W Seoul and at the W Hong Kong, I wasn’t quite as impressed as I probably wasn’t as impressed as I otherwise would have been.

I’m sure that many of the non-hotel guest poseurs hanging out at the Beach bar (admittedly, the sand is a neat gimmick) would have been impressed. I heard more than one young twentysomething in impossible heels and a “going out” top marvel to her friends, “Have you ever, like, <I>stayed</i> at a W Hotel?”

The crowds of course limit themselves to the lobby bar

But mostly, really, to Beach Bar

One might expect the pool to be a decent scene, but it was rather small and the weather was overcast when we checked it out

But the room was quite impressive.

Living room

Dining area

View from the living room towards the master bath (on the other side of the wall)

Office (with a computer, a bit out of date)

Painted ceiling in the office

Guest bath in entryway

Hallway to the bedroom

Art along the way

Master bath: tub and shower

Master bath: toilet

Master bath: sink

Bedroom

There was a bottle of wine and cheese waiting for us

Of course, there were little things that could definitely use improvement.

Still on East Coast time, I woke up on Saturday morning at 4:30am. At about 5, I wanted some coffee. I called the “Whatever/Whenever” line and asked to have room service bring me up some coffee. Should be an easy request, no? They told me they don’t do that until 6, “they’re not allowed, and there’s no one there to make the coffee anyway.” Ok, what time does the nearest Starbucks open? “I think 5:30.” Umm, I’m going to head out of the hotel this early based on I think? Fortunately he turned out to be right (in fact, on weekdays the Starbucks by the trolley station opens at 4:30am).

On the way to the elevator I noticed that the newspapers in the hallway were still dated Thursday. Ok, they hadn’t put out Saturday’s papers yet (those were stacked in the lobby entrance). But they never put out Friday’s. And in fact they never did put out a Saturday paper, the next one to appear was Sunday.

With plenty of pay lots around (as well as street parking, check the signs for when you need to move your car), valet service is exorbitant at $32 a day.

Nonetheless when I arrived late at night I decided not to mess with where to park for the first night, and I dropped the car off with the valet figuring I would use them just for a single day. When I took the car out the next day and returned it to the valet just a little later, I pulled up in front of the hotel and waited. And waited. I’ve only ever seen one valet staffer at any given time, so perhaps he was off parking another car. But when no one came by, I went looking and saw the attendant in his booth working on paperwork. I decided to stand next to him and just wait until he noticed me. He fiddled with some papers, and about 3 minutes later looked up. I apologized and said perhaps he didn’t notice me. “Are your keys in the car?” Yes… He just told me to leave the car and he’d get to it. He made no move to drive it away.

The only other complaint is one the front desk probably had little to do with, but the phone in the room rang 6-7 times/day including late at night, we had to have the hotel block the line. No one was ever there. Perhaps it was someone looking to see who famous might be staying here that they’d get to talk to?

All in all though it was a more than lovely weekend. Flyertalk’s SanDiego1K introduced us to Jasmine’s for dim sum. She also recommended the excellent Karen Krasne’s Extraordinary Desserts which was just three or so blocks from the hotel. Went down to the beach, and to Balboa Park, and had some decent upscale Mexican food across from the Mexican consulate (but what do I know, almost anything here would have to be decent, I live in Mexican food-starved DC). That and my Delta flight back through Atlanta had an aircraft swap to the old international-configured business seats. Not bad for a weekend, actually.

Lucky points out that United has extended its double elite qualifying miles offer through October 15 for residents of Australia and New Zealand.

As he explains, “There has never been a better time to move to Australia….”

The terms and conditions of the offer say

Offer valid for Mileage Plus members, who currently reside in Australia or New Zealand, as determined by the mailing address on their Mileage Plus account at the time the bonus EQM are posted.

(Emphasis mine.)

Now, you’ll have to keep your ‘new’ address Down Under until the double elite qualifying miles post. Which means that other offers that come along which are restricted to U.S. residents would be mutually exclusive with this one. But some folks may make that virtual ‘move’ to boost their accounts, I’d imagine…

Priority Club’s new cash and points option allows you to, in effect, purchase points when making an award booking at a discounted three-fifths of a cent per point.

Normally point purchases cost 1.15 to 1.35 cents apiece.

Cash and points award nights are cancellable, and when you do cancel you get your full points refunded to your account (provide you cancel by the cancellation deadline). You don’t get your points and cash refunded. As a result, the cash and points award option is a backdoor way to discounted points purchase even when you aren’t looking to book an award night.

Why might you want to do this? Well, one reason would be Priority Club offers “PointBreaks” awards, room nights at select hotels for only 5000 points. Using the cash and points backdoor for points purchases, you can acquire 5000 points for $30.

• Washington-Dulles-Tokyo, ANA First Class
•  Tokyo-Hong Kong, ANA Business Class
• W Hong Kong, Fantastic Suite
• Hong Kong-Ho Chi Minh City, United First Class
• Sheraton Saigon, Towers Suite
• Touring Ho Chi Minh City
• Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, Lufthansa First Class
• Royal Orchid Sheraton, Junior Suite
• Bangkok-Chiang Rai, Thai Airways Business Class
• Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Room and Resort
• Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Food
• Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Gym, Pool, and Spa
• Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Photos Around the Resort
• Touring the Golden Triangle
• Le Meridien Chiang Rai Northern Thai Cooking Class
• Chiang Rai-Bangkok, Thai Airways Business Class
• Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel
• Bangkok Thai Airways First Class Departure Experience, Lounge and Spa
• Bangkok-Hong Kong, Thai Airways First Class
• Hong Kong-Seoul, Asiana Business Class
• W Seoul, Junior Suite
• Asiana First Class Lounge, Seoul
• Seoul-Los Angeles, Asiana First Class
• A Flight Interrupted – United Los Angeles to Washington-Dulles and an Unplanned Stay at the Sheraton LAX

2:06 pm Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to Chicago (ORD)
United Flight 843 First Class Seats:3A, 3B
Duration: 4h 6m Airbus A320 1745 miles traveled

We were originally scheduled for the 4pm non-stop back to Dulles, United decided to no longer operate it on Saturdays. So we were changed to a connecting flight back through Denver, the last non-redeye non-stop of the day just missed the minimum connection time for international-domestic at LAX. No big deal, the Denver connection shortened the layover in LA and we were scheduled to get back within minutes of our original schedule. Another schedule change and we wound up on the 2pm Chicago flight, again arriving within minutes of the prior schedule.

The Airbus was full, plenty of folks on standby looking to get on the flight. We boarded and the pilot announced a ground stop for flights into Chicago, and a new departure time. My Chicago connection was looking unlikely, though it too could be delayed. Pilot invited those who wanted off to do so, but I figured it’s better to get closer to my destination so I’d stick it out.

I asked about Channel 9 and was told it would not be on for the flight. This pilot was not a happy camper. Came on the PA and told folks that they were running up against maximum duty hours, and if we got pushed back any more the flight would be cancelled.

Then I got an EasyUpdate that the flight time had been moved up. I was going to make my connection! Minutes later the pilot announced everyone back in their seats with seatbelts on, we were poised to go.

Then EasyUpdate strikes again – cancelled. I immediately get on the phone to United about re-booking, while gathering my stuff. Pilot comes out, he got another delay message, I told him about the EasyUpdate and he was angry. How could United tell me and not him? Minutes later he got the message and was scowling as all passengers were getting offloaded. He just get cursing United under his breath. I know I shouldn’t have, but instead of just deplaning on my way out I suggested he subscribe to EasyUpdate…

By the time we were out the jetway I had my flight options. The entire plane filtered out to the customer service counter, but my plans were handled. I didn’t even need to make a beeline for the lounge. Bottom-line was I could have first class seats on the redeye, but that didn’t really appeal to me. I was exhausted and the prospect of 7 more hours hanging around the airport just seemed miserable. They offered me the first flight in the morning, but that was too early. I’m baby bear – I like my flights to be just right. I asked about the morning 777. First was zeroed out, but we were confirmed in business. That’s fine, still better than the domestic first and connections we were going to be on.

On the way out of the airport I rang up Starwood, they offered the Category 2 Westin LAX (on a weekend night, so really cheap on points) or the Category 3 Sheraton. I should have spent 3000 points (minus 500 point Plat amenity) for the Westin, but I’m such not a fan of the hotel that I sprang for the Sheraton. Hopped on the shared airport shuttle bus, and when we arrived they had us assigned into what they called a suite but was really just a big room with no wall or divider between the bedroom and living room area. Bathroom was same, standard. Certainly fine, of course.

We managed to stay up long enough to hit the lounge, which was a rather sorry affair. Some cheese and fruit, an unappetizing cheesecake, and a meat dish that was indeterminate. Oh well, too tired to eat anyway. Went to sleep, woke up early and ordered some room service, then back to the shuttle over to the airport.

The flight was completely uneventful, I spent the entire time reclined dozing in and out of consciousness listening to Channel 9, and it was over before I knew it. Sure, it’s the old style business on the 777. And it’s amazing to me that I used to find these seats comfortable! And the meal has gotten pathetic compared to what it once was (I still have my first UnitedBusiness transcon lunch menu from about 10 years ago, the shrimp appetizer was delicious and so was the filet). But it works for a domestic hop at least, don’t cram me into this seat for a transpac though.

Bags arrived ahead of us at IAD, they were there waiting and we were home.

Hyatt is offering 2500 bonus Gold Passport points per stay through September 15, 2009. Payment with a Mastercard is required, and registration is as well.

Via One Mile at a Time, United is delaying its implementation of mileage upgrade co-pays until January 12, 2010.

That’s a six month reprieve, which is great, but really doesn’t speak well of United’s IT implementation folks (which is hardly new).

I appear in another edition of the weekly Upgrd Podcast.

This time it’s listener questions:

• Is the standby option (via a different routing) some sort of 1K only perk?
• Which hotel program is best for someone residing in Canada that might not be eligible for US based credit card pomotions?
• What to do with United SWUs?
• Where to post miles after crossing 100,000 elite qualifying miles?

I realize it’s getting towards the end of a quarter. United is probably afraid of overspending its award redemption budget. So they’re massively blocking awards being offered by their Star Alliance partner airlines.

When searching for awards later in June and early July:

Lufthansa to Frankfurt, via Dulles, Chicago, Newark, and JFK? They’re publishing award inventory all over the place, every other Star Alliance airline besides United can book them. But United? Blocked.

All Nippon Airways intra-Asia flights, from Tokyo to Bangkok and to Taipei? Blocked.

Thai Airways intra-Asia flights, from Bangkok to Hong Kong and to Tokyo? Blocked.

On several days both ANA and Thai are offering business class award seats on each and every one of their flights between Bangkok and Narita. United won’t book a single one of them. They see only Singapore Airlines availability on their overnight flight.

Since when United is blocking award inventory being offered by partners, it usually causes the partner flights not show up in agents’ computers (rather than flights showing as unavailable), you get some pretty absurd conversations. In the last two days I’ve been told “Lufthansa doesn’t fly to Frankfurt” and (looking for flights departing Hong Kong) “Thai Airways doesn’t fly to Bangkok that day.”

Fortunately United doesn’t seem to be blocking Swiss, or Air Canada. But this is nonetheless more than a little bit ridiculous.

Remember that
* No other Star Alliance airline engages in blocking

* Many other Star Alliance carriers offer less expensive award charts than United (For example, US Airways and Air Canada Aeroplan)

* United just massively raised their award prices (for example, business class from the US to Asia was 90,000 miles before December 31, and is now 125,000).

* Several other Star Alliance carriers permit massive mileage accumulation — ANA, Singapore, and Air Canada are American Express Membership Rewards transfer partners, British Midland offers up to 625% flown mileage on premium fares flown by Gold members that have requalified, all offer co-branded credit cards.

There is no reasonable excuse for United’s award blocking.

There are alternatives. Only United elites should credit United flights to Mileage Plus (I realize upgrades matter too…). Nobody should credit non-elite qualifying mileage activity to Mileage Plus.

Other than elites looking for bonus qualifying miles from the Visa Signature Platinum card, not a single person should carry the United Visa. And even those elites looking for qualifying miles should stop spending on that card the moment they hit $35,000 in spend for the year.

It’s time for United to hear its members, in action not just in words.

4:30 pm Seoul, South Korea (ICN) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
Asiana Flight 202 First Class Seats 4E, 4F
Duration: 11h Boeing 747 5,999 miles traveled

The last time I flew Asiana first class, in July 2007, we were escorted onto the plane skipping the planeside security check. This time we were subjected to it, but it was certainly polite.

On boarding a flight attendant offered to assist with our bags, and to put them in the closet, but I prefer them in the overhead for easier access during flight. The cabin was full 4/10 including the two of us, and we had had no difficulty securing the two seats together in the cabin. Others have had much greater difficulty, Asiana seems to block much of their assignable seat inventory for some reason (perhaps because of the potential for an aircraft swap with the old configuration 747? But that would seem strange because the old configuration plane has more seats and those are all in pairs).

We were given amenity kits which were lovely as usual, though no pajamas were distributed. As noted many times elsewhere, the headphones provided are of low quality, and not noise canceling. Only a modest step above the tiny disposable ones given out (or sold) on US airlines, and those have the advantage in my book that they’re in-ear and less bulky.

Shortly after boarding I was offered a drink and opted for champagne. While some carriers see Dom or Krug as a marquis offering, I really enjoy the ’98 Taittinger Comptes de Champagne – absolutely excellent, and I gladly accepted a top off before it was time to push back.

The seat itself was nice, the cabin much refreshed over the old drab offering on the earlier version of first class. But the seat doesn’t go 100% flat, despite advertising to the contrary. Rather, the headrest remains slightly elevated. In addition the seat is somewhat lumpy, so I used both the mattress pad and the duvet that the flight attendant laid out when making my bed after the meal in order to soften and flatten out the seat, and then just covered myself with a blanket

Other things I noticed about the seat were the lack of storage, and also that the foot space is too narrow when in bed mode, I had to keep my feet together when I was stretched out. I did like, though, that the tray swivels so you aren’t locked into the seat during meal service. (And speaking of tray setup, the dinner rose remains a nice touch.)

I assumed that since pajamas hadn’t been handed out on boarding that they would be offered after the meal or at least prior to the flight attendant making up my bed, but none were. I asked, and the flight attendant scurried away. They came back and explained that no pajamas were boarded for the flight (!!) but they would look for some. They apparently had a large stash in the front closet, and went around offering PJs to the cabin.

The entertainment system, was excellent. I was generally impressed by the AVOD on the 767 between Hong Kong to Seoul, but the longhaul 747 had many many more choices. Navigation is a bit strange as it’s basically a mouse with a cursor that you use to click your selections. But it’s easy to navigate, and there was an array of movie options, and also a significant library of music. I especially liked being able to scroll through the music options and create a playlist, which could be played in order or randomized. It’s not the same as having your own music in your iPod of course, but at the same time I decided to listen to plenty of things I wouldn’t otherwise have downloaded which was nice.

There’s been much commentary on cutbacks in meal service. And indeed it appears as though caviar is served ex-USA but not ex-Korea. (Friends who flew OZ both JFK – Seoul and Seoul – JFK reported the same thing, caviar departing New York but not on the return). Still, the meals were of exceptionally high quality and portions more than enough.

I had pre-ordered the Chinese meal and my wife went with the onboard Western options. There was a break between my courses where the flight attendant apologized that there would be a 10 minute wait for my next item, and that they had prepared for me the truffle risotto in the interim. Since I had already seen my wife’s risotto I decided to take them up on the offer, I have a hard time calling Asiana out for meal cutbacks when they’re offering sliced black truffles.

The only negative about morning breakfast was that the orange juice could have been far better, it tasted like it was from concentrate. On a long-haul first class breakfast I expect something much more approximating fresh squeezed.

The only snafus in service, rather than seat or amenities, was the limited English skills of the flight attendants. While this is a Korean airline, and I don’t have especially high expectations given my prior flights with them, I do wish that they would assign flight attendants with better English for the USA flights. I realize it’s crew dependant, it was much easier to communicate on my short-haul business flight o Seoul. The difficulties manifested themselves when I asked if I could have a cup of coffee prior to beginning my meal, and this just wasn’t something she could comprehend, she brought it to me with dessert.

And when asking my wife about her menu preferences, she would clearly be reading the Korean side of the menu and translating in English, not realizing she was pointing at the wrong item on the English side. On the whole Asiana’s English proficiency is far below Singapore, ANA, and Thai for sure.

On the whole Asiana’s new first class is much improved, both in terms of seat and AVOD. That much is obvious, which is why everyone fears getting the one old-style 747. Even though there are complaints about cutbacks in food, the offerings were still outstanding and more than sufficient. The amenities are high-quality. The service is good, but in part because of limited English skills compared to most Asian carriers they aren’t really able to understand and adapt to requests. Moreover, the ‘new’ seat is really a generation behind. So I would never pick Asiana over ANA or Singapore for first class.

Shortly before landing we were offered our deplaning gifts. Two years ago I received the Wedgewood wine bottle stoppers, which were quite attractive. I had expected the Ferragamo tea cups, but instead in addition to the concert and golf video they were offering a Ferragamo mug. We both took one of those, but decided that it wasn’t especially handsome. The deplaning gift is an incredibly nice touch, and totally old school. I hope there aren’t further cuts in this area, because it’s something to do very nicely (which doesn’t always mean expensively) or not at all….

We landed on time and faced a zoo in the customs hall., the extended backup stemming from veryslow customs bureaucrats who were stopping and engaging in long detailed conversations with folks. Not everyone had their documents out or the proper documents, there were questions about who was entitled to what or where they’d been, and ithis slowed the lines down tremendously. A couple of folks were sent off to the side to have their bags unpacked and repacked, but for the most part the full interrogation treatment was done while slowing everyone else from passing. This was just cutting into my planned shower time is all…

It’s all over Flyertalk (in the Mileage Run Deals forum) — Delta appears to be pricing out transatlantic itineraries without fuel surcharges. New York to Zurich comes out at less than $250 roundtrip, DC to Paris at under $400 — and this in some cases during hte summer travel season. Fares are available, it seems, through the end of the schedule.

Just a heads up, this won’t last.

We asked about late checkout from the W when we checked in – by which I mean 1pm (!) – and was told they would ‘have to see’ because they were quite full. I didn’t push, and didn’t ask again, I just took late checkout and certainly they knew I was doing so as we had reserved a hotel car for 1pm.

I suppose it’s possible that the hotel had become a designated conference property listed in advance with SPG for the dates in question, and I didn’t specifically rule out that possibility, but it was sufficiently unlikely that I wasn’t worried about it.

We had the same driver for our return to the airport as for our pickup. He never spoke to us on the drive to the hotel, and didn’t speak to us on our drive back except to ask our airline. He spoke perfect English, and didn’t seem to be asking as though to confirm but as though he hadn’t been told, even though I had provided the hotel with flight details in both directions.

We were at the airport around 2:15pm, the trip went much more quickly than on our arrival given the mid-day travel of course.

Driver was going to call over a porter to assist but we waived them off, we were perfectly happy handling our bags for the walk directly inside to the first class checkin counter. Given the extremely limited number of flights offering first on Asiana, the woman behind the counter simply assumed we were flying to Los Angeles and looked up our travels from our names on our passports.

Checkin was smooth, she pointed us towards security and gave us a map towards the lounge. We made a quick stop in some shops first for last minute gifts, it was interesting that the one we bought from had everything priced in US$.

Then up to the Asiana First Class lounge.

Once up the escalator, business class was to the right and first class to the left.

Showed our boarding passes, and we were escorted into the lounge. It’s a large, cavernous almost facility at least considering we were the only ones in there. It remained virtually deserted, as our flight had only a couple of other passengers in first. Two people who weren’t on our flight were eventually in the lounge.

The lounge has a private room with massage chair, showers, well-stocked bathrooms.

The main area of the lounge has plenty of seating, both in the center and by the windows, the window seating having different types of chairs and surrounded by nice bound editions of classic books mostly.

Though there were flat screen monitors with flight information, I never saw a television though it’s possible I could have missed it. There was also a grand piano.

When we sat down an attendant offered to bring us drinks. We accepted, and then I got up to check out the buffet. The area has separate seating with tables, but we didn’t make ourselves a meal. Instead we made some small plates out of the bountiful hot and cold display.

While we did we a chef walk through the lounge at one point there was never a ‘chef station’ set up as has been mentioned by others in the past.

Clearly there were plenty of food options, and it was all fine though there wasn’t anything particularly memorable or that I crave the way that I do, say, the wonton soup in the Thai Airways first class lounge or the wienerschnitzel in the Lufthansa First Class terminal.

I made myself a plate, something to occupy myself with besides my e-mail, and to try some of the various offerings.

All in all this is a much grander and better provisioned lounge than the old first class Asiana lounge I visited almost two years ago, so certainly well done. It’s a large, airy, spacious lounge which isn’t at all crowded. There’s food, showers, and massage chairs. But there’s nothing really special about it.

We received a private walking escort to the flight, just a few gates away from the lounge. The other two passengers on our flight had already been escorted separately but we were taking a few extra minutes to finish collecting email and gather our things.

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