airlines

Should I buy the AA Platinum Upgrade offer or just do the UA Economy Plus Subscription?

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So in 2017 I was Gold with American Airlines. I reached that again by mid year but managed to miss Platinum by a hair at the end of the year. I just didn’t see the profit in doing a mileage run. So far in 2018 I have some AA flights booked and some long haul award trips on AA but some of my business trips have been moved over to United for various reasons in this first Quarter.

So here comes the offers. I can buy up to Platinum on AA for $795

FireShot Capture 4 - Secure your eli_ - https___elite.americanairlines.com_eliterenewal_purchase.cfm

But after thinking about it I don’t think it’s worth that much to me. Sure I might see a few additional domestic upgrades but the main value is the MCE seats. And if I’m stuck flying United more than normal in 2018 I might be better off to just get an Economy Plus subscription for $499.

FireShot Capture 5 - Economy plus choose options I United A_ - https___www.united.com_ual_en_us_su

I’m not sure it’s worth it for either one. I actually wish AA would have given me a bit cheaper of an option to move up to Platinum since I was so close but at least I’m still Gold with a bunch of 500 mile stickers for now. I don’t think it’s worth it to do a status match with United either but we’ll see.

Iceland Air Coming to Kansas City MCI

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I guess due to the recent subzero weather we’ve had in Kansas City lately, the Icelanders have been fooled into starting service from MCI to Iceland. And…I love it.

FireShot Capture 1 - Cheap flights to Europe & Iceland I Icelandair_ - http___www.icelandair.us_

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/new-airline-service-announcement-expected-tuesdayat-kci

Apparently per TV 4 in KC:

”

Officials with the Kansas City International Airport and Mayor Sly James announced Icelandair is coming to KCI this year.

Icelandair will bring seasonal transatlantic air service to Europe with new nonstop flights between Kansas City and Iceland. Beginning May 26, 2018, Kansas City-region travelers can fly nonstop from KCI to Icelandair’s hub at Keflavik International Airport near the Iceland capital, Reykjavik.

According to the Kansas City Aviation Department, Icelandair’s Kansas City service will offer three nonstop flights per week to Iceland with connections to and from more than 25 destinations in Scandinavia, the UK, and Continental Europe. ”

This is good news for Kansas City. The city plans to work through political issues and build a new single terminal airport that will likely be too small and made of too much glass in the near future. As my home airport I love that I can now fly to Europe directly without flying to a hub first. Great news !

Update***

It seems this service will start seasonally from May to September in 2018 with hopes to expand. The outbound flights will be M-W-Sat with Return inbound flights on T-F-Sun. The flight is just under 7 hours and will offer fares that include the ability to stop over in Iceland for up to 7 days without additional fees.

http://www.icelandair.us/news/story/icelandair-is-going-to-kansas-city/

 

Quick photo review of Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport in Texas GRK

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Small airport but easy to get to and simple parking layout. Signage could be improved but you’ll figure it out.

Entrance drive.

Signage

First floor entrance.

Main hall.

Main check-in area on first floor. Spotless and new.

As you can see not a ton of flights but better than you’d expect. The only odd thing about this airport for me is that they don’t allow passengers through security until just before boarding times. So I arrived about 8:30am for a flight boarding at 10:05am but couldn’t go through security until 9am. This would be Ok but I was trying to get some work done on my laptop so I set up in the cafeteria type area and then had to shut down to go through security.

Cafeteria style area outside security. Like a bullpen. Airside gate area was about as big but without tables.

Old style jet bridges altough the longer gate 1 has a newer glass jet bridge.

Major feature for most food choices here in and out of security.

View from tarmac.

American Airlines Playing Games With Award Availability on Non-Stop Flights?

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This isn’t an exact science but my theory says that AA plays games with award space to keep it’s loyal customers from booking the best non-stop routes with miles. So say you want to book an award flight from the USA to Europe. We’ll pick DFW to Madrid for an example. So I’m searching 11 months out for my example:

DFW-MAD

I’m thrilled because I found an actual non-BA flight with awards space for 2 passengers!

dfwmad

Now this is not bad but I don’t actually live in DFW so I’m willing to stage from my non-hub to other hubs like say Chicago ORD. Since I’d rather not have an extra leg I just want the ORD-MAD flight. It’s available as part of this booking, right?

Think again here is the ORD-MAD non-BA selections for this same date:

ORDMAD

Gosh that’s weird. Why isn’t that same non-stop Iberia flight available? Oh well it looks like I can just stage to JFK and pick one of the TWO Iberia flights for that date. Not as close for me and I’ll likely need to trek from LGA to JFK but it should work OK. At least I can save that extra leg from ORD, right?

jfkmad

Well think again. I’d have to fly to Boston I guess. Boston is not an easy connection for me but hey at least that one is available. Maybe I managed to corner AA enough into Boston? To me this is silly. It’s either a poor system that doesn’t work well OR….done intentionally to keep you from booking the best flights on awards for some odd reason.

bosmad

Delta Wants Elites to “USE” Miles Up

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In a weak effort to try and hold onto elites… Delta is encouraging them to use up their Sky Pesos on upgrades. Actually the idea isn’t that bad on the surface. I actually find it weird that airlines don’t offer elites first pick up paying for upgrades. In my experience it seems random.

They don’t want you to “save them forever” although that’s what you need to do with Delta Sky Pesos to earn any decent reward travel. It’s a fun game to see if you can save them faster than Delta can devalue them. They have devalued award ticket redemption’s so much that all they have left are moves like this to try and hold onto elites that are hub captive in places like MSP or SLC.  It might work for some that don’t care about the value of said miles or have so many they’ll never use them all and don’t care about award redemption’s.

Sad

#skypesos

See the USA Today article link below for more about this story if you can stand reading USA Today for a couple minutes. It might even be non-Fakenews which can be hard to find in that free news flyer we often find on hotel hallway floors 🙂

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/07/13/delta-tinkers-frequent-flier-miles-currency-more-seats/475642001/

 

LAX Admirals Club Gate 52 Review (Remote Terminal 5)

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I’m traveling out of the remote 5 (gate 52) terminal at LAX today and had a chance to visit this Admirals Club. This is a HUGE benefit if you’re flying out of this remote bus terminal. There are not a lot of amenities for these Gate 52A-52Z or well what ever letter. I had low expectations for this lounge as I’m used to visiting the United Lounges at IAH that are tiny and have no toilets.  I’m not sure how crowded this lounge gets but it was very nice, not over crowded at 6am to 8am on a Thursday but maybe that was just luck.

They offer a full bar, typical food. Super nice staff and 4 toilets (2 Female and 2 Male). You could even use this as an arrivals lounge but no showers. The toilets are very large and would be easy to change clothes, etc.

Silly but AA is flying some 4 hour type routes on Regional RJ Jets into this terminal. I’m getting ready to board a non-stop to MCI that clocks in at about 3:40’ish. Thankfully my upgrade cleared at a lowly AA Gold. This route doesn’t seem to be elite heavy on the days I fly this route. This is a nice route for our small’ish Kansas City airport as it gives us a non-stop to a large HUB on the West Coast.

Summary: American doesn’t always get things right but this is one bright spot in a not so awesome terminal area. Thanks AA

What is wrong with people?

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No one really loves when you have trouble or bad service at the airport.

wp-image-536584229jpg.jpg

But this is just another example of how to be an ugly person. Sadly he also seems to be an Ugly American as well. Thanks Man, the rest of us appreciate you keeping up the stereotype 😦

 

FireShot Capture 54 - Sad excuse for a man, too dumb to read_ - http___nypost.com_2017_06_08_human

http://nyp.st/2rPBIfS

Please visit this link for the whole story on the Post.

 

Unpacking “illegal” Kinder Surprise Airbus Eggs. 

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Kinder Eggs are slightly illegal to bring into the USA which would be OK I guess 

Kinder Surprise eggs, an Italian brand of egg-shaped chocolate candies containing a toy “surprise” inside have been banned in the USA since long before they were first manufactured in the early ’70s.

That’s because the US has had a ban on candies with toys inside since 1938.

Inside the egg is a large plastic pod that contains to airplane parts. 

Inside you find the parts and you can easily assemble your own Airbus. This one is an A330 in Lufthansa livery.

As you can see you end up with a cool airplane model. The eggs are tough to find. After failing to find them at LHR in past months my wife managed to find an Airbus collection at CDG and was sweet enough to buy them for me during our layover on the way to Israel this week.

AMA Rick Husband Amarillo Airport Review

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Fox news on the TVs -Pro

Glass jetbridges -Pro

low volume peak times – Pro

Nice new terminal -Pro

I really couldn’t find any negatives about AMA. It is a nice modern airport. It’s well located, rental cars are just outside the door from baggage check. I’d say the only thing I would change is to add rental car bypass the desk features which this airport lacks. That is pretty minor in my book. 

Cheap Business Class to Italy and 2,000 mile bonus offer to Join Alitalia

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Etihad Airways Alitalia logo

Right now you can purchase business class on Alitalia by 2-22-17 and get a great deal on Alitalia between New York and Naples or Palermo from $1,748 roundtrip in business class. This is a really good deal. This is about the cost of premium economuy.  There are a lot of cheap fares to Europe right now but those are mostly all in regular economy. Not really the same experience in my opinion. This is available for bookings from April to October.

This is only for certain days of the week so you’ll have to check. A couple sample dates I found are 5-5-17 to 5-9-17 and 5-19-17 to 5-20-17. Search JFK-NAP or JFK-PMO on Google Flights and then select the price graph for easy searching. It looks like most of the flights connect in either Milan MXP/LIN or in Rome FCO. I would try to avoid the MXP/LIN route if you don’t want to change airports there. You might be able to build in a long layover and see some of Milan however.

Here is the link for this: NYC-Palermo/Naples

EDMS US

Here are the term and conditions:

* Fares are round-trip per person in Business Class for travel on Alitalia flights and include government taxes/fees and carrier-imposed charges. Tickets must be purchased by February 22, 201711:59 PM EST. Travel periods: from New York to Naples from April 12 to October 28, 2017; from New York to Palermo from April 11 to October 27, 2017.Fares is applicable only for specific days of week for outbound and inbound. Additional conditions regarding travel dates, day-of-week restrictions and child/infant conditions may apply. Day of the week surcharges may apply. Changes fees may apply. Tickets may be non-refundable. Stopovers may not be permitted. Transfers may not be permitted. Fares are subject to class of service availability and may be changed or withdrawn without notice. Additional baggage fees may apply.

In addition you can join the Alitalia Millemiglia program however I personally would rather credit these to other Skyteam members that have better expiration policies. If you want to join the Millemiglia Program however you can get a signup bonus right now of 2,000 miles using this link: Alitalia Millemiglia . This trip should earn you about 8,600’ish miles roundtrip.

Business class on Alitalia features access to the Skyteam lounges, priority gate access, free bags, 180 degree lay flat seats on mostly new A330’s. They have been featuring Bulgari amenity kit’s and have highly rated cuisine.

I don’t not get any benefit from any of these links. This is just a good deal I found.