Until a few months ago, Aeroplan permitted its members to book into United’s (domestic) first class cabin on two-cabin aircraft while traveling on business class awards.  When it came time to piece together this award in early December, I had few options to get across the United States around Christmas.  Economy seats were scarce because of the holiday and first class awards were practically unbookable due to the mileage penalty.  While better than economy, United’s domestic first class isn’t exactly that thrilling, especially at a price of 45k additional Aeroplan miles.  This left me originally booking a flight on Continental, which codes its “first class” as business class for ticketing purposes.

Two weeks later, United opened up several business class seats on its p.s. service from New York Kennedy to San Francisco.  Then, a week ago, United opened up several business class seats from Los Angeles to New York for my return leg.   With p.s. availability for both domestic legs available, I splurged by ponying up the $90 Aeroplan change fee to switch.  p.s.’ business class is on par with United’s old international (non-lie-flat) business class seats and, in my experience, been a far better experience than Continental’s domestic first class.  The flight change left me departing New York on Friday, December 23rd, rather than Saturday, December 24th.  I left work and caught the train to the airport.

Frequently flying has caused me to pick up a few quirks exhibited while traveling.  The first of these is something of a fetish for boarding passes.  A proper boarding pass is on crisp, clean paper stock.  The boarding passes printed on 8.5 by 11 inch paper, or worse, stored entirely on a cell phone, are fare to ephemeral for me.    The premium side to United’s check-in desks had two agents.  One was assisting another party; another was happily tapping away at his computer, leaving me to use the kiosks that offered printed boarding passes on thin, flimsy sheets of paper.

For this trip, TSA did not disappoint.  I offered my boarding pass and NEXUS card to the name checker.  She proceeded to look at the picture, look at me, waive the card under her UV light, mark off my boarding pass, finally handing the two back to me.  As I approached the plastic bins, she summoned me back, demanding to see my ID once more.  I handed my NEXUS card back to her.  This time, she looked at it for a while, took a look at the back, and concluded that because she “had never seen one of these,” it was an unacceptable form of ID.  I tried to explain that it was a trusted traveler card, but was rebuffed by it being for “my safety” that I show proper ID if I wanted to fly that day.  If it weren’t interfering with my traveling experience, I would call the JFK Terminal 7 TSA staff’s urge to cite “my safety” as their reason for doing anything amusing, but sadly, it isn’t.

Once past the name checker, I headed off to the United Club since business (and first) class passengers have access to it.

There are a few works of art just outside of the entrance to the club.  The first of these is an obvious p.s. destination; the second leaves me wondering if this is a secret symbol of San Francisco.

There’s a longish hallway from the entrance desk out to the edge of the terminal, overlooking the tarmac.

The club had the usual United Club fare available.

The JFK Club’s bar area:

The club has nice views of the tarmac:

After spending a few minutes in the club, I realized I hadn’t checked how full the flight was, mostly on an assumption that if it was oversold, United wouldn’t have released a Star Alliance award seat on it.  I checked with the front desk agent who told me that they would be fine.  On a hunch, I left the club 50 minutes before departure and checked with the gate agent.  He recognized me from all of my ex-JFK p.s. segments (and VDB voucher bookings) and told me that while they’d be “full,” they wouldn’t be so full as to need to bump anyone.  As I was wandering back to the door to take a picture of the departure screen, he waived me back over:  “Would you mind sitting in first class this evening?”  As it turned out, the four people in my row in first class were op’ups.  Ordinarily, I’m an aisle seat person, but I chose a window seat so I wouldn’t disturb my seatmate so much if I decided to play with my seat during flight.

United 389

New York (JFK) - San Francisco (SFO)

Friday, December 23rd

Depart:  7:28PM

Arrive: 10:06PM

Duration:  5 hours, 38 minutes

Aircraft: Boeing 757-200

Seat: 3D (First Class)

Ever since United announced that p.s. would shift to a two-class, lie-flat configuration, I’ve been considering possible itineraries that would book me into the first class cabin.  Christmas came a bit early for me.

Earlier this year, I was on an oversold JFK-LAX flight that led to me being rebooked from coach into business class on this very airplane (N512UA).  It was my first trip in a premium cabin and I concluded at once that I was overwhelmed by the few levers that the business class seats had to offer.  I’ve since learned how to manipulate all the levers and knobs for the p.s. business class seats, but this seat offered even more options:

I know.  I have terrible first world problems.

The seat has respectable legroom.  Besides having so much as to make it possible to lie down on the floor in front of you, it’s hard to ask for more.

Our purser came by before departure to offer predeparture beverages and dinner menus.

The wine list read as follows:

I had previously requested a vegetarian meal, so my first and second courses came from United’s Asian vegetarian offerings.  (Oddly, they don’t offer an ovo-lacto vegetarian option on request for p.s. flights, even though their menu was provided for one.)

In between the first and second course, the purser came by to offer white and whole grain rolls (not pictured here).  One thing that is in the picture, however, is a can of Coca-Cola.  The purser provided the passengers in the cabin with poured glasses as well as the accompanying cans (for those beverages which came out of cans).  While some would argue that it’s not as stylish, it’s far more practical when one wants a refill.

The food was far tastier than the dim lighting would make it appear to be.  Dessert was an ice cream sundae, which I took with hot chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

I swear there’s some ice cream under there.  As a follow-up to all of this food came the traditional United  cookie:

The Tulip lives!  We touched down nearly an hour early to the smoothest landing I’ve had all year (absent hearing the thrust reversers or looking out the window, it was not apparent we had landed).  As fun as it would have been to head to Sydney a day early since the flight was still boarding, I left the airport for my hotel, the Radisson San Francisco Airport Bay Front for the night.

SPG is offering bonus points on multinight stays between 1/9 and 4/8.  Two night stays earn double points; three night or more stays earn triple points.  The offer has a number of nonparticipating hotels.

Thanks to the Aeroplan glitch (or unadvertised “promotion”), I put together a quick trip to Sydney and Auckland in business class for myself during Christmas and New Years.   While the award is hardly maximized, it worked out reasonably considering the limited business class availability across the Atlantic and Asia between Christmas and New Years by traveling via Europe.  Considering I spent 76k Membership Rewards points (and bought 4k Aeroplan miles), the itinerary is a steal compared to spending 130k United Mileage Plus miles.

When I had been looking at possible routings over the weekend before I booked, my transpacific segments were constrained by United and Air New Zealand’s then award availability.  United had plenty of seats from the US west coast to Australia at Christmas but none back for New Years.  Air New Zealand had good availability around Christmas, some availability around New Years back to North America, and almost nothing to or from Australia.  The fickleness of these award seats is represented somewhat in my routing via Vancouver.  Originally, I had been considering returning from Auckland via San Francisco, picking up a United flight back to Newark.  Around lunchtime, that seat disappeared, leaving me looking for new transpacific openings; I found AKL-YVR.  To get back to New York, I tacked on an Air Canada segment to Los Angeles and, thanks to Aeroplan’s allowance of two stopovers in addition to the destination, added a stop in Los Angeles to wait for flights with suitable transcontinental award availability.

In the intervening two weeks, Air New Zealand did open up seats to San Francisco and Los Angeles direct from Auckland, I kept the routing via Vancouver.  The one upside of paying UA’s normal award rates is that I can call and make changes for free as a 1K; changes to these Aeroplan awards might require more miles, miles that I don’t have (any more because I spent them on a trip to Asia in March :D).  If nothing else, I’ll be able to stop by to get my NEXUS iris scan done and see what Air Canada has in way to offer at its Maple Leaf Lounge.  Around 2AM EST Wednesday, I noticed that UA had opened up some availability right after New Years in p.s. business class.  When I got up to call Aeroplan at 7AM to adjust my outbound flight to p.s. as well to consolidate the change fee, the “promotion” had ended, but I was able to change out my Continental segments for ones on United p.s.  While I’ve flown numerous times in both of these cabins this year, p.s. still holds its distinction for me.    With these tweaked segments, my new itinerary is New York Kennedy to San Francisco to Sydney to Auckland to Vancouver to Los Angeles to New York Kennedy, traveling 21947 miles in 10 days.

I’ve added a trip report index spanning this year to the blog.

There’s a rather nice video on YouTube featuring images of United’s old, Tulip-bearing livery circulating.

MilesQuest points out a Priority Club promotion for watching a short video:

1. Go to priorityclub.com/visa1000

2. Enter in one of the promo codes

   SKAEXGTNC4 SKAEXR6WC4 SKAEX8M4C4 SKAEX9KYC4

3. Watch the video.

I ended up scoring 37 hits for the US Airways Grand Slam this fall.  The ease of repeating this obviously depends on one’s purchasing habits:  I frequently rent cars and stay at hotels, for example.  I’ve italicized the hits that I consider reasonably accessible to even infrequent travelers.

Free Hits:

• 21st Century Auto Insurance:  The free quote they gave me provided me 200 US Airways miles and another reason to never own a car in New York City.
• Audience Rewards:  Answering six audience rewards trivia questions yielded 12 US Airways miles.
• Dividend Miles Toolbar:  I performed three searches with the toolbar and got an otherwise free hit (and 1 US mile).
• Dividend Miles Dining:  I registered one of my credit cards and bought a slice of pizza at a nearby restaurant for 11 US miles.
• e-Miles:  I did e-Miles and did a transfer to US for 500 miles.
• e-Rewards:  I did a few surveys on e-Rewards and did a transfer to US for 500 miles.  Hertz fortunately sent me an invitation shortly into Grand Slam that permitted me to transfer out to US Airways.

Purchasing Things:

• 1-800-Flowers:  I spent $13.99 on my order with shipping to get a small stuffed animal, 140 US Airways miles.
• Biscoff:  I spent $13.47 for an order of cookies and 42 US Airways miles.
• Buying Miles:  I bought 1000 US Airways miles for $37.63.
• FTD:  I bought a tin of Ms. Field’s cookies for $43.98 to get 850 US miles.
• Netflix:  I got a 6 month Netflix subscription for 1.5k miles with an all-in cost of $47.94.
• Network Solutions:  I registered a domain name for 3 years to get 2k US miles for $26.09.
• OfficeMax:  I placed an order with OfficeMax (that I would have inevitably placed) for 179 US miles.  For those without such an inclination, it is possible to order a box of paper clips for about $9 with shipping.
• ShareBuilder:  I funded an account and placed an order to get 2.5k US miles for $9.95.
• Shopping Mall:  I ordered a book from Barnes and Noble via the shopping mall portal to get 22 US miles.
• SkyMall:  I bought a dog collar for a FlyerTalker to donate to his local humane society to get 21 miles for $14.63.
• SuperShuttle:  I took a SuperShuttle instead of public transportation back from JFK to my apartment for 50 US miles.  It was $10.00 more than I would have paid to take the Airtrain/LIRR to Manhattan.  Members of FlyerTalk have discussed taking a “ride” from the Phoenix Airport to its aloft for $3.00 after discount.
• TD Ameritrade:  I funded a TD Ameritrade account with $2.5k to get 2.5k US miles.  My opportunity cost is the greater of a negligible amount of interest or 2.5k UA miles (via another signup promo).
• Teleflora:  I ordered flowers for $44.98 to get 750 US miles.
• ThanksAgain:  I bought a Restaurant.com certificate for $1.00 to get 3 US miles.
• TrackItBack:  I bought a single sticker for $24.94 to get 500 US miles.
• Vinesse:  I bought a wine tasting notebook for $18.57

Renting Cars:

• Hertz:  I had 6 car rentals (5 two day rentals and 1 three day rental) during the GS period for 650 miles.  Since I would have rented these cars anyways, my only cost was the opportunity cost of not earning 650 UA miles instead.

Staying at Hotels:

• Hilton Stay:  I stayed at the Seattle Double Tree in September and chose fixed points.  With the Hilton Q3 promo, this earned me 1k US miles.  My opportunity cost is 1k in UA miles (or about 1.2k in Hilton points, a slightly less valuable alternative).
• Hyatt Stays:  I stayed at two Hotel Sierras by Hyatt in November, crediting my stays to US for 500 miles per stay.   Since my stays were $90 per night, my opportunity cost was 585 Hyatt Gold Passport points per night.

Transferring Points:

• Choice Transfer:  I bought 5.5k Choice Hotel points for $55 and transfered 5k to get 1k in US Airways miles.
• Exchange Miles:  I converted 4 AA miles to 1 US mile.
• Hilton Transfer:  I converted 10k Hilton HHonors points to 850 US Airways miles.
• Magazines for Miles:  I got myself a subscription to The Economist (a $100 or so value) for redeeming 3.2k US miles.  There were 500 mile redemption tiers.  Since I started this in September without a single US Airways mile to my name, I used the miles I earned from partners and the initial hit bonuses to buy my subscription.
• SPG Transfer:  I converted 1.5k SPG points to 1.5k US Airways miles.
• Share Miles:  I shared 1k miles for $40.75.

Overall, my opportunity cost was $402.92, 4 AA miles, 10k Hilton points,  1.17k Hyatt points, 1.5k SPG points, 4.150k UA miles, and a few hours of my time.  With the miles from activity (just over 19k) and the bonuses (100k), I’m a few hundred miles short of a first class award to North Asia via Europe.  Alternatively, this would cover nearly five domestic roundtrips (on Star Alliance carriers).

My list identifies 25 “easily” achieved hits.  If one values US Airways miles at 1cpm, the 24 hit tier is a reasonable target for about $350 (the 25 italicized hits minus the Choice Hotels transfer as a 25th hit is unnecessary).  This would yield 45k in Grand Slam bonuses and about 9k in net partner miles (by choosing a magazine subscription for 500 miles rather than 3.2k).

In preparation for my trip to Australia, I needed to get an electronic travel authority to Australia.  Applying for one directly from Australia online costs 20AUD, whereas United waives the fee for 1Ks.  After spending around $5k with United this year, it’s a small 0.4% return on investment.

Earlier this year, the TSA announced prescreening programs for the respective elites and known travelers on American and Delta itineraries departing from DFW, MIA, and ATL.   Continental is now taking signups for their own program that they are “working with the TSA to provide…to customers…in the upcoming months.”

Back in August, I applied for the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card.  I met my minimum spend of $1k for a 75k Membership Rewards point bonus and was temporarily foiled in September with the pullback by Amex on the “bump the bonus” practice frequently discussed on FlyerTalk.  After a few exchanges with Amex via secure message, they credited the points I was promised in August.

With the devaluation of British Airways award chart into Avios and a salvo of Aeroplan devaluations (award chart increases, no domestic first class access on international business class awards, and suddenly imposed fuel surcharges on most Star Alliance carriers), I was left wondering what I’d do with all of these points, particularly as I was eyeing the 50k signup bonus for the Amex Platinum card.

Amidst this gloom came a discovery on Friday afternoon that Aeroplan was charging economy miles for business class awards (similarly business class prices for first class awards).  Over the weekend, I managed to piece together a comparatively simple Aeroplan award from Christmas through New Year’s in business class for 80k Aeroplan miles (acquired by transferring 76k Membership Rewards points and purchasing 4k Aeroplan miles for $120) and paying $222.77 in taxes and fees:  EWR-SFO-SYD (turn) - AKL (stop) - YVR - LAX (stop) - EWR.

Thanks to the summertime devaluation of blocking access to domestic first class seats on business class awards and scarce p.s. business class availability from New York, I booked my transcontinental segments on Continental which codes its domestic “first class” cabin as business class for ticketing purposes.