Having been escorted to a waiting car from the lounge, we quickly drove along the terminal past Lufthansa’s various widebodies waiting to depart to far-off lands.

Until we turned left and drove past the jetbridge, it didn’t occur to me that this was the 747 scheduled to fly to New York.

After stopping the car, my driver escorted me and my suitcase to an elevator next to the jet bridge so I could board the plane.

Lufthansa 400
Frankfurt (FRA) – New York (JFK)
Tuesday, December 31st, 2013
Depart:  10:55AM
Arrive: 1:35PM
Duration:  8 hours, 40 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 747-430 (D-ABTL)
Seat: 82C (First Class)

While many airlines place their first class cabin behind the nose on their 747’s, Lufthansa has its on the upper deck.  The 747 First Class differs a bit from those on other aircraft (such their A340) by featuring a dedicated bed next to the seat, minimizing the compromises necessary to get a seat that can morph into a bed at a moment’s notice.

  One of the flight attendants stopped by to drop off a pair of pajamas and an amenity kit.

After finishing up boarding soon after the first class passengers arrived, we had a short taxi past a waiting United 777 before taking off.

The menu read as follows:

The initial place setting, complete with butter, olive oil, and grinders for salt and pepper.

As we were departing from a Lufthansa hub, they could afford to attend to details such as ensuring the butter is stamped “First Class.”

When United’s reservations system dropped this Lufthansa segment, I lost my vegetarian meal reservation.  Nonetheless, the flight worked out and I was able to find suitable vegetarian options from the menu.  I began with the salad and lettuce mousse.

For my main course, I selected the walnut gnocchi.

Finally, I had some carrot cake, topped with fresh carrots, for dessert.

Having woken up at the crack of dawn in Europe (and with minimal sleep from the night before), I settled down to take a nap.  I woke up shortly into the snack service just before landing, selecting the canape with cream cheese.

Once off the plane, Customs was a zoo, even for Global Entry, so I was a bit delayed in getting into the city.

I found myself relaxing most of the night before my flight to New York. At about 1AM, I looked at my United reservation in dismay.  My flight from Zurich to Frankfurt was there, as was my onward flight from New York.  The Lufthansa First segment was missing in action. Fast forward an hour later and with the help of a United agent, I managed to get the segment restored.  Nevertheless, it seemed prudent to head over to over to the airport a bit early.  If everything was fine, I’d wind up enjoying more time in the First Class Terminal.  If things weren’t, I’d have more lead time to resolve everything.

After catching a few hours of sleep, I checked out of the Sheraton and walked along the arrivals level to the First Class Terminal.

The main entrance to the building is on the second floor, with a driveway attached to it.  The first floor entrance, accessible from the sidewalk from the arrivals level, has an elevator up to the check-in desks.

I quickly checked-in with the agent and then passed through the most courteous security screening before entering the lounge.

The lounge had a small display case filled with some of the collectible-edition, Lufthansa rubber ducks.

Having put down my bags, I ventured over to look at my options for breakfast.  (On account of the precarious state my reservation was in, I opted to head straight to the terminal rather than visit the lounge at the Sheraton for food.)

Shortly into my meal, the check-in agent returned with my boarding pass, my passport, and a New Years edition rubber duck.

Rather than list all of the day’s flights, the First Class Terminal’s departure screens are customized to the passengers actually in the lounge.

The tables throughout the lounge had drink menus.  I think those are fairly understandable.

…but water?  That seems a bit more far fetched.

About 30 minutes before departure, I began packing up my laptop bag in anticipation of needing to depart.  Around then, one of the lounge attendants found me and escorted me to the lower level so I could exit the Schengen Area and be driven over to my flight.

After writing up my post about the AA award chart changes, I took a quick glance at Twitter.  There’s not quite the sharp response that was elicited by United and Delta during their recent devaluations, but I caught notice of American Airlines promising that all would be revealed in the morning.

Well, okay, they didn’t quite say that.  They went for:

You’ll see some changes to the AA and US websites. We plan to officially announce some new policies later this morning

Then the other shoe dropped:

US Airways has a new award chart out, increasing the price to 110k miles roundtrip for business class to North Asia.  Somewhat oddly, first class remains at 120k miles roundtrip.

While it’s not quite as bad as the feared fuel surcharges of last August, One Mile at a Time discusses how AA has quietly restricted its AAnytime awards.  In between his original post and my write-up of this, AA has released a new award chart with “five” tiers:

• MileSAAver Level 1: This looks like AA’s old off-peak awards.
• MileSAAver Level 2: These look like AA’s traditional peak MileSAAver awards.
• AAnytime Level 1: Old price
• AAnytime Level 2: New higher tier
• AAnytime Level 3: A very vague asterisk.

One commenter on FlyerTalk suggests that this is the start of market-based awards for last-seat availability:

It is meant to be announced tomorrow. AA did everything in their power to keep it hush hush until they sprang it on us. AAnytime awards will now be dynamic, meaning we will have to pay a premium on high demand dates/periods, and less on off peak periods. What is also unannounced as of yet is that International Gateway City Stopovers are also gone.

Emphasis mine on the real nugget in there.  Edit:  A quick search of NRT-LAX (stop)-BOS shows that this is pricing as two separate awards:

This trip was originally built around a segment starting from Zürich back to the United States.  During my trip, though, I kicked around dropping my United-ticketed return leg in favor of an American Airlines award.  As I had some domestic (yes, domestic) award travel in three-cabin first class on AA already ticketed, it dawned on me that I could add on flights from Zürich to New York for a marginal cost of 30k miles, some taxes, and a helping of British Airways-imposed fuel surcharges.

I’ve never been thrilled by BA’s fuel surcharges, but spending $340 in lieu of an additional 32.5k isn’t a terrible deal.  While a similar analysis could be done for making use of my stopover on my United award, UA didn’t have saver award availability on my desired dates of travel (nor did it ever end up opening up).

Meanwhile, as I kicked around rebooking myself, Lufthansa opened up some first class availability to New York from Frankfurt, so I jumped from the United-operated nonstop from Zürich and abandoned my aspirations of flying BA First (for now).

When I arrived at the lounge, the attendants directed me to the Business Class side of the lounge. The Lufthansa Group family of airlines are sticklers for making passengers show their Star Alliance Gold cards to have access to the senator lounges and my experience was no different.

Once inside, I visited the buffet for a light snack.

In early 2013, I had signed up for the Chase Hyatt Visa card on the eve of losing Hyatt Diamond status. As a result, I had two free suite award nights for any Hyatt worldwide.  While I had managed to use one night in October at the Park Hyatt Milan, I still had a night expiring in mid-January.

To make the best of it, I decided to use it at the Park Hyatt Zürich.

Upon check-in, the clerk escorted me to my suite and showed me around.

For my flight to London, I booked an Avios award in Club Europe for 9k Avios points.  While coach would have been good enough, this decision–similar to my flight from Berlin–was driven by award availability rather than personal preference.

After clearing security, I made my way to the Galleries First lounge.  As I was checking in at the front desk, the clerk suggested I might want to visit the Galleries Club lounge on account of traveling in Club Europe rather than the Galleries First lounge via my Executive Platinum card.

“Isn’t this one supposed to be nicer?”

“Well, yes, it is.”

I’m still puzzled why this conversation happened.

I made my way into the lounge to look into the dinner options I had available.

Terminal 5 would have sweeping views of British Airways’ various aircraft, but most are unfortunately obstructed by the terminal’s architectural features.

With boarding about to commence, I made my way from the lounge to the remote terminal 5 pier.  Virgin Atlantic has taken to advertising in the middle of British Airways’ “home.”

Sadly, not my chariot to Zürich was not a 747.

Club Europe’s legroom leaves a bit to be desired.

Once in flight, I got to discover the joys of children in premium cabins.  A family seated next to and in front of me had brought two children with them.  As to ensure I had a pleasant flight, they took turns screaming, crying, climbing over the seats, and throwing toys throughout the cabin.

We arrived at a remote stand in Zürich.  My luxury car rides to planes aside, it was one of the more pleasant remote stand experiences I’ve had, thanks to stereotypical Swiss efficiency.

For my two nights in London, I booked a category 6 award with Club Carlson for The May Fair Hotel for 50k points per night.  As part of the 2014 Club Carlson devaluation, this hotel is now 70k points per night.

As a Club Carlson Visa cardholder (a refrain heard often on this trip), my last night was free, so my stay only cost 50k points for two nights.  At the time of my stay, room rates started at around 350 GBP/nt.  Since I wouldn’t actually be willing to pay that much, even for a hotel in Central London, I can’t claim to have truly received 2.3 cents per point of “value” from this redemption.

At check-in, I was assigned a standard room with a king bed.  Unfortunately, the windows overlooked an small airshaft rather than anything remotely scenic.

As a Club Carlson Gold member (thanks to my credit card), I found a small box of chocolates and a handwritten note of thanks in my room when I arrived.

For my flight to London, I booked a ticket in Club Europe with 9k Avios points.  This choice wound up being driven by award availability (or the lack thereof in coach), rather than any particular desire to fly intra-European business class.

Between possessing oneworld Emerald status and being ticketed in business class, I was able to fortunately avoid the lengthy check-in line.

As I was checking in, I asked where the British Airways lounge was located and found myself directed back from where I came.  The lounge isn’t very prominently signed nor is it particularly close to the British Airways gate, which is a bit of a challenge by the standards of how small Tegel is.

I also got the feeling that I might have been here before.

As my exposure to oneworld has mostly come from American Airlines, I’m still learning the ropes of what exactly I should expect from British Airways’ “terraces” tier of lounge.  Observations so far?  Juice and wine of unknown quality seem to be on-hand.

After settling into the lounge for 30 minutes, they announced it was time for boarding.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t get my 4.5k extra Avios worth of legroom out of this flight.

For my two nights in Berlin, I booked two nights at the Park Inn Berlin Alexanderplatz.  As this is a category 4 hotel, awards cost 38k points per night.  Coupled with my Club Carlson Visa which saw a lot of use this trip, my cost was effectively only 19k points per night.

While this was not the absolute “best” value for Club Carlson points (my stay at the May Fair in London later on in the trip was far better), I’ve been keen to taper my Club Carlson balance to a more reasonable level.

As a bit of a history lesson, this hotel opened as the Hotel Stadt Berlin in 1970.  Fortunately, the hotel was renovated in 2012.

As a Club Carlson Gold member via my credit card, I found a fruit and wine amenity waiting for me when I checked in to my room.

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For my flight to Berlin, I booked an Avios award with 4.5k points.  For the short hop, an hour in coach was far better than spending ten hours on a train.

Niki also seems to have a confusingly expensive set of food options to purchase on board.  I’m not sure why I would ever spend 39 Euros to have a cake in flight rather than simply buy one on the ground.

For my stay in Vienna, I booked two award nights at the Radisson Blu Palais hotel.  As a Club Carlson Visa cardholder, my second night was free, so this award only cost 44k points.

As I was researching this stay, I noticed that all of the room rates advertised a complimentary minibar.

After arriving off of my flight from Los Angeles, I made my way to the Lufthansa First Class lounge prior to my flight to Vienna.

I checked in with the front desk attendant, who then directed me to the window across from her.  Rather than have First Class passengers enter Schengen elsewhere in the airport, Lufthansa has arranged for a member of the German Border Police to be available.

As I my flight to Vienna was going to be departing from a remote stand, I was told to come back when it was time for my flight to get a ride to my plane.

I then went to the back of the lounge to take a shower following my redeye flight.  Lately, Lufthansa has been issuing collectible blue rubber ducks, but this location was apparently “out.”

There were only a few other passengers in the lounge on a Monday afternoon.

I then went out in search of lunch at the buffet.

All of the outlets were European style.

When I entered the lounge, the attendant at the front desk had instructed me to return to the front at 3PM for my ride to the remote stand for my flight to Vienna.  As I didn’t want to hold up an entire plane with my tardiness, I returned at 3 sharp and went downstairs to the limousine desk.  Boarding had not commenced, so the agent advised me to take a seat.

She investigated and found out that the flight was still waiting on one last crewmember.  As there was going to be a brief delay, she suggested I leave my bags downstairs and return to the lounge to relax.  A few minutes later, the front desk clerk stopped by to apologize for the delay and let me know that I my flight (and car) were ready.

As we approached the plane, my driver asked whether I wanted to board the plane first.  Rather than hold up a bus full of people, I said I didn’t mind waiting or boarding simultaneously.  After we pulled up to the plane, he verified that the crew was ready for boarding, let me out of the car, and then carried my bag to the plane.

Meanwhile, a bus full of people were waiting, despite my best intentions.

My gate was a quick walk from the lounge, so I took a moment to admire the planes preparing to depart to Europe that evening.

The flight was already starting to board economy, so whatever line there might have been for the premium lane had already cleared out.

Lufthansa 453
Los Angeles (LAX) – Munich (MUC)
Sunday, December 22nd, 2013
Depart:  5:16PM
Arrive: 1:04PM
Duration:  10 hours, 48 minutes
Aircraft: Airbus A340-642 (D-AIHP)
Seat: 2K (First Class)

As I settled in, a flight attendant came by with an amenity kit, pajamas, and a menu for dinner.  After introducing himself (in English), he asked whether I preferred English or Deutsch.  I answered “either,” leading the flight attendants to interpret that as “English” for the rest of the flight.  Answering this in German might lead to better results.

The flight attendants then came by offering water and champagne as predeparture drinks.  My macadamia nuts and rose were somehow overlooked, however.  The purser eventually stopped by with a rose after takeoff.

The menu read as follows:

Obviously, it’s not possible to realize that you’re flying in Lufthansa’s First Class without it being prominently written at the front of the cabin.

The dinner service began with bread and olive oil.

Lufthansa provides small salt and pepper grinders for its meal service.

I had ordered a vegetarian meal in advance, so in lieu of caviar, I was served a small vegetable plate.

The vegetable plate seemed a bit redundant with the salad appetizer.

I had ravioli for my entree.

A bit after dinner, I asked for a turndown.  Lufthansa’s in-flight entertainment left a bit to be desired, so I decided that getting a full night’s rest, even if at an awkwardly time in the evening, was a better choice.

Several hours later, I woke up to a well-lit cabin and one of the flight attendants asking me for my breakfast selection.  When I mentioned that I had ordered a vegetarian meal, she quickly recalled that and returned with breakfast.  Two dishes of fruit, rather than the one on-menu dish of fruit, is an important part of any vegetarian breakfast.

As the breakfast service was wrapping up, our captain came on to announce our imminent arrival to Munich airport.

After reaching our gate, I disembarked and began walking to the center of the main terminal, in search of the Lufthansa First Class Lounge prior to my flight to Vienna.

With my flight to Munich departing at 5:15PM, I dropped off my rental car just before 3PM and made my way to LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal.  The Lufthansa First Class check-in line actually had two other passengers waiting when I arrived.

During check-in, the agent asked me if I needed to be escorted to the lounge or the plane.

Me: “What exactly does that entail?”

Agent: “Well, we’ll walk you through security and drop you off in the lounge.  In the case of the plane, we’ll pick you up from the lounge when the flight is ready to board.”

As TBIT is serviced by non-US flagged carriers, TSA Precheck hasn’t been setup yet, so I decided that being walked past security could save a bit of time.  It worked out well in that I was able to enter the north checkpoint after they had stopped accepting new passengers for screening.  It worked out poorly, as the agent didn’t want to steer us to a checkpoint with just a metal detector, so I ended up having to opt-out and enjoy a Freedom Grope.

Star Alliance runs a shared lounge at TBIT with a separate first class section.

When I arrived, the first class section was empty.

Shortly after I arrived, an attendant stopped by with a dining menu.  As I was going to eat on my flight, I turned it down and began to look around.

The first class section has a small dedicated selection of food and drinks of its own and passengers can head over to the main Star Alliance Gold lounge next door.

Since Hong Kong, I’ve become fascinated by the power outlets available near the seating areas of lounges.

While the first class is somewhat secluded (and has views of absolutely nothing), the main lounge overlooks the main airside hall.

The lounge has an outside terrace that looks northeast towards the east part of runways 24L/24R and the terminal buildings.  The weather of Los Angeles in December was too much for lounge goers, even with several fireplaces and heaters setup.  For the hour (near sunset), it was a bit disappointing that the terrace didn’t face west.

The main lounge had its own selection of food, along with a few hot dishes.

As part of the decorations for the lounge, there were a number of quotes prominently displayed on the walls.  I kept feeling like they were telling me something about Los Angeles…

Soon though, it was time for my flight to Munich and headed to my gate.

For Christmas and New Years, I decided I would try booking earlier than last year (the Friday before Christmas weekend).  This didn’t actually prove to be particularly useful:  My final outbound flight wasn’t booked until the night before.  To give a glimpse of my trip construction, with an outbound on 12/22 and a return commencing 12/30:

• 12/11: ZRH-EWR (UA J)
• 12/15: LAX-SFO-FRA (UA F) / ZRH-EWR (UA J)
• 12/21: LAX-MUC (LH F) / ZRH-EWR (UA J)
• 12/22: LAX-MUC-VIE (LH F, J) / ZRH-EWR (UA J)
• 12/27: LAX-MUC-VIE (LH F, J) / ZRH-FRA-JFK (LX J, LH F)

It looks messy, but on a map, the final flights are close to the “I better book something, just so I can get there” flights I chose:

With the then-impending United devaluation in February, I was thrilled to pick up two seats in Lufthansa First.

As I wanted to move between several European cities during my trip, I booked three flights with Avios, eventually finishing the itinerary with:

For my three nights in Hong Kong, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui.  The hotel occupies part of a mixed-use building in Kowloon, shared with a mall on the ground floor and residences on the higher floors.

Room rates were hovering a bit north of 250USD/nt, so I decided to redeem 15k points/nt for my stay.  This was done as very practical booking, rather than an aspirational one.  Further, category 4 standard rooms were untouched in the great Hyatt devaluation.

The graylish slab to the right of the bed is a sliding door that exposes a window to the bathroom sink.

Just prior to my Hyatt Diamond status expiring in early 2013, I signed up for the Hyatt Visa card and completed my minimum spending, yielding me two suite award nights at any* Hyatt worldwide.  As part of my visit in Milan, I decided to use one night to stay at the Park Hyatt Milan.  At the time I booked, the retail price of a suite was about 810 Euros per night.

The Park Hyatt places floor plans of its suites online for convenient reference.

While hotel check-in was at 4PM, I arrived at about 1PM to see if any rooms were available.  The front desk clerk took down my information and, after being a bit confused by my Irish cell phone number (“There aren’t any more digits?”), sent me on my way.  I took to wandering around the Duomo and its nearby plaza.  He called me back about 30 minutes later, informing me that my room was available and I should return to the hotel.

For those reading the Hyatt brochure at home, I would have certainly liked to have received an Imperial Suite, in all 2745 square feet of glory, but I doubt these awards are given much consideration for upgrades.

My room overlooked a very quiet side street.  Just under the archway lies the Piazza del Duomo.

At some point while I was exploring Milan, the hotel staff stopped by to drop off a bottle of wine, bottled water, some dried peppers, and a handwritten note in my room.  (Scroll up to the earlier picture of the table…  I’ll wait.)

The Park Hyatt Milan is exceptionally centrally located.  Unfortunately, this hotel was one of the six Park Hyatts to be elevated into Hyatt’s new formed Category 7 hotels in January 2014, so a single night in a standard room is now 30k points and a single night in a suite is 48k.  While I can point to the retail price to convince myself how good of a “value” I would receive for redeeming points at this property, it’s hard to justify when there are reasonable–albeit not quite as nice–alternatives nearby.

* While this offer was on-going, the Park Hyatt Sydney was restricted to standard rooms, rather than suites, for credit card night redemptions.

Way back in 2012, Radisson ran a stay one night, get one night free promotion.  I wound up picking up a night at the Radisson San Jose Airport, as I was heading out of SJC particularly early in the morning trying to beat Hurricane Sandy’s landfall on the eastern seaboard.  The hurricane won the race, unfortunately.

This stay left me with a free night redemption at any US, Canada, or Caribbean Radisson to use by the end of 2013.  As my life is mostly composed of Starwood and Hyatt stays, I delayed redeeming this award until the use-it-or-lose-it factor kicked in.  I had a trip to San Francisco planned, and at the time, Radisson wanted $265 for a night at the Radisson Fisherman’s Wharf.

The hotel’s rooms were recently renovated, so the exterior appearance is a bit deceiving.

Somehow, I ended up with two beds, despite only needing one.

My room had a view of the bay and the parking lot.

As part of Hyatt’s January 7th devaluation, they announced that awards booked prior to that date would be eligible for changes using the old award chart until February 15th.

The 15th is almost here, so it’s time to make some last tweaks before those bookings are set in stone.

With Vancouver so close to Seattle, how could I pass up the opportunity to visit Canada?

From Seattle to Vancouver, there are three realistic options:  Planes, trains, and automobiles.  (Sadly, “boat” is unlikely to be very timely.)  As a truck had recently caused a bridge carrying I-5 to collapse, driving seemed potentially out of the question, so I looked at my options for Amtrak and Alaska Airlines.

Amtrak has a fantastically generous award chart on its “special routes,” 1.5k points for a coach one-way and 2k points for a business class one-way.  Amtrak was selling seats for $81 each the night before, so I was happy booking two with points instead.  With the low marginal cost of 500 points per ticket, I splurged on business class.  I’m glad I did:

• Business Class has its own check-in line at Seattle King Street Station.  In contrast, the coach line was still a sea of humanity minutes before boarding.
• Business Class is allowed first off the train and consequently, first through Canadian immigration.
• These tickets come with a $5 voucher for the cafe car.  While prices aren’t terrific, we didn’t have the luxury of time on our way from the hotel to the station.

Unlike the Amfleet cars that I see all too often on the NEC, the Cascades train has a unique livery.

The seats can’t rival p.s. Business Class, but they’re far better than coach on an airplane.

The route is scenic, spending a considerable amount of time along the coast.

Along the way, we were treated to a glimpse of the collapsed I-5 bridge.

Overall, the train took 4 hours; it’s agonizingly slow compared to New York-Washington on the NEC.  I slept on the train, just as I was going to if I had stayed at the hotel.

As I discussed in March, I successfully booked two nights at the Moana Surfrider Waikiki under the old award chart by calling when the website began showing the new rates prematurely.  I spent 24k points for two nights when the cash rate was hovering around $400/nt.

While valet parking is available in front of the main hotel building, self-parking uses the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani’s lot.  At night, it tends to be at capacity, so it’s always an adventure parking a car there.

The lobby: I received an “upgrade” to a partial ocean view room.  After looking at the main tower, however, it’s not clear to me what rooms don’t have some glimmer of an ocean view.

The room itself had normal Westin finishes and stylings.

On my last morning, I had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which overlooks the ocean and the hotel’s 100 year old banyan tree:

From further down Waikiki Beach, it’s possible to appreciate the relative size difference (and appearance) of the main Moana Hotel building and the adjacent tower.

I was just about to write-up my “it’s February 1st in the Central Time zone” post commemorating the devaluation (and the hundreds of thousands of miles that I’ve booked in the last 36 hours)…

…but Matthew at upgrd.com is reporting that the old award chart has been giving a ~~one~~ two day reprieve?  (Edit:  Apparently reading comprehension isn’t a strong suit of mine…) It’s even UAInsider on FlyerTalk official!

The Great United Devaluation is coming on February 1st, so tomorrow (January 31st) is the last day to make award bookings under the award chart.

For reference, a comparison between old award chart and the new award chart show the damage.

Some key takeaways (from North America):

• Europe business class is going from 100k to 115k (United) / 140k (Partners)
• Europe first class is going from 135k to 160k / 220k.
• Asia business class is going from 120k to 140k / 160k.
• Asia first class is going from 140k to 160k / 240-260k (North-South Asia).
• Australia/New Zealand business class is going from 135k to 140k / 160k
• Australia/New Zealand first class is going from 160k to 160k / 260k.

Having enjoyed my time in the lounge, I made my way to the end of the concourse to catch my flight to Newark.

Ordinarily, airport security abroad is a joy.  For our flight, bound to the United States, we got to enjoy another security screening before our gate.  There’s nothing quite like being asked to take off your shoes to give you a little reminder of home.

Lufthansa 412
Munich (MUC) – Newark (EWR)
Sunday, March 31st, 2013
Depart:  3:35PM
Arrive: 6:35AM
Duration:  9 hours
Aircraft:Airbus A340-642 (D-AIHU)
Seat: 3H (Business Class)

Upon boarding, I settled down into my seat in business class.

The menu read as follows:

I had ordered a vegetarian meal, so my service began with a salad and fresh fruit.

Shortly before arrival, we had a light stack, which in my case consisted of cheese and vegetables, along with a bowl of tomato soup.

While immigration was light at Newark when we arrived, Global Entry meant that I spent most of my time walking from the plane to the curb.

Prior to my flight to Newark, I stopped by the Lufthansa Senator Lounge.

The lounge was sharp and new feeling.

There was some cold food on offer, as well as the signature Lufthansa pretzel.

Prior to passing through security, I took a moment to go visit the observation terrace.  The weather outside left a bit to be desired for visibility, but fortunately, most of the observation area is covered.

By virtue of having Star Alliance Gold status by being a United 1K, I visited the Swiss-run Senator Lounge.  I previously visited in March 2012 on my way to Bangkok.

The lounge had a number of hot food items available, mostly centered around pastas of various sorts.

Hiding in the back of the food area, there were two soups and bread slices available.

The Senator Lounge has a display of A340 models taking off near its entrance.

After a while, it was time to go to my gate to catch my Lufthansa flight to Munich.  Inside of Europe, business class leaves a lot to be desired.  Our late evening flight was markedly lightly loaded:  We had eight passengers on our 737–two in business class and six in coach.

I noticed in New Girl in the Air’s point purchases recap that Amtrak is once again offering a 30% bonus on purchased points, up to 10k per year.  This brings the cost to 2.12 cpm

This brings the total cost of a Northeast Regional coach one-way to $84.80.  I’ve discussed the value for last-minute redemptions before.

Last night, I was pondering what I should do with my US Airways miles, particularly as the merger with AA approaches near certainty.  A few days ago, there had been off-peak busines class availability to Europe for this weekend, I scrapped the idea in light of this weekend’s Nor’easter.  Looking again to see if any availability opened up later in February, I noticed that the blue off-peak label just… wasn’t there anymore.

FlyerTalk picked up a change to the award chart.  I’m inclined to agree with Gary:  The change’s timing defies logic.  Wandering Aramean has the two charts side-by-side, but the practical impact seems to be that off-peak business class awards to Europe are dead.  (First class awards to Hawaii and the medium/high buckets to the Middle East and Alaska went up, but these were not the highlights of the award chart.)

The saving graces?  Lucky points out that the 90k mile business class award from North America to Asia (via Europe) has been spared… for now.  In the meantime, I’m continuing to not look forward to the merger.

View from the Wing that Avios is offering a 6 day sale for 25% off points needed for award bookings originating from London.  The upcoming 30% transfer bonus from Membership Rewards starting December 3rd doesn’t quite coincide with the promotion.

The fuel surcharges for awards haven’t been reduced, so it’s important to determine whether this promotion makes sense (from the consumer-side).  As I’m US-based, my inclination is to book a one-way ex-London (to satisfy the promotion) and book an award with AA/UA to Europe.  With more careful planning, a full-fledged roundtrip booked under the promotion could be nested within a roundtrip award (or revenue trip) booked elsewhere.

As a justification for why one might pay for British Airways’ fuel surcharges on an award, there’s currently no saver business or first class availability on AA metal across the Atlantic at least without AA.com getting more creative than it currently knows how to be.  The taxes and fees of a standard award for LHR-JFK one-way on AA metal currently run $282.80 in a premium cabin.

British Airways metal offers far more plentiful premium cabin space.  Picking a random date to book a business class award on LHR-JFK, I turned up two different prices, one with AA and one with BA:

With a 20k point price disparity, the BA-booked award is a clear winner between the two.  The $269.10 in “fees” above and beyond a standard AA-ticketed and operated award is less than ideal, but the point disparity can largely justify it.  I can routinely earn Avios points at 0.75cpp (paying a small processing fee to charge my rent to my BA Visa) but I currently earn AA miles at 1.54cpm (by flying; if I had the AAdvantage cards, I could similarly run my rent through them to achieve 0.94cpm).  This brings the implicit cost of the miles for these awards to $225 and $770 (or $470 with an AAdvantage card), covering the difference in “fees.”

A LHR-SFO one-way booking in business class tells a similar story.

The BA-operated fuel surcharge across both carriers widens to about $301.  The gap in the implicit costs between AA-ticketed and operated and BA-ticketed and operated narrows to  an optimistic $188.75 to a realistic $488.75 ($281.25 versus $770/$470).

As I lack status with British Airways, the redeposit fee of 40 USD deters me from speculatively booking to my heart’s content (as I might with AA/UA awards), but this promotion leaves in inclined to firm up my plans more quickly than I would otherwise.

I’m a bit late to the party, but Online Travel Review noted yesterday that Icelandair is having a 20% bonus on purchased points until September 28th.  30k Saga Club points (25k base + 5k bonus) can be purchased for 39,500ISK (including a 2000ISK processing fee).  Based on recent foreign exchange rates, this is roughly $331 assuming one uses a credit card with sane forex rates.

While this doesn’t sound like especially exciting news, Icelandair has some gems in its partner award chart.  Alaska Airlines roundtrip itineraries can be obtained for 20k Saga Club points in coach or 30k Saga Club points in first, in addition to a $40 or so fuel surcharge.  Further, while the award chart states “continental US,” there’s been quite a bit of success in booking itineraries with connections under 4 hours for travel all the way to Hawaii.

I would deem this deal as not long for this world, but it appears that Icelandair is well aware of the attention their point sale and award chart is getting.

One Mile at a Time reports that due to Singapore Airline’s computer system switchover, SQ award availability has suddenly opened up dramatically.

I’ve tried ticketing three itineraries and obtained three different outcomes.

1. A simple JFK-FRA-WAW-FRA-JFK trip in business class for August (with both TATL segments operated by SQ) led to a “one or more flights may not be available” message after the payment screen.
2. My JFK-GVA-ZRH (LX C)-FRA (LH C)-JFK (SQ C) is currently “Pending confirmation from Singapore Airlines.”
3. My ICN-SFO (SQ F)-EWR (UA F) one-way for August is ticketed and confirmed.

Per the Singapore Airlines announcement about this switchover, their operations will “resume progressively from 2200 hours on July 8th Singapore Local Time.”  That leaves about 11 hours for me to deploy the rest of my United miles towards further awards…

I had about an hour before boarding started, so I visited the Senator lounge next to my gate to check up on my email as my hotel imposed somewhat outrageous prices for internet access.

Traditionally, Continental operated the Newark-Berlin route with a mix of 757-200’s and 767-200’s.  Today, United was using a 767-224ER.

United 97
Berlin Tegel (TXL) to Newark (EWR)
Sunday, April 1st
Depart: 9:35AM
Arrive: 12:40PM
Duration: 9 hours, 5 minutes
Aircraft: 767-224ER (N67158)
Seat: 4B (Business Class)

The 767-200’s of Continental are still using the old BusinessFirst recliner style seats (rather than the full lie-flats of the 757-200’s and 777-200’s):

The menu read as follows:

Lately, United has been acting as if “bread” were a course unto itself for its premium cabins, so I must do the same.

I had ordered a vegetarian meal, but the flight attendant taking meal orders offered the on-menu cheese lasagna as well.

Shortly before landing, we were offered another snack service.

While this was a comfortable 9 hour daytime flight, I would have personally put up with the inconvenience of a connection in order to pick up a lie-flat seat for the overnight transatlantic flight.

Since Turkish Airlines was only offering the extended city tour, I had to cut out of the city tour a bit early.  Despite my best efforts to arrive at the airport with minimal time to spare, I still had time to visit the Turkish Airlines business class/Star Alliance Gold lounge.

From the time I booked this award (in December) until departure, Aeroplan was firmly convinced that I was flying on an Airbus A320 series aircraft.  A few weeks before the trip, the then Continental.com website began reporting that Turkish Airlines was operating an Airbus A340 between Istanbul and Berlin, even while Aeroplan (and Turkish Airlines!) were showing an A321 loaded on the schedule.

I didn’t get my hopes up.  Once I arrived at the gate, I was informed that the inbound aircraft was late, so I found a seat for myself somewhat removed from the windows.  When the gate agents began the mad boarding scramble, I looked out the windows and noticed two engines hanging off the left wing:  Continental.com was right.

Turkish 1723
Istanbul (IST) to Berlin-Tegel (TXL)
Saturday, March 31st
Duration: 2 hours, 50 minutes
Aircraft: A340-311 (TC-JDJ)
Seat: 2B (Business Class)

Our flight included dinner.  Normally, I stash my menu in my bag and photograph it off the plane with (hopefully) better lighting.  This time, I left it under my screen and a flight attendant took it back as he was walking through the cabin.

I left the United lounge shortly before the revised, scheduled boarding time.  The flight status TVs throughout the lounge had out of order signs next to them (despite being on) that didn’t exactly inspire my confidence.  Our departure was a bit further delayed, giving me a moment to snap a few pictures of the plane and take a quick walk to the end of the pier before boarding commenced.

Poor business class award availability for this flight notwithstanding, the cabin was quite empty:  15 of the 28 seats were occupied.

Turkish 51
Tokyo (NRT) to Istanbul (IST)
Friday, March 30th
Depart: 12:28PM
Arrive: 6:51PM
Duration: 12 hours, 23 minutes
Aircraft: 777-3F2ER (TC-JJL)
Seat: 2B (Business Class)

Like Air New Zealand’s safety video featuring the All Blacks (when your flight’s IFE is working properly), Turkish Airlines has a slightly off-beat one of its own with Manchester United.

The obligatory, pre-departure flight show:

The menu read as follows:

Since I had requested a vegetarian meal, my appetizer came preplated rather than served off of the cart.

After the meal, the flight attendants closed the window shades and turned on the mood lighting for our long flight across Asia.

About two hours out from Istanbul, we had a second meal service.

Overall, I was impressed by the Turkish Airlines business class product’s superb soft product, but I felt the seat left a bit to be desired.

New planes with new interiors goes a long way at providing a compelling hard product.  When I took this trip in late March, the 777-300ER I was on was about 13 months old; in comparison, the Thai 747-400 I took to Tokyo was about 21 years old.  That said, as a hard product person, the question I had for myself was “who would put up with a middle seat in paid business class in this day and age?”  It’s a question I ask myself every time I see the legacy United’s “new” 8 abreast business class product on its 747’s and 777’s.  (I shudder to contemplate United’s old business class product for long-haul travel, even if I enjoy their p.s. service domestically.)  In comparison, Air New Zealand fits 26-28 lie-flat business class seats, each with direct aisle access, on its 777’s in the same space that Turkish Airlines uses to fit 28 angled lie-flat business class seats, consisting of 8 window seats and 4 middle seats without direct aisle access.

For my hop to Tokyo, I selected the Thai-operated redeye.

Having relaxed in the Thai business class lounge until 45 minutes before departure, I decided to head to my gate.  Boarding didn’t start until around 25 minutes before departure, leaving me standing around the gate wondering how they could manage to board an entire 744 in 25 minutes when United can’t seem to board an A320 in 35 minutes.  Nonetheless, we managed to depart miraculously on-time.

Thai 640
Bangkok (BKK) to Tokyo (NRT)
Thursday, March 28th
Depart: 10:10PM
Arrive: 6:20AM
Duration: 6 hours, 10 minutes
Aircraft: 747-4D7 (HS-TGK)
Seat: 12A (Business Class)

This flight is a surprisingly short flight, until one studies a map:

Bangkok to Tokyo is a 2889 mile direct flight.  For comparison, San Francisco to New York is 2586 miles and Los Angeles to New York is 2475 miles.  While American and United serve a midnight snack (normally a chicken sandwich or a fruit and cheese plate) on their Flagship and p.s. routes respectively, Thai offers two meals on this flight.

The menu read as follows:

Due to the short flight time, I chose to skip the dinner and focus on sleep instead.  Breakfast service started about two hours before landing.

For my night in Bangkok, I chose the Aloft in Sukhumvit.

Overall, my room felt like a cookie-cutter replica of my previous Aloft stay last summer.

As I alluded to earlier, I booked a second business class Star Alliance award with Aeroplan in December during the business class for the price of coach “glitch.”  Coupled with the Aeroplan transfer promotion, the award cost 50k Membership Rewards points (all from my Amex Platinum signup bonus) in addition to taxes and fees.

When I booked my trip to Sydney and Auckland, I transfered 76k Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan.  At the time, Aeroplan was offering a 25k mile bonus if 100k miles were transfered from a single program.  I went ahead and transfered an additional 24k points to Aeroplan, waited a few days for the points to post, and then transfered an additional 26k points to Aeroplan.  Fortunately for me the booking glitch lasted while I waited for my bonus points to post, allowing me to book this Asia 1 business class award (normally 125k miles) for 75k Aeroplan miles which I obtained by transferring 50k Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan.

From credit card signups, promotions, and actual flying, I’ve wound up with globs of frequent flier miles and I want to make the most of them.  Since I was on a United revenue ticket for my trip to Europe in January, I did not make use of my US Airways Grand Slam-obtained Dividend Miles as I had originally planned to.  Since US Airways places Thailand and Singapore into its “South/Central Asia” award category (and thereby requiring 160k miles instead of 120k for first class), planning a trip there using Dividend Miles instead would not be as efficient.

Since this trip was booked roughly three months in advance, scarce award availability on other transatlantic flights and fuel surcharges from Aeroplan on Lufthansa-operated segments led me to pick my routing via Copenhagen and Berlin on United.  As I have never been to Denmark and last visited Berlin in 2005, both stops were reasonable concessions to make.

A further constraint of award travel are the routing rules imposed by the airlines.  IATA-set maximum permitted mileage (MPM) figures between city pairs can be used to validate revenue ticket routings.  The MPM for EWR-TYO is 12511 miles via the Atlantic and 8084 miles via the Pacific.  For comparison, the great circle distance is 6751 miles.

On a similar vein, MPM’s can be used to validate award tickets with some carriers.  United permits the MPM to be exceeded by 15%.  Aeroplan permits a (comparatively) meager 5% overage.  Since this is an Aeroplan award ticket, these rules gave me 13136 miles to work with in each direction for travel via the Atlantic (practically speaking, this means “via Europe” both ways due to distance restrictions and the Star Alliance route structure).  I made the most of it on my outbound leg (at 12979 miles) and comparatively less on my inbound leg (at 10666 miles).

As a continuation of this mental exercise, we could validate the itinerary as a EWR-BKK award.  The MPM for EWR-BKK is 11734 miles via the Atlantic and 10648 miles via the Pacific; the MPM+5% is 12320 and 11180 respectively.  While this works for the outbound journey, my now convoluted return from Bangkok (BKK-NRT-IST-TXL-EWR) exceeds the limit at 13555 miles.

Given these constraints, I arrived at my trip itinerary:  Newark to Copenhagen to Zurich to Bangkok to Tokyo to Istanbul to Berlin to Newark.  Aeroplan permits two stopovers (a stop over 24 hours) in addition to the destination itself; I’m stopping in Zurich, Bangkok, and Tokyo.  I have extended layovers in Copenhagen, Istanbul, and Berlin.

I got to LAX a bit early (1 hour, 45 minutes or so before departure) and made my way to the premium check-in line.  Since the flight was showing F0J0Y0, I volunteered to be bumped to a rather surprised service manager.  Am I the only 1K traveling in business class who has ever asked about being bumped?

I then made my way to the priority security line to enjoy my Freedom Grope.  (I’m now 8 for 8 in being “randomly” selected for the backscatter at the United LAX terminal in the past 11 months).  I had the (mis)fortune of facing the nonpriority line to notice two facts:  The nonpriority line was markedly shorter and the nonpriority line only seems to have walk-through metal detectors.

As I had about an hour and a half before departure, I visited the United Club where my old standbys awaited me:  Crackers, cheese, carrots with ranch dip, shortbread cookies, trail mix, pretzels, and yogurt-covered raisins.  At least it’s consistent?

An hour before departure, I headed to the gate next door to look into my chances of getting VDB’d where I got to kick off the start of my trainwreck of a p.s. flight.  It seems these days that misadventures in business class are the best first world problems I can muster.

United 912

Los Angeles (LAX) – New York Kennedy (JFK)

Monday, January 2nd

Depart: 11:49PM

Arrive: 7:44AM

Duration:  4 hours, 55 minutes

Aircraft: Boeing 757-222 (N512UA)

Seat: 9C (Business Class)

Row 9 is the stuff legends are made of.

With three agents at the gate, one was busy for 50 minutes “setting up the flight” to avoid passenger questions.  The other two stood around helplessly, talking between themselves.  When it came time to start boarding, the two agents both openly announced to the other gate agent and the passengers in earshot that they did not know the boarding order.  While United has made changes to its boarding order, it’s not especially complex.

I made my way to my seat and began noticing the differences between this flight and my normal experience on p.s.  Three flight attendants were gathered in the galley at door 2R talking amongst themselves rather than greeting passengers or taking jackets.  While my jacket was stuffed into my carry-on bag in the overhead, numerous passengers were sitting with jackets in their laps.  Given the conveniently placed handle on the right (and only right) side of business class in front of 9C that a flight attendant normally temporarily hangs bags on, I can only believe that taking jackets is the rule and not the exception.

About five minutes into boarding, I wandered up to the galley to get something to drink as I wasn’t going to be interested in my choices of water, orange juice, or faux champagne.  One of the flight attendants, annoyed that I had disturbed their conversation, retorted back that my “choices were those on the tray,” gesturing at the three beverages that were prepoured in the galley.  At this point, it’s worth noting that customized predeparture beverages have been available on United since September 1st.

I returned to my seat to be asked by a husband and wife split across 9A and 9D to change seats…  with their 13 year old son seated in 10D.  Going from an aisle seat with practically infinite legroom to a window seat is hardly a fair trade, especially when the son (nor technically the parents) was not exit row qualified.  Needless to say, 9B wasn’t enthusiastic about their offer either.

We had an initial 35 minute delay for pushback because the ground crew was still loading bags.  Having missed our slot for departure, our wheels up time was further delayed by another 15 minutes.   After take off, I opted for the cheese plate as a quick snack while checking up on the Internet before turning in for the night.

While the hard product was every bit as comfortable as it normally would be, the experience on this flight was far below my expectations on p.s. and lackluster even for a domestic flight.

For my stop in Vancouver, I was booked to have an approximately 5 hour long layover.  I went into Canada to visit the NEXUS office to finally complete my iris scan, obtain my properly branded Air Canada boarding pass (rather than the one I had from Air New Zealand), and then reentered the United States.  Amongst those activities, obtaining the boarding pass actually took the most time:  The manned stations were swapped and the automated kiosk required that I massage the screen with my finger tips for minutes at a time to get it to respond to button presses to print the boarding pass and to try to standby for the earlier flight to Los Angeles.

I then walked in search of the Maple Leaf Lounge so I could take a shower.  Having not studied a map of the concourse ahead of time, I wound up walking past it only to more carefully scan my surroundings for the entrance on my way back.

My chief priority was to take a shower after my flight from Auckland.  Fortunately, the lone  shower was unoccupied.

Unfamiliar with Air Canada’s meal policies, I made myself a small salad to tide myself over if there wasn’t a vegetarian meal on the earlier flight.

The lounge itself was reasonably empty.

When I approached the gate, I found that my standby had cleared.

Since I was seated in a bulkhead in business class, I had placed my laptop bag and camera in the overhead bin, forgetting that I would want to take a picture of the meal.  Amongst the choices of chicken, beef, and pasta as standard options.  I chose the pasta.  The meal came with cold (gasp) nuts to start, a roll, a salad with balsamic vinegar and oil dressing, and a small slice of chocolate cake.

Air Canada 554

Vancouver (YVR) – Los Angeles (LAX)

Saturday, December 31st

Depart: 3:21PM

Arrive: 5:52PM

Duration:  2 hours, 31 minutes

Aircraft: Embraer 190 (C-FMZU)

Seat: 1A (Business Class)

While I’m normally indifferent to in-flight entertainment options, a glitch in the air show map gave me a chuckle.

I arrived from the Airbus Express from downtown to the airport and began my trek to find the Air New Zealand check-in desks at the other end of the airport.  I eventually came across a series of Air New Zealand counters and kiosks and got in line before wondering why I hadn’t seen any signs for premium cabin passengers.  I stepped out of line and returned to looking around, finding the business class check-in desk down a bit further and cloistered off from the rest of the airport.

The advantage of the business class check-in desk?  A dedicated passport control line and a slightly faster security line.  Compared to the hassle of a normal TSA security line, anything looks good.

Compared to the cheese and cracker fare at the United Clubs, the Air New Zealand lounge had a good variety of options.

With boarding scheduled to begin shortly, I headed to the gate.

We had a delay in boarding.  With moments to go before our scheduled departure, the gate agents announced that there was a problem with the avionics system and that there was no ETA, advising passengers with lounge access to return to the lounge.  I decided to stick around while a Canadian couple behind me left for the lounge.  As it turned out, boarding commenced shortly after the indefinite delay announcement.  The couple had just reached the lounge when the boarding announcement was made.  “Rebooting” (in their terminology) the aircraft electrical system caused the IFE to not be up and running during pushback and taxiing, leaving the crew to give the safety announcements the traditional way.

Air New Zealand 84
Auckland, NZ (AKL) – Vancouver (YVR)
Saturday, December 31st
Depart: 8:00PM
Arrive: 12:15PM
Duration: 13 hours, 15 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-219ER (ZK-OKF)
Seat: 5A (Business Class)

Once again, I was on a 777-219ER, so the Business Premier cabin was the nearly same as my Sydney to Auckland flight.  The notable addition to the scene is a tightly rolled memory foam mattress pad and a pillow.

The amenity kit came with the standard contents.

Immediately after takeoff, it was time for the obligatory airshow.

The menu read as follows:

Air New Zealand puts quite a bit of attention into describing the alcoholic beverages, especially the wines, served on board.

To open:

I had (obviously) requested a vegetarian meal in advance.

I decided to watch a movie and then asked to have my bed made up.  While the bed was quite comfortable, I had a slight cold and didn’t get the most optimal sleep I could.  When I awoke, the flight attendants were going around serving fruit juices and smoothies.

The egg was sadly a bit over cooked to the point of being browned and crispy in parts.

While my Vancouver layover was originally scheduled due to the mercy of award availability, it afforded me the opportunity to do my NEXUS iris scan on my way back to the United States.

When I was looking for hotels in Auckland, I came across the Best Western President Hotel Auckland at 50% off via American Express Travel, bringing the nightly rate to just over 60USD.  Had it been a complete disaster, I would have been able to walk away from the room and check-in to another Auckland hotel.  For the rate, the stay was comfortable, but obviously not the lap of luxury.

The front desk clerk was friendly during check-in, but the more manager-type working the desk began muttering “look at the rate for his room.”  I played dumb and asked what the matter was to “discover” that the going rate was just over double what the hotel was being paid.  I’m still not quite sure if the point of this exercise was to lower my expectations even further given the rate I was paying.

Having finished lunch in Sydney and quickly growing tired of dragging my bag with me, I decided to head to the airport a bit early.  Air New Zealand doesn’t support online check-in on its international routes, so I was left to check-in at the airport to obtain a boarding pass.  Rather unfortunately (and unknown to me when I was deciding to head to the airport), I couldn’t obtain a boarding pass until three hours before departure, leaving me with 30 minutes or so to kill waiting near the ticket desks.

Rather surprisingly for me, the Qantas employee staffing the Air New Zealand desk needed to see a printed itinerary showing that I had a ticket out of New Zealand.  Given Air New Zealand was to fly me in and out of New Zealand, they were privy to both ticket numbers of my Aeroplan award and should have had this accessible to them (or so I would have believed).

After walking through the mall that is the Sydney Airport international terminal, I reached the two Star Alliance lounges, one run by Singapore Airlines and the other Air New Zealand.  I chose to go to the Singapore lounge first.  Upon entering, the desk clerk suggested that since I was flying on Air New Zealand, I go to their lounge and come back if I decided that the Singapore lounge “was nicer.”  Having been to neither lounge, deciding which lounge would be nicer in advance would be difficult.  As a business class passenger with Star Alliance Gold status by virtue of being a United 1K, I was directed to the empty business class lounge.

Besides two staff members who kept checking on the food and drink supply, I was the only person in the lounge.

The various crackers they had out initially were quickly substituted for a wider variety of offerings.

From the seats near the window, I had a rather nice view of a Thai A340 while views of other aircraft were obstructed by various jet bridges.

Eventually, I decided to leave to visit the Air New Zealand lounge.

Initially, the lounge was quite full as many of the passengers were waiting for the United flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Nonetheless, I was able to find a recliner near the windows overlooking the tarmac.

As a testament to the utter confusion that code shares can cause passengers, a group of travelers sitting next to me near the window began debating when their “Continental plane to Los Angeles” was going to show up.

As the boarding calls for the United 747’s were made, the crowd thinned out.  I was quite appreciate that even while reasonably busy, the wireless internet remained speedy.

Air New Zealand 118
Sydney, Australia (SYD) – Auckland, New Zealand (AKL)
Wednesday, December 28st
Depart: 3:45PM
Arrive: 8:45PM
Duration: 3 hours
Aircraft: Boeing 777-219ER (ZK-OKA)
Seat: 3A (Business Class)

Based on the scarce award availability on this route even right up to the flight, I expected the business class cabin to be reasonably full.   I was very mistaken.

I was the only passenger on the left aisle.  Three other passengers were seated on the right aisle.  Most seats had a dedicated overhead bin, virtually assuring space for passengers in business class without resorting to placing bags in the various closets of the aircraft.  One of the business class flight attendants greeted me, introduced herself by name, and offered a Auckland paper while offering a predeparture beverage.  I took the orange juice.

Taxiing brought us past N197UA headed back to San Francisco having flown to Los Angeles and Melbourne since I left it.

The safety video featured the All Blacks rather than Richard Simmons.

Upon takeoff, it was time for the initial flight show.

The menu read as follows:

I had requested a vegetarian meal in advance.

Upon arrival, we had to wait a few minutes to deplane for our jetbridge to be brought up to the aircraft.  Overall, customs was quick and painless (and didn’t require use of the express card handed out by the flight crew).  The immigration officer asked me what I was doing in Sydney: (“Being a tourist” sufficed.  The biosecurity officer asked me what sort of science I do:  I started to offer an explanation, but he quickly passed on hearing it.

For my three days, two nights in Sydney, I booked a revenue stay at the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney Darling Harbour.

I was quite pleased by the location, as it was a short walk from the restaurants and shops of Darling Harbour while still remaining close to the central business district of Sydney.

From exiting customs at the airport, I took the train and immediately headed to my hotel.  I was able to check-in at 10AM, but the best room available was on the third floor.  I took it, happy to be able to take a shower.

LCD TV notwithstanding, the room was showing its age.  In terms of upkeep (or simply an oversight in design), the door bar had made a small, but sizeable dent in the plaster of the wall.  In more practical areas, I was most disappointed by the internet access, especially at 24.50 AUD per day.  The connection in the room was wired and was rather slow.  The experience reminded me of the present state of wifi on airplanes within the United States, except that the wifi on airplanes is cheaper (order $12.95 for a transcontinental flight) and faster.

After finishing exploring the Star Alliance lounges of SFO, I left for the gate to snap some predeparture photos of the plane in old-new livery.  I was slightly foiled by the pattern in the glass.

United 863

San Francisco (SFO) - Sydney, Australia (SYD)

Saturday, December 24th

Depart: 10:39PM

Arrive: 7:51AM

Duration:  14 hours, 12 minutes

Aircraft: Boeing 747-422 (N197UA)

Seat: 14K (Business Class)

Ordinarily, I’m an aisle seat person, but I chose a forward facing window seat on the upper deck.  Extensive analysis on FlyerTalk puts the length of the bed in this particular seat at 75 inches.  My laptop bag and a book from my rollaboard suit case comfortably fit in one half of the window bins of the seat.

The overhead bins on the upper deck are quite small, however, and could not accommodate my suitcase.  The flight attendant noticed me staring at the overhead bins for a moment before suggesting I remove anything I might want during flight and he would stow it in the closet.

After stowing my bag, the flight attendant returned with a tray of predeparture beverages (water, orange juice, and sparkling wine).  I picked the sparkling wine and settled in.

As the third passenger to board the plane, I had some time to kill before boarding finished.  I started by reading the menu before turning to a book I had with me.

As I had requested a vegetarian meal, I was served an off-menu first course with the on-menu vegetarian ravoli.

For dessert, I chose the ice cream.

I played with my laptop for a bit prior to going to bed.  The amenity kit was simple yet practical.  Honestly, with my suitcase in the upper deck closet, the only essential I needed was a toothbrush.

I woke up around 6AM Sydney time from a combination of the sun and a crying baby.  Both of these are largely my own fault as I left my window shade up and chose not to use an eye mask nor ear plugs.  Nonetheless, it was a reasonably high quality six hours of sleep as I made it through the next day and evening without feeling prematurely tired.  I prefer to sleep on my side, so my only complaint with the lie-flat bed is that there’s a smallish headrest that sticks out near the very top of the bed.

A flight attendant was by soon after to offer a hot towel and to start serving breakfast.  The vegetarian breakfast omits the yogurt listed on the menu for some reason.

Just prior to landing, it was time to checkout the air show.

Customs was quick thanks to the Express Path cards handed out to business and first class passengers.  Of the fifteen or so minutes I spent getting landside, most of it was walking from the plane, through the duty-free store, and then ultimately out of the customs/immigration area.

After spending the day and early evening in San Francisco, I took the BART back to reclaim my bag from the left luggage service and to head through security.  With three Star Alliance lounges to choose from, I decided to visit all three.

My first stop was the United Club in the international terminal.

After coming up the escalator, I turned right and found a nearly empty lounge area with about four other people in it (including for a brief bit, a screaming infant).

At least the United Club food and drinks are consistent?

After a bit of time, I decided to head over to the United Club in terminal 3 to visit until the SilverKris lounge opened.  The decor is essentially identical, but there’s a nice mural just past the front desk of the zodiac constellations.

After checking out this lounge and opening up my laptop to purchase some American Airlines tickets for which my hold was about to expire on, I decided to head over to the Singapore Airlines SilverKris lounge.  Since I actually had an international boarding pass departing directly from SFO, I had access to the lounge.

The front desk clerk had to make copious notes onto a roster at her desk with details from my boarding pass and United 1K card.  It left me feeling rather glad that United is able to just scan the boarding pass to determine whether a passenger has access to the lounge.

As they had just opened for the evening shift, I was the first passenger at the the lounge.  The seating area for the lounge is quite small and it’s understandable why Singapore Airlines is so restrictive when it comes to letting Star Alliance Gold elites enter the lounge.

I was quite pleased by the food offerings here compared to the United Clubs, especially for such a small lounge.

I was quite surprised to see open bottles of liquor, even in a lounge, within the United States.

The window had a mix of old-new and new livery United planes.

With my flight from New York arriving from San Francisco a bit early, I had a 24.5 hour layover at SFO.  After the Club Carlson 50k promotion went live, I registered and began looking for a chance to stop by a Radisson to participate in the promotion.  Even as I plan to use the points towards a night for a substantially more expensive hotel abroad, I couldn’t bring myself to mattress run locally (even with the $100/nt rate that showed up at the Radisson Lexington in December).  Since I needed to overnight in the Bay Area, I chose to stay at the Radisson San Francisco Airport Bay Front hotel.

I “splurged” and spent $5 at the time of booking for a bay view room.

I’ve come to set a few minimum standards with my hotel stays.  I want a comfortable bed.  I want a fast internet connection.  I want peace and quiet for when I’m trying to sleep.  For hotels with airport shuttles, I want the shuttle service to be frequent and run during the hours posted (unlike what happened at the aloft Dulles North to me in July).

My shuttle arrived within a few minutes of stepping out of the terminal.   Check-in was fast and painless.  Upon entering my room, I heard the occupants next door.  Since it was 10PM and I had little intention of going to bed right away, this didn’t really bother me as I wanted to catch up on my email and use the internet connection for a bit.  Around 1AM PST, my neighbors were still talking and laughing.  I wound up calling the front desk and was able to get moved to a new room on a quieter floor.

By the time I called, I had heard four distinct voices next door.  As I was leaving, I passed another party of four going into that room carrying several cases of beer into the room.  Needless to say, asking for another room was the wisest move I made all trip.  With my basic priorities of hotel stays satisfied, I settled in for the night.

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.