Burning A Hole In My Pocket: Swiss Business Class New York to Zürich

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Chris

My trip to Asia last year involved a terrific long-haul flight from Zurich to Bangkok on Swiss, spurring me to choose their business class product again for my flight to Europe.  While it’s definitely hard to find fault with a lie-flat bed in the sky (especially compared to being in the back), Swiss features a two meter long bed, making a good thing–a lie-flat bed in the sky–even better.

Swiss 15
New York Kennedy (JFK) – Zürich (ZRH)
Thursday, March 28th, 2013
Depart:  10:24PM
Arrive: 10:44AM
Duration:  7 hours, 20 minutes
Aircraft: Airbus A330-343X (HB-JHL)
Seat: 5K (Business Class)

As I was settling into my seat, one of the flight attendants came by to offer reading material.  When I visit German-speaking countries, I’m generally pegged instantly as an English speaker.  This trip and this flight proved no different.

The menu read as follows:

As I was planning on visiting the Swiss arrivals lounge in Zurich, I chose to skip breakfast on board to sleep in.

In traveling.to tradition, the flight show:

Drink service was slow to start after takeoff, but the meal service followed rapidly afterwards.  Even from an outstation, the food served was fresh and flavorful.

I had ordered a vegetarian meal in advance, so I received the Swiss gratin from the menu.

The cabin crew left the lights on for about 30 minutes after the meal service ended, but I was still able to catch 5 hours of high-quality sleep–as far as transatlantic redeyes are concerned.

 

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Burning A Hole In My Pocket: Swiss Business Class Lounge New York Kennedy

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Chris

With my flight to Switzerland departing just after 10PM, I timed my arrival to JFK around 8:30PM.  With vast swaths of flights bound for Europe around that time, Terminal 4 was best described as a sea of humanity.

Once past the teeming security lines, I went upstairs to visit the Swiss lounge.  The long, narrow layout left the front entrance feeling a bit crowded, but afforded terrific views of the tarmac.

The evening menu read as follows:

 

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Burning A Hole In My Pocket: An Introduction

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Chris

In mid-March, I found myself with Good Friday off without a trip to go on.  As I became spoiled last year by $440 trips to Europe, I wasn’t thrilled by the $1000 coach fares available for a simple weekend trip.  With a huge stash of United miles sitting around awaiting a devaluation in hand, I booked an award trip to get there.

I had the good fortune to see Swiss business class availability open up shortly before the trip for my outbound flight, so I tweaked my trip to give myself an extended layover in Zurich before heading to Munich.

While much has been discussed about free one-way trips to Hawaii on coach award itineraries, Hawaii to Europe business class awards have a small step-up from the continental United States from 50k miles one-way to 57.5k miles.  Compared to building a standalone, premium cabin award to Hawaii at 40k miles one-way, the add-on was a bargain.

Overall, the air travel for this trip ran 100k United miles and $134 in taxes and fees.

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Starwood’s Double Take Promotion

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Chris

Starwood has opened up registration for their double take promotion for summer 2013.  As the name indicates, they’re offering double Starwood points on all stays between May 1st and July 31st, subject to a few hotel exclusions.

As an additional kicker, stays during the promotion booked with the Android or iPhone mobile apps earn an additional 500 point bonus.

Hat Tip: Loyalty Traveler.

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Another oneworld Premium Fare Promotion

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Chris

American and British Airways are once again offering bonus miles on roundtrip itineraries from the United States and Canada to Europe.  Registration with the respective programs (AAdvantage and Executive Club) is required.

  • Each “full fare” roundtrip itinerary earns 20k miles.
  • The fifth roundtrip itinerary earns an additional 100k miles.

The promotion is restricted to trips booked on or after March 18th for travel between March 18th through May 31st.  “Full fare” is defined by:

  • American Airlines-operated: F, A, J, R, D, I, Y, B, H
  • British Airways-operated: F, A, J, R, C, D, I, W, E, T, Y, B, H
  • Iberia-operated: J, C, D, R, I, Y
  • OpenSkies-operated: W, E, T, Z, A, Y, B, H

I analyzed a similar promotion last fall with a focus on comparing the value proposition between Club World awards and Club World tickets obtained by upgrading with Avios.

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2000 Free Alitalia Miles

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Chris

One Mile at a Time notes that Alitalia is giving away 2k miles for signing up for their rewards program (by March 30th, an additional 2k for flying with Alitalia, and an additional 2k for having any activity in the account within 3 months.

Dropping in 1k membership rewards points yields 5k Alitalia miles.  It’s not quite a business class roundtrip to North Asia (90k), but it’s a start.

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Book SPG Stays Now!

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Chris

Today’s the last day to book SPG awards under the old categories.  While many hotels have stayed put, for others, tomorrow has already come and SPG.com is showing their new rates.

The good:

The bad:

 

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Hotel Devaluations Everywhere…

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Chris

There have been a number of hotel program updates in the past few weeks, nearly universally for the worse.

Starwood announced its annual category changes on MilePoint and FlyerTalk, effective March 5.  Amongst hotels that stood out for me, the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas moved up from a category 6 (20-25k/nt) to a category 7 (30-35k/nt).  For other Hawaii properties, the St. Regis Princeville moves up to a category 7 (from 6) and the Moana Surfrider and Westin Princville move up from category 5 (12-16k/nt) to category 6.

Hilton’s seen a major devaluation as the number of categories and the points required have gone up.

 

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A Few Miles More: American Airlines First Class Kahului to Dallas-Forth Worth

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Chris

For my return to New York, I took the redeye to Dallas.  Concerned that my upgrade might not clear—especially when booking ten days in advance, I used one of my systemwides expiring February 2013.  If I were flying from New York to London, I’d do everything I could to avoid coach:  As Kahului to Dallas is longer, my views were similar.

As this was an even flight number, I chose a seat in the forward portion of the cabin.

American 6
Kahului (OGG) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Monday, January 21th, 2013
Depart:  18:31PM
Arrive: 5:41AM
Duration:  7 hours, 10 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-323ER (N378AN)
Seat: 1B (First Class)

The menu read as follows:

I chose the tortellini for my entree.

Compared to the cheese plate I had on the way out to Los Angeles, this flight’s paled in comparison.

While the flight time was disappointingly early as I was going to sleep in Hawaii around midnight, the slightly longer flight (compared to most transatlantics) made up for it slightly.  After my previous long haul experience with this seat (New York to London), I had convinced myself that I hadn’t slept at all.  In comparison, I actually felt well-rested afterwards (as good, if not better, as the business class recliners used on American’s Flagship Service for JFK-SFO/LAX).

We had been delayed departing Maui, first for ETOPS-related paperwork followed by an incredibly slow pushback/taxi out, so we arrived to Dallas late, reducing me to 12 minute connection with a terminal change for my onward flight to New York LaGuardia.  During the taxi from the runway, I turned on my cell phone to find that I had been protected on the 7AM departure.   A quick sprint between terminals later (being seated near the front of the plane is good for more than the meal order!), I managed to get the gate for my original 6AM flight.

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A Few Miles More: The Westin Ka’anapali Resort and Spa

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Chris

Locating a sanely priced hotel was the main logistical consideration in this trip. During my previous visit to Maui in 2011, I had stayed at the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas thanks to Starwood’s Free Resort Nights promotion earlier that year. For this trip, I spotted a cash and points rate for the nearby Westin Resort for 4.8k points and $90 per night. To contrast, the cheapest available nightly room rate was $359 (plus resort fees and taxes). The other neighboring properties’ rates were in excess of $400 per night.

The Westin Ka'anapli Resort and Spa

I had booked a basic room (as part of my cash and points booking) but was upgraded to an ocean view room with a private balcony during check-in.  (The hotel unfortunately did not have any rooms free with queen/king beds.)

The hotel’s pool and open air lobby have several artifical waterfalls.

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