Europe for the Holidays: Niki Vienna to Berlin

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Chris

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 Vienna to Berlin

Continue reading →

Posted in Awards, Journeys | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Europe for the Holidays: Vienna

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Chris

Continue reading →

Posted in Photos | Tagged | Leave a comment

Europe for the Holidays: Radisson Blu Palais Vienna

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Chris

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.

Radisson Blu Palais Vienna

Continue reading →

Posted in Awards, Hotels | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Europe for the Holidays: Lufthansa First Class Lounge Munich

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Chris

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Airlines, Awards, Journeys | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Europe for the Holidays: Lufthansa First Class Los Angeles to Munich

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Chris

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.

Air France A380 at LAX
Lufthansa Airbus A340-642 (D-AIHP) at LAXThe flight was already starting to board economy, so whatever line there might have been for the premium lane had already cleared out.

Continue reading →

Posted in Airlines, Awards, Journeys | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Europe for the Holidays: Star Alliance First Class Lounge Los Angeles

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Chris

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Airlines, Awards, Journeys | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Europe for the Holidays: An Introduction

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Chris

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:

Posted in Awards, Journeys | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sheraton Commander Hotel Cambridge

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Chris

In early December, I visited Boston and stayed at the Sheraton Commander Cambridge.

Sheraton Commander Hotel Boston Sheraton Commander Hotel Boston Sheraton Commander Hotel Boston Sheraton Commander Hotel Boston

Posted in Hotels | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

United Airlines Arrivals Lounge San Francisco

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Chris

As a business class passenger, I had access to the United Arrivals lounge.  As only United’s International First Class lounge has showers airside, I would have otherwise not had access to one before catching my connecting flight.  While Continental brought showers to the merger, it’s worth noting that there are only a handful available at the premerger President’s Clubs in EWR and IAH.

The United Arrivals lounge is located on the arrivals level of Terminal 3, which is some distance away from the International Terminal where most of passengers with access will be clearing customs.

United Arrivals Lounge SFO

 

Continue reading →

Posted in Journeys | Tagged , | Leave a comment

United Airlines Business Class Hong Kong to San Francisco

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Chris

While I had booked a K fare for my journey across the middle of the Pacific to Hong Kong, I splurged on a W fare for my return, choosing to play systemwide roulette with United.

When I booked this trip, confirmable upgrade space was plentiful on United’s two NRT-SFO flights for the days I wanted to travel.  As UA78/UA79 service between Tokyo and Hong Kong was dropped in late October, I was left trying to book a flight with ANA unsuccessfully.  Thanks to some quirks in United system’s, it proved impossible to book that segment while staying in a low fare bucket (rather than say full fare coach or business class for HKG-NRT).

Fortunately, my upgrade cleared a few minutes before online check-in opened and I was assigned the last available business class seat on the plane.

United Boeing 747 N121UA at Hong Kong

Continue reading →

Posted in Airlines, Journeys | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment