Windbag Miles

One of my earliest posts on this blog was a two-part screed about how much I hated a flight on American Airlines. I was stuck in a seat without a window due to an equipment swap, and the lack of a recession in the wall where the window would normally be made it a veryContinue reading “Revisiting American Airlines… Verdict: Meh with a hint of sure why not.”

While there are a number of business class products I’d be really excited to try, I’m not all that picky about business class seats in general. For the most part, they’ll get you where you’re going in a less crowded cabin, give you tons of legroom, and most likely provide a flat bed or somethingContinue reading “Does herringbone seating suck as much as I think it would?”

I have used the same suitcase since the year 2000 – it’s a TravelPro Crew 3 that my parents bought me (OOOH SPOILED BRAT) when I was in college. It’s a fantastic piece of luggage, and I especially like that it’s expandable. You don’t see that feature much anymore, but I use it all theContinue reading “Fixing my suitcase: a meditation on whether I care too much about luxury stuff”

I’ve been paying more attention to AAdvantage lately, having collected two big sign-up bonuses from Citibank and Barclaycard earlier this year. I now have a decent stash of AAdvantage miles, and every so often I look at ways I might want to use them in the future. The reason I’ve never been that big intoContinue reading “Dear American Airlines: If you’re going to make availability on your own flights so shitty, please don’t also barf up phantom availability on your partners.”

I’m late to the party with this news, but Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles card is offering an increased bonus of 50,000 miles right now. If you haven’t already, check out the analysis of the offer and the card over on Miles to Memories. The reason I bring this up at all (since I generally stayContinue reading “I’m not going to get the Cathay Pacific credit card right now, but you might want to.”

One of the pitfalls of booking travel way in advance is that the trip you take is often not the one you booked. Usually this just means some minor rescheduling that moves the flight a few minutes before/after the original time, which isn’t a big deal. Today was different – I got an email fromContinue reading “Should I be happy with KLM or mad at them? (Spoiler: happy.)”

I was thinking more about the offer I got yesterday to upgrade my Citi Preferred card to a Premier with no fee for the first year, and I thought of a good reason why it might make sense for me to do it. Right now, my wife has no relationship with Citi, and so she’sContinue reading “One more quick post about that free Citi Premier upgrade offer I got”

Here’s an interesting offer that landed in my inbox just now: I’d take it in a heartbeat if there were a bonus involved; as it is, it’s not a bad offer for someone who is ineligible for Citi sign-up bonuses due to their new, more restrictive churning policy. (Which, if you’ve forgotten, is that youContinue reading “(Targeted?) Upgrade offer for Citi Premier”

Sometimes I wonder how much Delta pays attention to what their legacy US competitors are doing. They tend to lead rather than follow, which suggests a certain insularity in their thinking; in other words, they know their customers well enough to know what they will and won’t tolerate, regardless of whatever American and United areContinue reading “Delta’s availability tax AKA how American and United are letting them get away with frequent devaluations”

Here’s an interesting offer that landed in my inbox just now: I’d take it in a heartbeat if there were a bonus involved; as it is, it’s not a bad offer for someone who is ineligible for Citi sign-up bonuses due to their new, more restrictive churning policy. (Which, if you’ve forgotten, is that youContinue reading “(Targeted?) Upgrade offer for Citi Premier”