Flight Report: Leaving LA

Burbank Airport

Sunset at BUR...

I ended up not getting very lucky this time around for flights. I was set to fly out on United from Burbank back to Seattle via SFO, but pretty soon it became apparent that things would take a little longer than I expected. My original flight out was delayed and finally we got the green light to board. They got all of us on board and then had to deplane everyone because there was a flow control situation in SFO.

What is flow control? Every airport has a certain capacity for accepting airplanes, which varies through the day and by visibility. Airports tend to accept fewer airplanes at night (often with a curfew to be good neighbors to the surrounding population) and when visibility is reduced they are required by the FAA to limit the number of planes that take off and land for safety reasons. San Francisco is known for fog and for being a hub for air travel and we were delayed a few hours this time around.

Everyone was ready to go and on board, literally, just before they delayed the flight

Unfortunately for me, my connection was only an hour and a half. At this point, I'm not very happy with the way that United is treating their customers and this became an example of that. A few other frequent fliers I was talking to on the flight were standing in line and told me that they had stopped bothering to try and call the new United because the wait times were so bad. That mirrors my experience since the merger with Continental as well, to the point where I've the new United has literally refused to take my call to customer service (all that I get is something like the message: "We have a high volume of people calling right now. Please try again later. Goodbye." and then an audible *click*). I can't believe that that is acceptable to them and while the official line is that this is something new with the merger, I clearly remember a couple times pre-merger where I have been unable to reach Continental during an emergency. I've recommended United in the past, but  my stance is shifting.

In total, they offered to maroon me in San Francisco, if I wanted to fly up there that night, but wouldn't provide a hotel. That wasn't an option. When I told them I had a place in Los Angeles, but would appreciate a $15 shuttle ride there, since it was now 9pm and my friend couldn't provide a ride, they said they couldn't do it despite providing that to other passengers who had to get to LAX for a reroute. They weren't interested in a single day of rental car as a solution either, so I could get there and back. I think overall my requests weren't that unreasonable, especially since afterwards it took about 1.5 hours to get back by bus because it was so late. That's a huge inconvenience and it put me with my baggage in Hollywood late at night. While places like that don't usually concern me, people had been drinking and a fight broke out across the street from me while I was trying to transfer to my next bus. The $15 shuttle ride would have been a very appreciated gesture, especially since that was all I was asking for.

...and back again the next day.

In the end, I came back the next day for my new flight: A direct flight from BUR to SEA on Alaska Air. At the start of the year, I had status matched with them and to my pleasant surprise I was welcomed with a first class seat, despite the fact that my status as a paid Alaska passenger was dubious. In IROP situation, airlines can put you on other airlines if they need to. Burbank was as trouble free, in terms of security, as ever. Even with it being lower on the priority airport totem pole, I still like it better than the other options around LA.

We had a very nice stewardess in the first class cabin who was on her first day. She was very nice and she took great care of us, but you could see that she was a little green. Because I like to take photos, I asked if I could swap seats with someone at a window seat for the climb and she asked if it was my first time on a plane (No, not quite). It was refreshing to see someone at the brink of starting a new adventure and her enthusiasm was really quite infectious. I could see that the rest of the people she was working with got a little caught up in it as well: The pilots offered a couple kids (who were on a plane for the first time) a chance to sit in the cockpit and everyone else on board seemed pretty positive.

Want more like these photos? Keep reading after the break! I've got more photos from the flight, including the inflight meal, and some really nice shots from our approach to Seattle.

Keep Reading!

TSA Pre✓™ comes to United in ORD and EWR to Pre-Check You Out

The TSA has been experimenting with a new system called the TSA Pre✓, which allows trusted travelers to skip some of the annoyances of the TSA security process. Until now, the program had been limited to frequent flyers on Alaska Airline, Delta, and American Airlines, but the program will soon be expanding to travelers on United flying out of Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and Newark Liberty International (EWR).

Currently, the system is opt-in and limited to travelers who are frequent travelers or already members of a pre-screening travel program, such as NEXUS, Global Entry, or SENTRI. Once enrolled and screened, you gain access to a faster line where your shoes can remain on, your laptop can remain in the case, and you can keep your belt on while moving through security.

If you're interested in signing up, there's more information available on the TSA website or you if you are flying United, you can always try to sign up with the link that they sent me. Signing up does not guarentee acceptance into the program.

United Loyalty Program Downgrade Delayed

A bit of good news for those of who have been loyal United mileage members: The impending downgrade of benefits for the 2012 year, especially for Premier Silver members, has been delayed for a little bit. As a result, you will continue to enjoy the same benefits that you enjoyed last year and at the same level as last year for at least another month or two, until "late in the first quarter of 2012". You can read the announcement over here.

It's a little reprieve from the onslaught of bad news coming from the merger, but it's not enough to prevent me from looking at all of the programs with fresh eyes. The good news is that here on the blog I'll be sharing my analysis of the current programs with you when it's done. 

[via United]

Flight Report: Challenging Copenhagen Connection Complications

Flying back from Sweden gave me a chance to experience something new: A fully missed connection with no later flights to my final destination. In the past, a delay has meant a couple of extra hours and maybe a rebooking to a red eye, but this time around the flight I missed was the last one of the day and the flight that was delayed by three hours was the last one out of Copenhagen to the US. In other words, I’m not getting home today. Here's what happened...

The first plane of the day

The day started out well enough: One of my friends gave me a ride to the airport in exchange for a Starbucks mug with “Stockholm” on it, and the first flight of the day was a quick hop to Copenhagen: A true bread and butter flight on a trusty 737. It was a wet start from Stockholm and we were quickly on top of a steady blanket of clouds which would be the scenery for the flight. On the approach the cloud cover gave way and revealed a bit of the countryside of southern Sweden, and the landing itself was in some pretty gusty cross winds. Once on the ground and in the airport, this is where the fun started…

After the break, the full story, lessons learned, and another example of a Kosher meal in flight, this time on SAS.

Flight Report: To Sweden for My Graduation

I officially graduated from KTH in October. The degree is in my hands and unless I end up coming back for a conference or some other reason, I have done everything that I need to do at KTH. My main interaction with my school from here on out will be to look up towards the campus when I switch to Roslagsbanan, the suburban train that serves Northeastern Stockholm. Before that, though, I have my graduation. In some ways, this is a bittersweet graduation. The policies at KTH are such that in order to attend the graduation ceremony in June, you have to have your degree issued by the end of April. For “normal” students, their defense would be in May and for those that defend in early summer, they are invited to the event in December.

The event itself is worth attending: It’s in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall, which is a fantastic building and where the Nobel dinners are held every year. Despite its name, the hall itself is actually red from the bricks used. The story is that the architect originally planned to paint the hall with blue paint, but changed his mind on seeing the space. It is beautiful and it’s also open to the public, if you visit Stockholm. The Stockholm City Hall tour will take you through all the spaces and are offered in a variety of languages. That said, there is something disappointing about being asked to wait six months to celebrate an accomplishment and knowing that I wouldn’t be able to attend the celebration in the summer was part of the reason that I decided to expand my thesis and defend in September. No one celebrates something six months stale. It’s not even appropriate for a belated card. At that point, you might was well resign yourself to congratulating the person for their next accomplishment on time and feign ignorance. Basically, who has ever heard of a super bowl party in August? Or who has actually, seriously, celebrated Christmas in July?

After the break, three flight reports, some pictures of the in-flight meal, and some comments on suburban roads, plus pictures from the whole trip, including another shot of Mount Rainier.

What people do for miles: An Epic Mileage Run

I mentioned in an earlier post that the mileage game can work in your favor if you watch out for the pitfalls, but some people take this stuff seriously. In this post, I give a tribute to a FlyerTalk member known as "colonius" who decided he wanted to keep his top tier elite status with United in December of last year, but found that he was some 47,000 miles short. What to do?

A mileage run of epic proportions: 47,000 miles in 11 days.

SEA-DEN-HNL-LAX-SFO-SYD-MEL-SYD-SFO-LAX-HNL-SFO-ORD-MUC-CGN-MUC-FRA-SFO-HNL-SFO-SEA.

That's Seattle to Denver to Honolulu to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Sydney (Australia) to Melbourne back to Sydney back to San Francisco to Los Angeles back to Honolulu and back again to San Fransisco then to Chicago to connect to Munich (Germany) to Paris (France) to Frankfurt (Germany) to, once again, San Francisco and out to Honolulu one last time before heading back to Seattle via San Francisco one final time. All in 11 days. $3,000 for the tickets, all economy (before his upgrades). I don't even want to calculate how much time he actually spent on the plane and in the airports.

So why on earth would you do this just for honor of being "1K", or an upper tier elite? Does this sort of thing even make sense?

Well, maybe.

Consider:

• With his current elite bonus, he'll earn 94,000 redeemable miles. That's almost two tickets to Europe or two tickets to the Caribbean plus one domestic ticket or one and a half tickets to Asia or half of a round the world ticket.
• During his mileage run, he got several upgrades to first class due to his elite status. If he is flying a lot next year, he'll keep getting those upgrades.
• Those 47,000 miles go towards his lifetime mileage on United, which at 1,000,000 miles gets you free elite status for life. That's 4.5% of that goal done in 11 days. 
• In his case in particular, he did have business in Europe so at least PART of the trip was work related

colonius, I salute your tireless pursuit of miles and your truly epic mileage run.