Tag: Virgin Atlantic

Have We Outgrown Business Class?

The first time you get to sit in business class on a long haul flight is one of the “WOW” moments of the miles and points world. You never forget the first time you get on the plane and see the big seat that you’ve always had to walk past (or never even got to see because the special people board through their own door on the plane). Our first international business class flight was back in 2004. We used 90,000 US Airways miles and $42 in taxes to fly from Orlando to Chicago (on TED) and then onto Osaka, Japan in United business class.

After that, Sharon stopped making fun of the “points and miles” thing and realized that having your own seat that reclines back into a bed on a 12+ hour flight is not a bad thing.

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Here’s An Easy Way To Save $150 Per Person On A Trip To London

There’s a whole bunch of information you need to know when booking travel using points and miles. Some things you know by heart because you use the information all the time, like which airlines fly from your home airport to your favorite travel destination and what are the best points to book those flights. There’s a bunch more information that you’ll read and bookmark because you think you’ll need it later. There’s one more category of information that you’ll come across, the things that you remember you read about, but only AFTER you find out about them again by accident. For me, this trick, or way to use an airline’s rule to your advantage, just saved $300 on our upcoming trip to London.

I was doing searches, trying to find award space between the U.S. and London. To save time, I look at individual flight segments, as we’re willing to fly one airline to a location and a different one home. And frankly, with award flights, this might be the only way to make a trip. Anyway, I quickly realized that our choices were limited. We weren’t going to fly on United and they have no other partners who fly to London without connecting in Europe. You can book flights on British Airways with Avios or with American miles but they both add the fees British Airways charges to award tickets so it would cost several hundred dollars for each ticket on top of the miles required. So I had one choice left, Delta.

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Problem With A TSA Officer, Customs Agent Or Airline? Here’s Where You Can Complain

It’s been said over and over again – flying is stressful. You’re stuck in crowds for a long period of time, there can be delays or other issues that may or may not have an explanation, or a whole myriad of other things that can make you feel ready to punch a wall. On top of that, the TSA officer is confusing your elderly parent-in-law who has dementia, the Customs agent is barking orders with her head turned so you can’t understand them, and the airline employee who has been unreasonable about whether or not your carry on will fit in the overhead is now becoming irate. You can’t do much about the first few examples but here’s what you can do about the latter ones:

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Virgin’s All-LGBTQ+ Flight To Include A DJ, Drag Queens & A Judy Garland Sing-Along

Let me start this post by saying you will not find two fiercer advocates of LGBTQ+ people than me and Joe. We’ve volunteered at Pride and GayDays events, walked in Pride parades, embraced all that was at a street festival in the Castro (thank-you Jimmy & David!) and supported many a gay bar by buying drinks and seeing shows. We’ve been advocates and told bigots why they were wrong, and we’ve been longtime donors to multiple local and national LGBTQ-centric organizations. We know twinks from bears, tops from bottoms and are familiar with the hanky code. And yes, some of our best friends really ARE gay.

So when I read that Virgin Atlantic was going to celebrate Pride 2019 with the first ever (known) flight staffed entirely by LGBTQ+ people next June, I felt no shame that the first words out of my mouth were a very stereotypical, “It’s gonna be FABULOUS!!!!!” because that’s precisely what I think it’s going to be.

Here’s more info about the event:

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Free Flights To Australia, “Leaked” 2018 Starwood Promotions, & Other Posts We Liked

From getting the OK to steal something from the plane, to how Uber & Lyft are cutting into airport profits, to some of the coolest lazy rivers anywhere, here are some stories we saw this week that we thought were interesting. We hope you will, too:

  • If you want to “steal” the salt and pepper shakers from Virgin Atlantic, The Points Guy is reporting that this week they say it’s OK. Happy holiday season!
  • View From The Wing wrote that if your name is Sydney or Houston, United may fly you to Australia for free.
  • Protect your valuables when traveling, especially in South America, because Loyalty Lobby reports that your phone could be stolen from right out of your hand.
  • Sharon and I love lazy river rides. Here’s a list of Hyatt resorts, compiled by Mommy Points, that have some great ones (and some even have Flowriders!).
  • The New York Times is reporting that ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft are cutting into airport profits by reducing the number of people parking at the airport (apparently they haven’t checked out the parking situation at MCO recently).
  • Some details of the Starwood promotion for 2018 “leaked” this week, as per One Mile At A Time.
  • Pizza In Motion wrote about a new Google Maps enhancement that will be awesome for travelers. Problem for me is I might be a little too OCD to trust it. 😉
  • I know of friends who have MoviePass and love it. Frequent Miler wrote about a great deal on a MoviePass membership from Costco.
  • I never got into collecting Plenti points but as per Travel Codex, it looks as if the program’s days are numbered.
  • Traveling the world sounds exciting, but remember that you may be caught on a remote tropical island when the once-a-week plane is cancelled. It happened to Rapid Travel Chai.

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