PLEASURES AND PRIVILEGES OF A FREQUENT FLIER: UNITED AIRLINES ONE PASS PROGRAMME

By sheer luck and fortune, I have attained the highest tier of Frequent Flier Status on United Premier 1 K (Star Alliance Gold) as well as American Airlines Aadvantage Executive Platinum (One World Emerald)
The inequalities of services rendered to the frequent flier and the occasional flier is nowhere more evident than the most DesEgual of Equal countries, the USA.
Looking at the flying experiences just this year,  learning about the nuances of frequent flying has been worth it:

London to Chicago  American Airlines 
Washington to Tokyo  United Airlines
Tokyo to Singapore on All Nippon
Jakarta to Doha to Brussels on Qatar
London to Chicago American Airlines
New York to Hong Kong  Cathay Pacific
Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur Cathay Pacific
Jakarta to Tokyo Japan Airlines
Tokyo to Chicago Japan Airlines
Miami to Madrid American Airlines

Of course you cannot compare the software and the hardware, to use a mechanical metaphor of Asian Airlines and USA based airlines, but one has to realize that it is flying those old USA based airlines with even older flight attendants that gives you the privileges of flying brand new Qatar planes with bubbly Filipina Flight Attendants on the verge of getting married!

Called United Airlines, from Europe on their specially dedicated telephone line and soon an agent appeared and he was kind enough to organize a trip in which the first segment would be from London to Chicago. I have flown that segment more than once on United and hope that my good friends from Cuba or Puerto Rico, who are FAs would be on board..

The privilege of FF was brought to the fore when I called the United Airlines Dedicated Line again to see whether I can come back from the USA to Europe via Asia, my third trip to Asia in 5 months. For the first time, the person answering the phone was in Eastern Tennessee, I though it is a bit strange. Normally I ask them where they are speaking from, since their locations would be a hint whether they worked for Continental or United before the merger. But this pleasant lady had worked in Tampa before, thus confirming her status as an ex-Continental worker. Their friendliness is slowly wearing off on the ex-United staff so that the new United would have similar smiles as the old Continental!

We were discussing various ways of getting me there, upgrading me etc, when she suddenly said, as she remembered it, you have an unused ticket which has to be re ticketed within the next week.

Yes I remember buying a BRU-SEA_BRU ticket this time last year and couldn't use it, so it has laid dormant and I am sure that it would have added to the treasury of UA, like many other thousands of dollars of unused tickets from millions of passengers. I think it was Tony Fernandes of Air Asia who said that the income is the highest from ancillary charges and the flights not taken rather than the actual flights taken!

I did not mind hanging on the telephone while she worked through the rules and regulations, at first i had a fright when she said the tickets are non re usable but then again she came back to say that they can be used with the usual penalty.

In the end she was able to get me, a Miami to Singapore  ticket fully upgraded on UA metal, thus giving me close to 50 000 FF miles including 20 000 elite miles!

It is nice to look forward to such pleasant transatlantic and transpacific flights!

The best  flight so far has been on Cathay Pacific
JFK to HKG on their 777-300 seat 1 K as well as the Japan Airlines on their 777-300 seat 1 K from NRT to ORD

EASTER ISLAND, RAPA NUI: THE PROBLEMS OF BEING ATTRACTIVE TO TOURISTS

A few years ago, Chile's leading newspaper El Mercurio published a big article on the 10 biggest problems facing Easter Island, the remote Chilean outpost in the South Pacific.

They included dengue fever, the lack of a decent hospital, a steady accumulation of garbage, over-fishing, the arrival of thousands of tourists each year and damage to the moai, the giant stone statues that have made the island famous across the world.

Easter Island, it seemed, was far from the South Sea paradise of popular imagination.

Fast forward to 2014 and the island is tackling some of these issues. It has a new hospital and a recycling plant.

But even so, it is a problematic place.

Middle of nowhere

Like the Galapagos, the Maldives and scores of other tiny islands across the world, it faces tough questions that go to the heart of 21st Century life.

How do you develop a sustainable tourist industry when, each year, more people want to visit? Do you limit visitor numbers? How do you ensure local people do not feel crowded out? How do you provide basic services in such a remote outpost?

How, in short, do you manage an island like this?

Until you visit Easter Island, it is difficult to grasp just how remote it is. By some measures, it is the most isolated permanently inhabited place on earth.

Continue reading the main story

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They've put a tuxedo and a bow-tie on a pig, but it's still a pig.”

Pedro EdmundsMayor, Easter Island

The next-door neighbours live on Pitcairn, over 2,000km (1,250 miles) to the west. The South American mainland is 3,600km away - a five-hour flight.

And Easter Island is tiny - just 25km from one end to the other. Just under twice the size of Manhattan and less than half the size of Britain's Isle of Wight.

It has a population of about 6,000 and yet receives 80,000 tourists a year, bringing in cash but putting a tremendous strain on services.

It produces 20 tonnes of rubbish a day. The recycling plant, opened in 2011, processes 40,000 plastic bottles a month.

But much of the island's garbage cannot be recycled.

"We put it into landfills and they only thing we can do is flatten it," says Easter Island Mayor Pedro Edmunds.

Mayor Pedro Edmunds says dispensing with the island's rubbish is a major problem

"We can't burn it and we have no more land to dump it in. It attracts rats, mosquitoes and stray dogs."

In recent years, the islanders have sent scrap metal and cardboard to the Chilean mainland for recycling but it is prohibitively expensive.

Because of the risk of dengue, it has to be fumigated before arrival at Chilean ports.

"There are companies in Chile which buy cardboard, aluminium and plastic but the cost of shipping is so high that you end up paying them rather than them paying you," Mr Edmunds says.

The long-term plan is to incinerate waste to generate electricity, but that is still some years off.

With tens of thousands of people visiting the island every year, rubbish and its disposal has become a hot topic

Sending waste for recycling to the mainland is very costly

Cans are flattened so they take up less space on the journey to the mainland

The Chilean government opened a new hospital on the island in 2012 but the mayor says it is poorly financed and has not done much to improve healthcare.

"It's a spectacular building, like an eight-star hotel, but the service? It's not just bad, it's atrocious," he says. "They've put a tuxedo and a bow-tie on a pig, but it's still a pig."

Leo Pakarati, director of the island's online newspaper, El Correo del Moai, says doctors and dentists will not come to the island to work in the public hospital because they can earn more in the private sector elsewhere.

"You have to wait a couple of months for a hospital appointment," he says.

Limited space

As Easter Island's tourist industry has taken off, Chileans have moved from the mainland to live here, opening hotels, bars and restaurants.

They now outnumber the Rapa Nui - the original Easter Islanders of Polynesian descent.

That has created tensions. Mr Pakarati describes the islanders as "victims of indiscriminate immigration" from Chile which, culturally, has little in common with the island.

"There isn't enough space for everyone, enough drinking water, enough fuel," he says. "This is about sustainability and quality of life."

Like other Rapa Nui, Mr Pakarati says the number of immigrant residents should be restricted and the locals should have more say in how the island is run.

"Our conflict is not with the Chileans, it's with the inefficient Chilean state," he says. "The Rapa Nui are one big tribe, and our territory should belong to us."

Unforgettable sight

Mr Pakarati cites the Galapagos Islands as an example that Easter Island might follow.

There, foreign tourists pay an entry tax of $100 (£60) to visit protected areas, and the Ecuadorean government has made some efforts to curb population growth and manage tourist numbers.

Tourists arriving on the Galapagos islands have to pay a tax

"We currently receive around 80,000 tourists a year," Mr Pakarati says. "Studies suggest that if that figure rises above 100,000 the consequences could be disastrous."

Overfishing is also a problem. The island's tuna and lobster are highly prized in the restaurants of Santiago.

Mr Edmunds blames foreign fishing fleets for plundering the island's waters, describing the southern ocean as "full of pirates".

Easter Island is a stunning place. The moai, standing on their stone plinths and gazing over the rolling, green landscape, are an unforgettable sight.

But it is clear this is an island with issues.

If unaddressed, they could eventually threaten the future of one of the most unique places on the planet.

AIR BERLIN FROM DUSSELDORF TO MIAMI, AN EXCELLENT FLIGHT

This is my first long haul flight with Air Berlin and I was quite impressed with their professional style and even more surprised with the good tasty food presented by them.The two gentlemen who were the flight attendants in the cabin where I was sitting were polite, friendly and helpful.
All in all a very pleasant flight with a smooth crossing of the Atlantic over the Azores and the Bahamas.

Left on time, arrived on time...

QR IAH TO CGK VIA DOHA EXCELLENT TRIP

QR  IAH DOH CGK 

I am 1K on United and Platinum on Flying Blue. After this trip on QR from IAH to CGK via DOH, one has to seriously consider switching loyalties. AF does not deserve any loyalty from anyone, they treat even their Platinum members with disdain. No wonder they are haemorrhaging money and now charging for everything as if it is a Low Cost Airlines: for example I paid nearly 1000 usd for an award ticket on Business Class on top of the 120.000 miles!

Thanks QR for the good service, good food, The Premium Terminal and on time performance. 
2013 would see me flying QR a bit more often..