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
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
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