Booking Phoenix/Los Angeles legs soon

I was able to hold my US Airways flights for my trip to Phoenix & Los Angeles. Those are the “positioning” flights for my African journey in July! I’ve decided to stop in Phoenix for a few days to enjoy the 120+ F temps in Scottsdale. I have to say, the outbound is a little bland in terms of creativity.

I’m on the 5:15AM nonstop from Chicago to Phoenix. It’s a very convenient flight and gives you the whole day in Phoenix, but it’s just unbearable. I have to get to Prescott, AZ by 10AM as I have an appointment there, but I detest that morning flight! The good thing- upgrades, they’re so easy on that flight!

A few days in Phoenix, then on to L.A. Again, another boring nonstop flight. Still I shouldn’t complain- there’s always Southwest to complain about. I’m taking the nonstop flight, because it’s the responsible thing to do. I really can’t afford to miss my Frankfurt connection on Lufthansa.

Saving the best for last… Return is interesting. I was able to find a ‘U’ fare through a very odd connecting city on my way from L.A. back to Chicago- Raleigh-Durham! Can you believe it? I’m flying Los Angeles-Phoenix-Raleigh/Durham-Charlotte-Chicago! Triple connect! The first two return legs are West flights, followed by two mainline East flights. I haven’t been to the Raleigh airport yet, but fortunately I hear there is a nice club there. Better check it out now before US Airways switches terminals and and finds itself Clubless. My other option is to fly L.A-Phoenix-Washington-Philly to Chicago, but mixing DC and Philly in one day is too much to handle- especially on a Republic E-170 with summer weather delays.

I have to ticket this over the phone as I’m using an old US Airways Air Check Plus (E-TUV) voucher, but a recent US Airways memo now waives fees for all voucher related ticketing both over the phone and the ticket office locations. By ticket office I mean airport counters and the Company Store ticketing location at the US Airways Headquarters in Tempe, AZ.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Free gift with purchase at the US Airways Company Store

Just got an email from the US Airways Company Store. It reads:

This promotion is easy. Spend $50.00 in merchandise at www.usairways.com/companystore and receive a quality navy US Airways hat free with your purchase. This adjustable hat is a retired uniform hat and only a limited number remain.

Some exclusions apply; including gift certificates, movie tickets, shipping charges, phone and walk-in orders excluded. Over good while quantities last. Offer only good for orders placed via www.usairways.com/companystore and your free hat will be included in your shipment. Limit one hat per order. If you would prefer a US Airways Express hat please indicate in the comments section of your order.

 

Sounds neat, but I’d like to see a picture of it first!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Get US Airways miles for your Reading is Fun donation

Right now, US Airways is offering bonus Dividend Miles for those who make a donation to RIF (Reading is Fun). I think it’s admirable that US Airways has partnered with such a notable organization to promote the love & respect for books to younger passengers!

For details on donating & bonus miles you can visit this web page. You can earn up to 5,000 DM miles with a $250 donation.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

British Airways starts new service to the Maldives

Beginning October 25, 2009, British Airways will start flying Male, Maldives nonstop on a 777  from London’s Gatwick airport. The flight operates 3x weekly and is a 3-cabin plane (Business/Premium Economy/ Economy). The outbound from London departs on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays arriving the next morning, while the return departs Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The return is a daylight service. It appears that the service will be year round.

Along with Maldives, Britsh Airways will launch Sharm El Sheikh and Punta Cana. It’s a shame they aren’t running the flights from Heathrow, but British Airways’ holiday flights now tend to operate from Gatwick.

I was wondering which full service European airline will take the “plunge” (pun intended) and fly to the Maldives first. I remember reading about LOT planning flights from Warsaw and Virgin Atlantic wanting to start flights from London- Heathrow. Guess they were too slow as Sri Lankan airlines launched the flights first. Personally, I was betting on Lufthansa from Frankfurt or Swiss from Zurich.

Normally, I don’t blog about other airline’s routes aside from Star Alliance, but the Maldives are a destination that’s close to my heart and to which I plant to return to. Plus, I could redeem some of my AA miles on the new flight and try out Club World cabin on British Airways.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Working out with Kinglobjaw and the seasonality of said workouts.

Airlines aren’t the only ones who run seasonal routes.

Once in a while I like to blog about something different than airlines, travel and rewards programs, although by the time you finish reading this you’ll realize it will somehow become travel related. Slightly…

Over the past few months some of my posts casually mentioned muscles aches or working out. In this post I’ll update you on a new and interesting portion of my day to day “operations”. See, I told you that airline ‘lingo’ lingers around most if not all of my posts. Basically, I now go to the gym on a daily basis for about two-three hours and starting in June it’ll be a seasonal activity for me to go rollerblading or take my bike out for a ride in addition to working out. I write about my workouts with great relish as it’s probably the most unique and new thing in my life. I haven’t thought of myself as hardcore gym goer until now. Aside from the health and good looks I’m gaining, I’ve found working out to be an excellent way to get rid of stress and annoyances. It comes down to three things- the workout, the water and the music that accompanies the former two. Since I started working out in April I’ve gone down from 230 pounds to 204 as of this morning. It also feels like my arms are getting really strong.

Not to turn this into a health blog or anything but my routine is simple:

  1. First hour is running on treadmill or stepmaster (the two alternate everyday)
  2. Next 20-30 minutes is lifting weights
  3. About 10-15 minutes of leg work
  4. Remaining time is divided equally between seated chest presses, ab crunch machine and working on back muscles

So, that was one the workout. Music on my iPod is stuff I’ve found on Napster which I then purchase on iTunes. Music by ATB ( featured on my Kinglobjaw.com music section) has some great beats and rhythm that really make the workout go by. I also drink a lot of water throughtout the entire day. What I can recommend to other gym goers as a quality water bottle is a Swiss Sigg bottle. Some will say that $25 for a water bottle is a little too much, but it’s a high quality water bottle which will last for a long time and it’s proven to be safer than the “nalgene” plastic water bottles. Inside of aluminum bottle is coated with a liner, so there’s no scraping of aluminum. For those who are worried about the presence of the aluminum, consider this- tea and deodorant transfer more aluminum to your body than this bottle ever will. Don’t worry about dementia! I have the red one with the Swiss cross:

Try looking on eBay to save a few dollars. I saved $7 by buying it on eBay instead of Whole Foods.

Try looking on eBay to save a few dollars. I saved $7 by buying it on eBay instead of Whole Foods.

When it comes to motivation I can’t say I was thinking about my health too much. I mean, even when I was little heavier, I was still healthy and getting all the nutrition I needed. My main goal was and still is to look good and get into excellent shape and condition. The Island Caretaker contest also got me going. I knew if I was chosen to participate I would have to get into better shape and perform fitness tasks so I started working out anyway. Unfortunately, I wasn’t chosen, but that didn’t stop me from continuing to work out. US Airways’ employee campaign to loose weight didn’t really move me as that happened a few months earlier, but it was still a nice thing to do to get company employees motivated. I wonder if Doug Parker took advantage and started working out. Haha!

By topic about this I wanted to open up all topics or discussions. If there’s a certain topic you want me to discuss, I’ll gladly do it. Leave a comment or use the Contact link.

One last thought before I close. Before my Hawaii trip I got an email from a reader who suggested I should review hotel gym facilities and how they stack up against other hotels. I think it’s a really great idea, but I don’t I’m not sure if I’ll be doing that anytime soon. I’m not a health expert so I can’t really say how effective a gym can be compared to the next. That said,  I will definitely pay more attention to hotel gyms and casually mention personal thoughts should I do a hotel review in the future. But wait, there’s related good news! I was planning to talk about this in a seperate post, but since we’re talking about health I’ll say it now. A new feature soon to appear on Kinglobjaw.com will discuss the dietary information of US Airways snacks.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Alamo and National- twin brothers that aren’t alike?

If you’re Polish you probably know the story about two brothers- Pawel and Gawel (Paul & Gaul?). I believe they were also twins. They lived in a two-story house, one lived on the second floor, the other on the first. They never interfered with each other’s lives aside from the shared appliances/ common areas.  I don’t remember which brother did what, but the gist of  it is that one brother was a tidy and proper as can be, while the other created one heck of a ruckus- all the time! Living with the downstairs brother was like a personal hell.

I will be making a point in just a moment, so wait for it!

If you rent cars frequently you probably know or at least heard of two car rental companies that work side by side- National and Alamo. They are usually co-located, one on the left and other on the right. Although both companies are not available at all locations, when they are together they usually share counter space, a shuttle bus, a parking lot and sometimes even cars!  In this case I can recall which company did what, but the gist of it is that Alamo posted miles to my Mom’s Northwest WorldPerks account within 24 hours (Yep, I counted, alright!). When it comes to National- it’s been 6 days already and the miles have still not posted! Why not, I don’t get it! Normally it would be trivial since it’s only 50 Northwest miles but we’re doing this as part of the Northwest Pile On The Miles promotion, where four partner transactions earn you an additional 4,000 Northwest miles. And since NWA’s list of partne’s included in the promotion is unsatisfying, there are exactly and only four we can manage to do. Thus, these really need to post!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

United finally got 10,000 followers on Twitter… now, for the bonus!

Just a few minutes ago, United’s Twitter account informed us all that United has 10,00o+ followers. If you were following closesly, United promised a surprise for those who register on United.com and follow Twitter. We finally know what the surprise is- bonus miles! Visit United’s Twitter page to see for yourself.

How many miles? I’m guessing, no more than a 1,000. Although ’10′ could be key so maybe 10 miles or 10,000? Or could it be tied in with an activity requirement? I’ll report back as soon as I get the miles and confirm with others if they got the same amount.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

US Airways and Qatar release codeshare flights/routes this week

Beginning this week, US Airways and Qatar Airways will begin codesharing on certain flights. The respective “Airways’ will only codeshare on international services between Europe and their local gateways.

For details, please visit http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/2009/05/us-airwaysqatar-codeshare-begins-this.html.

It’s a shame they are not codesharing beyond Philly and Doha. I would like to see a US code on a Doha-Maldives flight and a QR code on a Chicago-Philly flight!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Hung up on Rio’s inventory for inaugural flight

Can you believe that the very first Charlotte to Rio de Janeiro service appears to offer only 6 more Envoy seats for sale. This would indicate that within just two days of starting to sell tickets for the flight, twelve seats have been already “grabbed”. One is definitely there as a pilot crew rest, so who are the other eleven? Ocean’s Eleven?

Who could it be? Kinglobjaw’s minions? Maybe! No, haha! Parker’s entourage? Could be! Samba Dancers? I don’t know. Fishy!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark