-Kinglobjaw

Sure, Jeff Smisek didn’t make an appearance, but all the “ingredients” were there for a proper new route/station launch party. I guess it would be interesting to see the events on the Denver side of the route!

The news for Grand Forks, ND is BIG! United Airlines, the world’s largest airline has launched 2X daily CRJ-200 service to its Denver hub offering seamless connections to the Western United States, Hawaii, Alaska, various Mexican and Latin American resort towns and beginning March 2013, a nonstop 787 Dreamliner flight to Tokyo Narita. Schedule is as follows:

Grand Forks – Denver

GFK 6:00AM - DEN 7:14AM

GFK 4:05PM - DEN 5:15PM

Denver – Grand Forks

DEN 12:40PM - GFK 3:40PM

DEN 7:46PM - 10:46PM

Some pictures from the event:

One very happy US Airways / Star Alliance customer!

Water Cannon Salute

As a mileage runner I don’t mind at all that in order to get home to Chicago, I will have to backtrack via Denver. GFK-DEN-ORD-DEN-GFK earns me a base 3,119 US Airways Dividend Miles roundtrip, as opposed to 1,114 for a FAR-ORD-FAR roundtrip.

An amazing day for the city and airport of Grand Forks, United Airlines and Kinglobjaw himself!

-Kinglobjaw

At this time, you can buy Icelandair miles at a very attractive price and redeem them for flights on Alaska Airlines at a very low rate compared to US carrier’s mileage award levels.

Let’s take a quick look on how this works:

1) Join Icelandair’s frequent flyer program, Saga Club (free of charge)

2) Once a member, log-in and purchase Saga Club frequent flyer miles. If you do so by September 28, 2012 you earn a free 20% bonus on top of the miles you purchase.

3) Amount of Saga Club miles required to book Alaska Airlines awards listed on this page. Basically, 20,000 roundtrip for coach, 30,000 roundtrip for First Class.

4) Verify Saver award availability online via Alaska Airlines directly. Disregard the amount of miles Alaska Airlines list since that is for their own customers, not Icelandair’s Saga members, but be sure it is Saver availability, because that is the only thing Icelandair sees! NOTE: If you have specific dates in mind, you might want to do this first.

I’ll be definitely getting my hands on some Saga miles to cover 2 or 3 trips to Hawaii in First Class since this is an amazing deal!

-Kinglobjaw

This United Club has plenty of seating options as it offers two floors. The first floor offers a full bar and snacks area along with seating and reservations agents ready to assist with bookings. The second floor has more cubicles and less seating but seems to be sort of a “quiet area” within the club. The 2nd floor also offers shower facilities with private bathrooms.

Check out a few shots I took,

Tasteful decor and comfy couches

More seating and the bar/snacks area

Great views of the tarmac and runway for the aviation enthusiast. Unfortunately, United is all you will see on this side of the airport!

If you have some spare time at the Houston IAH airport, it is definitely worth the walk over to the ‘E’ concourse. The ‘E’ concourse itself beats all the other facilities at this airport!

-Kinglobjaw

A poster, who apparently has a friend at United Airlines indicated discussions between United and the DOT are ongoing. However, the poster also mentioned those who booked over the phone have a strong chance having their tickets honored. Those who booked online (like myself)- the chances of online tickets being honored are less likely, but a voucher is now also under discussion.

That said, nothing has been finalized yet, and the DOT may very well “force” United to honor this mistake, just like they enforced Korean Airlines a few months earlier to honor their own $300 First Class from Palau, Koror to Los Angeles, CA fare mistake!

For now, I can only remind everyone who purchased a ticket and who already has not done so- file a DOT complain against United Airlines. Link here: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/escomplaint/es.cfm

-Kinglobjaw

While I expected a higher frequency of deals involving more cities from the US Airways route network, I’m having a heck of time and heaps of fun. Let’s go over the events of the week!

Monday, June 28, 2010

1) The clue being “One Love, One Heart” a few minutes later a Tweet : Phoenix to Montego Bay, Jamaica each way for $20 + tax.

2) The clue being “fireworks”, US Airways offered 4th of July fares to it’s hub, Philadelphia from 25 cities on the East Coast/ Midwest for only $18 each way + tax. This fare allowed for a day trip in either direction (those try to get away from Philly and those wanting to see the city.)

3) Next, a trivia giveaway. First person to answer the question received a $1,500 gift card for US Airways flights. Easy question: “What is US Airways’ longest flight from Philadelphia”. Obviously, Tel Aviv.

4) Clueing us in with a metion of the Nobel prize, US Airways offers $89 one way + tax from Philadelphia to Oslo, Norway.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

1) US Airways was up bright and early today having woken up myself one hour after US Airways tweeted $79 + tax one way fares from Charlotte to Rio de Janeiro. Samba! What an awesome deal.

2) The high roller clue followed by a $49 one way + tax fare in First Class from Dallas to Las Vegas. Interesting thing is- fare books into “A” (think paid First Class) so you even earn class-of-service bonus miles.

3) The next clue was “betting” us- I knew it was regarding a gambling destination. Right I was, $49 one way + tax fare from Phoenix, Arizona to either Las Vegas or Reno, Nevada. Also in First Class!

4) A weaker give away today. Today’s trivia question yielded a 2011 Gold Preferred membership along with a year at the US Airways Club. All you had to do was be the first person to correctly list five of US Airways’ year- round European destinations.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

1)  Seems like US Airways slept in this morning, and as soon as they woke up, they reached for the Tequilla bottle. $49 one way fares (+ tax, of course) from Charlotte, NC to either San Jose del Cabo or Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

2) Next up, Washington focus city gets some action. $19 one way + tax from Washington-Reagan (DCA) to either New Orleans or Charleston, SC.

3) Less events on this day, with a trivia question ending today’s specials. First person to tweet all four destinations in Hawaii that US Airways actually flies to (HNL, OGG, KOA, LIH- yes, but not ITO as many of you have tried to argue) gets two round trip tickets to anywhere in the world US Airways flies to. I’m assuming both are in coach and since they are free- no mileage earnings.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

1) 4th day of the weak nets four deals. First up, $9 + tax each way fares from New York LaGuardia to either Albany, NY; Burlington, VT; Ithaca, NY; Portland, ME or Rochester, NY.

2) First Class deal strikes again. $49 each way + tax from Charlotte to either West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale or Miami. The clue “Orange” confused me a bit since I wasn’t sure if these would be Orange County deals of Florida deals.

3) Trivia time! Once again, at stake- $1,500 US Airways gift card. First person to correctly name the new business class product (Envoy Suite) wins!

4) A deal so juicy, it could make you say “what about them apples?”. $99 one way + tax from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv, Israel. All I can say is Oh Wow!

We now await what Friday, July 2, 2010 brings!

Sure, they could offer more cities and more dates, but these dails are truly awesome! Especially the Tel Aviv one! How deals have I taken advantage of? None, as of yet. One way or another- either the dates don’t work out or I just don’t feel like going there right now. As for the trivia, I’m good- no doubt about it. I’m just not fast enough. Still, I’m having a great time, though my workout have taken a major hit this week. I’ve only gone to the gym once this week and the real work out? Running back to my house from the gym so I could catch a trivia question in time after getting a tweet while bench pressing!

I’ve also gotten to know alot of FlyerTalkers which I’ve been tweeting with constantly. It’s been a good week overall.

Proudly flying (and tweeting) with US!

-Mark

a) D+?  b) Disgusting? c) Delayed? d) Dumpy? e) ALL OF THE ABOVE?

How about F- All of the above and more?

This past weekend I was practically forced to fly Delta Airlines. It’s a city that only offers Delta service. I won’t complain, I was able to book the ticket just 8 hours prior to the actual flight. Throughout my travel “career”, I have never bought a ticket this close to departure, so the experience was interesting, a little chaotic, but I was very enthusiastic. At the end of the day, flying is flying and techinally, I should tell myself that I am excited regardless of the airline, right? Wrong! I will keep reminding you readers, the airline is key to flying experince. Flying is more with a certain airline!

Friday morning started out with the usual. Go to the airport, print boarding passes at the kiosk and clear security. The Grand Forks airport is tiny, so it’s foolish to arrive more then 15 minutes prior to boarding if you are flying without bags. Interestingly enough, Delta offers Breezeway boarding, which is the equivalent of a United red boarding carpet for elite members. Not that many elites on the 5:10AM Pinnacle CRJ-200. A few minutes later, mechanical! Off the plane, rebook myself on Delta.com website since the Delta reservation number is temporarily disconnected. Next attempt at flying: a DC-9 to Minneapolis. Flight full, very full. Sold out full. Last row on the DC-9. I’ve never been on a DC-9, but I know Northwest has 3 versions- this was the 2 flight attedant version of the DC-9. Missed my connection to O’Hare. Minneapolis airport? Nice, very nice. Except- not a single  Delta Red Coat all the way from C to G. For those who ask what is Delta Red Coat? It’s one of Delta’s iniatives at better customer service. It’s a portable gate agent. He or she can rebook you, print boarding passes and vouchers. Still, as nice as it sounds, it’s absolutely irritating to walk throughout the aiport and not be able to find a single one.

 The only thing in red was a Delta Amex credit card hawker who told me Delta does not offer special services counters. I think to myself- “and people actually complain about US Airways in Philly”?! What I do like about Delta is their computer rebook system. You scan your boarding pass at this kiosk type device and it lists the flights you have been rebooked on. Of course, I managed to learn about one of these machines, because the gate agent would not assist me until he saw me play around with the machine for a “decent’ amount of time. Made it to Chicago about 5 hours late.

Return was interesting. Chicago to Minny was an A319. I got exit row and ”flew into” FlyerTalker td_in_training. He was one of the nicest FlyerTalkers I’ve met so far. Delta actually did good on this flight. Aside from it being over an hour late, coach cabin was provided a full beverage service and even tiny bags of peanuts. I do miss peanuts on US Airways flights. I had enought time to make the connection back to Grand Forks, ND, although G to C is a bit of a schlepp, but the people movers are a nice touch. The Grand Forks flight didn’t even beging boarding, so I was thrilled about the prospect of not missing class the next morning. Had myself an exit row on this CRJ-200. Only about 60% full. Quick taxi to de-icing pad and then something unexpected,  yet something probably expected from Delta. While rolling down the runway, at about 40-50 knots, the plane comes halting to a complete stop and exists the runway utilizing the closest taxiway. Apparently, a warning light lit up in the cockpit indicated a problem with the apu/engine generator. Taxi back to gate, but not let off the plane, the mechanics end up fixing the problem. A few more minutes of paperwork and we’re on our way. The flight attendant, Athena was excellent. While in the air, she provided a full service on this rather short flight and even comped alcoholic beverages. I just had water. No ice, no lime.

Overall, I found Delta very poor, and I’m excited to say I’m only stuck with them for a few more months. I’m in the process of matching my US status to Delta, which should make me Delta Gold Medallion, so we’ll see if my experiences improve for the few remaining months. Flight attendants are much, much better at US Airways. I cannot wait to fly with US Airways again next month. Only have to deal with Delta on Grand Forks to Denver via Minneapolis!

Three positives about the trip: 1) FlyerTalker 2) F/A Athena on Minny to Grand Forks 3) Delta’s rebooking machines are pretty cool

Proudly flying with US,

-Kinglobjaw

Proudly flying with US,

-Kinglobjaw

Proud to fly with US.

-Kinglobjaw

Take a look,

Proud to fly with US. Proud to drive with US.

-Kinglobjaw