Kinglobjaw's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘ORD’

One my Mom’s friends turned to the King for help with booking a trip for her Mom. Her Mom is supposed to fly from WRO-ORD in June, stay for the summer and return back in September. Right off the bat, my options were limited, because my Mom’s friend said to only take LOT under consideration with a single connection in WAW. I guess it’s understandeable given that her Mom doesn’t really speak english and she has connected in WAW for many years. For an elderly lady travelling alone, it’s best to keep it as simple and as familiar as possible. Sure, LOT isn’t the cheapest and if I were the one flying, I would doing something more creative, and cheaper at the same time like an LH/SK combo, or LH via FRA to DUB, then US to ORD via PHL and CLT. Let’s back on topic however as I am not flying this time!

Here’s the part I’ve been meaning to talk about. My Mom’s friend is about 50 years old, so she’s not that old, but has this silly infantile notion that schedules never change. Let’s take flight LO3852 from WRO-WAW departing at 9AM. In the past, the flight would leave at 9:10AM, or so she claims. She can’t seem to understand that some flights get pulled or have schedule changes. She goes “No, No, there is no flight at 9:00AM, it leaves at 9:10AM!”. I am a perfectionist, so yes 10 minutes does make a difference, but in this case there is no flight at 9:10AM anymore. It now leaves at 9:00AM. Period.

Same, odd situation on the return. We were talking about LO4 which leaves ORD at 9:55PM and flies nonstop to WAW. ImmediatelyI heard her say, “9:50PM”. I let it slide, and later on when she was reading back the flights, she said “leaving Chicago at 9:50PM”. Back and forth we go. In the end I forced it in her hed. LO4 now leaves at 9:55PM. Good, the King is done here- put the flight on hold and will ticket tommorow over the phone or maybe on Orbitz.

I understand this post is more like a rant, but I’m curious to see if other people’s parents or older family/friends do that sort of thing? Maybe it’s a generational thing!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I’ve had the hardest time buying tickets for my upcoming trip. You see, I am going to Hawaii in April and I need to fly into HNL. My plan was to purchase a revenue coach ticket on US Airways and upgrade using my Dividend Miles as it’s just 17,500 miles each way. The good thing about the mileage upgrade is that it clears you into First at the time of ticketing, and more importantly from the city of origin, which in my case would be Chicago- ORD.

US Airways Hawaii flights are all operated by America West B757′s which offer 14 First Class seats. I say not bad, given that the East B757′s have only 8 in First or 12 Envoy if configured with Envoy!

I planned a simple ORD-PHX-HNL-PHX-ORD, but as you know with my trips, the way they are booked resembles nothing how they were planned. PHX-HNL has two flights a day per direction on US and there were absolutely no upgrade seats. None! I’m not flexible at all, so I politely declined the agent’s offer to look around.

Now the good part. US flies nonstop to four cities in Hawaii: HNL, Maui (OGG), Kona (KOA) & Lihue (LIH) are all daily from PHX. US Airways used to offer LAS (Las Vegas)-OGG, but let’s not get into that. It’s just no longer there and what a shame!  Anyway, PHX-HNL/OGG are both double daily. In fact, last year, when I needed three upgrade seats to HNL and back I had to return from Maui, since HNL-PHX had none.

What I did differently this year. I looked at everything. When you’re desperate, you’re desperate. Or may I should call it creative?

The good thing about Hawaii is that the islands are relatively close to each other, and while competition is no longer the same without Aloha Airlines, inter-island fares are still pretty low if booked ahead of time. In addition, Hawaiian Airlines (HA) codeshares with almost every USA based airline and quite a few international ones too. They have baggage and ticketing agreements, and most importantly during these times of a-la carte pricing, they do not charge for the first bag you check. After all, if they did, tourists would not hop around the islands, HA would loose customers and islands would loose potential tourists and the revenue they could scrape off of them. In return, the Hawaiian Islands would be pretty upset with HA.

Another idea to digest is that US Airways (and I’m sure many other carriers) will allow HA segments at no extra charge (aside from a few $ in taxes). I mean, if the ORD-HNL fare basis is, say $505 round trip, in most cases US Airways will let you route it via multiple stops, meaning you don’t have to fly ORD-PHX-HNL, you can fly ORD-PHX-OGG-HNL using US up to OGG and then HA on OGG-HNL. It depends on the fare rules, but sometimes you can do 3 or 4 stops, meaning ORD-PHX-OGG-KOA-HNL and the base fare is still $505. Remember, all you end up paying extra is a few more dollars in airport and other taxes.

On my dates, only PHX-KOA had upgrade availability, so my outbound was ORD-PHX-KOA-HNL. Of course, as with all mileage upgrades, they only upgrade you on your frequent flyer carrier, so in my case US Airways. Still, I don’t mind a short KOA-HNL where, as a preferred, I still earn 500 miles and another 500 miles bonus for being a Chairman’s Preferred. Return wise, HNL-PHX was also not avalable for upgrades. Only OGG-PHX and LIH-PHX were available for that evening. The LIH schedule fit me better so I routed myself HNL-LIH on HA, and then US from LIH-PHX-PHL-ORD. Why not nonstop from PHX-ORD? Not available, but PHX-PHL-ORD was and the fare only went up by a few dollars, again due to taxes.

In conclusion, I booked ORD-PHX-KOA-HNL-LIH-PHX-PHL-ORD while confirming everything in First instantly (except KOA-HNL and HNL-LIH since it’s operated by HA). What is good is that I paid only $31 dollars more in taxes than I would have paid for ORD-PHX-HNL-PHX-ORD and would have to ride in coach. Plus, think of all the miles I will earn! I told you, the way I plan flights is never similar to how I book them.

Makes me think of last year’s ORD-LAS-SEA-LAS-PHX-HNL-OGG-PHX-SEA-PHL-ORD method of getting to Hawaii.

Now for some thoughts about using miles to Hawaii:

• Just like with the upgrades, think about flying into one of the other islands. You may not be able to have HA on your ticket as an award, but purchasing a seperate coach ticket between the islands shouldn’t cost more than $39+ tax one-way if planned in advanced. Check Hawaiianairlines.com for that! Whatever you do, don’t fly Go!
• If using miles and wanting to fly United, think about United’s flights from DEN, LAX, and SFO which are high in frequency. ORD-HNL will be hard to get.
• Soon you will be able to use miles on Continental Airlines as they will join Star Alliance.
• Not many people know this, but USA based members can use their miles on Air Canada. Air Canada flies daily to HNL, OGG, KOA nonstop from Vancouver, Canada (YVR). They use larger B767/A333 aircraft where coach is easier to book, yet business class more difficult. Air Canada’s B767′s and A333′s now feature fully flat business class seats, so they’re considered “hot”!
• Two other Star Alliance carriers server Hawaii. Air New Zealand flies a B767 three times per week from Auckland, NZ (AKL), while ANA flies a B767 daily from Tokyo-NRT. If ever in that region or you want to stop in Hawaii and fly onward, you can use them. Both offer coach and business class on those specific flights.

Have a nice clicK life, Aloha,

-Mark

I’m big on “oldie” stuff, so when I heard about Virgin Atlantic doing a commercial set in 1984 I had to see this. Even in current movies, shows, whenever they do flashback scenes I get very “into” it.

So it seems Virgin Atlantic has been flying for 25 years now. Congrats! Lately, there have been rumors of them merging with BMI and joining Star Alliance under Lufthansa’s coaching. Yeah right! Like Branson is going to let “The Wolf” take things into his own hands.

Virgin Atlantic is uniquely linked to US Airways by way of America West Airlines. America West’s limited international service called for a partnership with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic for transatlantic flights. With the US Airways merger, British Airways was knocked off, but Virgin Atlantic remained.

At this point in time, the relationship between the two has considerably cooled. Dividend Miles members do not earn preferred qualifying miles on any revenue VS (Virgin Atlantic) operated flight and it only gets worse when you want to redeem miles. Dividend Miles members can only miles redeem for economy class, meaning no Upper Class award tickets. Given that US and VS barely compete on the transatlantic market is there are reason why should these ties be severed? Maybe, just maybe if VS and BMI do indeed merge, a Star Alliance membership may be the only path to US and VS getting “cozy” again. ORD-LHR-HKG-SYD in Upper Class is what I wanted to do for a while now! And I wanted to do it using my Dividend Miles.

Anyway, here’s the 25- “Still Red Hot” campaign.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I haven’t really looked into it to see whether it can be done round-trip or just one-way, but I found really cheap fares on USAirways.com for a DUB-ORD fare basis. Fare is $123 US dollars + tax.

The most interesting part is that these fares are available for as early as today morning (it is 6:49AM in Dublin as I type this), or even February 6 or 7, 2009. I’m pretty sure if you look further back you can find similar fares. Funny, I always thought last minute fares would be rocket sky high!

While this is great for any traveler, the mileage runner can “score” big time on one of these fares. For example, let’s try fitting in more segments along the way.

Dublin, Ireland to Chicago, IL: Duration- 16 hrs 35 min
	US Airways Flight US723 on a Boeing 757 (jet) in coach class (lunch, snack)
	Departs Dublin, Ireland (DUB)	Fri, Feb 6	10:55a
	Arrives Philadelphia, PA (PHL)	7 hrs 50 min	1:45p
	Layover in Philadelphia- 1 hr 40 min
	US Airways Flight US4247 on a De Havilland Dash-8 (prop plane) in coach class (operated by US Airways Express – Piedmont Airlines)
	Departs Philadelphia, PA (PHL)	Fri, Feb 6	3:25p
	Arrives Baltimore, MD (BWI)		4:13p
	Layover in Baltimore- 1 hr 2 min
	US Airways Flight US788 on a Boeing 757 (jet) in coach class
	Departs Baltimore, MD (BWI)	Fri, Feb 6	5:15p
	Arrives Charlotte, NC (CLT)		6:41p
	Layover in Charlotte- 1 hr 39 min
	US Airways Flight US1624 on an Airbus A321 (jet) in coach class
	Departs Charlotte, NC (CLT)	Fri, Feb 6	8:20p
	Arrives Chicago, IL (ORD)

Price including all taxes? $182.80. Great deal!

Anyway, miles earned the above listed flights? 4,872 miles- assuming you are Preferred with US Airways Dividend Miles (PHL-BWI; BWI-CLT count as 500 miles only if you are Preferred).

I also found a one-way for of $200+tax ($260.80) between DUB-SFO. Routing is crazy. Earns you 6,839 miles on way (compared to only 5,098 you would earn if you flew nonstop).

Dublin, Ireland to San Francisco, CA: Duration- 30hrs 58 min
	US Airways Flight US723 on a Boeing 757 (jet) in coach class (lunch, snack)
	Departs Dublin, Ireland (DUB)	Wed, Feb 4	10:55a
	Arrives Philadelphia, PA (PHL)		1:45p
	Layover in Philadelphia- 1hr 50 min
	US Airways Flight US1451 on a Boeing 757 (jet) in coach class
	Departs Philadelphia, PA (PHL)	Wed, Feb 4	3:35p
	Arrives Charlotte, NC (CLT)		5:17p
	Layover in Charlotte- 33 min
	US Airways Flight US306 on an Airbus A320 (jet) in coach class (food for purchase)
	Departs Charlotte, NC (CLT)	Wed, Feb 4	5:50p
	Arrives Las Vegas, NV (LAS)		7:48p
	Layover in Las Vegas- 1 hr 52 min
	US Airways Flight US117 on an Airbus A320 (jet) in coach class
	Departs Las Vegas, NV (LAS)	Wed, Feb 4	9:40p
	Arrives Phoenix, AZ (PHX)		11:50p
	Layover in Phoenix- 8 hrs 55 min
	US Airways Flight US403 on an Airbus A319 (jet) in coach class
	Departs Phoenix, AZ (PHX)	Thur, Feb 5	8:45a
	Arrives San Francisco, CA (SFO)		9:53a

Makes me want to go mileage running. I can’t though, too busy! Heh, one can dream!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark