Why do I never need an elite status from a hotel chain?

From my trip report (The 22000 Mile Long March – Hyatt Regency O’Hare), I have said:

"And somehow this is one of the reasons why I don’t have and want any active hotel status, which I will say more in the future."

 

This is the time to explain - why do I never need an elite status from a hotel chain?

 

For the record, I am a Gold Preferred Guest member of SPG, sponsored by United Airlines currently and American Express Platinum Card in the future.

 

I have never stayed in a SPG chained location. or use any benefits at all.

1. Money.

I use Priceline "Name Your Own Price" for my hotel bookings. In most of the case, I was able to slash my cost about 50%.

 

A perfect example will be my last Hyatt stay - $72 from Priceline v. $146 from Hyatt's website.

 

In other word, the regular pricing is good enough for me to stay 2 nights.

 

Then do I earn enough points for a one-night award stay if I pay regular pricing? Absolutely not.

2. When I travel, I tend not to stay in the hotel.

Based on the way how I arrange my travel, I rarely stay in the hotel unless it is necessary (like sleeping).

In other word, having a 5-star room does not matter - as I am not in the room enjoying it.

3. Complex v. Simplicity

With no doubt, frequent flyer programs are complicated.

How about hotel programs? My answer is no - they are simple. Like Hyatt's Gold Passport, basically, you can purchase your status to a Platinum (second tier level) by having the Hyatt's credit card with an annual fee of $75.

Also, the points you earn are based on revenue - the money you spend.

But for frequent flyer programs, you can earn more miles by spending the same amount of money, which has a higher potential of rate of return.

4. I like my own bed.

The most important - I love my own bed. Staying in a luxury hotel is good. But there is nothing you can compare with your own bed.

Travel with Air China - I dare you...

I need to travel to Beijing next month from Hong Kong. So I pick Air China as the carrier. But my experience so far...oh well...I dare you to try it and see you will agree with what I said.

Air China is a Star Alliance member who is ranked by SKYTRAX as a 4-star airlines. While the airlines I travel the most, United Airlines, is a 3-star airlines, I suppose my experience will be better in general.

I was wrong (so far...)

1. Price

I know - I should not complain about the price. But if I told you that the Round-Trip ticket price is as expensive as half of the cost of a Round-Trip ticket from SFO to PEK, you will be surprised.

So my only choice - award ticket.

2. Pre-Travel Service

I booked my ticket with Continental with my OnePass miles (as they are willing to waive the booking fee for me). After it was ticketed, I called Air China North America for a seat assignment. And here is what I have encounted:

a. An invisible "D" seat

The servicing aircraft is a Airbus A321 (Man...I hate Airbuses). I have reviewed seat arrangement from Air China's website, as well as SeatGuru. So I know what to expect.

First - all bulkhead and exit-row are blocked. Based on the agents, not even PhoenixMiles elite members can get those. Fair enough.

Then the first agent assigned me to a 15D. But wait - there is no D seat in A321 at all - so what's going on?

None of 2 agents from North America can tell me why. So I called Hong Kong instead.

The real reason - it is the aircraft borrow from its subsidiary - Air Macau.

b. Baggage Allowance

I only go for 1 night. So it will be obvious to have no checked baggage. But still I checked the baggage allowance with the agents. Apparently, Air China's agents are extremely lack of training, as they totally forget the rule of Most Significant Carrier, which in a simple way, the passengers should follow the airlines' policies for baggage who transport them the most distance.

My ticket is on travel with Air China entirely. But they told me to check with Continental and follow their allowance. Oops...is it mean I can get 3 bags, 70 lb each? (The right answer is I get 40 kg as weight concept applies).

c. Airport lounge.

As I am a Star Alliance Gold member, I am entitled to use the lounge (as soon as it is not a U.S. domestic only travel). Since I know that there is no Air China lounges in Hong Kong, I asked them which one I should use (as each airlines has a preferred one).

My answer is - I can't use the lounge as there is no lounge. Such a LMAO...

Finally a competent agent in Hong Kong tell me that they do have a preferred lounge - CNAC lounge.

Oh well - since I am a Star Alliance Gold member, I can use whatever Star Alliance Gold lounges I want - I will simply choose - United Club (No offense, but it is in fact one of the best Star Alliance Gold lounges in Hong Kong).

My trip report is definitely going to follow.

Good luck to me and whoever travel with the greatest Air China...

There are reasons why I hate (not even dislike) Southwest...

Southwest, to a lot of people, is a good choice for travel.

But to me, Southwest is #1 on my airlines ban list.

If you asked me, have I ever traveled with Southwest before making this conclusion? The answer is yes.

Of course - I have my own reasons:

1. Safety and Maintenance Record

Seriously?

The reason is simple. It was about 6-7 years when I traveled from Baltimore to Oakland via Phoenix. I was sitting in a window seat that was allowed me to see the left wing. Do you know what I have seen?

A rusty screw/nail.

I never saw that in any active aircrafts.

Of course, I have properly reported to this issue to FAA, who has the authority for airworthiness (but they failed to act after 2 months...which was another story).

Remember that Southwest was grounded because 737s were not properly inspected?

Southwest Airlines - Safety violations

How about this?

Southwest Airlines Flight 812

Beside, based on my research on Wikipedia, Southwest has more aircraft-related incidents than other major airlines.

I may be biased - but the fact speaks the truth.

2. LUV does not mean Southwest loves you

Remember Kyla Ebbert?

How about Leisha Hailey?

Now you know what I mean.

(Declaimer - It is not my intention to judge if these actions are justified by Southwest. But to simply address that what kind of messes that Southwest had created).

3. Is Southwest cheap?

Yes - with no doubt, if you have checked baggage, or if your travel is in a urgent matter (that you book your ticket in less than 14 days).

How about if baggage fee is no longer a concern (such as you have methods to get away with the baggage fee) and you have more than enough time to make your booking?

Then it is a no.

When I write this, I have pulled the following example to examine how cheap Southwest is:

Departure Date: 12/01/2011 (One-way)
From: San Francisco, CA
To: Los Angeles, CA

Basically, all airlines which operate this route (including code-share), except Virgin America, almost have the same price, and they are:

Alaska
American
Delta
United/Continental (They are $1 more compare to others).

...and Southwest.

Virgin America is in fact the cheapest, which costs $89 total.

So now you know why I never fly with Southwest...

Sleeping During Flight - Facing the Reality

When reading Consumerist (a blog that talk about how consumers fight the big C), I come across with this New York Time article (or should I say another blog):

Cramped in Coach, or the Science of Sleep

To me, the article is totally B.S. For real, I have my reasons.

Everyone is different. Period. You can't simply "borrow" someone's advices.For instance, a lot of people want 1K. But I insist for Premier Executive/Premier Gold (If you want to know why, see my post yesterday).

You need to explore for yourself.

In this instance, sleeping. I have been traveled on International flat-bed business, Domestic First and Business, as well as regular and premium Economy seats.My conclusion is having a nice condition does not mean you can sleep good.

There is a lot of things that can impact a traveler to sleep, like turbulence, noise (especially from the babies), your seatmates, the seats, and you, regardless classes of travel. Even the in-flight services can affect you as well.

While there is a lot of wild cards out there, I will simply focus on "YOU".

You know the best way you can go to sleep.

You know why you can't sleep.

You know "YOU".

Simply saying, if you have no problem sleeping when you are up in the air, then sleep.

If you have a problem and you know an effective solution for yourself (not from others), then use it if you want to sleep.

If you have a problem and you don't know what to do, then embrace the problem - either you find your own effective way to help you to sleep, or find something for you to do instead of sleeping (except Mile High Club for sure). Don't ever force yourself to sleep.

The most important is you face the reality - it isn't your own home and bed, and your own exclusive sleepmates. For sure, you will not be definitely get used to sleep in the air.

Accept the reality and work on it.

Why do I never want to become a 1K?

To a lot of people, top-tier elite status is a dream or must have for traveling.

I remembered once in a FlyerTalk event couple months ago, Lucky asked me why don't I aim for 1K this year.

At that moment, I have never thought about that idea (and as always keep my opinion open).

Now I can definitely provide an answer to this question - I don't want to become a 1K. I can - but I simply choose not to.

Why?

It all relates to how I travel.

1. SWUs (or GPUs) are worthless to me.

When I travel, money is #1 motivation. Unless it is necessary (which as a good news, it never happens), I never bought a ticket that are expensive (or in Frequent Flyer terms, a higher fare class).

Let me use my last year experience as an example. I have successfully traveled from San Francisco to Hong Kong via Vancouver (the one in Canada, not the State of Washington in the U.S.) on Air Canada for $562.50 exact.

The same ticket (but direct non-stop) by United usually costs $1600 with Systemwide Upgrade Eligibility, which is about 3 times more than Air Canada.

For that money, I could in fact go to Hong Kong 3 times, earn 43020 PQM and 86040 RDM (Redeemable Miles), which I can spend those RDM for an upgrade or a free round-trip ticket to Hong Kong again (and still have something left).

If I choose the upgraded path, I can only earn 13826 PQM and 27652 RDM.

2. I don't need to go to New York.

Under the current Unlimited Domestic Upgrade (UDU) rules, the only domestic route that does not eligible for upgrade is San Francisco/Los Angeles to New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (this route is officially known as United p.s.). In order to upgrade, you will need to use miles or CR-1 (Confirmed Region 1 Upgrade).

Simply put - I don't go there. What will I do with those CR-1 anyway?

3. In Premium Classes, you lose touch with the rest of the world.

Trust me or not, I was not never able to start a conversation in First or Business Classes when I got upgraded.

But in Economy Class, it was not difficult for me to have a decent conversation (even with flight crews).

I remembered about a month ago, I was doing a Mileage Run from San Francisco to Chicago same-day return. In Economy Plus, couple of others were doing the same thing (except they were coming from Chicago). We have a decent conversation how we can earn more miles and that. At this least, I was not bored.

But when I compared my travel to Honolulu on First Class, which was also taken place about a month ago, basically, except for food ordering and that, I kept my mouth shut for my entire flight, especially my seatmate is me (I got the whole row by myself, even in First Class).

4. Last but not the least - my Premier Executive status do the job well.

As a Star Alliance Gold member, I was treated very well. Even though 1K will be treated way better by United, I don't need that kind of treatment.

Beside, for the same miles, I can become 2 years of Premier Executive instead of 1 year of 1K.

Even United changed the program but still, Premier Executive is still good enough for me.

Why Economy Class are better than First Class sometimes?

If I asked you a question - if you have the choice, will you rather travel in Economy Class or Premium Classes (First/Business)?

Most of the people, without thinking, will say - Premium.

For me, I will say it depends.

To illustrate my point (that Premium Classes are not always the best choice for travel), let focus on the following picture:

Who can tell me the length of my legroom?

This was taken from my recent travel (United 396: Honolulu, HI - San Francisco redeye). As you can see, my legs were not restricted at all.

But why do I say it is better in Economy Class?

The reason is simple - Rest.

It was a redeye - so you know that most people would be sleeping for the entire flight (In fact, my flight was scheduled to arrive at 5 AM).

With no mean to trash professional services from the flight attendants, somehow Premium Class may be over-attentive, which in other word, restricting your time to rest.

For my entire flight, except for drink service (which I declined), flight attendants have made sure that they would not bother me at all - even my seatmate was a so cooperative flight attendant - Yes, my seatmate was in fact a dead-heading flight attendant to SFO for his KIX flight.

As far as my legrooms, with no doubt, I had the best seat in the aircraft.

So it is not difficult to imagine - I have slept for the entire flight .

So no service did not mean bad service at all.

What does it take for United to fix the aircrafts?

Am I a frequent complainer? Maybe.

But definitely I did not do anything like the following:

Why airlines don’t take most complaints seriously…

My story is pretty simple - broken interior.

No need to say more - the picture will tell you what has happened:

The Velcro - oh well...

Can you imagine you are sitting in this seat for 4.5 hours?

My personal record is I have sat on a similar seat for 10 hours - Seoul, Korea to San Francisco on a Boeing 747-400.

Broken seats, IFE (In-flight Entertainment) are really common in airlines industry.

But United, which my first choice of travel, apparently is doing way much "better" than other airlines.

In the past, I have complained extensively with United for its poor maintenance with its Airbus, which ultimately is improved. I don't know if my complaint helps, but who cares? (Or maybe the reality is I have traveled less on an Airbus - for real - this year, only once).

Seriously, 2 trips in 2 weeks - with 3 flights on Boeing 767-300ER IPTE (International Premium Travel Experience), 2 of them have visible damage in the interior aircraft.

My bottom line is - what does it take for United to fix it?

By the way - the cabin have been retrofitted for the new Business Class and First Suite not long ago. So how does this happen so often? Who knows?

UPDATE (09/02/2011) - United did provide a response - but simply they are saying, we will do better next time...Oh well, next see next time...

Finding a Cheap Ticket...

A lot of people asked me (which most of them are not elite members - as elite members won't ask me this) how to find a cheap airline ticket.

If you think by reading the post, I will tell you my secret. You think wrong.

However, this is my perspective on the topic of "cheap ticket":

1. Defining "cheap"...

I remember one of the most famous movie script from the Matrix, "What is real?"

Same here - what is cheap?

Each people has different definitions on cheap. So if you want to score a "cheap" ticket, you should define "cheap" - what is the price that you think you are willing to pay that you are considered cheap?


No ticket is free (even award ticket has its cost and value).

2. Work, Work and Work...

Why do people work? Money, right?

Same as "cheap" tickets - you want a cheap ticket, you have to work for it. If you don't check the price periodically, how will you know the price drops or increase?

3. So-called Promotion...

This is my third year as elite member. But for real - I have only officially bought 2 tickets that are directly related to a sale promotion.

One is the famous Expedia $300 Las Vegas Promotion. Another one is my coming trip to Honolulu.

Each time I got a email from an airline or saw a so-called promotion, I will definitely check it out. But each time, I come back with disappointment.

So-called promotion is never a promotion at all.

An typical example is the ticket price from San Francisco to Los Angeles by Southwest. They always say that they have a promotion for one-way fare of $49. But if you add everything up - it will be $119.40 round-trip. Usually, major airlines are selling in the same price at the same time. So where is the promotion?


4. Date, Time and Place

It is funny - but I have only purchased one cheap ticket only, which was for earlier this year, I flew to Miami for a conference.

The reason is simple - you don't have the choice of the date, time, and place for everything. For date, you can't choose any dates as you want to and ticketing must be done in a specific time.

Cheap tickets are like stock market - the more information you can gather, the better you are in control (of course - I am not suggesting insider trading). Bottom line - cheap tickets are something that people can hope for, but can't ask for.

Tomorrow will be my 1 of 3 Mileage Run to renew my Premier Executive (or should I call Premier Gold) from San Francisco to Chicago O'Hare. As expected, no chance for upgrade.

It has been a while (especially after SMI/J changed the whole thing) I have not travel on United. I will definitely make a trip report to show you my Economy Class experience.

By the way - anyone know who is SMI/J? (Sorry if you are from FlyerTalk, you are not entitled to answer this question...)

My Perspective of Frequent Flyer Program

To my fellow FlyerTalkers, this will not be a strange question at all.

Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) - a program that basically allows you to earn rewards when you travel.

It is not difficult to understand how it work - you took a qualified travel, and you earned something back for the future.

But how many people, for real, have thought about what are best for them anyway?

Here are my 2 cents on FFPs:

1. Don't earn because you can...

Funny, right? A lot of people think that when you travel, and you are offered a chance for earning reward, you should jump to take the offer, right?

No. You should only earn when it is the right moment.

A lot of programs gave incentive for new members for simply joining. Somehow the incentive may be more than what you can earn for your initial flight. For example, American Airlines, in some occasions, may offer a 1000-mile opening bonus. But if you open your account for a round-trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles by AA, you are in fact only earning 672 miles.

Beside, airlines do make money when you allow them to share your information.

2. Have a target...

I love "Up In the Air". When Natalie asked Ryan what is his target at Hilton, he said. "It's 10 million miles," Such a big target...

Of course - I am not asking you to do a copycat as Ryan did (as Ryan was meant something else, which like Tom Stuker (FlyerTalk User ua1flyer), which is referred to butt-in-seat (BIS) mile.) But still, you should have some ideas what you want to save up from.

For example, if you want to earn an award ticket for traveling to Asia, then you should plan on how you can earn these miles.

3. Choose the right program...

No offense to airlines - but not all airlines programs are right for you.

Like everything else in your life - you have to pick one (or a few) that fit your need the most.

For instance, unless in extreme cases, you should not choose a program that there is no way that you are related with. Let's say you live in San Francisco. Unless you do some travelings to Sake Lake City or Atlanta or another other SkyTeam partners per year, you should never be attracted to Delta SkyMiles.

The easiest way to earn miles are through traveling and credit card. However, it takes years if you want to earn from credit card. For example, if I want to earn an award ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong by using my United Mileage Plus Card, I will need to spend USD$65,000 to get these miles (assuming no bonus has involved).

4. Watch out the program's expiration policies...

A key issue with FFP - mile expiration.

AFAIK - there are 3 kinds of policies - 1) never expired; 2) expired with certain time regardless; and 3) expired after certain time of non-activities.

For instance, Delta SkyMiles will be type 1. Most Asian airlines programs (like Asian Miles) will be type 2, and most American airlines (American, United/Continental) will be type 3.

I will always try to avoid type 2 - unless you can earn miles quickly, your miles will be expired way before you can use it for something meaningful. In other word, you are basically back to square one each time.

5. Check out all related policies for partner airlines.

In most of the cases, no airlines will require the passengers to have their own program in order to earn award (except those who go for elite status, or small programs like SouthWest Rapid Reward 2.0).

Using me as an example, I never used my miles from United/Continental and got United award ticket (in fact, all reward tickets are all traveled on Singapore Airlines).

Singapore Airlines Krisflyer program is considered as type 2 mile expiration policy - you can't use it for something meaningful. But you still want to earn reward for traveling with Singapore Airlines. Then partner airlines program (like United in my case) will be your perfect solution.

Miles like money. If you know the tricks well, it is not difficult for you to earn reward...

Why Economy Class?

A lot of people may be surprised why I want to talk about travel experience from Economy Class.

The reason is relatively simple - not many people are doing it.

Travel bloggers, like those who you can find from Boarding Area, mostly flew at the least business. For me, even I am similar to them (I am airline elite member - but only low and mid-tier), I still fly Economy Class most often.

My economic value is simple - for the same amount of award miles, would you rather go to Hong Kong twice or travel on business? I choose twice for sure.

And what funny is most people only talk about premium classes, which at least 66% of all travelers are stilling traveling on Economy.

Beside, I think Economy Class is an form of art. Unlike premium class products, which airlines can compete and be ranked. No one else actually rank and compete with Economy products.

So there's why I want to talk about my experience and my insight from traveling Economy Class to share with all of you.