Physical Airline Membership Cards

United used to mail all members a MileagePlus membership card on joining the program.  Now they send an email.  Airlines will send cards to their elite members, but general members are left out of card collecting, unless you look abroad.  ANA mailed me a card quickly after joining, so did Qatar, British Airways, and Air Berlin.  I’m still signing up for programs here and there, but I haven’t seen anything in my mail box recently.

ANA 767 at NRT

Alliance Rankings

oneworld is boasting about being the best airline alliance as rated by Skytrax, Global Traveler, and World Travel Awards   Impressive right?  It isn’t because these surveys are horribly subjective and even if you tried, there’s no empirical way to determine the best airline alliance.  Ultimately the best alliance is the one you enjoy flying the most; so the best airline alliance as rated by FrequentFlyerGuy.com is the Star Alliance.  oneworld is good too, the bulk of my back up miles are with oneworld carriers.  Skyteam is just Delta and a few other off brand carriers, they’ll let anyone join if Delta approves and Star Alliance or oneworld passes.  Some of the best alliances are between carriers and not part of a larger branded agreement.  Alaska Airlines has an outstanding list of partners and reasonably priced awards; Alaska is also a great way to pool American and Delta flights if you don’t travel with either enough for elite status.  Etihad has 21 airline partners so they can provide an alliance style product while maintaining control of the process.  So what is an alliance and who’s is the best?  It depends (the #1 answer in grad school when there is no clear answer).

American Airlines MD

Southwest Promo Code

DSHH3DKQBT - Good for 10% off a Wanna Get Away round trip flight before Oct. 31.  One time use only, so if you use, please say so in the comments.

Early Morning Flight

I Want To Fly to Moline

I want to fly to Moline, IL for vacation.  Seriously.  I'm going to see Bob Newhart on stage outside Iowa City and MLI is my best option.  I have spent a considerable amount of time at MLI because of a missed connection, but this time I'll leave the terminal.  MLI has direct flights from Denver too.  Except I don't want to fly direct.  I'm short on miles and need do go as circuitously as possible.  For an extra $45 over the direct fare, I was able to book via SAN, LAX, and ORD.

Sample Search For Unnecessary Connections

Frontier Animal Tales

Every wonder what the names of the Frontier tail animals are?  Me too. Luckily Frontier provides the answer.

Andre the Antelope

Penguin Pals

FedEx Boeing 767 time-lapse

I love these time lapse videos of aircraft assembly.  I wonder why FedEx didn't get winglets on their new 767.

It's Time To Fly

Great day to fly.

United 757 Heading East