Breakfast on United A319

The Airbus 319 is the smallest plane in the United mainline fleet.  It has eight business/first seats.  There were no power outlets.

The breakfast sandwich and fruit were tasty.  I don't understand the low fat craze, as food with fat removed, such as the nonfat yogurt, taste bland.

United Europe Sale Through Winter

United's Europe sale ends tonight.  West coast (and further) travelers are seeing good price per mile.  For those wanting to visit Europe and see the indoor sights without the crowds, these are decent prices.


From Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS).  Over 17,000 miles.  5.9 cents per mile.  About $1000.  The return from Lisbon necessitates an extra night, so choose where you want to spend that night.

March 1 HNL-IAH-EWR-LIS
March 9 LIS-EWR-IAH-HNL

From Hilo, Hawaii (ITO) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS).  6.1 cents per mile.


From San Francisco, California (SFO) to Dublin, Ireland (DUB).  Nearly 12,000 miles.  5.9 cents per mile.  $704.

March 3 SFO-EWR-DUB
March 10 DUB-IAD-IAH-SFO

That itinerary has a long wait in Newark, so add another hop before Newark for a few more miles and similar price.  5.7 cents per mile.  $702.  12,422 miles.

Maui To Europe In Business/First

United Airlines has great summer pricing in BusinessFirst (class P) from smaller US airports to some of United's main airports in Europe including Amsterdam, Paris, and others.  Flights available into the summer.

From Maui, Hawaii (OGG) to Amsterdam, The Netherlands (AMS).  About 18,000 miles.  8.1 cents per mile.

July 17 OGG-DEN-IAH-AMS
July 30 AMS-IAH-LAX-HNL-OGG

United Premier 1K Packet

United's Premier 1K packet arrived in the mail.  It contained the 1K phone number, baggage tags, advertisements for a credit card and a car, along with ten drink vouchers.

The drink vouchers are unwanted.  A premium that would be well-received could be a couple transferable United Club vouchers or a couple vouchers for in-flight food boxes.

The mailing is uninspiring.  If United provided an option to opt-out of receiving this packet, I would opt-out.

United's New SFO Terminal

United's new terminal in San Francisco airport is interesting.  It sports a hidden-away yoga room, hidden shoe shine stand, and a few trendy shops.  The dual-monitor system above gates are less helpful than they could be.  The new construction materials are still noticeably off-gassing.  Plenty of counter space with outlets is a nice modern upgrade.  Hopefully the outlets will be able to withstand frequent use, without loosening up and consequently not holding the charging terminals securely.

Leaving San Francisco:

Lunch of shrimp salad, soup, and a packet of good butter:

Doctor Says "Avoid TSA Body Scans"

The doctor for Neil Young, Steve Jobs, and others has recommended to opt-out of full body scans:

RULE 56 Avoid airport backscatter x-ray scanners. Until science can prove the safety of such machines, he explains in his new book, “I’ll be requesting the manual pat-down massage when I go through the TSA’s gateway at airports. You should too.”

There have been no long-term medical studies of the dangers of this new technology.  As the Doctor says, those who want to live a long life will opt-out of the scanners.

 

The lunch meal was the typical choice of chicken in bread pocket or shrimp salad with soup.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Battery Problems

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner problems resurfaced in Japan.  Until the battery issues are fully resolved or old-style batteries are used, I will not be booking on this technological marvel of a flying time bomb.  It's not worth the excitement risk of an in-flight fire.

Dreamliner battery overheats:

A Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner remains grounded at the Narita airport in Tokyo a day after white smoke was seen billowing out of a battery compartment. And Boeing has confirmed that one of the lithium-ion battery cells onboard overheated while the plane was parked on the tarmac.
The news of the battery failure comes just over a year after another 787, also owned by Japan Airlines, parked at the Boston Logan airport suffered a similar battery overheating issue that eventually caused the grounding of all 50 Dreamliners for more than three months as Boeing fought to find a fix.

Did maintenance or airport mains power contribute to the problem?

This latest incident took place while the 787 was undergoing maintenance ...

Book "War Beneath The Waves"

Read War Beneath the Waves, by Don Keith.  I was excited to read this World War II story of near-mutiny, commander failure, bravery, and heroism under the sea.  The writing was sloppy - several repeated phrases and sentences.  More glaringly, much of the writing was done in modern newspaper story - every sentence is a paragraph.  This is a great story of submariners, grit, and heroism.

Pitfalls of splitting reservations for CPU upgrades

Assume their are two tickets in a reservation.  Booked and flown by person with status who is eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades (CPU) and the other person has no status.

Upon checking in electronically, it will ask if you want to split the reservations for CPU purposes.  If you choose to do so, there are several downsides:

• $5 credit for united.com TravelBank club (requires yearly one-time payment to enroll) will be applied for one ticket, not both.  It is possible to request the other ticket be credited.
• If a flight is delayed/cancelled, the systems will automatically rebook for the person with status - even putting you on a codeshare flight.  If the goal is to get to the destination within a few hours of the originally scheduled time, this is beneficial.  Unfortunately, the system will not prioritize the person without status, and they will be on their own.  On a heavy weather day, this could be a big problem because the two fliers have a good chance of being split-up, with one suffering an overnight stay.  This is obviously not acceptable for most couples or parents flying with children.

If you are flying into weather problems (winter east coast storms can cause significant ripple effects with planes and crews), consider carefully if you should not split the records for CPU purposes.  While you may forgo an upgrade, you will have a better chance of arriving on time.