I have always thought that first class travel is nothing more than just a showcase of marginally improved in-flight catering and seat comfort. This certainly is the case with domestic first class travel within the United States – first class passengers are given few more inches of leg room and a “free” meal on select flights compared to economy class passengers. However, having traveled globally during the past two years and experienced several of surprise “double upgrades” to international first class on United Airlines, I now have a completely different perspective of first class flying. While I couldn’t justify the financial advantage of attention to details in service, comfortable seats, and increased choice of in-flight entertainment, I certainly become convinced that it is certainly worth spending extra 20,000 to 30,000 miles to redeem first class frequent flier award tickets compared to simply getting business class award tickets. By the way, I find redeeming economy class award ticket no where near economical compared to redeeming business or first class award tickets (I will certainly enlighten you on my own theory on most bang for mile in frequent flier mileage programs in the coming days through this blog).
Nonetheless, after another eight months of revenue flying with United, I have once again reached United Airline’s one of the highest tier of elite program, Mileage Plus Premier Executive 100K. As awkwardly as it may sound, the benefits of this elaborately titled exclusive membership is worth the dollars invested in reach such status – of course, in my case and probably with most business travelers, such dollar investment is not directly associated with my own pocket change. Consequently, knowing that I will once again reach this yearly membership in August, it provided me with an opportunity to utilize those hard earned miles and thanks to global airline alliances, I am also given the chance to experience, pending availability of award seats, partner airlines for my trip to Korea in September. Knowing the extensive rules of award tickets with United Mileage Plus program, I spread out my world map to find the furthest point I could travel from Boston over the Pacific Ocean. For all these years, I had thought that going to Singapore would be the furthest I could travel from Boston without having to pay additional mileage for a ticket, but having studied the rules of Mileage Plus, I discovered that Colombo, Sri Lanka would be the furthest point from Boston when redeeming an award ticket under United’s Mileage Plus program (I find it very interesting that mileage requirement to go to Korea is same as going to Sri Lanka or Singapore). Hence, I started to research on available routings, combination of carriers, and dates of travel as well as the history and culture of Sri Lanka.
As Seoul was my ultimate destination, where I am planning to stay for the next five months, I decided to designate Seoul as my “stopover” destination and Colombo, Sri Lanka as my final destination (with a mileage ticket on United, I am allowed one stopover or an open-jaw ticket). I also decided that it would make the most sense to visit Colombo before going to Korea as I was uncertain about my plans after my five months stay in Korea. Having heard so much about Singapore Airline’s First class service, I was determined to find award seats with Singapore Airlines (this was possible as Singapore Airlines is a partner of United Airlines through the global alliance called Star Alliance). That also meant I had to have very flexible dates for travel as award seats are often under heavy inventory control. To my surprise, after a short 15 minute call to United Airline’s Mileage Plus, I ended up with five Singapore Airlines First Class segments along with two Asiana, and several of United Airline’s flights for the US domestic connections. Being a greedy man that I am, I also wanted to see if I could incorporate All Nippon Airways (ANA) for my return flights as there have been exceptional reviews regarding ANA’s elaborate first class service on their recently renovated first class cabins to the United States. After five additional sporadic calls since the initial reservation in July and determination to make this travel an ultimate first class experience, I was extremely lucky to finalize my flights with a wide selection of partner airlines and my most desired routing (four airlines, four roundtrips, all first class travel, spanning over the next five months with a total of 26837 traveled miles):
September 1, 2006
United Airlines
Boston – Chicago – Los Angeles
Singapore Airlines
Los Angeles – Tokyo
September 2, 2006
Singapore Airlines
Tokyo – Singapore
September 3, 2006
Singapore Airlines
Singapore – Colombo
September 7, 2006
Singapore Airlines
Colombo – Singapore
Singapore – Tokyo
September 8, 2006
Asiana Airlines
Tokyo – Seoul
February 13, 2007
Asiana Airlines
Seoul – Tokyo
February 14, 2007
All Nippon Airways
Tokyo – Chicago
United Airlines
Chicago - Boston
With this trip already in progress, I am as excited as I was when I flew for the first time on an airplane. Also the prospect of visiting and exploring a totally new country most famously associated with its name “Ceylon” stimulates my natural instincts of an adventurous traveler. Though it is a short journey to Sri Lanka, I hope this visit can open the window of an opportunity for my future visits both as a seasoned traveler and as a professional. I also hope that this luxury in travel I experience during this trip do not spoil me in thinking that such luxuries of travel is taken for granted.
Nonetheless, after another eight months of revenue flying with United, I have once again reached United Airline’s one of the highest tier of elite program, Mileage Plus Premier Executive 100K. As awkwardly as it may sound, the benefits of this elaborately titled exclusive membership is worth the dollars invested in reach such status – of course, in my case and probably with most business travelers, such dollar investment is not directly associated with my own pocket change. Consequently, knowing that I will once again reach this yearly membership in August, it provided me with an opportunity to utilize those hard earned miles and thanks to global airline alliances, I am also given the chance to experience, pending availability of award seats, partner airlines for my trip to Korea in September. Knowing the extensive rules of award tickets with United Mileage Plus program, I spread out my world map to find the furthest point I could travel from Boston over the Pacific Ocean. For all these years, I had thought that going to Singapore would be the furthest I could travel from Boston without having to pay additional mileage for a ticket, but having studied the rules of Mileage Plus, I discovered that Colombo, Sri Lanka would be the furthest point from Boston when redeeming an award ticket under United’s Mileage Plus program (I find it very interesting that mileage requirement to go to Korea is same as going to Sri Lanka or Singapore). Hence, I started to research on available routings, combination of carriers, and dates of travel as well as the history and culture of Sri Lanka.
As Seoul was my ultimate destination, where I am planning to stay for the next five months, I decided to designate Seoul as my “stopover” destination and Colombo, Sri Lanka as my final destination (with a mileage ticket on United, I am allowed one stopover or an open-jaw ticket). I also decided that it would make the most sense to visit Colombo before going to Korea as I was uncertain about my plans after my five months stay in Korea. Having heard so much about Singapore Airline’s First class service, I was determined to find award seats with Singapore Airlines (this was possible as Singapore Airlines is a partner of United Airlines through the global alliance called Star Alliance). That also meant I had to have very flexible dates for travel as award seats are often under heavy inventory control. To my surprise, after a short 15 minute call to United Airline’s Mileage Plus, I ended up with five Singapore Airlines First Class segments along with two Asiana, and several of United Airline’s flights for the US domestic connections. Being a greedy man that I am, I also wanted to see if I could incorporate All Nippon Airways (ANA) for my return flights as there have been exceptional reviews regarding ANA’s elaborate first class service on their recently renovated first class cabins to the United States. After five additional sporadic calls since the initial reservation in July and determination to make this travel an ultimate first class experience, I was extremely lucky to finalize my flights with a wide selection of partner airlines and my most desired routing (four airlines, four roundtrips, all first class travel, spanning over the next five months with a total of 26837 traveled miles):
September 1, 2006
United Airlines
Boston – Chicago – Los Angeles
Singapore Airlines
Los Angeles – Tokyo
September 2, 2006
Singapore Airlines
Tokyo – Singapore
September 3, 2006
Singapore Airlines
Singapore – Colombo
September 7, 2006
Singapore Airlines
Colombo – Singapore
Singapore – Tokyo
September 8, 2006
Asiana Airlines
Tokyo – Seoul
February 13, 2007
Asiana Airlines
Seoul – Tokyo
February 14, 2007
All Nippon Airways
Tokyo – Chicago
United Airlines
Chicago - Boston
With this trip already in progress, I am as excited as I was when I flew for the first time on an airplane. Also the prospect of visiting and exploring a totally new country most famously associated with its name “Ceylon” stimulates my natural instincts of an adventurous traveler. Though it is a short journey to Sri Lanka, I hope this visit can open the window of an opportunity for my future visits both as a seasoned traveler and as a professional. I also hope that this luxury in travel I experience during this trip do not spoil me in thinking that such luxuries of travel is taken for granted.
No comments:
Post a Comment