Teh Penalty Box | part 2

Eh, the 744s are an effed-up fleet (for various reasons, including wear and tear resulting from the additional cycles racked up from years of midcon segments that TOBBers loved back in the day), but the key is to avoid SFO-SYD...for various reasons, United is more prone to cancel it than many other 747 rotations when fleet problems arise.

Ditto on avoiding ORD-HKG if you don't like multi-hour mech/inbound aircraft delays on longhaul (the ORD 747 rotations basically guarantee trouble for ORD-HKG when the slightest thing goes wrong).

I have had SQ look up my reservations in their system several times, without having obtained my pnr from UA (or without having it handy). All you need is your last name, departure date, and departure city, and they will look it up.

But the real question in this case is would the SQ person also suddenly disallow an upper class booking and move it to Y, the way the UA people did to Hartmann?

I've removed quite a few people from my FB feed in the last 24-hours. So far, none of them are from the Box

my review of the TT DFW North:

I stayed at this property on 7/19/12. There are two main problems with the hotel. One, the walls are very thin. I could clearly hear the person next door watching CNN until 0100. Then when I got up in the morning something had backed up into the shower while I was sleeping. Don't know, don't want to know. I told the front desk about it and the clerk just shrugged. Ok, well being a good Hilton Honors diamond member I did what any good member would do. I canceled my stay there that I had scheduled for 7/24/2012 and slept in the DFW airport.

Sleeping in the airport is a better experience then this hotel.

X-post tripadvisor.com

You gave Larry the boot?

I've not removed any yet, but I'm sure it's coming.

Given how little I use the tool, I don't even know what people are doing to merit removal.

Guess I could try to find out. Or maybe I'll just play more Pocket Planes and leave well enough alone.

ETA: Someone in the office knew. Interestingly only one post about it on my book and that tangential.

Thanks

Does US offer buy-up-to-first at check-in like UA does? Alternatively, is it possible to call US and buy-up a ticket to first?

A friend is asking, and my US knowledge is limited to identifying their planes at airports and then heading in another direction

Yes, it is offered at t-24 before the flight at TOD level. If there is any F space open he shouls be able to purchase through OLCI or by calling in. It starts at 50.00 and goes up to 500.00 for envoy.

See GoUpgrades.

Thanks colpuck! Appreciate your quick help.

Blasphemy!!

no problem.

A good bartender can be forgiven much, perhaps even anything.

Not you, my dear.

I don't know; I've never experienced the types of problems reported by others when traveling on SQ on UA reward tickets (i.e., not playing nice with partner reward tickets), but my sample set is not incredibly broad, either. I suppose SQ could just unilaterally void that segment or the entire ticket, though. I am not sure that I would risk calling SQ before trying to straighten it out with UA (who unfortunately screwed up both Hartmann's and colpuck's tickets), but it is hard to say.

If SQ is screwing around with y'all, at minimum insist that UA force open space on their own flights in the class you purchased. They can and will do it, but a Service Director is usually needed to do it.

OZ tends to be pretty open into and out of LAX, that's also an option.

Engadget has a nice write up on the interior of UA's 787.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/02/boeing-united-787-dreamliner-handson/

From the video, it looks like some of the window dimmer controls are linked, so it may not be an issue that the BF seats block some of the controls. Still, I don't understand why they couldn't have just stayed with a normal shade.

The USB ports (in addition to the normal power ports) are a nice addition in Y.

Interesting Olympic statistic...

Most Gold medals earned in the (modern) summer Olympics:

University of Texas (current and former athletes) - 67
Canada - 59
Norway - 57
Denmark - 44
Greece - 39
Spain - 34
Brazil - 20
Mexico - 12
India - 9
Ireland - 8

But be careful if HG is there. Possibly avoid the lavatory.

The lack of hotel rooms for us at SFO has been an ongoing issue all summer long. SYD wasn't the only problem, we cancelled the flight to ICN on Wednesday 8-1 as well.

Source has to be a little old, as China has already won 18 golds at this Olympiad. Plus, international students can count for UT and their home country