Travel China and Beyond

More Legroom in Economy Plus Middle Section on United 747s

Recently, I traveled with my nine year old daughter to Beijing to visit friends and buy jewelry for my website, Chinafinds. As my daughter had elite status on United, we were able to sit in the Economy Plus section. This is particularly important on the San Francisco - Beijing flight, because United uses rather tired old 747s for that route and as I’m sure you know, they lack the amenities of the newer 777s such as seatback video and are generally not as spiffy. Anyway, the 747 had a 3 – 5 – 3 configuration (meaning three seats next to the window on either side of the plane flanking five seats in the middle section). We were in the middle five, and I noted to my surprise that the seats in the middle five had considerably more legroom (by about two inches) than the seats in the outer three on either side of the aisle. The difference was apparent to the naked eye and I confirmed it by taking an actual measurement. I was surprised, as this detail was not indicated on Seatguru, one of my favorite travel tools. I habitually check Seatguru whenever I fly to make sure of getting the best seat possible. However, this small detail was not noted there. Anyway, my daughter and I were pleased to be in the section with superior legroom and enjoyed our 12 hour flight to Beijing to the extent to which it was possible.

Travel Problems — Airline issues

So, this past week I was supposed to fly (with my family) from New York (JFK airport)  — to London Heathrow — to Sofia Bulgaria.  Usually that is a relatively uneventful flight with one connection which was supposed to be a relatively comfortable 1hr 50 minute layover…..Little that we knew.  We arrived at JFK (on another flight) 3 hours before the flight to London.  We had plenty of time so I decided that we can spend a good portion of the time in the Admiral’s Club.  At the appropriate time (35 minutes before the 6:10 pm flight) we showed up at the gate to find that the aircraft was being serviced, then the “service” became repair —> and soon enough we were told that the aircraft was not operational until repaired.  Of course we immediately started seeing a BIG issue looming — we were about to miss our connecting flight from London to Sofia.

The big deal about that is the fact that there is only ONE (direct) flight from London to Sofia per day (early morning one).  So I rushed to the Admiral’s club to see what our options are.  After checking with the helpful agents there we determined that we are essentially not in luck.  No way to switch to another flight as American Airlines will not pull our luggage from the aircraft as it was already loaded on our flight.

There were 3 other flights leaving from JFK to London between 6:10 and 9:20, but we were not going to get on either one of them — for one reason only — the check in luggage can not be taken off the plane we were supposed to be on.

So we had to look into all sort of options but unless our flight was cancelled and luggage unloaded we were not supposed to do anything but WAIT.    Very frustrating…The other flights had open seats and we could have even made our connecting flight have we been able to get our luggage and get on the 6:30pm flight…. I do not understand why the luggage rules are so inflexible!

Now, we had to wait till 10:30pm and finally boarded around 11:00 pm and the plane took off at 11:30 pm — 5+ hours late.  So we missed the connecting flight, were able to get our self on a Lufthansa flight and will let you know what the next ordeals were —- can you spell “missing luggage”….?  More to follow…

Airline Elite status has potentially new advantage

Well folks there is a new crazy thing the airlines are experimenting with — they are trying to offer new low cost ticket fares for which you will not have a seat assignment or checked luggage allowance. Currently most airlines allow you to check in for “free” two pieces of luggage each of 50lbs. (it used to be just until a year ago that in business class on some airlines - e.g. American, you could check even up to 2 pieces at 75 lbs each)

Now, per news articles published by New York Times, (here is a link) United, and other airlines are thinking of this new experiment — to charge you fees for an advanced seat assignment and for checked in luggage…. I find this quite strange as this “ploy” to disguise costs as optional fees, will certainly be quickly seen by travelers as not good at all and will backfire on the airlines…

At the same time, hold on to your frequent flyer status as most likely it will shield you from those new “junk fees” (as Clark Howard (clarkhoward.com) refers to those types of fees). I gave some suggestions about obtaining frequent flyer status here, you may want to review it. Happy Travels!

More Airline Deals

United Airlines is offering up to 25,000 bonus miles for qualified round trips on United, Ted, and United Express. Apparently you need to complete the flights between November 10, 2006 and January 31, 2007. Here is the link.

United is also offering deals to Hawaii from many US cities. Rates could be as low as US$340 round trip (plus taxes and fees) and you may qualify for bonus miles. Here is the link (you need to buy by Nov. 22, 2006).

You can also register with United for on-line holiday shopping and earn 2-3 miles per $1 spent with a number of on-line merchants. If you have United Mileage Plus go to the United Web site, register and then can leverage the on-line shopping. For those who were not aware, Air China is now partner of United Continue reading More Airline Deals…