Tagging Miles

Are Skytrax Awards Perception over Reality?

By Leave a Comment





The latest Skytrax Airline awards were announced at the Paris Air Show, and I have to say, I’m left wondering whether Skytrax Awards are perception over reality. Don’t get me wrong, I agreed with most of Skytrax perceptions with regard to airports. 

Skytrax Awards Background

Skytrax Awards are largely revered within the industry. Traveling around Asia this past weekend, I heard it mentioned a couple of times on Bangkok Airways, which received an award for the best Regional Airline, and Thai had advertisements for the best Worlds Best Economy Class.

Skytrax Awards

It is admittedly kind of a big deal when 19.87M votes are cast, but I am still left wondering whether this is a perception thing over reality. 

Qatar Airways Wins Skytrax Award for Best Business Class

For me, this is where the rubber meets the road. I have flown Qatar on the 787 and the 777-300ER. Flying from Washington’s Dulles International Airport, we are serviced by the 777-300ER, so that’s the experience I most commonly associate with Qatar.

Lucky believes Qatar Airways to be deserving of the Skytrax awards and to have the best business class. I’ve shared my opinion of the best business class product in the past.

I totally get that Lucky is basing Qatar’s best Business Class based on the 787, A350 and A380 hard products, however, according to Wikipedia 57 aircraft across those three aircraft types (in fact, most of them, 30 are 787s!). The fact remains though that the seats flown on their 26 A330s, 4 A340’s, 9 777-200LR, and 34 777-300ER’s are a far inferior, 2-2-2 business class configuration. So more than half of Qatar’s fleet has an industry trailing hard product. 

Final Thoughts on Skytrax Awards

Specific to Qatar, I truly question whether this is really a perception over reality. Realize that the ballots were all cast well before the first 777 flew with the new QSuites. I totally get that Qatar provides a very good soft product, but how can an airline that has less than half of their fleet with a solid hard product, be the number one business class product? 

 

Hyatt Takes Suite Upgrades seriously, United Airlines Prepaid Card

By Leave a Comment

The Weekly Travel News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

  • Hyatt takes Suite Upgrades seriously, generally speaking the representative will put you on hold so they can confirm with the hotel. In the off chance that the hotel does not honor that upgrade upon check-in, good things can still happen, just see FQF’s account.

Miles, Points, and Credit Cards:

Miles and Points:

  • Frequent Miler and a whole slew of others are covering a United Airlines Prepaid Card. It will be a partnership with Netspend, which gives us an idea of how it will play with manufacturing spend. But there is so much more that is still unclear.

Tagging Miles:

AMEX Centurion Lounge Changes, Qatar QSuite, 50th Podcast, Emirates-Etihad Merger?

By 2 Comments

The Weekly Travel News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

  • This is from last year, but after reading a review of Lucky’s on KLM, I saw him link to Tiffany’s write-up of KLM Airlines Dutch Houses, which I thought was a really cool, and definitely lore worth knowing!
  • Could Emirates and Etihad really merge? There are rumors.
  • Basic Fares are all the rage now-a-days for airlines. But you should avoid them! Between no carry-on bag, no seat assignment, and no elite upgrades, they are just plain bad–in my opinion. So what do you do, if you’ve used your FlexPerks or Citi or Chase points to buy a ticket? Well, Ed Pizzarello, writer of Pizza in Motion has the answer!
  • Rapid Travel Chai reports that Malta’s Azure Window has collapsed. This was an iconic site, which now sits in the Mediterranean. I never got the chance to see it, although I hope to still get the chance to head over to Gozo, the location of the Azure Window. 

Credit Cards:

AMEX Centurion Lounge Changes:

Observation Deck Podcast:

Tagging Miles Posts of the Week:

Qatar Airways Qsuite Unveiled

By 3 Comments

Qatar Airways unveiled the new Qatar “Q” Suite – the supposed best Business Class Suite in the sky, yesterday at ITB Berlin 

Qatar Airways Qsuite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yhZDsctiZg
 
A few observations:
  • Its interesting that there appear to be both forward- and rear-facing seats. Personally, I like this to fly backwards, but I haven’t liked how it was executed on the American 777-200 retrofit. I suspect Qatar’s execution will be better.
  • The two seats in the middle of the cabin, when closer, definitely seem to be more geared toward folks who know each other (the video shows families and couples). It almost looks like they have a double bed. This will be great for couples, but could be really awkward for strangers.
  • Also on the middle seats the two sets of facing seats, it looks like the screens can slide over blocking that view or opening it. They really make it look like it’d be great for 4 people that know each other to be able to interact, which could be fun. Of course, that could also get loud for the others in the cabin.
  • Oh yeah, the suites have doors. Its the new big thing in Business Class, after Delta did it.

Conclusion

Qatar Airways Qsuite was billed to be revolutionary. I’m not quite so sure. Is it evolutionary? I think more so. It evolves business class cabin concepts that exist or have been announced by Delta and Etihad, and improves on them. The idea of a double bed in business class is fun, but, it doesn’t seem all that much different from some of the similar center “together” seats, other than maybe additional privacy. The door is logical, as business continues to be improved with some of the benefits of first class. One thing is clear – this is a huge improvement over the current business class seats on Qatar’s 777 fleet.

What do you think? Is the Qatar Airways Qsuite revolutionary?

Bring your falcon on your flight to Doha

By 4 Comments

There has been a lot of discussion about emotional support animals. What with the emotional support duck a few weeks ago, I thought it would be appropriate to share how you can bring your falcon on your flight to Doha on Qatar Airways. 

Falcon Photo from FlyterTalk

Photo from FlyerTalk

As it turns out, while a Falcon may not necessarily be an emotional support animal, you can bring your falcon on your flight to Doha, as long as it is on Qatar Airways. 

Here is Qatar’s cost per Falcon in the Economy cabin:

Take your Falcon with you

Now, lets say you want to fly via Abu Dhabi, on Etihad Airways – well apparently, they will allow you to fly with your Falcon as well. Mind you, however, that if you want to bring more than one falcon onboard, you’ll need to be in Business or First Class… but please don’t (as I selfishly proclaim):

Etihad First Apartments

Etihad First Apartments

Now I’m sure what you’re wondering. I’ve talked about Qatar and Etihad, what about my favorite airline, Emirates? Well, they have their own rules. Apparently they do not permit animals in the cabin:

with the exception of falcons between Dubai and certain destinations in Pakistan, and Guide Dogs for the Blind – please see our information on passengers with special needs.

So, there you have it, you might get exception for guide dogs. Falcons, also get exception. Yet, it is not entirely clear whether Falcons can fly in the passenger cabin. Personally, I don’t see why not, but, each airline to their own.

Conclusion: Bring your falcon on your flight to Doha

I don’t have a falcon, personally. I’ve wanted to give Falconry a try, but, you know, we must live within our means. I would feel horrible if I had a falcon, and couldn’t properly exercise said falcon, or give said falcon the kind of environment that they need. But, if you do have a falcon, my opinion is, that you need to fly Qatar or Etihad, because they have pretty flexible policies, that would allow you to travel with your falcon in your same cabin. I know, if I had my way, I’d prefer to take my #indydog in the passenger cabin, so why not a falcon? 

Have you ever seen a Falcon in the passenger cabin?

Qatar Airways to operate A380 to Atlanta for Inaugural flight

By Leave a Comment

Qatar Airways A380, courtesy of Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways A380, courtesy of Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways has been having an awful lot of fun with this Atlanta route. I won’t go into the crazy things Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker has said, but lets just say he doesn’t seem to like Delta Airlines. In fact, I gave up writing about the whole US3 vs. ME3 last year.

Today Qatar’s latest salvo was a press release, highlighting their new Doha – Atlanta nonstop flight.

To put a fine point on it, where Emirates and Etihad have flown their A380’s first to New York, Qatar is going to fly their first A380 flight to the US to none other than Atlanta! It will just be for the inaugural flight, but still, the message is awfully clear, they aim to eat Delta’s lunch, in their primary hub.

The sad part of course, is that other than this flight, which will occur on 1 June 2016, Qatar really doesn’t utilize their A380’s for flights that seem worthwhile to fly on an A380. They fly from their hub in Doha to Bangkok, London, and Paris, all flights that are in the 5-8 hour range, which seems hardly enough time to enjoy the bar, have a nice meal, and get some good rest.

But alas, perhaps His Excellency will decide to fly the A380 someplace further afield sometime soon. New York seems awfully popular with A380’s, and, you know, there’s always Atlanta.

H/T to AirlineGuys

My Year in Travel

By 1 Comment

It’s that time of the year again, where you look back at the year behind, and look forward to the year ahead.

A whole lot of flying–even for me

This year I flew 159,029 miles. All of it either funded by myself or through miles. Here’s that travel charted out:

Map courtesy of gcmap.

Map courtesy of gcmap.

My travel brought me to 12 countries, of which 2 were new to me: Egypt and Chile. I flew a lot of American Airlines and Qatar Airways revenue, Emirates and Etihad on miles, but got a couple of flights on Lufthansa First Class (including visits to the Lufthansa First Class Terminal). I also finally flew my White Whale.

New Airlines for me this year included: Virgin Atlantic (post coming), Cathay Pacific Long-haul First Class, Qantas domestic, and Singapore Regional.

New Cities

This year I felt like I was in a bit of a travel rut. I started the year visiting Cairo–which was awesome, then found myself returning to a lot of places I’d been: Dubai, Doha, Bali, and Singapore. Even though I revisited Mainz, Germany, I don’t see that as part of the rut. I did see my wife and I get out of that rut in visiting Melbourne, Australia, and would recommend anyone and everyone to visit, it was truly the most surprisingly enjoyable city of the year. I’ll have a post on that in early 2016 to share more.

Elite Status

I started the year with the goal of re-qualifying Executive Platinum (EXP) status on American Airlines through Elite Qualifying Points (EQPs). I am happy to say that I made it. Not only that, but I made it before August 1st.

2015 EXP Status

For hotel status, I had previously been downgraded from Marriott Platinum to Marriott Gold, did a Platinum challenge to get back up there, and am ending the year well short of 75 nights. I will likely try for the same challenge next year, if they will allow it. I did however re-qualify for Hyatt Diamond status. I tend to value Hyatt Diamond status quite a bit, so had no problem doing some mattress runs at the end of the year.

Looking Ahead

As far as travel, I’m starting the year with the fewest completely planned trips in many years. The only two completely planned trips I have are to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in January, and to Reykjavik, Iceland in February. I’ve got a bunch of partials, but those are the only two. Furthermore, I’ll be flying Economy to Iceland! I’m sure long-time readers will know how I feel about that, but there just isn’t an economical options that doesn’t require a trans-Atlantic, so far as I could figure out.

As far as my loyalty in 2016, I’m a bit on the fence, as I shared last week. Despite American AAdvantage’s devaluation, I’m still leaning more toward re-qualifying for EXP status, but only if I can do it in the first half of the year! I think re-qualifying for Hyatt Diamond status is a no-brainer, and I’ve already got some stays booked.

I’m hopeful to make it back to Bali, perhaps finally try out a Hyatt All Inclusive closer to home, and maybe even make it to South Africa. I’ve got more countries and cities on my “dream” list, but I’m trying to keep things reasonable, if you consider those I’ve identified as reasonable. I’m hopeful also to get a couple of trips on Emirates’ A380, hopefully fly Japan Airlines’ First Class, and if all works out, get another Cathay Pacific flight before the AAdvantage Devaluation.

How was your year in travel? What are your plans for the future?

My most ambitious mileage run ever – #90minturninCAI

By 8 Comments

90minsinCAI 064

This past weekend, my wife and I embarked on our most ambitious mileage run ever. We flew from Washington-Dulles (IAD) to Doha, Qatar (DOH) to Cairo, Egypt (CAI), and back, with the least amount of time on the ground possible. You can see the play by play via twitter by searching #90minturninCAI

Routing. Map via gcmap.com

Routing. Map via gcmap.com

By the numbers

  • ~16,415 Butt in Seat Miles
  • 24,622 Elite Qualifying Points
  • 4 segments
  • 2 itineraries
  • 43 hours wheels up to wheels down at home airport
  • 90 80 minute connection
  • 6-8″ of snow for the drive home

In all fairness – we flew in premium cabins the entire itinerary, but really the core stress point was the originally planned 90 minute turnaround in Cairo. Of course, there were more stress points. I thought it might be interesting to use those as a way to offer the highlights of our international mileage run.

The stress points

First stress point: was self-induced. We got out of the house a couple minutes later than anticipated, about 8 minutes into the drive to the airport, ADT called to tell us there was an alarm at the house. Being so close, I decided to turn around and investigate for myself. It turned out to be a false alarm, one of many I’ve had with ADT. That delayed us in total just under a half hour. We still made it to the airport in time, even having enough time to grab a burger in the Virgin Atlantic lounge.

Burger and chips

Burger and chips at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse

  • Brief comment about that: It screams irony that Qatar Airways partners with Virgin Atlantic for the use of their lounge at Washington-Dulles. This even though British Airways (competitor to Virgin Atlantic) is a fellow OneWorld member. Add to it that Qatar Airways recently bought a 10% stake in IAG, the company that owns British Airways. All said, Virgin Atlantic’s lounge was our second favorite at Dulles, but a very close second to Etihad’s lounge. Server service, a la carte (aka you order what you want, but still gratis) menu.

Second stress point: was trying to get boarding passes for our flights ex-Cairo, which, was on a separate itinerary. When we landed in Doha, we figured that the lounge had a cadre of folks that could help, so we skipped the transfer desk, went through “transfer security” and made a bee-line for the lounge (after a picture of the big yellow teddy bear).

90minsinCAI 073

Big Yellow Bear at Doha

  • Big mistake: The staff in the lounge was unable to help, and advised that we go to the transfer desk. So we grabbed a bite to eat in the lounge, and made our way back down.
Lounge

Lounge

It’s a lot harder leaving the “security zone” than entering. To leave (aka get to the transfer desk) we were directed to an unused security checkpoint, but when we started walking through and we were told to turn around. We did as told and were met by a large woman, as well as a guy in a uniform, telling us to go back (the way we were trying to go), so we could “re-enter” via one of the operational security checkpoints, we complied. Once “out” of the security zone, we went to the transfer desk, who was surprisingly efficient in providing our boarding passes. Then it was back through security, which, again, was easier getting in, than out.

Third stress point: This was the key stress point leading up to the trip – the 90 80 minute turnaround. In reality, the turnaround was supposed to be 105 minutes, but I handicapped it to 90 minutes because I wanted to be safe. It turned out that we left Doha late, then in Cairo we taxied forever—heck, we might’ve landed in Alexandria and taxied to Cairo! When we finally got off the plane, it was 80 minutes before our scheduled departure.

90minsinCAI 116

Departing the plane that we were trying to make in just 80 minutes!

 

We hustled down the stairs (Cairo uses remote gates, unless you’re flying Star Alliance), onto the bus, and waited impatiently for the ground staff to release the bus. Luckily the first bus is reserved just for First Class, and left as soon as all first class passengers were on board.

Once off the bus, the fun really began. We hustled to the Transfer area (so fast that I neglected to get a photo), and provided our next flights’ boarding passes to the transfer agent. The conversation went a little like this:

Cairo Immigration Officer: Where did you just fly from?

Me: Doha.

Cairo Immigration Officer: Where are you flying to?

Me: Doha.

Cairo Immigration Officer: Ok, where did you just fly from?

Me: Doha.

Cairo Immigration Officer: But your boarding pass says you’re flying Cairo to Doha.

Me: Yes.

Cairo Immigration Officer: Why are you flying to Doha if you just came from there?

Me: We’re on a mileage run.

Cairo Immigration Officer: Oh.

A couple minutes later, another gentleman came, took our passports from the Immigration officer, and said he’d return in 5 minutes. He disappeared into the terminal, and a colleague of his returned about 4 minutes later. He asked if we’d like to go to the lounge, to which my response was that we would much appreciate it. As he walked over to fill out some paperwork with the immigration officer, he asked if my wife was pregnant. That one threw me for a loop. Had I been anywhere else, I would’ve responded: “Would that make this process faster?” instead I said no (the honest answer—no surprises here), and he just nodded.

A few more minutes of waiting, he returned to us and escorted us to the VIP lounge. And when I say VIP lounge, I mean the only lounge in the airport. Imagine unsecured wifi, a bunch of seating, food that you probably wouldn’t want to eat, and plenty of non-alcoholic beverages. Oh and smoking in Cairo airport general seems to be fully permitted. I wasn’t complaining. Heck, I almost wanted to hug the guy, until he said he had to take our passports to check us in. Be back in 10 minutes he says.

Now, I’m usually easy-going. Ok, fine, more often than not, I’m uptight. You disappear with my passport a second time in the span of 10 minutes, I’m really uptight. But I’ve got to play the confident captain role—as I’ve started joking about, since, I am a licensed sea captain, and you’ve got to appear confident, even if you might not be—so here I am, checking e-mail on my phone, counting down the minutes. I think I tweeted:

When the gentleman re-appeared, roughly 11 minutes after he disappeared—and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here, because he was waiting for the elevator a good 60 seconds just to get down—and now I thought my wife was going to give him a hug. We finally had our passports. He directed us to the gate, and casually escorted us to the gate. In fact, he talked a different immigration officer through waving us by to get onto the bus back to our plane.

90minsinCAI 120

After having a celebratory glass of rose champagne, I considered the mileage run a success. But we still had another flight to go, with a winter storm warning back home.

90minsinCAI 122

Celebratory Glass of Champagne

Fourth stress point: Despite headwinds, and probably not departing Doha on time, we landed on time, on a rather snowy runway.

90minsinCAI 196

Is this Washington-Dulles or did we mistakenly land in the Arctic?!?

 

90minsinCAI 201

Maybe another plane got lost and landed in the Arctic? Or maybe we really are at Washington-Dulles!

Of course, while I’m sure it took significant skill to land safely at Washington-Dulles, there was yet more to come. In what was perhaps the most surprising positive thing of the trip, our people mover to Customs wasn’t delayed, nor was it packed full. We were through customs in no time. We would’ve been to the car faster, except that the walkway to the Daily Lot 2 was not fully plowed and I was walking in dress shoes (my wife was smart enough to have worn sneakers). Before long we were in the car and on our way on the snowpacked roadways of Dulles International Airport. We live roughly 50 miles from Dulles, although the route we ended up taking was probably more than 75 miles. The routing is probably immaterial, but I’ll just say – we actively decided that we would take the safer, less congested, and more circuitous route, rather than getting stuck with the most direct, congested path (like this):

Roads were horrible, as one might expect when snow is coming down at 1-2″ per hour. Just look at the weather map:

I don’t want to belabor the point – but slow and steady wins the race. Even if you’re driving a Mini Cooper in snow. It just becomes a bit more difficult to win the race when your plowing snow with your splitter/front fender, because that is how poorly the roads have been cleared.

Conclusion

I’m writing this Saturday night, but after 43 hours from Washington-Dulles to Washington-Dulles, plus travel time to and from (perhaps magnified on the travel time from), I feel rather strongly, this was the best mileage run I’ve ever done, either alone, or with my wife. It beats the heck out of my last mileage run of 2014, as well as my wife and my mileage run to SFO. I won’t mince words. Mileage running is somewhat painful on the body, and it takes time. But if you’re going to do it. This is the way I recommend.

Note: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. The owners of this website may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links and advertisements posted on this website. For more information, please see our Legal Notice.