Steaks On A Plane! JAL Business Class Review

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JAL Business Class Sky Suite III Seat

Steaks On A Plane! JAL Business Class Review

Is there anything more satisfying in life than taking a bite of a big, juicy, rare steak while sitting in an aluminum tube traveling through the sky at 500 mph? The answer is very clearly, “who knows?”, as this tiny little hunk of beef on the tray in front of me offers no insight into this quandary. Is this little piece of beef indicative of the JAL Business Class experience, or is it merely the dim bulb in an otherwise bright business class flight? Continue reading Steaks On A Plane! JAL Business Class Review

Alaska Airlines 40k Credit Card Offer And An award Sweet Spot

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Alaska 40K Offer

A strange thing happened this morning when I headed out to the cardmatch tool to check to see if I was targeted for the Amex Platinum 100k offer (I was not); I came across an offer for the Alaska Airlines personal credit card that offered 40,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles after spending $2,000 within 90 days. As many of you know, the usual Alaska Airlines Personal offer is 30,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 within 90 days, so this is a significantly better offer than usual.

Cathay First class caviar
Cathay First class caviar

Alaska Miles For First Class To Asia

Alaska miles are super valuable for flying business or first class to Asia. They charge just 50,000 miles to fly Cathay Pacific Business Class to almost anywhere in Asia, and 70,000 miles if you wish to enjoy the mid-flight caviar in Cathay Pacific First Class. Continue reading Alaska Airlines 40k Credit Card Offer And An award Sweet Spot

Showering at Thirty-Five Thousand Feet, Emirates Style

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Showering at 35,000 feet is a sort of “holy grail” for many of us in the travel hacking game. First class travel is often incredibly luxurious to begin with, but being able to take a hot shower on a plane is equal parts awesome and absurd.

Where things get really crazy is that not only can you take a shower on a plane, but you can book that experience using your award miles! Only a couple of airlines, both based out of the middle east, have been thoughtful enough to offer their first class passengers showers on board. Thankfully, each of these airlines has one US based partner with which you can book awards.

First class shower onboard Etihad A380
First class shower room onboard Etihad A380

The two airlines that currently offer you the opportunity to join the “7-mile high shower club” are Emirates and Etihad. Both airlines offer a hot shower to their first class passengers aboard their A380 aircraft.

Continue reading Showering at Thirty-Five Thousand Feet, Emirates Style

When Buying Miles Makes Sense

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Do you have few miles or points but would still like to fly business class?

Do you have some money to spend on upcoming travel but not enough to buy those hilariously priced business class tickets?

I feel your pain!  Flying coach on long-haul trips sucks and I spend an inordinate amount of time making sure that I avoid ever having to do it again.  Mostly, my strategies revolve around using credit card sign up bonuses to build up large balances of frequent flyer miles that I can redeem for business and first class travel.  But it takes time to build up these balances.

For those with travel plans that are happening in the very near future they might benefit from another way to avoid coach that doesn’t involve taking out a second mortgage on their cat.

When Buying Miles Makes Sense

It makes sense to buy miles when A) you might otherwise have paid for the business class ticket or B) you really don’t want to fly coach and are willing to pay a little extra to avoid it.

Alaska Airlines miles can be used to book business class on Cathay and Emirates
Alaska Airlines miles can be used to book business class on Cathay and Emirates

Continue reading When Buying Miles Makes Sense