Alon’s Blog

Mexico City - Here I come

In a previous post I talked about my frequent flyer miles plan for this year, and referred to the topic of a Mileage Run. This weekend I decided to make good on my plans and go on a weekend vacation to Mexico City practically free of charge.

How could I do that? Easy. I started by booking a flight from San Francisco to Mexico city via Atlanta on Delta airlines for $323 including tax and three nights in a hotel for $111 including tax. On the savings side of the equation are four nights in a bay area hotel which costs $220, 12,143 award miles and 6,939 status miles. The award miles are equivalent to half a one-way flight from Tel Aviv to San Francisco. If priced part of a return ticket this is worth about $200. So in all, I pay $434 and save $420. I also save on food due to visits to the airline lounges and on all expenses when I’m in Mexico City.

Anyway, the dates are 27/9 - 1/10/2007. On line updates will be posted.

September 2nd, 2007 at 17:15 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Mexico, Travel | 2 comments

Handbag Only

Last week I flew back home with no luggage, with only a handbag. This was due to the fact that I left my luggage at my brother’s house in Saarbrücken. I will pick the luggage up when I return to Dagstuhl (and my brother) in October.

However, then I will be flying from the US and back, and thus will be able to carry the luggage left at my brother’s house in addition to whatever luggage I fly with to the US.

So, how do you fly handbag only? I checked in for my flights the day before and printed out an electronic boarding pass. I then used this boarding pass to go directly to the gate and board the flight without even passing the checking counters. Even my Silver status was mentioned on the boarding pass, so I got to use priority boarding as well.

In the Amsterdam - Tel Aviv leg I was assigned a whole row, but shortly before departure the flight attendants had to move two children who sat near the emergency exit to my row.

Upon landing at Ben Gurion airport, I head directly outside and wait for a shared taxi that (after three hours) brought me home.

July 16th, 2007 at 13:08 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Germany, Travel | 3 comments

Business Class

Special Update from Amsterdam Schipol Airport… I got upgraded to business class (”Europe Select”) on my flight to Amsterdam because the flight was overbooked and Economy was full, so I got to feel KLM shorthaul business class service. The seats are standard Economy seats, but the service is improved. The food is served with real utensils and plates, and every passenger gets a personal video player with a selection of movies (I saw “300″), high quality earphones, and a kit with earplugs and eyeshades (among other stuff).

However, the two best things about “Europe Select” are the fact that the center seat is always free, and the fact that they clear trash and trays from your seat much faster than in Economy, several times during the flight. And the last useful perk is lounge access, which I am using right now to write this blog post.

Now I need to explain why there’s a model house in this post. Well, that’s another benefit of KLM Business class. You get one of these collectible model houses for free. Not very useful, but serves as an icon for this post…

July 1st, 2007 at 11:42 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Germany, Travel | one comment

On my way again

Yes, the airplane is here for a reason. I’m writing this post from the DAN lounge at Ben Gurion airport (TLV). I’m flying to Frankfurt via Amsterdam, and then wait to join my colleagues in a taxi to Dagstuhl, Germany. There, I plan to attend a Dagstuhl seminar titled “Computational Social Systems and the Internet”. My talk on Personalized Ranking Systems will be given tomorrow afternoon.

So, why am I flying via Amsterdam when EL-AL and Lufthansa each operate two direct flights on this flight daily? The reason is of course miles. I am a frequent flyer of KLM and thus prefer to earn KLM frequent flyer miles instead of Lufthansa’s.

That’s all for now. Next update from Dagstuhl itself, on their free wifi and wired network.

July 1st, 2007 at 03:20 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Germany | no comments

So, why do you need Gold/Platinum?

I promised a post about gaining levels, so here it comes.

Elite Status gives the frequent flyer several advantages. The first advantage is more miles, in Platinum status I get two miles for every mile I’ve flown. Just to put that into perspective, in Platinum level for every flight from Israel to the US west coast you get a free flight from Israel to Europe (30,000 miles). And for two such flights you can get another flight to anywhere in the US.

The second important bonus is access to lounges. From Gold level onwards you get free access to airline lounges of all SkyTeam partners.

The third bonus is free upgrades. When a flight is overbooked in Economy class, the airlines upgrade some passengers to Business class. These upgrades are usually given based on frequent flyer level.

So, some info about myself. Here’s my plan for this year:

June 20th, 2007 at 09:00 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer | one comment