Michael

Flagship First on my favorite route: LAX-BOS

As regular readers will know, American Airlines is eliminating its Flagship First Class product by the end of this year. However, due to continued delays at both Airbus and Boeing, no official date has been set. The plan is to remove Flagship First from existing aircraft once American Airlines starts taking delivery of its newContinue reading “Flagship First on my favorite route: LAX-BOS”

American Express Delta Reserve Cards

Following up on the series of comparisons of the major US airlines’ credit cards, we’re jumping to one of the top-tier cards: The Delta Amex Reserve. The Delta Amex cards are interesting because they offer both business and personal versions of most of them. Since they’re so similar, I’m going to cover both flavors ofContinue reading “American Express Delta Reserve Cards”

Portland to San Francisco!

My first weekend trip of 2024 was with a pair of friends to Portland, Oregon. We picked Portland because it was included in a Southwest sale from LA and (in one direction) from Oakland. On the way back, however, Southwest didn’t have any good options for me to get back to Oakland, so instead, IContinue reading “Portland to San Francisco!”

Elite status and wallet plans: 2024

Now that 2023 has come to a close, I thought I should do an elite status and wallet plan for 2024. I last wrote a wallet plan quite a while ago, so I’m due for an update. I’ll first talk about the credit cards I plan to use and then the elite statuses I’ll have in 2024.Continue reading “Elite status and wallet plans: 2024”

2024 begins! Flagship First JFK-SFO

Welcome to my first 2024 flight of the blog! This flight happened only one day after my last flight of 2023, since it was time for me to head back to California because I had to go to work on Jan 2. I had originally booked the 9 pm flight using points, but as isContinue reading “2024 begins! Flagship First JFK-SFO”

2023 retrospective

I’m a bit late this year on the retrospective summary because of having to deal with some backend technical issues on the blog. The good news is that I’ve now uploaded all my 2023 flights of note onto the blog. So now, it’s time to take a look back through the year. I use aContinue reading “2023 retrospective”

Let’s squeeze in one final 2023 flight: DCA-HPN

When planning out the end of my 2023 travels, I had expected the flight from SFO to Richmond, VA to be my last 2023 flight on the blog. However, I had one final interesting flight to share on December 31. I flew from Washington DC National Airport to White Plains, NY for a New YearsContinue reading “Let’s squeeze in one final 2023 flight: DCA-HPN”

Time for my yearly Breeze flight! (SFO-RIC)

Apparently, this post somehow didn’t save even though it came through as published, so let’s try again. Like last year, my final transcontinental flight of the year was to Richmond, VA. Also like last year, I flew the low-cost carrier, Breeze. Breeze was only founded in 2021 and only took delivery of its first A220sContinue reading “Time for my yearly Breeze flight! (SFO-RIC)”

Airline Credit Cards Updated Comparison: mid annual-fee versions (2024 edition)

The next step up from the entry-level cards is the mid-tier cards. These cards have fees that range from $199 to $350. Amex just revamped the Delta Platinum Card and raised its fee to $350, which is noticeably higher than the competitors’ cards. The main competitors card is United’s Quest card from Chase ($250). AmericanContinue reading “Airline Credit Cards Updated Comparison: mid annual-fee versions (2024 edition)”

Airline Credit Cards Updated Comparison: low annual-fee versions

Now that we’ve gone through the free airline cards again, it’s time for the mid-level cards, those with an annual fee of around $100. Like last time, I’m going to ignore one American Airlines card, which is the Aviator Blue card. This card has a reduced $49 annual fee, and so doesn’t quite match theseContinue reading “Airline Credit Cards Updated Comparison: low annual-fee versions”