After arriving into Helsinki, I proceeded directly to my next flight. I did not run through the airport, but I did walk with purpose. If I missed the flight, they would’ve (probably) just rebooked me onto the flight to New York and all would’ve been fine, so I wasn’t bothered if I missed it. IContinue reading “April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 4: Helsinki to Los Angeles”
Category Archives: Travel Reviews
April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 3: Budapest back to Helsinki
Switching back to my April Europe trip, we have another intra-European Business Class flight on Finnair! Finnair’s strongest offerings are, like most airlines, from their main hub. Budapest is not a particularly large airport, but it does offer multiple lounges. The Skycourt lounge was the default lounge for Finnair, but there was also the PlazaContinue reading “April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 3: Budapest back to Helsinki”
Flagship First on my favorite route in reverse! BOS-LAX
After my great LAX-BOS flight in Flagship First, I decided to do it again in reverse! I’m of the opinion that upgrading on the westbound transcontinental flights is the better deal because the upgrade usually costs the same as the eastbound version but the flight time is longer, so the cost per time is lower. Continue reading “Flagship First on my favorite route in reverse! BOS-LAX”
April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 2: Helsinki to Budapest
Upon arrival into Helsinki, I proceeded directly to Finnair’s non-Schengen Platinum Wing lounge. This was my first visit to the lounge since June of 2023, when I flew London to Berlin via Helsinki. The non-Schengen Finnair lounge is located very centrally, and I was inside the lounge within a couple minutes of deplaning. This loungeContinue reading “April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 2: Helsinki to Budapest”
April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 1: Finnair
Upon arrival into Chicago, my original plan had been to go to T3 and check out the American Flagship Lounge. That wasn’t possible because when you’re in T5, you’re trapped because you can’t take the airside bus unless you have a connection, and you can’t enter another terminal with a T5 boarding pass. So thatContinue reading “April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 1: Finnair”
April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 0: Austin Airport
I’m doing these posts a bit out of order to keep the content varied so that I don’t post too many American Airlines flights back-to-back. I took a trip in April that somewhat spiraled out of control because more and more flights kept getting tacked onto it. The fun part of the trip (and theContinue reading “April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 0: Austin Airport”
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”
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”
Michael's travel blog 