Everyone loves to get upgraded when flying. There's more legroom, free drinks, better food, and it's just a heck of a lot nicer than getting stuck in coach. However, as we all know, upgraded seats can cost a lot of money. For instance a round trip flight in coach between JFK to Paris CDG on American Airlines in October runs $454 in coach. Upgrade to first class on your own and it will cost $4,992. So, who wouldn't want to get upgraded for free? But in general, airlines are stingy. However, they are exceptionally stingy when it comes to giving away upgraded seats. In today's blog post, The Professor gives some tips on how to get that "free" upgrade.
The Traveling Professor just got back from doing 3 small group tours to Iceland and the Northern Lights. On one of our trips, flights going out of Reykjavik were cancelled. On another one of our tours, flights were delayed out of Boston for a day and flights were cancelled out of JFK New York. All of our travelers were well-prepared to handle the delays. In this blog post, I will give valuable tips on what to do in case of flight cancellations or extensive delays.
I fly about 75,000 to 100,000 miles a year and have been doing so for the last 10 years or so. In general, I find airline employees to be hard-working, courteous, and very capable of doing a good job. However, it is the customer service policies of airlines, in this particular story, the bad customer service of British Airways, that makes you wonder if management is just out of touch, or just incredibly arrogant and dismissive. Read The Traveling Professor's story and we let you decide if British Airways has the worst customer service in the industry.
Having elite status on airlines gets you upgrades, preferred boarding and all sorts of perks. I've had "Platinum" status with American Airlines and "Sapphire" status on OneWorld flights for several years now. In this post The Traveling Professor is going to give you tips to optimize your elite status to allow you to maximize the enjoyment of your flight experience.