To those of you who have been asking for more creative trip report titles, there ya go. Punny, eh?
Continue reading: Introduction: O-man, IB Crazy AF
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Lucky, fuel surcharges aside, which oneworld carrier do you think is the best choice for transatlantic travel?
@Lucky- Since you traveled by Oman Air and love Oman, did you know that Oman Air has an offer where by you can Stay at on of their affiliated hotels for free for One Night? More over this wouldn't effect the fare:
http://www.omanair.com/en/holidays/oman-stopover
And since you took advantage of the Hainan Chauffer, Oman Air has a complimentary chauffeur services too(btw Bangkok and Frankfurt are included in the service) 🙂
http://www.omanair.com/en/flying-us/first-class/chauffeur-drive-service
I'm sorry I guess I was too late.
Lol love the title
Looking forward to reading about the new As F*** business class seats
Lucky, did you happened to stop by the Oman Air First and Business class lounge in Bangkok? They recently joined Priority pass lounge so was curious how the lounge is.
Nice title and it’s commendable the reviews you have been doing and the fulfillment of your promises.
@Chandan Bhat
Would the free hotel be the Golden Tulip aka Golden Toilet? Or other hotels in the same class?
With his schedule Lucky literally did not have time for a night in MCT.
So no joy on getting an F upgrade on the segment that was operated by a 3 class plane?
Did you end up status matching to Sinbad Gold by the way?
@ David -- I did indeed and will review it. Sorry for not including it in the table of contents, was an oversight on my part -- fixed now.
I've always been curious about how you're able to transit flights on separate tickets. For example, when you arrived in Frankfurt on LAN and were connecting to WY to Muscat, did you go landside and re-enter the airport or did you make an airside transfer?
Second, was American able to issue your Iberia (JFK-MAD) and LAN (MAD-FRA) boarding passes in LAX?
Great summary and fun title! I love flying, but wow that's a lot to review in a short amount of time. Looking forward to the reviews - especially IB!
@ Jacob -- Last minute the BKK-MCT flight got swapped to a plane without a first class cabin, so none of the four flights had a first class.
@ AvGeek -- I just made an airside transit and picked up my boarding pass at the departure gate. I was able to get into their contract lounge by just showing my itinerary. And yep, at LAX they were able to print my boarding passes all the way through.
@ No Name -- Yeah, the plane ended up getting swapped to one without first class, so no way to score an upgrade. I didn't end up status matching, but rather credited the flights to Etihad, since I assumed their miles would be more useful.
@ pointster -- Great question, have a post coming up about exactly that. Stay tuned! 🙂
Since you booked the Air France flight on Flying Blue, does this mean that you have put your trust back into them as a program, after their fraud/account shutdown incident in the past? (perhaps a post on this is needed, since Flying Blue sounds like it could be useful as a program)
Sounds like all that's missing from this title is the mention of a LAN Party 😉
It's been a while since you last posted a long time since you posted a long trip report... can't wait to read it all
Ben,
Do you still intend to write a trip report on your AA syd-lax flight?
Thanks as always!
@Lucky, awesome! I look forward to reading it. Great topic for your audience. I have to assume that I'm not the only one with gobs of AA miles and a serious bent for premium cabins... 🙂
Looking at your picture, what a HUGE difference hjot having the central overhead bin makes in terms of spaciousness! In your pictures, the first aircrafts look inviting and open, especially the 787, while the LAN one looks confined and almost oppressive.
Good to see that more airlines are getting rid of the center overhead bins in premium classes.
Nice title, but I feel like there was a missed opportunity swapping in crAAzy instead.
I think you have really out-done yourself on this trip. I'm really looking forward to the trip reports. Cheers!
Way-way-wait... Don't you need to be Flying Blue Elite for AF Biz? Or is that just La Premiere.
Super excited to see so many reports coming up, but even happier to see 1. The descriptions of booking with miles and points, and 2. The prompt responses to reader qs! Welcome back--we've missed you.
On the return, you were connecting from an AF to AA ticket. What if you ended up misconnecting? Since the AA YYZ-LAX was a separate paid ticket, would you have just ponied up the miles if that happened? Or did you take out an insurance policy?
Looks like a relentless trip, to be sure.
I am curious: how did you book this trip? It looks like no less than three seperate record locators - which, given how your itinerary worked out and the layovers you had, doesnt look like it was an issue. My presumption is that it was by phone to the respective airlines for the Oman Air and Air France portions, and online somewhere for the rest of it.
Wouldnt mind seeing more details like this in future posts.