Things I Love About My Favorite Airline App: United Airlines

Every major airline has an app. And after having used many airline apps (American, Delta, Alaska, Air Canada, Qantas, and more), I have decided that my favorite and most functional app has got to be United Airlines'.

Here is what I wish all apps had:

1) An easy introduction page with all the vital (and bonus) information

Of note, there's access to your membership number (greyed out), one's account balance, one's status tracker (to always show you how close or how far you are from your next status goal), and how many upgrade points you have available, if you choose to use them.

What is unique about United's app is that they include your lifetime miles. If any program's million miler status is actually important to the program itself, it should make one's progress towards that aspirational status clear. I am, apparently, over 700,000 miles away from that goal. 

2) Future flight bookings and the ability to check in by clicking on the booking

I don't have an upcoming flight and so I can't really demonstrate. However, it is easy to access all of my upcoming booked flights. One can view details about the flight and make changes to or cancel the flight. One can check into the flight and store boarding passes for flights.

3) Flight arrival times and departure times are easily found and easily interpreted.   

Flight information is bold and clear. If there is a delay, there's typically a small message above the flight information telling you what is happening or why it is delayed. You can click "where is this aircraft coming from" to help you decide when it is time to go to the gate: obviously if the incoming flight hasn't arrived yet when it is officially boarding time for your flight, there's no point in leaving the lounge to go to the gate. Grab another drink in the lounge. Not every airline has this feature.

4) Accurate, clear information about where you are on the standby list and upgrade list and

5) A seat map that is always up to date and always viewable, even until two days after the flight. 

There is no question about where you are on the standby list and the upgrade list. Unlike other airlines, once the flight is closed, you can still see what the list looked like. You can use this information to let you know how likely the flight is to be full when you're flying this route in the future. If you're into seeing who is non-rev and upgrading, you can figure that out easily (everyone from And, R. and below are are non-rev). Furthermore, the seat map is always active and up to date which is also a nice source of information.

I quite like that once the flight is closed, you can pull up the seat map to see if that empty seat beside you really is free -- you can move your baggage from under the seat in front of you one seat over to increase legroom. Very hand to know.

6) Ability to book flights and check out award seats

Like with virtually every airline app out there, you can book either award seats or revenue seats. If you lived in America, you could purchase and pay for the seats right on the app itself. What I wish was for the ability to pay using other currencies; Canadians aren't allowed to buy tickets because most of us do not have an American address (for the credit card) nor a USD-funded bank account. 

It seems pretty basic, but all of the features make the app very functional to me. If it could allow me to book things in Canadian funds, I think this app would be kind of perfect. Now I just have to wait for the other airlines to catch up ...

A Comparison Between United and Air Canada's Mid-Tier Programs

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I am looking to switch from United's Mileage Plus to Air Canada's Aeroplan. This involves switching from United as my preferred carrier to Air Canada.

Source: http://www.aircanada.ca

What's needed for Star Alliance Gold with Air Canada?
The Star Alliance Gold benefits begin really at the Altitude 50k level. In order to achieve this level, one needs to:

• Fly 50,000 miles, or
• Fly 50 segments; and
• Spend $6,000 CAD pre-tax

There's a nice chart that Air Canada has posted which simplifies things. There is no guarantee that this chart will be here next year; like United, they may opt for different status earning criteria next year. 

As you can see, achieving the equivalent of United Premier 1K requires a yearly spend of $20,000. Because no one else pays for my travel, this is absolutely not an option for me. So the toss up is either the 50k or the 75k levels.

What are the benefits?

For Altitude 50k and above, one will always enjoy the Star Alliance Gold benefits. These include things like priority check-in, extra luggage allowance, lounge access, priority boarding, and priority waitlist in case of flight changes or irregular operations. 

Benefits similar to United Premier Gold:

• Basic Star Alliance Gold benefits
• Preferred seats on AC with flex fares within North America (United has a more generous policy of economy plus seats on any fare on any flight)
• United's benefit is irrelevant if I have to fly mostly Air Canada in order to secure Premier Gold/Platinum status
• Opportunities to upgrade on the program's carrier within North America without any additional fee. Air Canada offers upgrade points which you would have to burn but will generally give you a higher probability of an upgrade. Near the end of my tenure with United, even as a Premier 1K member, complimentary upgrades were very, very difficult to score

Where United wins:

• Same day change on United flights. This is irrelevant if most of my flights are on Air Canada in order to achieve status
• Reward bookings do not incur fuel surcharges, but are generally more "expensive" in terms of points. This is likely the biggest strength of United's program. 
• United offers upgrade points that can be used on generally higher fares for international travel. Air Canada also makes you buy the higher fare in order to be eligible, and if you are successful with your upgrade, you'd have to pay anywhere from $500-$750 each way depending on which ocean you cross. In this sense, international upgrades are not really realistic 

Where Air Canada wins:

• Higher chance of an upgrade if you encounter an irregular operations, or if they need someone to upgrade for operational reasons
• Air Canada's Altitude 50k status allows you lounge entry everywhere; United's Premier Gold status only allows you into domestic lounges in the USA only if you're flying an international segment as well
• This is less relevant as our tickets will always somehow indicate a final destination in Canada, so I have always been allowed in the lounge. 
• While United does not charge fuel surcharges, rewards are generally cheaper in terms of the number of points needed to be redeemed with Air Canada. Furthermore, more points can be earned with medium to long haul flights compared to United. 
• Air Canada has more promotions to earn bonus miles than United does in general
• If one believes that Aeroplan miles are worth it, there are credit cards in Canada that can earn Aeroplan miles.
• If I'm flying mostly on Air Canada, it would be nice to have these points applied to their lifetime status program. 

So those are the ground rules ...

What's my plan to reach 50k and $6,000 in spending? That's for tomorrow ...

a change in star gold strategy -- asiana cuts points on united metal

i used to really like asiana's mileage club scheme because it was an easy way to access star gold status. you would need just 20,000 miles in two years in order to achieve asiana gold (star silver) status, and 40,000 miles in two years in order to achieve asiana diamond (star gold). This served me well: i have had 4 years of star gold status because of them, and have a membership card that's valid until the end of 2016 left to go. star gold status is really quite valuable.

a few years ago, air canada's flex fares (previously named "tango plus") were mostly cut down to 50% elite qualifying miles (EQM) even when they earned 100% in air canada's own program. their tango fares still earned nothing domestically.

 

(note that not the minimum mileage for international routes is not actually 250 miles as they will later state. i had a tango fare flight YVR-PDX that only earned 125 miles. they cited 500 x 25% = 125 miles and would not budge.)


therefore, around 2012, the vast majority of my transborder and international flights went to united, because all fares would earn 100%. that was until i saw their sudden change on march 1, 2015. now, most of their discount economy flights will only earn 50-75% elite qualifying miles.

therefore, for someone with travel patterns like myself (based in north america, the majority of my travel being based in north america), i would need to fly 40,000 actual miles a year on united or flex-fare air canada (40,000 physical miles x 50% = 20,000 elite qualifying miles per year x 2 year requalification period = 40,000 elite qualifying miles). if i flew just 10,000 more miles a year, i would get premier gold status.

the rule for elite status is to try to earn the highest level of elite status that you can. the next rule is to try to earn that status on the airline that you will fly on the most as they will generally give the most benefits.

so where do i go from here?
for this year, i have opted to credit my points to united. united offers me the benefit of:

• 100% status miles on united flights
• 100% status miles on all flex fares on air canada
• 25% status mile on all domestic tango fares (and 100% on international/transborder tango fares)
• 100% status miles on almost all ANA flights who i will be traveling on when i go to asia later this summer (they offer 25% redeemable miles on my K-fare, although this is no better than any other program).
• complimentary economy plus seating

let's see if we can make it to 50k this year.

links from the web -- US News' rankings of hotel and airline programs, airmiles onyx, united app changes, american frequent flyer non-changes

1) gary from view from the wing breaks analyzes the results of the US News' rankings of hotel and airline points programs. i agreed that they are flawed, and he takes a look at the actual score breakdown. for both, it seems like the majority of the points go directly to domestic travel, how large the domestic network is, and how big their presence is in various american cities. it says little about upgrades and bonus perks, amenities, the ability to earn top tier, etc. i think it's important to look at the finer details of how they come up with these rankings. some people buy into these rankings, and i'd hate for people to be misled.

2) airmiles announces a new level in their earnings program as reported on flyertalk. the official website from airmiles is here. to reach this new level, one requires 6,000 airmiles a year. i find it hard to even get myself excited about reaching airmiles gold. when i was airmiles gold, i didn't really take advantage of the 40-50% off reward miles for flights because they were only between odd destinations (prince george to regina, for example), or were only valid for times in the very near future (e.g., how often does one begin to plan a trip to europe 3-4 weeks before actual expected departure date?). i'll probably do a more thorough review in a bit.

3) despite delta and united transitioning to a revenue based frequent flyer program, american airlines has noted that it will not make that transition yet. they still have to merge their programs first, which is expected to start sometime in 2015.

4) united is set to start allowing passengers to check in and scan their travel documents using their mobile app. i've downloaded the latest update but haven't had time to try this out. as someone who definitely flies internationally on united, this is something that would help me to avoid the kiosks at airports.

links from the web: 10 free airmiles, 100 free hyatt points, aeroplan decreasing earnings on united flights

1) taken from smart canucks, you can fill in this 5-question survey re: transportation options in the greater toronto area for 10 airmiles. this is limited to the first 12,000 respondents. it's easy and probably not intended for everyone to do, but i couldn't say no to a freebie. the direct link is here.

2) from view from the wing, hyatt is offering a free 100 points to celebrate chinese new year. the direct link is here. it's good until february 15, 2014.

3) canadian kilometers notes that aeroplan has now decreased the number of miles earned on united flights. united flights used to earn at least 100% across all fare classes, but effective april 1, 2014, the cheapest fares go down to 50%. on the upside, those who are willing to spend money on the more expensive classes and products (including business and first) will receive higher earning rates. the net impact for me: future possibilities of earning status on air canada just became that much harder. the most important thing is that asiana doesn't follow suit. at the time of writing, so far, they haven't.

united devalues its award program ...

last week, united announced new changes to their mileage award charts. it's not easily identified on the website, and you have to hunt around for the changes. the new, updated chart is found here in their program PDF.

effective february 1, 2014, they've done a few things with their award chart. they've split the united awards from their star alliance awards, with the latter generally being more expensive than the former. the detailed analysis can be found on the flyertalk thread dedicated to this. the executive summary is this:

• F (first) and J (business) travel on united metal increases by 5-20%
• J travel on partner metal increases by 20-40%
• F travel on partner metal increases by 40-86%
• complimentary premier upgrades and regional/global premier upgrades are no longer being offered on intra-asia flights and on flights between north and south america

they provided 3 months notice for these changes, and all tickets booked until february 1, 2014 will be under the old rules.

with my travel patterns, the rewards that i most care about are for travel to singapore as i often head down there for family reasons. singapore is classified as south asia. with air canada's aeroplan, my business class ticket cost 125,000 aeroplan miles. if i could find first class segments, it would cost me 170,000 aeroplan miles.

using united's current award chart, i would need 120,000 points for business and 140,000 points for first class. using united's new award chart for travel including partner flights, i would need 160,000 points for business class and 260,000 for first class. (in contrast, if i were to just stick with united metal, it would be 140,000 and 160,000 miles, respectively). this represents up to an 86% increase for first class award tickets.

given the fact that earning miles from flights generally yields the same number of points on both the aeroplan program, and in general, the number of miles earned via credit card are similar (roughly 1pt / $1), it seems that air canada offers the better redemption value. aeroplan requires fewer miles for the same amount of distance traveled. (of note, in canada, the only credit card that offers mileage plus points is the SPG amex, where 2 SPG points = 1.25 united mileage plus points).

it's a definite devaluation.

does this change what i do with my credit card earnings?
i don't have much stored in united. most of my points, if anything, were stored in aeroplan until i finally redeemed them a few weeks ago to my almost-all-business class tickets to asia. if anything, i've stopped collecting miles in frequent flyer points, and just opted for cash back instead. i use my scotia bank gold american express for 4% back on gas, grocery, dining, and entertainment, and my pivot visa on everything else for 3.2% cash back. you have to be very lucky to consistently get 3.2%-4% return on flight bookings in premium class. and cash's versatility has value of its own.

does this change which program i credit my miles to on flights?
i haven't flown very much for the redeemable miles, which is what is being affected now. rather, i fly to ensure that i have enough status miles to maintain my elite status. at the current time, i don't fly as much as most people do. therefore, crediting to asiana airlines won't change. i still fly enough to earn asiana diamond (star gold) status, which is 40,000 miles for every 24 month cycle. i expect to be on track to renew my gold status with them and hold onto that status until at least november 2016.

after this year, travel patterns may change. because my primary goal, as a mid-level flyer and mid-tier elite, is to maintain star gold, i may still switch to united's program. the benefits include:

• 100% status miles (for now) on all non-domestic fares on air canada. this makes it easier to achieve and maintain the 50k status mark when flying on transpacific/transatlantic tango fares on air canada
• additional redeemable bonus miles earned on flights taken when you have premier gold status  with a negligible bonus on asiana. while redeemable miles aren't my goal, the option of having more is certainly nice
• free access to premium economy on united metal without the need to beg for it
• the possibility of unlimited domestic upgrades

the downside is the loss of domestic united club lounge access for domestic (and canadian) flights.

lessons to learn ...

• inflation happens with every kind of currency. stockpiling points is never a good idea because the value of the point never increases in value. i'm glad that i managed to spend the remainder of my aeroplan points on my upcoming trip to asia. i'm glad that i burnt through my priority club points on my hotel stay in san francisco back in september. i still have to burn through the miles that i've earned on asiana via flights. i still have to burn through my starpoints earned solely from my stays at starwood hotels.
• if i really wanted to earn points through credit card spending, the best bet is still the starwood preferred guest american express. this card allows you to earn 1 starpoint per dollar spent, and 1 starpoint is about equivalent to 1.25 airline points.
• because there are so many transfer partners, it decreases the risk of program devaluation somewhat by allowing you to transfer to programs that have devalued the least.

but for now, even post devaluation, the travel pattern and frequent flyer programs will stay the same.

united changes its star gold checked luggage limits

my clinics were incredibly busy over the last few weeks, and because of that, my daily trolling of the flyertalk was on the low side. reading through this thread, it appears that united airlines is devaluing arguably one of the most lucrative parts of the star gold experience.

under the rules of the star alliance, star gold members are required to get an extra free checked bag (or 50lbs if based on the weight system). it used to be that on domestic itineraries (canada counts as international in this case), you would have to pay for your first checked bag if you were a non-elite. star alliance silver status would exempt you from having to pay for your first checked bag. star alliance gold gave you three free pieces of checked luggage.

now, under these changes, star alliance gold status will get you only one free piece of checked luggage, weighing no more than 50lbs. this is the bare minimum to be in accordance with star alliance rules. members of united mileage plus who receive star gold status (i.e., premier gold, platinum, and 1k), continue to receive 3 pieces of checked luggage. star alliance silver status no longer gets you any free bags at all, unless you earned your star silver status through mileage plus, which would allow you one free bag.

i consider this to be the most lucrative aspect of the star gold program because this is the only part of the program where you can actually assign a dollar value. people will value lounge access, priority boarding, and priority baggage different dollar amounts, but one cannot deny the cost of having that extra piece of luggage with you. i suspect that other airlines will be following suit soon.

in verifying this, i got to play with united's fast and very helpful baggage calculator, which can be found here.

links from the web: aug 4 edition. toilets, chinese tourists, angry tweets, and expedia

1) gerry from the tarmac writes a post about the history of airplane toilets and how they work. it only occurred to me after reading this that the blue-water systems are indeed much less common today. who knew that some variants contained formaldehyde?

2) i scrolled down a few posts from him, and saw that he wrote about how much the average chinese tourist spends in vancouver. $1,600 CAD for a person who is used to the chinese standard of living, is a lot!

3) hack my trip writes about angry united airlines customers accidentally tweeting to #unitedairlanes, and how the parody twitter account is kind of embarrassing for united. very similar to #untied.

4) it's not a link, but in the last few weeks, i just found out that expedia.ca was now offering air canada tango fares online. it used to be that they didn't -- they would only offer their flex fares and above, and so it was only really beneficial to use expedia.ca to book westjet flights in canada. but now, they have "web fares" -- funny, i didn't realize that people actually booked their tickets any other way for expedia these days.

i like using expedia to book my tickets because via great canadian rebates, each ticket you purchase will get you a $1.50 rebate. i book two one-way tickets at no extra cost just to get two rebates. and while $3.00 is not a whole lot, it's better than the $0.00 that you get back from booking on the airline website directly.

rewardsplus: united and marriott announce reciprocal travel benefits

found on flyertalk initially, i saw that united announced rewardsplus: an extension of its existing partnership with the marriott group of hotels. this is very similar to the delta / starwood partnership that was announced months ago, whereby elite status on one program would provide benefits to non-elite members of the other. unlike the delta / starwood partnership, you actually get a full status level and all of its privileges.

the details of the partnership in a nutshell:

• united premier gold (50k), platinum (75k) and 1k (100k) members can sign up to get complimentary marriott gold elite status
• marriott gold status is normally earned after 50 nights per year
• marriott gold status gives you: free internet, complimentary room upgrade, continental breakfast, hotel lounge access, late check-out, 25% bonus points on hotel stays
• therefore, this is only a benefit if you're currently a marriott silver or basic member.
• marriott platinum elite members (top tier, 75 nights/year) will get complimentary united premier silver statu
• united premier silver status is normally earned after 25k premier qualifying miles and $2,500 annual spend for those with american addresses
• united premier silver status gives you: waived checked baggage fees for first or second bags on star alliance carriers, priority check-in/screening/boarding on united airline flights, complimentary economy plus seats, 500 mile minimums, and 25% bonus miles on united and certain partner flights. 
• this is probably one of the most generous star alliance silver programs in terms of benefits there are.
• this is only of benefit if you're not already a premier silver/gold/platinum/1k member.

in the future, the program will allow united mileage plus members to transfer miles at a 1:1 ratio to marriott points, which is probably a bad deal. asides from the starwood program, airline points are always more valuable than hotel points, provided you can redeem them. they will also offer a 20% discount when converting marriott points to united miles. i am not familiar enough with marriott points to say whether this is a good deal or not.

overall, i like deals and partnerships between programs. i feel like they open up opportunities for people who don't normally travel enough in order to earn status in all the various programs. i'm sure that the true frequent flyers and road warriors aren't pleased as it reduces the exclusivity of the club and dilutes the benefits. but as for my own habits, i think it's just another reason to pick united to credit miles to over aeroplan in the future.

united is adding a minimum spend requirement to their elite program

browsing flyertalk today, there is a lot of reaction from yesterday's announcement by united airlines about changes to their elite program. starting in 2014, in order to earn status for 2015, they have implemented minimum spend requirements.

what are the changes?

this is similar to delta's changes (well, actually, it's almost the exact same graphic that they've used). for the minimum spend requirements, flights taken with united/united express/copa will all count. flights taken on star alliance and partner airlines also count provided that it was purchased on a united flight ticket (i.e., the ticket number begins with 016). carrier imposed fees also count. people living outside of the 50 american states, and those spending 25k annually on their affiliated credit cards are exempt (the latter does not hold true for the 1k level). i suspect that a lot of people living in seattle will be getting mailing addresses in the vancouver area in the near future.

what is the cost?
this works out to be a minimum of 10c per mile spend in order to achieve the equivalent status (e.g., 50,000 miles / $5,000 spend = 10c/elite qualifying mile). when i've booked flights between canada and the US, i typically hit lower than that. for example, i typically get over 7000 miles going to hawaii round trip for a cost of 450-550$, on my sea-yow run, i received 6000 miles for $500. each time, ~100$ was due to government fees and taxes, which do not count for minimum spend. so in order to reach the minimum spend, i'd probably end up flying over the required flight miles.
 
this new policy restricts bookings to united flight numbers only. for flights on another airline but sold as a united codeshare, those flights are typically more expensive than what the operating carrier would sell it for. for example, yvr-sfo on air canada metal is usually cheaper when purchased on aircanada.com (i.e., does not qualify for minimum spend requirement) than the exact same flight booked as a united code share (i.e., does qualify for minimum spend requirements). so in the end, instead of flying 50k on a whole bunch of airlines, it forces you to concentrate on certain airlines in particular.

who's next?
over the next few years, i plan to transition from asiana airlines to a north american program as i suspect i will be traveling more. and while these changes don't impact me yet, there are no guarantees that canada will continue to remain exempt. i also wonder who will be the next to catch the minimum-spend virus. flyertalkers speculate american will be next, although i doubt that would happen anytime soon given the merger that's underway. my main concern is with air canada.

air canada has been eager to play catch up by raising its altitude elite qualifying program requirements. it used to take 35k to earn the equivalent of star gold status, but now they require 50k. their reasoning was so that "it would be more in line with other airlines." never mind the fact that:

• domestic tango flights earn 0% elite qualifying miles (compared to the north american programs which give 100% on all fares)
• international tango, which is similarly priced to the american counterparts, earn 50% elite qualifying miles
• there is this ridiculous thing called air canada rouge which offers 400-800 status miles on flex fares when the actual distance is somewhere between 5-6x that much, depending on where you start

if they were to implement the minimum spend requirement, i actually would be in a bind because i would be forced to choose between air canada and united as my main airline instead of just frequent flyer program. if i choose air canada, would i buy flex fares ($130+ round trip) on all of my domestic legs and try hard to get 50k despite 50% qualifying miles on international flights (limiting factor may be qualifying miles and qualifying dollars)? if i choose united, would i stick only with united on my international flights (poorer hard product compared air canada), and try to do as many of my domestic flights as possible via seattle instead of vancouver (limiting factor would be qualifying dollars)?

we will see ...

on the road to status: sfo/hnl edition. the journey home

closing out this trip, there were two things that made the journey home especially easy and more comfortable. we were scheduled to go from hnl-sfo-yvr on a red-eye. it was booked this way (compared to direct on air canada) for the extra milage, and because i had to make use of a previous travel voucher from united.

1) tsa pre-check -- it works as advertised. more importantly, it works for nexus card holders on specific airlines traveling even on international itineraries. when they scan your boarding card, you'll hear either 3 beeps (tsa pre-check) or 1 beep (regular screening). i remember the line in SFO: the regular line extended beyond the roped area, the premier access line was still at least 20 people deep (although within the roped area), whereas the tsa pre-check line had one person in front of me. on top of the speed advantage, we:

• did not have to remove shoes
• did not have to remove belt and jacket
• did not have to take out computer and liquids. 

pre-check was equally as fun in honolulu, although not as needed. that being said, we were leaving on an earlier flight (9pm). in the past, on my 10 or 11pm flight, i have seen lines extending almost to the entrance of the actual airport itself.

apparently, you can still be randomly chosen to be sent to regular screening lines. i don't know if that is done randomly when scanning your boarding pass, or upon boarding pass issuance (i.e., by not placing the "tsa pre-check" logo on top of your boarding pass). but even if you were sent to the regular screening lines, you've at least cut the line by a significant degree.

2) economy plus access -- every inch counts. i knew that the loads coming to honolulu were a lot higher than the loads exiting. so it went without saying that i would not be getting any economy plus seats when going to hawaii as a lowly star gold member. but on the way home, i knew that the loads were a lot less busy. i was hopeful for e+ seating.

in honolulu, the lounge agent helpfully offered it to me when asked, but because it meant giving up the duo seats that we already had (in a 2-5-2 configuration) for an aisle and a middle (in that same 2-5-2 configuration), we opted to keep our seats. in san francisco, things were a bit different.

"so just to let you know, star golds no longer get complimentary access to economy plus seats." when she said that, i was kind of expecting that she wouldn't give us the extra inches of legroom for free. "i'm just letting you know so that if another agent refuses you in the future, that's why." but then she smiled and typed a bit in the computer. "but here are your new boarding passes!" it's nice to get a gift like that to make the process of coming home from hawaii just a little bit easier to take.

on the road to status: sfo/hnl edition. united's travel-with-a-friend policy

yesterday, i ran after work to get to the airport. i thought that a 19h08 departure time was doable, and that i could easily slip away from work before 5. but life usually throws in a detour, and so we ended up racing to the airport in order to make the deadlines on time. just a few notes:

1) baggage drop off time is 60 minutes internationally for united, just like it is for air canada (trans-border). the bf and i got to the counter at 18h05 with our single piece of luggage that needed to be checked. the united agent was a bit curt, seemed a bit irritated that we didn't use the kiosk first. i think she was irritated that we were using the business class check-in counter too, even though it is a published benefit for star gold members). i did this because rather than waste my precious remaining 3 minutes fumbling on the computer screen and have something go wrong, i'd rather let the agent do it for me. the agent "forgot" to give us a priority baggage tag, and i was too in a rush to notice. interestingly, those traveling with star gold members who do not have status themselves also receive waived baggage fees on the same PNR. learned something new there.

2) the bf used the nexus iris scanner for the first time yesterday and did it like a pro. the machine went out of service for me when it came to my turn, so i used global entry for the very first time. you don't need to use the blue declaration cards when using global entry. global entry is available at all canadian pre-clearance airports, so i think i'll be doing global entry from now on.

3) joe and i got to the gate 27 minutes prior to departure time. interestingly, united has now moved to a system of separate lines for its different boarding groups. group 1 was already done by the time we arrived, and group 2 was almost done as well. i knew i was group 2 due to my star gold status but interestingly enough, my "travel companion" on the same PNR was also group 2 despite not having any status. this is great because now we don't actually have to check in luggage ... joe can board comfortably knowing that he will definitely have space available in the overhead compartments. this is definitely different than two years ago, whereby in vietnam, we were in different boarding groups. not that it mattered, because the vietnamese gate agent gave him a priority boarding sticker after she saw that we were traveling together.

4) there were a few seats left in premium economy, all of which were middle seats. it was not oversold after all. and i'd rather sit with the bf than in between two random strangers, even if there is more legroom.

5) our luggage was among the first to come out despite not having a priority tag. i honestly wished that priority baggage would mean priority baggage, and that if you're supposed to get a priority tag, that you actually get one. but having two "accidents" on united's part meant having the correct, expected outcome for me. so i'm happy in the end.

all in all, we are in san francisco, all in one piece. we arrived 30 minutes early, and we are now 800 status miles ahead.