Sean, Author at Points, Planes and Passports

A Long Weekend in Iguazu Falls

BySean November 5, 2014January 30, 2015

After much internal debate, I’ve finally decided to go through with my trip this coming long weekend to Iguazu Falls via pretty much every major airport in South America. Am I insane? Probably. Back this Spring, LAN offered a very, very cheap rate from New York to Iguazu Falls on both LAN and TAM metal. …

2015 Combined AAdvantage Loyalty Program Announced

BySean October 28, 2014January 1, 2024

This morning, American Airlines announced its 2015 AAdvantage Loyalty Program for the combined American and US Airways. As an American elite, the program remains largely un-changed, and that’s a great thing! With that said, there are a few changes to the program that I’ll highlight in this post. The theme of the whole deal is that…

Weekly Round-Up in the World of Points

BySean October 26, 2014October 26, 2014

Well, it’s been an insanely busy week for me, as I got back into the swing of things at work, and in life in general. As such, I didn’t get to write as much as I wanted to, so here is a weekly round-up of some of the goings-ons in the World of travel, points…

Six Initial Thoughts on My Trip Around the World

BySean October 22, 2014January 1, 2024

After two weeks and just under 22,000 miles of travel around the world, I’m finally getting acclimated to the real world after arriving back in Washington from Tokyo last week. I’d initially planned to publish trip reports as I went on this trip, but after a pretty intense first few days of Oktoberfest in Munich, that whole…

First Look: ANA First Class Tokyo to Washington

BySean October 19, 2014October 19, 2014

Last week, I finished up my around the World trip by flying from Tokyo-Narita to Washington-Dulles in ANA First Class in its new ANA First Square product. How would I describe the experience in a word? Spectacular. The 12+ hour flight on this new, ANA B777-300ER will surely serve as the benchmark to which I…

First Look: Air China Forbidden Pavilion First Class Shanghai to Tokyo

BySean October 17, 2014January 1, 2024

Earlier this week, I got to experience a relatively quick flight in Air China’s Forbidden Pavilion First Class on a flight between Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. This 2.5 hour flight was booked as part of my around the world trip using US Airways miles. Compared to my flight in…

First Look: THAI Royal First Class Munich to Bangkok

BySean October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

Good Evening from THAI’s Royal First Class lounge in Bangkok. I’m about to hop a redeye flight to Shanghai, but wanted to share a few initial impressions from my flight last night from Munich to Bangkok in THAI Royal First Class. Overall, I was quite impressed. With everything… and I’m not even including the THAI ground…

First Look: United Global First Class Chicago to Munich

BySean October 6, 2014October 6, 2014

Good afternoon from Munich! After four days here in Munich, I’ve finally acquired some wifi good enough for a post at the Le Meridien Munich. I put together some initial thoughts on the flight, but a full review is forthcoming. I arrived in Munich last Thursday on United flight 952 from Chicago on a three-class B777-200 in…

An Around the World Trip — Introduction

BySean October 1, 2014December 19, 2014

As I previously wrote, I will be embarking on a two-week journey around the World starting tonight. While I’m meeting twelve other friends in Munich, two of them will be joining me for our exploits in Asia. Though we all have somewhat different flights, we all did manage to get on the same THAI flight…

How to Book an Around the World Trip with US Airways Miles

BySean September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

US Airways Dividend Miles are some of the easiest miles out there to accrue, and at least for now, the airline has a very rewarding award chart with several awesome hot spots that one can exploit to derive maximum value from their miles. Perhaps no award on the US Airways chart has more value than…