Getting Harder to Earn Elite Status on United Airlines

After a great experience earlier this week on United airlines, today I found out that it is going to be a lot hard for some people to achieve an elite status on United like Premier, Premier Executive, or 1K.

Why?

Check out the content of the email I received from United today:

To ensure that Mileage Plus miles earned toward elite status and award travel on United are aligned with actual miles flown, we are revising our base accrual policy. Beginning July 1, 2008, for flights of less than 500 miles, passengers will earn redeemable miles equal to the actual miles flown. Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) will also be awarded based on actual miles. Elite Qualifying Segments (EQS) are not affected.

This new mileage accrual structure will apply to travel on or after July 1, 2008, regardless of when the travel was ticketed. Flights of less than 500 miles flown on or before June 30, 2008, will accrue Mileage Plus miles under the previous policy of a minimum mileage accrual per individual segment flown.

What does that mean?

Well for one, anyone who takes a lot of short "commuter" flights will not longer accrue the miles in the Mileage Plus program that they have been accustomed to. That will impact everyone who qualifies for their Elite status based on the number of miles. The good news is that if you qualify based on Elite Qualifying Segments (EQS) then there is very little change for you, other than you will have less miles to spend on free travel.

What does this mean to me?

Basically, a reduction in the number of miles I accrue each year. Since I take a lot of trips each year (about 20) between Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO), I was used to seeing about 1,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) each trip which will now be reduced to approximately 600 per trip. That will leave a gap of about 8,000 miles from what I normally would have seen.

While not the end of the world, that would have left me really close to not qualifying for the United Premier Executive 1K program in 2007. The reason for that is that I qualify based on miles, due to a couple of big trips (to India) and lots of small trips on the West Coast. I am hoping to still acheive the Premier Exec 1K status in 2008, but we will see how this mid year change impacts that.

While it is not the end of the world, I am disappointed in the decision by United Airlines. It is never fun to "give up" something.

Will you be impacted by this change? If so, let me know.

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4 Down, 26 To Go

If you are a fan of baseball, you may have a similar lifetime goal that I have. That is to eventually see all 30 (currently) Major League Baseball (MLB) teams play in their home parks. However, thus far in my life I have visited very few of MLB's 30 home stadiums.


Actually, until tonight I had only visited three stadiums: Los Angeles Dodger's Dodger Stadium, Oakland Coliseum for the Oakland Athletics, and Yankee's Stadium in the Bronx for the New York Yankees. And to think, tonight's game was almost rained out!

While it will take me some time to get to the full 30 stadiums, I happened to be out in Cleveland, OH for business and had always hear great things about Jacobs Field -- now call Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. Since I was going to be in Cleveland for a couple of days, my buddy Josh was able to come up to Cleveland from Columbus and catch a game with me.

Getting tickets was pretty easy using eBay. I have found that with baseball games especially, a lot of season ticket holders will dump their tickets on eBay just a day or two before the game and they go for about half the price. I was able to scoop up a pair of tickets on the lower level (152) right behind home plate about 30 rows back for only $20 a piece. (Try that in Los Angeles!) The tickets were deliverd via an emailed PDF and we were ready to go.

That was until it looked like it was going to rain. Really rain. I spent a good portion of the afternoon wondering if it was going to work out or not as it rained on and off throughout the afternoon. But, as I kept checking ESPN.com to see if it was postponed and the game was still on.

When we arrived at the stadium, there was a decently heavy mist -- but, as we walked in the players were warming up and getting ready to take the field. That was welcomed news and it was a good opportunity to take in Progressive Field.


I was really impressed with the stadium. It is right adjacent to the Quicken Loans arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers play and there is a good number of restaraunts and bars near by. Once in the stadium, there are a lot of angles versus a typical symmetrical stadium like Dodgers Stadium. In addition, although the capacity is still 43,000 -- it feels a lot smaller and more intimate.

It also helped that we had great seats. :-)


And we enjoyed a great game. The shutout by C.C. Sabathia and home runs by Grady Sizemore and Ryan Garko provided the fireworks for the night. More impressive was the streak of scoreless innings thrown by Indians starting pitchers. It was in the 40's by the end of the night.


Even better, we did not get too wet. While it was damp throughout -- it only briefly sprinkled in the first and ninth innings. Otherwise, it was a comfortable night at the ballpark.

And here is tonight's public service announcement.

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That’s a Big Surprise United Airlines

I arrived a few hours early at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for my flight on Monday, hoping to get lucky and get on a much earlier flight to Chicago (ORD). As I passed through security and took a look at the flight monitors, I thought my chances may have slimmed a little with a cancellation of the 8:00am flight – I was trying to get on the 8:59am flight.

When I walked up to gate 75 in terminal 7, I was greeted with a rather big surprise from United Airlines – a Boeing 747-400 jet had been swapped out from our original Boeing 757-200 airplane. As those who fly often know, using a 747-400 for a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago is practically unheard of. Perhaps it is akin to using a shotgun to kill a fly – as the 747-400 is usually used only as an internationally plane.

In fact, the gate agent mentioned it may have been several years since such an event had taken place there in Los Angeles. Apparently they needed the plane in Chicago for an international flight – and we were going to ride on it. Given the change in seating capacity -- more than doubling, getting on the plane from the standby list was easy.

But yes, there is more! Once I boarded the plane and took my seat in a half-empty plane – the Flight Service Manager approached me.

“Sir”, he said. “Since you are a 1K member, I wanted to ask you if you would like to move up to business class. We will not have a full meal for you, but you will have more space.” I thought about it for about 1 second and replied back, “Absolutely!”

This was a first time occurrence for me with United. Generally speaking, given the number of upgrades and frequent flyers that United has – truly free and upgrades that you do not request rarely occur. This was a day that I was definitely glad to be a 1K flyer on United Airlines.

I moved up to my seat in 26B and was almost immediately approached by a flight attendant for that section of the cabin who asked if this was my assigned cabin. I stated it was not, but that the Flight Service Manager asked me to move up. The attendant seemed a little irked at the Flight Service Manager for asking me to move up, but warmed up a little throughout the flight.

In fact, I even ended up with a meal. Perhaps someone did not want their Special K cereal and fruit bowls. I gladly took the extra and ate it. :-)

Once I arrived in Chicago, the real question was would my good fortune continue on my next flight to Atlanta (ATL)? I was still on standby for the earlier flight – my original flight was due to leave some 4 hours later in the evening and according to the flight board, it looked like the flight was pretty full.

The good news was that I was first on the standby list. The bad news was that there was only 4 seats left and still 20 minutes before the standby passengers could be cleared. Over the next 15 minutes I watched as that number dropped to 3, then 2, then 1. Finally it held steady. I just waited for the clocks to change to 4:16pm, 30 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart.

As the clock turned to 4:16pm, I walked up to the counter and overhead the lady telling a passenger that the flight was oversold by 10 customers. Although it seemed my chances were slim, I asked – since it is less than 30 minutes before the flight and the board shows one seat left, can you clear it for me since I am number one on the standby list?

With a smile, the agent checked, cleared the seat, and handed me my boarding pass. While it was a seat in the 2nd row from the back, I did not care – I would arrive in Atlanta 4 hours before I was originally scheduled. Awesome!

Overall, this was a brilliant experience with United – of which I may have only posted negative things on. Given the great experience I had, it was a great opportunity to balance them out.

Ironically, had this day not gone so well – I would have been stuck in Chicago for the night. My originally planned flight was delayed out of Los Angeles and did not arrive until after 11:00pm, quite some time since my plane to Atlanta would have taken off.

I guess someone was watching out for me. :-)

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NBA Playoffs, Lakers tied up by the Jazz?

NBA conspiracy theorists have more fodder for their speculation after the past few days of NBA playoff action! We just experience a wild weekend in which every NBA series with the exception of Sunday’s Pistons vs. Magic game has been won by the home team. And these were not just simple wins, rather in many cases these were hugely lopsided games in which the home teams blew out their competition, many times with leads larger than 20 throughout the game.

I am sure David Stern and his NBA office is thrilled with all the additional ticket, television, and advertising revenue. But, we really need to ask some difficult questions.

Are the Boston Celtics really that bad on the road? Their regular season record does not reflect it.

Are San Antonio and New Orleans such home court hotbeds that their teams are so bad on the read leading to 40 point swings? Neither team had that much trouble in their first round.

Did the Lakers stop going to the hoop and getting fouled in Game 4 to lead to such a huge free throw disparity? The Los Angeles Lakers averaged 50% more free throws than the Utah Jazz throughout the 2007-08 NBA season, you would expect that to continue or be reasonably close to that margin in the playoffs, but the Jazz doubling the number of free throws in Game 4 is questionable.

Given these unusual lopsided outcomes, it is really easy to see where these NBA conspiracy theories get started. The refereeing at a minimum in this conference semi-final round has been wildly inconsistent, favoring the home teams leading to some quite lopsided and honestly boring contests.

The hardest part for me to accept (and where I am least objective, I might add) is the fact that the Lakers series is knotted up against the Utah Jazz at 2-2. I think my frustrations with the officiating of the last two games in Salt Lake City are obscured by the fact that the Lakers had opportunities to win both games down the stretch. In Game 4, had it not been for the late game heroics of Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom, we would have been talking about a 15-point game.

I also loved the way Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers team failed to mention anything about the officiating in Game 4. They (and Kobe specifically) simply manned up and stated – no excuses, we just did not get it done.

My two biggest arguments are the ejection of Ronny Turiaf for a phantom flagrant 2, and the free throw disparity in Game 4 for the Jazz. I know what you are thinking, so I will address the Utah free-throw shooting first...

I am sure several of the Jazz fans and the plethora of Lakers haters out there will say – but Ken, why are you complaining about the free-throw disparity in game 4, when the Lakers had clear advantages in games 1 and 2. And that is exactly what everyone should expect – the disparity of the free throws in games 1 and 2 should be a consistent theme throughout the series.

Why, do you ask? It has been that way ALL YEAR LONG. The Lakers are a team that goes to the free throw line an awful lot. The Jazz are not. As I mention earlier in the article, we should expect that the Los Angeles Lakers will shot 50% more free throws than the Utah Jazz. That is the way it was all year long as the type of game Utah plays does not send them to the line. The Utah Jazz shooting greater than 50% more free throws than the Lakers should be an aberration.

And the ejection of Ronny Turiaf for a flagrant 2 foul is absolutely atrocious. Did he foul Ronnie Price? Yes. Was it a hard playoff foul? Yes. Was it after the whistle? Yes. Was it possibly a flagrant 1? Yes. But that is as far as I will go. Ronny Turiaf absolutely had no intention of hurting the kid, caught his arms and body, but did not sling him to the ground. The building was loud and the fact Ronnie Price went the basket that late after the whistle bear some of the responsibility for the fall when Price banged his head on the ground. But ejecting Ronny from the game was an absolutely ridiculous outcome.

(Being on a plane this morning, I have not had the chance to check what others are saying about the ejection – but I am interested to see what others thought.)

Amazingly, the Lakers still had the chance to get it done, even with Kobe noticeably injured with a tweaked back. I was hoping that we would have seen a three-point shot from either Derek Fisher or Sasha Vujacic at the end of regulation rather than going for the two point tie. In a building like Jazz have, you are almost better ending the game there with a win or a loss over taking your chances in overtime.

Were the Lakers perfect in the game? By no means do I wish to indicate that – there are a ton of areas where they need to improve regardless of the outcome of the game. Here are a few that come to my mind.

Pau Gasol – Stop complaining after every shot you take and miss. Yes, I know you are getting fouled every single time by Carlos Boozer. But, when you complain every single time, the refs become immune. Play through it, or get yourself knocked to the ground so the referees have to make a call.

Jordan Farmar – Come on kid, step it up. You were awesome this entire season; the team really needs you not to become a turnover machine. Plus, we need you on defense to slow Deron Williams down rather than watching him blow past you every play.

Kobe Bryant – For a couple of minutes in that 4th Quarter, you almost looked like the Kobe in the playoffs two years ago by hoisting up shots that have no chance of going in. Thank you for trusting your teammates to get the Lakers back in it.

Derek Fisher – Can you please stay out of foul trouble in the first quarter? On Sunday, you did half of it yourself with an “intentional” foul in the first minute. That just sets you up for a ticky-tack foul that can send you to the bench.

I am sure things will turn around Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Hopefully I will also have a little less to complain and rant about. Plus, if the Lakers play the Celtics in the finals – it will feed the conspiracy theories more.

Lastly, it is interesting to consider that the Lakers were just a couple of ball bounces away from sweeping the Utah Jazz. But now, fresh off of two victories Jerry Sloan’s team has reestablished momentum which I am sure they will not relinquish easily.

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Grand Theft Auto IV – Improving and Progressing

When I gave my initial impressions of Grand Theft Auto IV my biggest complaint was at how slowly the story and game play started developing. In addition, the first few missions started building the background for the game – however the missions were somewhat passé. I was looking for more.

(Additionally, to my fault – I did not like seemingly sluggish controls of the vehicle driving in the game. I failed to mention that I had just spent a couple of weeks at the controls of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, I realized that I was expecting similar controls on the cars for Grand Theft Auto 4. Not a reasonable expectation in any case.)

Now that I have passed some significant milestones in the game, including 30% completion – have my opinions on GTA 4 changed?

Warning, if you have not played the game at all, there may be some minor spoilers in this post. Please do not read any further if you are concerned about that.

There is no question that the game has evolved and picked up in excitement and violence for that matter, but it has yet to wow me with anything spectacular or beyond my expectations. Is it a good game? No question about it and probably worth the $60 price for the Playstation 3 version – but thus far it has been far from a ground breaking advance in gaming from Grand Theft Auto 3 San Andreas. I have seen a few reviews on the game rating it as outstanding or a perfect 10. I am just not there yet; the game has yet to wow me. To me it is an 8 at the most, keeping pace with the previous Vice City and San Andreas offerings.

To me, the standard meet a “boss”, work for him for a few missions, and then end up killing him is repeated too often. In some ways, it has become a little bit too predictable in how the game will flow – maybe that is just the missions and paths that I am choosing, but they do feel repetitious and tired.

Here are some other thoughts I have had:

Similar to GTA3 (San Andreas), there is an awful lot of driving. After Niko’s shared apartment with his cousin burns down, your residence requires a 10 minute drive (in real time) to get to the missions.

The “Choose Your Own” adventure nature of it is a welcome addition. Early in the game I had the choice on whether to kill someone based on a hit that was ordered by a boss. I had the choice to throw him of the building or to save him. My choice was to save him and send him away to a different borough hoping that I may benefit from it in the future.

What do I do with all of this money? In the past I could buy real estate (I have not looked yet) or other interesting things. Thus far with $100k banked, the only thing it seems I can spend it on is hot dogs ($5, including health), repainting/repairing the car at the Spray and Wash, $2000 suits at Perseuphes, or additional ammo for my cache of weapons. With over 1000 AK-47 rounds, I do not think I will need any more for awhile.

The addition of the Grand Theft Auto Internet Cafés for email and communication is a nice touch. Complete with spam, online dating services, a good way to provide additional information and missions. If only they would have a GTA 4 Facebook.

The one twist that I have really enjoyed so far is the fact that your first “girlfriend” is really an undercover agent for some unnamed government agency. That was a little unexpected and played out very nicely.

Perhaps I am still passing judgment too early on Grand Theft Auto 4 – but it is best to see how the game is experienced and whether or not Take Two can pull the story together for a fantastic ending. Regardless of how I feel about the outcome, America has definitely voted for GTA4, with $500 million in game sales after the first week.

Thus far, GTA 4 is living up to its much hyped arrival on PS3, but it has yet to set another standard the way previous release have.

On a technical note, outside from the slow startup speeds, I have not experienced any of the other issues with the games locking or possibly skipping / shutting off as others have reported. Also too bad it is not even in 720p for the Playstation 3 version – unexplainable, yet alone 1080p.

I also have not tried online game play yet, but will probably do so once I pass 50% completion.

How is it stacking up for you?

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