Last month on my way home for Thanksgiving my final San Francisco to Burbank flight was on a United Express/Skywest CRJ-200, a 50-seat aircraft with limited overhead space. As I have for years, I checked my rollerboard cabin baggage that contained my laptop and digital camera. Apparently--and in all my years of travel--I never knew that was a big no-no.

Worry not, my laptop and digital camera are just fine, but another United flyer who posted his story on Flyertalk was not so ...

I flew on Lufthansa from Milan to Frankfurt Staurday evening on a cheap fare that I thought would earn zero miles. For the heck of it, I added my Mileage Plus number when checking in and was shocked to find the following posted to my Mileage Plus account this morning:

That's an L-Class fare from Milan to Frankfurt, which according to united.com, should earn zero miles:

I'll need every EQM I can get this year, so I am quite pleased to see these miles post, but I do not understand why. Just another glitch in UA's system (that will now be shut down, since Jeff Smisek is a daily reader of this blog)?

In any case, be sure to add your UA number to reservations, even when you think you will not be earning any miles. You just never know.

I made another rookie error yesterday. Learn from my mistake.

First a bit of background. Yesterday was United's Open House and Family Day in San Francisco and I decided to attend at the last minute (a few days before the event). That involved finding airfare from PHL to SFO that wouldn't break the bank--an arduous task when traveling within 72 hours on a Sunday.

PHL-SFO-PHL priced out at over $400 each way, far too much for my budget, ...

It's too early to tell if StarNet blocking is gone on UA or just on another hiatus, but I was able to book transatlantic Lufthansa flights today--a marked change from last week.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on my winter award trip to China, I have been stuck with two UA transatlantic flights in first class, despite plenty of Lufthansa availability, thanks to StarNet blocking.

I had been calling UA reservations almost every day up until the end of last week, but ...

The LA Times recently published a feature story highlighting the ten most expensive cities in the world. Here's the top 10 list:

1. Luanda, Angola
2. Tokyo
3. N'Djamena, Chad
4. Moscow
5. Geneva
6. Osaka
7. Libreville, Gabon
8. Zürich
9. Hong Kong
10. Copenhagen

I was surprised to see three African cities on the top-10 list, including #1 and #3, but having never been to Angola, Chad, or Gabon I cannot intelligently comment on the editor's choices. I am surprised that Easter Island or Bora Bora did not make the list.

Also see: World's Least Expensive Cities - 2010

While perusing Gary's blog today, I came across an extremely helpful blog post by Musings of a Global Traveler that tracks the mileage expiration policy for each major airline. It is updated regularly and is chart that is well worth adding to your favorites list.

Check it out here.