Since Aeroplan had their recent unannounced "award sale" I transferred some American Express miles to book an Aeroplan award to visit friends in Paris and Cairo. For the first leg I booked a BusinessFirst seat on Continental's United's 757-200 service from Newark (EWR) to Paris (CDG). After visiting the poorly appointed and spartan United Club near gate C71, I boarded my flight and settled into my seat. The flight was lightly loaded, surprisingly not a nonrev in sight, so I had the seat next ...

Recently I found myself kicking it pre-platinum old school in coach class, in that sweet spot by the bulkhead of a 767-400. I was heading to New York from Houston, where I'd spent several days binging on Tex-Mex and tequilla. When they say, "everything's bigger in Texas," they mean everything: I nearly had to gate-check my Lonestar State-sized hangover.

It's common knowledge that best cure for a hangover is a Bloody Mary. It also happens to be my favorite part of every flight. Truth. ...

On August 1, 2012, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) Airport will become the first airport in Texas to receive A380  service, when Lufthansa upgrades the aircraft type it uses to operate the Houston-Frankfurt flight. LH440. IAH will be Lufthansa’s fourth destination in the United States with A380 service.

The LH A380 will operate from Terminal D at IAH. Over the next several months, the Houston Airport will be renovating Terminal D to make accommodations to handle the extra-large aircraft.

There also looks like some good reward space in Y and C for this flight.

Already the best Star Alliance award search engine, Continental has added the ability to search for and book Singapore Airlines, Egypt Air, and Air China awards on continental.com

Already this year Continental has added a number of carriers to their award search site including Austrian and Turkish Airlines.

The addition of Singapore Airlines is particularly valuable because of the generous amounts of award seats they have made available on the New York - Frankfurt route ...

Just a quick note highlighting the announcement that United Airlines will begin flying from Washington Dulles to Dublin next May. The carrier will utilize a two-cabin 757 aircraft from the Continental fleet with lie-flat seats in business class.

Dublin is a great airport to connect when flying into and out of Europe for a number reasons. First, you pre-clear into the United States when traveling from Dublin, arriving at your destination as if you were on a domestic flight. Anyone who ...

Not surprisingly, the Amtrak-Continental Airlines partnership will soon be scaled back. From 01 January 2012, you will no longer be able to transfer points between the two programs. Thankfully, it appears the train codeshares will remain and even after the United-Continental merger is complete, you will still be able to earn miles on select Northeast corridor rail service.

This e-mail explains the changes:

Dear Matthew,

While the Continental® OnePass® program ...