Many are up in arms over recent comments about certain MileagePlus elite members made by United Airlines CFO John Rainey at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference last Thursday. I am yawning. While not very savvy, his statements were not at all a surprise.

We had certain groups in this program that were over-entitled if you will. And now we’ve re-aligned the benefits of that program with what the customers and program participants are actually ...

Happy New Year!: Many United 1Ks were greeted with the following in the new year:

Normally we're used to seeing our 'year to date elite miles' drop to zero but I was certainly surprised to see a status promotion to 'Presidential Platinum' elite.

This is a glitch that Continental is aware of and is working on fixing quickly, according to one of  the official "UA Insiders", Shannon Kelly, on Flyertalk.com.

Continental.com is currently displaying many United ...

Mike might be a Yelp h8er, but i'm a Yelp l0ver. There have been a few "firsts" for me in 2011 like SPG Platinum Status and being a half million miler with United, but I'm proud to now have a new status: Yelp Elite!

Yelp status is a bit elusive both in terms of qualification as well as benefits. There are no rigid requirements for qualification, but the program is invitation only. The main way to get the invitation is by writing lots of Yelp ...

In this week's travel etiquette podcast Gailen is joined by Bobby and Sara from your other favorite flight attendant podcast. They discuss making your pre-departure simpler and more civil including:

Simplifying packing so you don't have so much to carry Shipping suitcases ahead of time Paying for elite privileges like first class checkin  and security line and more...

Please join us every week to discuss making travel better! Remember to check out Gailen's ...

Aeroplan (the company that provides the frequent flyer program for Air Canada) announced yesterday that in order to earn status with them, you must fly a minimum of 10,000 Status flight miles or 5 status flight segments.  Some bloggers are questioning why Air Canada would institute such a requirement on their generous program, but I can see two reasons for this.  

First, there are many people who use Air Canada status to gain lounge access, since it only requires 35,000 ...

 As the new United and Continental elite program comes into focus, they announced today the alignment that is occurring to prepare the programs for merger at the end of 2011.  As the resident segment flyer here at upgrd.com, I feel an obligation to really discuss how big of a change it is for those of us that earn status by segments.

Segment flyers are those primarily flying for business, and most of the flights are relatively short.  To Illustrate the significant ...