business class – Josh Trips

New York Trip Deal: $992 round-trip business class from JFK to Lima, Peru

July 8, 2017July 8, 2017Tagged avianca, business class, jfk, lima, luxe travel, machu picchu, new york, peru, south america, travel deals, wanderlust2 Comments

Avianca, which is part of the Star Alliance, is putting its business class flights from JFK to Lima, Peru on sale! Flights start at $992 round-trip, after taxes with great from July through May, and most routes include a lie-flat seat.

Earlier this year, I flew Avianca’s business class from Bogotá, Colombia to Santiago, Chile and wrote a review about it. Although it wasn’t my favorite flying experience, I’ve heard the U.S. to South America routes have better service and that, coupled with the lie-flat seat, definitely make this a fare worth checking out.

To find this deal, use Google Flights and search for business class flights between JFK and LIM.

Flight Review: Air Canada 787 Business Class | Santiago, Chile to Toronto

May 2, 2017September 14, 2017Tagged Air Canada, business class, chile, luxe travel, toronto, Travel, trips1 Comment

A few weeks ago, I took one of the best flights I’ve had in a long time.

I was hoping to spend a week in Kauai, but my plans fell through and I was in need of a destination. Late at night, I checked the availability of flights to and from South America – perhaps my favorite continent to work remotely from – and found a business class ticket from Santiago, Chile to Toronto and then onto SFO for 55,000 United miles one-way.

Usually when it comes to South American award miles, United features Copa and Avianca which, although decent airlines, do not have lie-flat seats, although the tickets cost the same amount of miles. There was only one available date for the Air Canada flight, so I snatched it up, later booking a $235 flight from SFO to Cartagena, Colombia and then using miles to get from Cartagena to Santiago, Chile.

My first part of the journey was to head to the lounge in the Santiago Airport. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures, but the lounge was only decent. Notably, Air Canada does not have its own lounge in the airport, but you do have access to the Avianca lounge.

The lounge itself was just okay — the food was pretty bland (small sandwiches and some pastries) and they ran out of Diet Coke, so I had some beer and orange soda while waiting for my flight. There are a lot of power cords, though, so if you are need of a charge, it’s definitely a good place to relax.

As my flight approached, I headed towards the gate. When I got there, I found that it was my least favorite boarding method – the one where you board by group, but where you get onto a bus, and it’s a free-for-all once you get off. Luckily, most people on the flight were Canadian, so everyone was very nice and no one was shoving.

When I made it onto the plane, I was greeted with perhaps my favorite sight when entering a plane: a seat (that’s mine) that I know can turn into a bed!

It was glorious, particularly as it was a 9:30pm flight, and I was already starting to feel tired.

As I got comfortable in my seat, I noticed the complimentary Air Canada bag, containing goodies like lip balm (a really nice one, which I still use), a toothbrush, toothpaste, and an eye mask.

The flight attendant asked me if I was thirsty, and although I wanted to scream “YAS QUEEN!” I instead politely told her that I was, and asked for some champagne. When she came back with my champagne, I was handed a menu for dinner, breakfast, and with the specific drinks they were offering on the flight.

I decided to order the spinach and cheese filled chicken breast because, well, I love cheese and chicken.

Shortly thereafter, we took off. The TV/movie selections were great, and I couldn’t believe they had almost an entire season of The Mindy Project available to watch. I was in heaven. I kept drinking and laughing and watching TV until my first course arrived.

This was just okay. Really, it’s my own fault because I’m not much a fish person and, on that flight (and usually), I wasn’t really feeling like a salad, so I mostly just ate the bread and drank my alcohol.

I must have gotten kind of tipsy, because I forgot to take a picture of the main course. It was delicious, though, and I was already full when the flight attendant offered me some ice cream. How could I said no?!

After finishing my dessert, I did what most sane people would do on a red-eye flight in business class with a bed – I popped an Ambien and got horizontal.

I can’t say enough good things about how comfortable the seat was, how nice the pillows and blankets felt, and the rest I got on this flight. The flight time was around 10 hours, which I think is the perfect amount of time for an overnight flight if you’re lucky enough to snag a seat in business class. It gave me time to watch some TV, drink, eat, and still have enough time to sleep to catch 6-7 hours of solid sleep.

I woke up to the smell of breakfast, and when the flight attendant saw that I was awake she asked me my choice – I picked the omelet.

It was decent, but not amazing. More than the breakfast, I needed the coffee to come to life, and their coffee was pretty delicious.

About 1.5 hours after breakfast service, we landed. The flight was uneventful, but sometimes that’s just what you need.

One of my favorite parts about this flight was listening to the passengers talk who were on it. I know that might sound weird, but Santiago to Toronto is an interesting route, and there were a lot of people on the flight who traveled regularly between the two cities for work. I love hearing Spanish spoken with a Canadian accent, and that the flight connected two cities literally a world apart.

I very much hope I have the chance to fly this route again and would totally recommend it to anyone thinking of trying it!

Flight Review: United Airlines 737-800 Business Class | Houston to Belize City

January 8, 2017October 26, 2017Tagged belize, business class, flight deals, flight review, houston, trip deals, united, wanderlust2 Comments

Being a new United MileagePlus Premier Silver member, I was excited to take my first trip of 2017.

I had an approximately 7 hour flight ahead of me, starting at SFO, connecting in Houston (IAH), and ending up in Belize City (BZE). When I checked in at 12:50am (for some reason, I thought this red-eye flight was a great idea when I booked the trip), I saw that only 2 seats in Business Class and 4 seats in Economy Plus were reserved for the second leg of my journey, from Houston to Belize. I figured my chances of an upgrade were high, but was surprised that my upgrade had been confirmed by the time I woke up.

belize-review2 — The view from my seat, as we prepare to leave Houston

Though the official flying time was only 2 hours and 28 minutes, I really enjoyed this flight. The plane, including Business Class, was only half full. After being upgraded, I had to call United to switch my seat, and I was able to select seat 2A – a window seat with no one sat next to me (and I crossed my fingers that it would stay this way). Coming off a red-eye from San Francisco where there was a screaming baby and a middle-seat armrest hogger, I really enjoyed the extra space on my Belize City flight.

That aside, this was one of the more enjoyable Business Class experiences that I’ve had on United in a while. The seat was very comfortable, and the crew was very friendly. I was greeted with a welcome drink (I picked my standard, a Bloody Mary), and there was plenty of space overhead for my carry-on luggage.

belize-review1 — There were some amazing clouds the entire flight

There was a seatback DirecTV system, making it so you could watch a lot of shows during the flight (including sports, news, and comedies). This was exciting enough, as I have taken a lot of United flights lately that have only “personal device entertainment” (which, in my experience, often is glitchy and/or does not work). Halfway through the flight, there was an announcement that many of the channels would no longer available as we left the U.S., but we were still left with a good selection of movies, which definitely made the flight go quicker.

Probably my favorite part of the flight was the meal service.

belize-review — Fiesta scramble with a cinnamon bun, sausage, and biscuit

I wasn’t just hungry by the time meal service came around, I was straight-up hangry. They gave me an option of a fiesta scramble or french toast, and I went with the scramble because I’m trying to eat more protein so that I can become more swole. The food was so delicious. I destroyed the fiesta scramble and chicken sausage, and then I had 2 glorious pieces of bread awaiting my consumption. The first was a near perfect cinnamon bun, full of sticky, gooey, deliciousness. I destroyed it. Next was the cheesy biscuit, which, really, was the most delicious thing I had eaten in a while – for real. I mean, it was the perfect texture, perfect warmth, the perfect everything. I’m hungry right now just thinking about it. But I digress.

After breakfast, the flight attendants distributed customs forms. These were a bit longer than I was used to filling out, but being so full and happy, I easily made it through this menial task.

Shortly after filling out the paperwork, we began our descent. I opened up my window and saw my first view of Belize and it was incredible.

When we landed, passengers could exit in the front or out the back of the airplane. To exit the plane, you go down a staircase, which puts you on the ground next to the plane. I was the third one off, but managed to be the first in line at customs (which was helpful, as I needed to make a tight connection).

Overall, this was a very enjoyable flight, and I am hoping to be upgraded on my flight back!

Flight Review: American Airlines A319 Business Class | Providenciales to Charlotte

January 3, 2017January 3, 2017Tagged american airlines, business class, Travel, turks & caicos, turks and caicos, wanderlustLeave a comment

American Airlines offered me a 3-month trial of their Gold status, during which time I was treated like a Gold member, and could achieve Gold status for next year by flying a certain amount of miles in those 3 months (I think it was around 7,000).

I tried using my 500-mile credits on American to get upgrades for all legs of the trip (American’s 500-mile program is a bit confusing, which I will describe in later posts). For my flight there – from San Francisco to Charlotte to Providenciales, Turks & Caicos, as an American Gold member none of my 500-mile Upgrades were accept, but I was able to move into Main Cabin Extra seats for free for both flights home (PLS to CLT and CLT to SFO) at check in.

On the way back, though. The angels opened the sky and behold the e-mail that I received telling me I was upgraded to Business class for my flight from Providenciales to Charlotte.

Unfortunately, I took this flight before I decided to start blogging, so I don’t have many photos, but I do have some impressions of the trip.

On a more broad perspective, if I can’t have both, I would always prefer to have my business/first class flight heading home, so that I can look forward to that flight, rather than dreading leaving. So, being upgraded almost a day in advance made me feel a little less bad about leaving the gorgeous paradise of Grace Bay.

The service was decent. The seats in business are set up in a 2-2 configuration that gives you extra space and slightly increased recline. That said, I was in a window seat and passenger sat next to me passed out, and I awkwardly had to climb over him to go to the bathroom. So, keep in mind that if you’re in the passenger seat, you’ll likely need your neighbor’s help in getting out.

I was welcomed with a Bloody Mary that didn’t taste amazing (they were out of Worcestershire sauce), but it was good enough for me. The crew was super friendly and there was a talkative woman in the front row who had injured her leg, and I think they gave the empty Business class seat because she had a connection she would have missed otherwise because of her injury. I have to say, she was hilarious, and I normally don’t enjoy talkative people on my flights.

The flight was less than 3 hours and I would recommend getting a window seat so that you can see the beautiful Turks & Caicos while leaving. The meal service was decent (I got some kind of pasta dish), but what was really worth it was the priority seating – if I wasn’t seated towards the front of the plane, it would have been hard for me to make my connection to San Francisco.

I would definitely use my American Airlines 500-mile Upgrades for this flight again, as the extra comfort made leaving the island a little more bearable.