News And Notes For Wednesday, November 7th

The first domestic US commercial flight of the 787 Dreamliner happened this week, and Mommy Points was along for the ride.  Other than her “Dreamy” pun it’s a solid read about a memorable day in air travel.  😀

I had a great experience on the inaugural 787 Dreamliner flight from BOS to NRT earlier this year, and I can tell you the plane absolutely is a joy to fly.  The pressurization makes a huge difference and it’s significantly quieter then every other plane in the world with the exception of the A380 (which I found to be a similar noise level).

Tickets are going pretty quickly for the next Frequent Traveler University in Tysons Corner, VA.  The hotel block filled up almost immediately so we had to go back and get more rooms at the special rate for everyone.  So, you may want to hurry and book a ticket before the block fills up again.  View From The Wing just confirmed a few speakers for the event, so things are starting to take shape.

I’ll be speaking at the FTU coming up November 30-December 2 at LAX, along with a host of other speakers listed here.  Hope to see you there!

More value for Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles!  They continue to announce city pairings in Asia and the Pacific from Honolulu.  Recent additions include Brisbane, Auckland and Sapporo, Japan.  Don’t get me wrong, you can get to these cities direct from places in the US, and usually on a new airplane.  But, since you can earn miles from your Amazon purchases as well as other merchants in their shopping mall, and you can use American Airlines AAdvantage miles to fly on Hawaiian as well.

Here’s a great opportunity to help people affected by Hurricane Sandy.  All the Boarding Area bloggers are teaming up to donate money to Sandy.  All you have to do is leave a comment on their blogs (one comment per blog) to help increase the size of the donation.  Wandering Aramean has a post that lists the blogs who are participating in the fundraising effort.  No obligation on your part at all, just leave a comment to raise $1 for Sandy victims.

It looks like American will see a delay in the roll-out of it’s new 777-300ER product, which is a bit of a shame.  It’s only a month, which isn’t a big deal.  But, AA has put a lot of thought and effort behind the changes and they’ve taken their fair share of bad press over their union negotiations.  They definitely don’t need any more bad press, and I wish this one was going better for them.  I hope it’s only a minor bump.