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Miles & More Members: Earn 1000 Bonus Miles Per Stay With Accor Hotels

by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 9, 2012 | Points/Miles | 0 comments

Between September 1 and October 31, you’ll enjoy 1000 Bonus Miles in addition to the normal 500 miles that you earn for each qualifying stay with an Accor Hotel Property. (Remember that the usual 500 miles comes after 1 night’s stay in a Sofitel, MGallery or Pullman property and after 2 consecutive night’s stay in a Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure or Adagio property. Additionally, you would get your 500 miles after a 4 consecutive night stay in an ibis property.)

To qualify for the 1000 Bonus Miles, you must first have a qualifying stay to earn you the base 500 miles (which will vary on the property as mentioned above). You must be a member of Accor’s Le Club loyalty program and need to link your Miles & More account to it in order to have the miles automatically credit your Miles & More account. Use this LINK to connect your Le Club and Miles & More Accounts.

If you are not a Le Club member, you can enroll by using this LINK. As a new member, if you have a qualifying stay with an Accor property before October 31 you will get an additional 1000 miles as a Welcome Bonus.

Planespotting From Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport

by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 9, 2012 | Airlines | 1 comment

Before catching my flight to Singapore last week, I had several hours to pass at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). I had done some due diligence ahead of the trip (thanks to my friends on Twitter!) and came to realize that the airport is a planespotter “friendly” place. I had also visited HoustonSpotters.net to get advice and details and the information on the site is invaluable. In addtion to planespotting from the airport, there are some great vantage points just outside the airport that allow for great views of takeoffs and landings.

In fact it is so friendly that you are actually allowed to take pictures from the parking garages that over look the tarmac and runways. All that you need to do is to report yourself to the Airport Security office by calling 281-230-1300. They’ll ask for your name and license plate of your car (if applicable) and you’ll be set.

Rooftop of Terminal D/E Parking Building:

Plenty of room and friendly security makes this a favorite spot for planespotters.

A Great Front Row!

The airport is a major United Airlines hub so the majority of the traffic will be your basic 737s, 757s and regional aircraft. However, during a small window during the mid-afternoon hours a handful of international flights arrive which really makes things interesting between 1:30p and 3:00p.

During my planespotting, I spent some time on the roof top of the Terminal D/E parking building (until a Thunderstorm forced me inside), the 3rd floor of the United Club in Terminal E (perhaps the best United Club in the WORLD!) and airside in terminal D. Terminal D handles the International Air traffic making it the most interesting place to planespot. A nice feature about terminal D is that the glass does not have a noticeable tint to it, so your pictures come out well. I think my best shots came from my time in Terminal D.

PHOTOS FROM THE UNITED CLUB IN TERMINAL E (3rd Floor):

The United Star Alliance livery makes a rare appearance at IAH (bound for Tokyo)

Notice the crisp reflection on the wing

American Airlines arrival

No doubt about who the dominant airline is at IAH!

PHOTOS FROM THE ROOFTOP (Not many due to T-Storm!):

PHOTOS TAKEN FROM TERMINAL D (AIRSIDE):

A beauty arrives from Frankfurt….

Taxiing to gate

First time that I’ve seen a 747-400 Combi in person!

Push back from gate

Taxi to runway

If you would like to see my other “Planespotting” Posts, please use these links:

Planespotting from Singapore’s Changi Airport

Los Angeles Plane Spotting Part I

Los Angeles Plane Spotting Part II

Los Angeles Plane Spotting Part III

Lufthansa’s 747-8I Inaugural Flight

Lufthansa Aircraft Pictorial

Planespotting From Singapore’s Changi Airport

by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 8, 2012 | Airlines | 12 comments

Earlier this week I was in Singapore for a few days and made it a point to have enough time on the day I was leaving to see how good Singapore’s Changi Airport is for planespotting. Changi is perennially listed among the best airports for travelers and I can certainly understand why (more on that in a later post), however for planespotting it does have its challenges. One of them is the green tint in the glass similar to what you would find in your car’s glass. This green tint is there to help reduce glare into the terminal and to also help the efficiency of the air-conditioning system. So any photo taken within the terminals is almost always going to have a green tint that you need to remove when you process your photos (which is not always easy!).

Also a challenge is the fact that each gate has security screening so the gates are cordoned off from the rest of the terminal so you do not have the ability to be up against the glass in most places unless you’ve cleared security for a gate, and you only do that if you have a boarding pass for the flight departing that gate!

Another challenge is that there is no dedicated spotting area within the airport grounds as you would find in airports such as Hong Kong, Munich or Frankfurt. There are some spotting opportunities from parking lots near a few beaches but nothing on the property itself. Changi does have observation areas within its terminals, however you are several yards away from the glass, and in many cases have 2 panes of glass between you and the aircraft, so pictures come out poorly!!

All that aside, Changi is still a very good place to observe airline traffic and I definitely recommend you bring your camera and take some time watching the airplanes! Many major airlines and Asian low cost carriers serve Changi so there is always something interesting to see.

The pictures below were taken over several hours on September 5 from within terminal 3 and from the aircraft that took me home. Of course it happened to be a cloudy day, and that impacted the pictures even more 🙁 .