Triangle Trip

I was recently at United’s Red Carpet Club in Chicago O’Hare (ORD) Terminal C, which brought back fond (and some not so fond) memories from my past. I’ve spent many hours at this Red Carpet Club during the late 1990s and early 2000s; I’ve even watched a Super Bowl here.

During my recent visit, I went to the bar to order a beer because I had a few extra Red Carpet coupons left. I was very shocked when the bartender told me alcoholic beverages (bottom shelf only) was complementary. Top shelf alcohol still requires a coupon or cash! I am not sure if this was a holiday season thing or if it’s a change in policy. I was quite impressed.

I then started my laptop and try to get on WiFi. There were two WiFi providers at ORD — T-Mobile and Boingo. Both required me to login or sign up for a day pass for US$7.

How can the Red Carpet Club offer free alcohol and not WiFi?

United/Contintental is giving out extra award miles.

When you fly 4 round trips you get 5,000 miles, or 6 round trips you get 15,000 miles.  There’s also an extra 5,000 bonus miles for any international round trip.

Unfortunately, you have to do this all within the next two months.

Sign up  here.

If you have not merged your United MileagePlus account with your Continental OnePass account, you should do it soon. It’s important that the first and last name and your addresses on your of your MilagePlus and OnePass accounts are identical – mine weren’t, so I called Continental OnePass to change my name to match my United Mileage Plus account.

The Continental OnePass agent suggested I should change my United information instead. Her rationale is that the combined airline will be using Continental’s OnePass system after the two frequent flyer programs have merged. The OnePass agent also told me our United number will be going away as the new system will be using the Continental OnePass number.

I also asked how lifetime miles will work in the new program – the agent didn’t have an answer for me because of how United and Continental currently counts lifetime miles. United only gives its members credit for lifetime Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) when it is a United coshare, while Continental counts all partner miles toward your lifetime miles.

In hindsight, I should have banked all my Star Alliance miles with Continental instead of United.If you’ve not merged your accounts, I suggest you do it now (here’s the link)!