Monday marks the day of my first originating roundtrip at my new home airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (ATL). I guess I’ll really get to see what flying as a Gold Medallion is like here at the Delta Master Base. I did take a one-way flight to RDU last Friday….low and behold, my upgrade cleared, but my flight had an issue that I posted about here. I’m off to Philadelphia for a 2-night business trip. I specifically booked 757s just to enhance my upgrade chances. We’ll see if that pays off. Speaking of Delta, my buddy DeltaPoints has something to say about Delta’s new “UP” commercial. Check it out, and you can even enter to win a gift card.

In a simply shocking turn of events, United Airlines has decided to return “Expert” mode to its website. You may be aware that a few days ago, United announced that it was deleting to popular feature, which shows specific availability by fare class on united.com, basically because customers were confused. This, of course, lit up a little storm in the frequent flier community because folks like us are not confused and highly value the transparency the feature offered. Many used it to judge which flights to take as savvy travelers could see whether or not they had a shot at an upgrade. Kudos to United for doing something customer friendly. You will need to “opt in” to view expert mode, which is the way it was on the old united.com.

And in some non travel news, I’m happy to announce that the MJonTravel team has finally rejoined the world with functional internet, telephone and TV here in our new Atlanta location. MJonTravel funds a Mi-Fi device for his blogging needs so I haven’t been totally off the grid, but I have to say that it sure is nice to be able to kick back on the couch, surf the web, and watch a little TV at the same time. đŸ™‚ Slowly but surely, things are returning to normal here at MJonTravel, and it feels nice to be getting back into the groove.