China Airlines has just taken delivery of its 777-300ERs. The new plane looks beautiful with a top-of-the-line flat bed business class, a quality premium economy, and economy that offers the chance to combine three seats into one family "couch."

Note that China Airlines is based in Taiwan and is a member of SkyTeam. Don't confuse it with Air China, based in Beijing, and a member of Star Alliance.

The new 777-300ERs will be flying between the United States and Taipei starting in December 2014.

Update 11/1/14: I got the 7,500 miles.

Saturday I went to a Cadillac dealership in La Quinta, California to test drive a Cadillac to earn 7,500 American Airlines miles.

Unfortunately the deal is now dead as View from the Wing reported (and no, I don't have any idea whether your scheduled or completed test drive will earn the miles.)

I'll post my experience anyway because these test drive promos in which you can earn something like miles or a prepaid gift card are common enough.

What was the process?
How long did it take?
Did I have to

Generous reader Bill is donating two United Club passes that expire 11/30/14, about a month from now, to one lucky winner. If you are can use the passes between the 5th and 30th of next month (to account for the delay in sending them), there are two ways to win: a comment or a retweet.

United has lounges all over the world. The clubs are a pleasant place to relax in a comfortable chair, use free wifi, and enjoy free snack and drinks. Here are the amenities.

How this only has 3,000 views is beyond me!

A drone was allowed by Mexico City airport authorities and airline pilots to fly over the airport and film taxis, take offs, and landings from a perspective I've never seen before.

US Airways and American Airlines legally merged in December 2013, but the two airlines maintain separate frequent flyer programs

Qantas is refurbishing its A330s with "fully flat beds in business class." Right now the A330s serve the following routes.

Sydney-Melbourne
Sydney-Brisbane
Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane to Perth
Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane to Singapore
Melbourne/Brisbane to Hong Kong
Sydney-Bangkok
Sydney-Jakarta
Sydney-Manila
Sydney-Honolulu
Sydney-Shanghai

I have medium hopes for the new beds, which will roll out starting in December 2014. The reason I am not more excited is that the picture accompanying the press release looks to me like an angled lie flat beds, not fully flat beds.

This jives with my experience in business class on the Qantas A380.

Update 10/23/14: Commenter Jeremy finds the award space now on aeroplan.com, and I can confirm that the space on these Ethiopian flights is now bookable and is still excellent! (None of the rest of the post has been updated to reflect this information.)

Ethiopian Airlines will begin flying Los Angeles to Dublin to Addis Ababa in June 2015 with a 787 Dreamliner.

I met the author of Don't Call the Airline (great blog name, right?), a Canadian frequent flyer miles blog, at the Chicago Seminars.

He came up to me and told me about how he had earned 20,000+ Virgin Australia Velocity miles and status by flying a Delta AWARD ticket.

What did DCTA do to "earn" the miles?
Is the process repeatable?

Trick
After booking his roundtrip in Virgin Australia Business Class with Delta miles, DCTA added his Virgin Australia Velocity number to the award ticket.

Virgin Australia mistakenly credited him for a full Business Class paid ticket, some 22

The Chicago Seminars start today, just outside O'Hare. I got in yesterday morning, and I've been putting the final touches on my two presentations.

If you're around, please say hello!

As a quick PSA: first timers sometimes think these events are a bit clique-y. Those "cliques" you think you see, though, are mainly made up of people who met at this very event or at a previous one, and they are very welcoming. Just say hello.

You can get 7,500 American Airlines miles for test driving any new Cadillac, and you might not even have to do the 10 minute test drive.

From the promo page:
Right now, AAdvantage® members can earn 7,500 AAdvantage miles when you test drive any Cadillac* vehicle, including the striking 2015 CTS sedan with available adaptive cruise control and available OnStar 4G LTE with Wi-Fi®**.