I love many things about American Airlines. First and foremost is the AAdvantage program, and especially that I’m well taken care of as an Executive Platinum member (100,000 mile flyer). Their lounge agents have been exceptionally good to me during irregular operations. I even like their revenue management, which doesn’t release all first class seats into upgrade a day before departure. When a flight irregularity happens, and I get put onto another flight, it’s even still possible to get an upgrade (and more frequently happens than not). If there were two things I would change about the operation, I would actually bundle them together and call them American’s Goldilocks Problem: they start boarding too early, before scheduled time, and they notify passengers of delays.. in creeping fashion.. usually only after a boarding or departure time…
Continue reading American Airlines’ Goldilocks Problem: Boards too Early, Updates Delays Too Late. They Need to Be Just…...
Hello from Dallas!
I'm in Dallas for Frequent Traveler University this weekend, after spending the week recovering from my trip to the Maldives. You'd figure a trip from the Maldives wouldn't require recovering, but it's not an easy place to get to, and I did catch a cold while there.
Nonetheless it has been an exciting week for our hobby, so not a bad week for me to be typing on bed rest. ;)
The post Weekly Review: April 18, 2015 appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
I'm at Frequent Traveler University by the Dallas airport (at the Hyatt Regency DFW).
And since I'm living in Austin now I decided, why not just commute?
Flights go for as little as $64 each way as long as you're buying them in advance when flights aren't full and it isn't an event week(end). That meant I could fly from Austin to Dallas and back for less than the cost of a hotel night at the group rate...
Continue reading My Hairbrained Scheme to ‘Commute’ Between Austin and Dallas, and the Two Key Lessons it Taught Me...
It looks like Turkish Airlines' CEO has a possible solution to pilot suicide, in the aftermath of Germanwings first offices Andreas Lubitz downing an A320 in the French Alps. Via CBS News:
"Turkish Airlines' CEO has one possible solution to avoid another case like last month's Germanwings crash: have pilots get married.
At an event Thursday, Temel Kotil told new Turkish Airlines pilots that the incident showed how critical their roles are."
The post Is Marriage The Solution To Pilot Suicide? appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Find out what the latest Southwest devaluation means for your points.
Continue reading Has Southwest Figured Out the Perfect Way to Stick it to their Members?...
While Ben, and many of his readers, are preparing for (in some cases, multiple) trips to Beijing from Washington in American Airlines business class thanks to that now-famous mistake fare, I suspect I'm not the only one among you who purchased tickets from LAX (or other West Coast gateways) to Madrid as a result of the great SkyTeam Fare War Sale of 2014.
I'd never been to Madrid before, so I was excited to spend a few days in a city known for its food, culture and history. I was traveling with a friend of mine, and when we initially looked into our hotel options, we noticed that some of the best options out there lacked rooms with two beds, and those hotels that did have twin beds (and I mean twin beds -- rooms with two queen beds in Europe are rarer than, say, taste and understatement are in Dubai) were disproportionately expensive.
The post Apartments Vs. Hotels in Madrid (And Elsewhere) appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
An air marshall left a loaded gun in a Newark airport bathroom. We already know that air marshalls schedule their work assignments to facilitate vacations and sexual trysts, and are insufficiently trained to do much even if something did happen on their watch. But this isn’t good. A federal air marshal left his loaded gun in a bathroom stall at Newark Liberty International Airport, then boarded a flight he was assigned to protect without it, NJ Advance Media has learned. The incident occurred late last month, when the marshal left the handgun on top of a toilet paper dispenser in the public men’s room near Checkpoint 2 in Terminal C (HT: Brian Sumer)
Continue reading Federal Air Marshall With Ties to the Corleone Family Leaves Loaded Gun in Airport Bathroom...
Singapore Airlines Suites Class is one of the most aspirational first class products out there. It remains one of only two airlines with double bed in first class (the other is China Eastern on their new 777s).
For the past several years it has been possible to redeem Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for travel in Suites Class, which is one of my favorite uses of points out there. However, there's no denying that over time Suites Class award availability has become considerably worse.
In particular, for the past six months or so there has been virtually no Suites Class award availability in advance. Within a month or so of departure we've seen some space, but outside of that we haven't seen much space at all. The good news is that Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer lets you waitlist awards, and they do clear with some regularity.
The post Update On Singapore Suites Class Award Availability Out Of The US appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Last Thursday I wrote about the amazing first class mistake fare which British Airways published between Dubai and Austin.
British Airways basically left off a zero (or placed the decimal one digit off, depending on how you look at it), and published their one-way first class fare between Dubai and Austin as ~$857 rather than $8,577. The fare was bookable on quite a few carriers, including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, etc.
I booked one of these fares on a pretty cool routing, which I'm excited about.
Once the fare was pulled, the first question many people had was whether or not it would be honored. Obviously people are keen to find out, since it's only natural to want to book positioning flights and hotels for Dubai.
The post I’m Now Assuming The Dubai First Class Mistake Fare Will Be Honored appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
IHG Rewards Club is about to launch their next promotion and it's more lucrative than things first appeared. It sounded complicated with earning and gifting but truth is you can gift to yourself and double your earnings. This is how it will work.
Continue reading Here’s How the New IHG Share Promo Will Work...
On Thursday I wrote about the amazing business class fares published on oneworld between New York and Paris, which seem to be matching the fares published by all business class airline La Compagnie.
It was a ~$1,700 fare valid for travel on American, British Airways, or OpenSkies, and if you were traveling in pairs the fare was just ~$1,500 per person. The sale could be stacked with a $400 AARP discount and 10% off coupon from the British Airways Visa Card.
The fare was pulled later that evening, though appears to be back once again. While the two person discount is no longer available, the ~$1,700 business class fare between New York and Paris is still available, and it can be lowered to under $1,200 with the AARP and British Airways Visa discounts.
The post Sub-$1,200 Business Class Tickets Between New York and Paris Still Available! appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Citibank and Visa have stolen the Costco relationship away American Express, which has been the exclusive card product at the wholesaler's stores in the US for 16 years. Details of the deal have finally come out, and we can see just how badly Citi let itself get creamed to do so.
Continue reading How Much Citibank and Visa Actually Overpaid to Win the Costco Business Away from Amex...