Monday morning the merger between American Airlines and US Airways is expected to close. This much may be obvious to some, but no to others, and this site attracts many any readers of all backgrounds and experience so it seemed worthy of a mention. While the news will report that American Airlines and US Airways have merged, for all intents and purposes that changes absolutely nothing in terms of immediate travel, and travel through the holidays. American and US Airways continue to operate as separate airlines and there’s not even any relationship between the two yet for the flying public. For the next month you will not even be able to earn American miles when flying US Airways (or vice versa). So if you have reservations to fly US Airways, continue to check in with…
What are the World’s Best Airport Lounges?
Scott McCartney‘s latest Wall Street Journal column makes some interesting claims about lounges. Why Are US Airline Lounges So Far Below World Standard? He explains that US airport lounges are below the standards of Europe and especially Asia because they’re populated by low fare domestic passengers rather than high fare premium cabin long haul ones. In other words, the economics are different. (Though I’m not sure why United’s and American’s international first class lounges, then, would be below the standards of their Asian counterparts.) That said, US lounges aren’t below the standard of many European business lounges, and certainly not below the standard for South America, or for that matter India or Parkistan. But in some sense that’s what George W. Bush used to call “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” I’ve spent many hours…
The Real Lesson for Dealing With Weather and Flight Disruptions
Yesterday I shared my experiences flying through significant weather events and some lessons for dealing with them. But I left out one of the most important lessons: avoid them in the first place. When you can possibly pull the plug on the trip before you begin, you probably should throw that option into the mix. Wandering Aramean tweeted at me, I still don’t believe you chose to fly in to an ice storm in Dallas. Seems like a bad decision all around. My response was that I chose to fly the day that US Airways and America West merged their reservation systems, too! In other words while I think I have pretty good strategies and approaches for dealing with problems as they arise, I’m probably too willing to push forward into the middle of situations…
January-March: Up to 7500 Miles Per JFK-LAX Flight Segment on American
Between January 7 and March 31 American is offering bonus miles to promote their new premium domestic product that will eventually serve New York JFK to both Los Angeles and San Francisco. The first new plane begins on the JFK – Los Angeles route on January 7. So this bonus promotes the JFK-Los Angeles flights. (JFK-San Francisco begins to get the new plane in March.) American’s new international business class aboard the 777-300ER is outstanding. We’ll begin to see the new seat on the 777-200 and 767-300s during the first half of 2014. American’s also got a new pimped out A319 but unfortunately it has just half the first class seat of the aircraft its meant to replace — a very tough upgrade. I am very very interested in these new A321s that will be…
New AAdvantage Shopping Promotion 3000 Bonus Miles
Between December 8 and December 22, the amount you spend with merchants through the AAdvantage shopping portal will earn tiered bonuses. One AAdvantage holiday shopping promotion ends, another one opens up and this time with up to 3000 bonus miles instead of 2500. Registration isn’t required. Making exactly $250 in purchases earns the full bonus and amounts to an extra 12 miles per dollar on top of usual earnings. Though fewer total miles, the lower spend thresholds amount to 13.33 miles per dollar. Terms: From 12/08/13 through 12/22/13 11:59 PM EST receive a one-time additional bonus of up to 3,000 miles when you spend a cumulative amount of $250 or more with the AAdvantage eShoppingsm mall. Spend a cumulative amount of $75-149.99 to earn 1,000 miles; spend a cumulative amount of $150 – $249.99 to…
Lessons From the Road: How to Deal with Weather Delays and Cancellations the Best You Can
I’m not sure how interesting this story is, but a couple of folks asked me to share it on Twitter. I think the idea is that sharing how I think about dealing with travel as it happens (and as it goes wrong) could be interesting and useful. There’s rarely going to be a ‘right way’ to approach irregular operations. Bad weather especially, lots of things going wrong, you’re playing percentages and also playing hunches based – hopefully – on years of experience in travel. Yesterday was a bad weather day for an American Airlines flyer, especially one transiting Dallas but really across much of the system because delays and cancellations in a major hub cascade across the whole system. A flight cancelled out of Dallas doesn’t make its next city, and can effect wherever the…
Last Day to Buy US Airways Miles for Just 1.1 Cents Apiece
US Airways brought back their “up to a 100% bonus on shared miles” (miles transferred between accounts) for just this week. So if you want to take advantage of it, today’s your last opportunity until and unless the bonus returns. And since it’s been a US Airways practice but not an American AAdvantage practice, the merger with American makes future such bonuses somewhat uncertain. You can earn up to 50,000 bonus miles with the offer, which should appear instantly with the transfer. The cost for this is “$0.01 per mile plus a processing fee of $30 and a tax recovery charge of 7.5%” — transferring 50,000 miles from one account to another will deposit 100,000 in that account at a cost of $567.50. Since that’s a net increase of 50,000 miles you’re buying miles at…
Supreme Court Justice Conflicts of Interest in their Current Airline Miles Case
This week the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of the Rabbi who complained too much and Northwest Airlines (now owned by Delta) shut down his frequent flyer account as a result. The Rabbi sued, and one of the crucial questions in whether his suit is permissable is whether a state court’s view of contracts as having to be made fairly and in good faith is an acceptable overlay in light of the Airline Deregulation Act’s prohibition on states regulating an airlines prices, routes, and schedules. I’ve covered the major arguments in this space already. And having taken an eye to the knowledge (and in some cases lack of knowledge) that the Justices appear to posses regarding frequent flyer miles based on the questions they asked on Tuesday, I thought it worth noting…
Give Elite Status and Miles for the Holidays!
The current round of Milepoint Premium offering is: 1000 United miles Hilton Gold status National Car Rental Executive status .. and several other benefits such as with ParkingSpot, Hyatt gift cards, and beyond. Last year’s offering was popular enough that we managed to secure substantially more packages this time around, hence it’s still available — though as of yesterday Milepoint Premium was 96% sold out. It’s now possible to gift Milepoint premium membership. With only a small number of packages left there will be limited opportunities to do this for the 2013 holidays, if elite status for Christmas or other similarly-timed holdiays appeals. But I love the functionality as we go into future releases of Milepoint Premium. It means I can take advantage of a Premium offer more than once, by leveraging it with friends,…
Highlights from Supreme Court Oral Argument: What the Justices Do — And Do Not — Know About Miles and Points
Tuesday night I read the Supreme Court transcripts so you don’t have to — there were some priceless frequent flyer moments during the Court’s oral argument in the case of the Rabbi who complained too much and Ngorthwest Airlines closed his frequent flyer account… Justice Ginsburg didn’t seem to think that an airline unilaterally cancelling an account and refusing to honor accrued obligations was reasonable. JUSTICE GINSBURG: Mr. Clement, the argument was made that if — if the airline has an unreviewable right to terminate this agreement for any reason or for no reason, if that is so, then it’s an illusory contract. What — what is your answer to that, if one 16 party can get out willy-nilly, why — what kind of 17 bargain is it? Delta’s lawyer suggests that people pay for…
