We’ve finally received email confirmation: American Airlines is going to honor the “Fast Track Your Way To Elite Status” promotion, much to the delight of people who registered in time and to the chagrin of many current AA elites. I received the following email today, confirming my eligibility for the promotion as I don’t currently…
One of the Ultimate Rewards transfer partners that never gets much attention is Amtrak. Perhaps understandably so, since most people don’t think of train travel as particularly aspirational, and trains aren’t planes or hotels, but I think that Amtrak should merit a closer look. When I was younger, I took Amtrak with my mom from…
Assuming we’re not talking about fixed-value points currencies like those of Virgin America or Southwest, the marginal value or incremental value of a point can vary wildly. This is due to the fact that most loyalty programs have redemption levels, and if your points haven’t reached a given redemption level, they’re not really worth that…
Last week, there was a very brief period of time when you could sign up for an apparently untargeted promotion that offered American Airlines Gold status after flying 6,000 miles, Platinum status after flying 12,000 miles, and Executive Platinum status after flying 30,000 miles between September 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013, as long as…
Traveling would probably be better for most people if all airports offered free wifi, but they don’t. For those that don’t, or those that have time restrictions on their free wifi, what’s a traveler to do? An unhelpful answer is to get lounge access, since I can’t think of a lounge that doesn’t offer free…
American Airlines 179 New York (JFK) to San Francisco (SFO) Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013 Depart: 10:30am Arrive: 1:45pm Duration: 6h 15m Aircraft: Boeing 767-200 Seat: 3D American currently has their first class cabin on the flagship transcontinental routes (such as LAX-JFK or SFO-JFK) arranged in a 2-1-2 fashion. This means that the best seats for…
Since I was already in the American Airlines Admirals Club anyway while visiting the Flagship Lounge (the Flagship Lounge is located within the Admirals Club) at Terminal 8 in JFK, I decided to take a tour of the Admirals Club to see what the differences were between the two. The physical amenities were largely the same:…
Another perk of flying first class on an American Airlines three-class transcontinental flight besides Flagship Check-In is access to the Flagship Lounge. The Flagship Lounge at JFK is located within one of the Admirals Clubs, so when you enter, you need to get specifically let in to the Flagship Lounge. The first thing I did…
A little while ago, I used American miles to book a first class flight from SFO to BKK. Since I live at the international gateway city (in this case, SFO), it’s easy for me to add a free domestic one-way prior to the flight, so I took advantage to have my actual itinerary be JFK…
Since I don’t have Star Alliance Gold status (gasp), my only “free” option for lounge access was through Priority Pass Select. But the Priority Pass-eligible lounge at the Munich airport is in Terminal 1, and I was transiting through Terminal 2 since I was flying Lufthansa. I had read that it was possible to walk…
