The Flying Critic

Daily Travel Photo: Outside Radio City Music Hall at Night

Daily Travel Photo: View of the Arno River, Florence, Itlay, from the Westin Excelsior Florence

Here is the view of the Arno River and Florence from the balcony of room 402 at the Westin Excelsior Florence.

Travel Advisory & Tip: American Airlines raises fee for same-day confirmed change to $35 - but it's still a good deal

American Airlines just changed their fee for doing confirmed same-day travel changes to $35 for domestic flights.  It used to be $25.  (Thanks Lucky for the tip)

You can still do regular standby for free at the airport for earlier or later flights.  But with loads what they are most people who want to switch flights on the day of travel will be better off paying the $35 and getting confirmed. 

To do a same-day travel change with American Airlines just call 1-800-433-7300 (or your elite phone #), use a self-service check check-in machine or ask an airport agent.

American Airlines is generous with their same-day travel change because you can confirm on available flights within 12 hours of calling and making the request.  United only lets you request a change to flights within 4 hours of calling and charges $50. 

So if you plans change on the day of travel remember that you may be able to get confirmed on a new flight for $35 on American instead of dealing with the uncertainty of the standby game.

Travel Tip: Close to the next elite status level? Consider a mileage run.

Double miles.  First class upgrades.  Standby priority.  Better call centers.  Lounge access.  There are many benefits to airline frequent flyer elite status.

The number of miles you need to fly to get elite status varies by airline but often 25,000 miles gets you the lowest level of status.  The more you fly the higher your status level and the better your benefits can become.

Why you want to get to the next level of frequent flyer status: more miles and more perks

The difference in perks between different levels can be staggering.  For example, on American and United if you fly 45,000 miles per year you get the same mileage bonus rate (25%) that you get if you fly 25,000 miles per year.  So with the 25% bonus and flying 45,000 miles yearly you will earn 56,250 miles per year.  But if you can get up to 50,000 miles per year your bonus goes to 100%.  So flying 50,000 miles per year would change the number of miles you earn from 56,250 per year to 100,000 miles.  By finding a way to fly 5,000 more miles you earn an extra 43,750 miles. (my calculations assume no other bonuses, etc.)

As another example, if on United you fly 95,000 miles you get the same benefits as if you fly 50,000 miles.  But if you can fly 5,000 more miles and get to 100,000 miles you will get 6 international one-way upgrades per year, up to 8 other regional confirmed upgrades per year and lots of fees waived. 

How to get to the next level of frequent flyer status: a mileage run

If it looks like you level of flying will get you close to status or the next level of status it might make sense for you to do a mileage run to get you to the next level of benefits.

A mileage run is an airline trip for the purpose of earning miles.  You don't even have to leave the airport if you don't want to.  The trick is to maximize the number of miles you earn for the lowest cost. 

Lucky, from the One Mile at a Time blog, is one of the world's most prolific mileage runners.  He just wrote a detailed post about how to find and book a mileage run.  If you are thinking about a mileage run you should check out his post.

Daily Travel Photo: Flying over another plane between Zurich and Berlin

When flying from Zurich to Berlin on a Swiss flight the captain advised us to look out the left window to see a plane we were flying over. 

Daily Travel Photo: Bridge over the Tiber (Tevere) River in Rome

United Airlines announces Dubai (DXB) and Moscow (DME) service from Washington-Dulles (IAD)

United just announced new service from Washington-Dulles (IAD) to Dubai (DXB) and Moscow (DME).  The service is set to start on October 26, 2008.  They plan to use 767s for Moscow and 777s for Dubai.

The proposed schedules are (times will change with daylight savings):

United 976 IAD-DXB 10:02pm - 6:50pm+1

United 977 DXB-IAD 11:30pm - 6:44am+1

United 964 IAD-DME 4:45pm - 9:30am+1

United 965 DME-IAD 11:20am - 3:35pm

Government approvals are required before they can start the services but I don't expect any problems. 

For those looking to use miles on the new routes United considers Moscow part of Europe and Dubai part of the Middle East.  So saver awards will be 50k coach / 80k business / 120k first for Moscow and 75k coach / 115k business / 140k first for Dubai (standard awards without capacity restrictions are 100/180/220 and 120/200/240 respectively).

Daily Travel Photo: Standing in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza

I didn't take this picture.  But I'm in it.  That's me standing in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Yes, you can use American Airlines (AA) miles for awards on partner airlines

A reader e-mailed a question about using AA miles:

I don't have miles with anyone because I never fly with one specific airline. However, if i have AA miles, can I use them with their codeshare partners?

Yes, American Airlines - along with most airlines - allows you to use your miles to book flights on partner airlines.  You can even book award tickets using your miles that combine several different partner airlines on one ticket. 

American Airline Partners

American Airlines is in the oneWorld alliance.  So that gives you access to booking flights with your AA miles on the oneWorld airlines: American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, JAL, LAN, Malev, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, and Dragon Air.

American Airlines also partners with: Air Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui, Alaska Airlines, Brussels Airlines, El Al, Gulf Air, Hawaiian and Mexicana.

(please note that these partners are of course subject to change and I didn't include some that are current partners that will no longer be in the near future like Aer Lingus)

Types of American Airlines Partner Awards

American Airlines offers two types of partner awards.  The first is the partner award that allows you to combine travel on any combination of American's partners - both oneWorld and their non-alliance partners.  The amount of miles for different routes can be found on AA's all partner award chart.

The other partner option AA offers is their oneWorld award.  These awards are for travel on any number of oneWorld carriers and the amount of miles you need depends on the number of miles in your itinerary (kind of like how some round the world tickets work).  You can find out more details at AA's oneWorld award page.

Three tips on earning and burning miles with partners

1) You can credit all of your flights on all the airlines in an alliance to one frequent flyer program.  So by concentrating your flying within one alliance and crediting them to one program you can maximize the number of miles in one account and get closer to a big award.  It's also possible that you can earn elite status this way, which brings additional benefits including lucrative mileage bonuses.

For example, if you credit 50,000 qualifying miles to American Airlines in a year then all the rest of the flights that year and all of the flights the next year will earn you double miles (so flying 50,000 miles the next year would earn you 100,000 miles - enough to redeem a roundtrip business class ticket from the USA to Asia).

2) Use your miles for international premium cabin travel.  The return on value of your miles is better with international premium cabin awards.

3) While sticking with one alliance is best for most people you should keep one frequent flyer account per alliance so that if you find yourself on a flight with an airline outside your primary alliance you will have a place to put the miles from the flight.  Don't let miles go to waste.

American Airlines to stop serving Oakland International Airport September 3, 2008

According to the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal, American Airlines is pulling out of Oakland International Airport:

American Airlines is canceling its services in and out of Oakland International Airport effective Sept. 3 due to high fuel prices, according to a spokesman for the airline.

American Airlines has already removed their three daily services to/from Oakland (OAK) to Dallas Ft. Worth (DFW) from their schedules starting September 3, 2008.  If you are looking for non-stop service from the bay area to Dallas starting on September 3 you will have to go to San Francisco (SFO) or San Jose (SJC).

You can expect more of these sorts of cuts as airlines move to reduce capacity.  Of course they are reducing capacity so that they can raise fares.  So if you can commit to your travel plans now you should be booking.