Last Spring at SXSW, Phillip Easter, the Director of Mobile Apps at American, was on hand to give a preview of some of the software projects that American was working on and one of them was a native iPad app that included a trivia game that allowed passengers to play against each other (similar to a pub-quiz or live trivia).

It went live today, and to promote the launch American is offering players a chance to enter a weekly drawing for 100,000 AAdvantage Miles!

Prove You Know It All!

Show off your knowledge! Play Know It All, the exclusive new trivia game on American app for iPad. Play against people on your flight, other flights or on the ground!

Sign up now for your chance to win a weekly prize of 100,000 AAdvantage miles. Earn the top score each week on the Facebook leaderboard for an extra entry in the weekly drawing.

Here’s a look at the promo video:

There are several ways to enter:

To enter this Sweepstakes you must “Like” the American Airlines page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/americanairlines between 6:01 a.m. Central Time (“CT”) on November 19, 2012 and 4:59:59 p.m. CT on December 31, 2012

One (1) additional entry can be obtained through a) highest score for the week on the American Airlines “Know it All” iPad game or b) by sending an email to ipadpromo@aa.com

To learn more visit American’s Facebook page. Good luck!

BTW, there’s a new iPhone app too. It and the iPad app both look great!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know that I’m a bit of a oneworld loyalist, but even I think the StarMegaDO 4 sounds like fun!

Doesn’t this sound exciting?

• Flying around the country in an United 767-400 that’s been chartered just of this event.

• Hanging out with a bunch of fun aviation geeks and miles and points enthusiasts.

• Getting a rare look behind the scenes look at airline operations at United’s headquarters.

• Mixing it up with airline, hotel, and loyalty program executives at receptions and dinner.

StarMegaDO 4 is completely sold out. Unfortunately, I don’t have a ticket so won’t be there, but you don’t have to miss out:

Randy Petersen has asked the bloggers of BoardingArea.com to help him find two seat mates on the upcoming Star MegaDO4, flying on November 14/15, 2012 from San Francisco to Houston and on to Chicago.

The prize consists of one economy ticket on the 2012 StarMegaDo4, hotel accommodations at partner hotels, and $250 cash for personal expenses. The winners are responsible for the their transportation to and from the MegaDO.

Hanging out with Randy is a lot more fun than earning AAdvantage Miles!

To enter

Here’s a list of my five most read blog posts:

How’s this for a Double AAdvantage Miles promo code: SUX2X

Al Roker and Alex Van Halen: Two celebrities and one American Airlines first class seat.

Citibank discontinuing AAdvantage checking debit card

Weekly World News reports Tyler Perry has purchased American Airlines

Upgraded: Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage card – Free Checked Bag, Priority Boarding, Mileage Bonus

Here’s how to enter:

• Guess which post was the most popular and post your answer in the comments section below.

• Post your answer by 11:59:59 pm MT October 7, 2012.

• One entry per person per blog.

• Provide a valid email address (it won’t be published)

Several other BoardingArea bloggers are participating in the contest, so you can earn multiple entries by visiting each of their blogs.

You don’t have to submit the correct answer to my question to get picked, I’ll pick a winner using Random.org and forward the name to Randy.

Randy will randomly select two people from the all the names forwarded to him by all of the BoardingArea bloggers:

Two (2) winners will be chosen in a random drawing on Monday, October 8, 2012 from all eligible entries received during the Giveaway Period, as posted in the comments section of participating BoardingArea.com partnering blogs.

The random drawing will be conducted by Randy Petersen, whose decision is final and binding in all respects. The winner will be notified via email within two (2) days after the selection is made.

Each winner will have five (5) business days to reply confirming his/her acceptance of the giveaway seat. Failure to reply in the indicated time frame will declare that the seat has been refused and forfeited for all time and the first alternative entry will be chosen in random drawings as outlined above and provided the opportunity to claim the seat giveaway..

Here’s a link to the complete rules.

Bonus Prize

If I pick your name in the random drawing and you guessed the correct answer, I’ll send you one of the new American Airlines amenity kits!  You’ll be able to stay oneworld fresh around all the Star Alliance Geeks!

Good luck!!

Last Friday I offered a reader giveaway with a winner being selected in a random drawing on Monday morning. Well, it’s already Monday morning (wow, the weekend went by quickly) and the results are in:

Congratulations go to The Traveler!!  You’re the lucky winner of an AAdvantage logo pencil cup and a 10% AA discount code.

Thanks to a reader for sharing an extra discount code (thanks WIS!) and the AAdvantage folks for providing the pencil cup!  And thanks to everyone that participated!

Speaking of giveaways, Monday’s Frugal Travel Guy Deal of the Day is sponsored by AAdvantage. So go here to share you favorite American Airlines related advice for a chance to win 2,5000 AAdvantage Miles!

Last Friday, The Weekly Flyer had a great post reminding readers about the American Airlines Business ExtrAA “Flights. Camera. Action.” video contest.  The promotion offers small businesses a chance to win free travel:

Upload a short video to American Airlines telling them how the connections you make through travel help your business soar – and you might win up to 80 round-trip tickets for your company and exposure to thousands of potential customers.

The first round is about to end, and soon 27 videos will be selected to advance to the next round and viewers will get a chance to vote and help select nine finalists.

The deadline to enter is coming up on August 10.

Last year, there were several interesting submissions: some from mobile app developers, a company that specializes in gondola tours, film production companies, non-profits, even a company that sells a kit so that you can grow your own mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds.

One video that you didn’t see last year was this submission from a nudist resort in Palm Springs, California.  I came across it while I was looking for some vacation ideas material for the blog.

(Faced with the choice between covering the 1,500  bonus AAdvantage Miles offer from FTD or nudity, I asked myself “what would  a cable news executive do”….)

Actually, there’s no nudity in the video, thought not surprisingly it still didn’t make the finals.  The owner of the Terra Cotta Inn writes:

We have always said that nudist resorts need to start acting mainstream to be more accepted in America and this TV commercial is a start.

Well sadly our commercial was not selected. We saw many of the semi finalists and most were not of the quality of ours. So share this with all your nudist friends, facebook friends, etc. Let the world know that nude recreation is very popular and let American Airlines know that they should have approved this entry for their contest instead of being so afraid of nudist resorts.

They also invite anyone that has a good idea for “mainstreaming nude recreation in America” to contact them.  I can think of a couple of things they might try: offer AAdvantage Miles with each stay, or maybe invite Loyalty Travler out for a review!

Here’s you chance for YouTube fame and 100,000 AAdvantage Miles:

Love the Journey. Tell us your Story.

Submit your video for a chance to win 100,000 AAdvantage Miles!

Simply shoot, edit and upload a 30 to 60 second video telling us how being a Citi / AAdvantage cardmember has helped you love the journey. Share a story about how you redeemed American Airlines AAdvantage miles earned from purchases made with your Citi AAdvantage or CitiBusiness AAdvantage credit card for memorable experiences.

Our most passionate cardmember will have a chance to win 100,000 AAdvantage miles and a Samsung Galaxy Tab! It’s one of the many exciting ways we’re celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Citi AAdvantage program.

Also, be sure to view the previously submitted videos in the gallery and vote for your favorites. Five of the ten videos with the most votes will each win 25,000 AAdvantage miles, a Samsung Galaxy Tab and a chance to be featured on the American Airlines Official YouTube channel!

To enter you have to submit your video by 11:59 p.m. ET on July 15, 2012.  Visit Facebook.com/AAdvantage for complete details.

Speaking of winning AAdvantage Miles, don’t forget that it’s Deal of the Day MondAAy over at The Frugal Travel Guy. You can win 2,500 AAdvantage Miles by sharing your favorite AAdvantage tip or American Airlines related deals!

Passengers traveling from Los Angeles to JFK today will get to take part in a high altitude film festival. From a USC Annenberg School of Communications press release:

Universal Pictures partnered with USC Annenberg to develop ideas to celebrate the Studio’s 100th anniversary.

Now, one of the USC students’ ideas is taking off on April 30 with the first-ever inflight film festival to commemorate the Studio’s legacy and 100 years in moviemaking. Universal Pictures is teaming up with American Airlines to welcome customers onboard Flight 1 and Flight 22 with this special in-air transcontinental film festival featuring two of Universal’s beloved films, Field of Dreams and Seabiscuit.

As a toast to Universal’s special day, customers onboard select American Airlines flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will be invited to sit back and enjoy the films. Gift bags will be distributed at the gates of participating flights prior to departure, giving customers a coupon for a free 15-minute inflight internet session, headphones and classic movie candy.

You don’t have to be a passenger on one of the two flights participate:

Fans will have a chance to be one of 10 winners, randomly selected from qualifying tweets. Winners will receive an in-air Universal Centennial Blu-ray prize pack. Anyone can join in for a chance to win by using the hashtag #Universal100 in their tweets from April 30 through May 1.

Go here to read the press release and follow @AmericanAir for more details.

*****************************

Here’s a great way to start your week off: Win AAdvantage Miles and Discount Codes

Win Miles – Today is the last day to vote in American’s AAdvantage Tips Facebook contest for a chance to win 5,000 AAdvantage Miles. You can also vote for your favorite Expert Tip (I’m participating) and help me win some miles to give away on the blog and to donate to AA’s Miles for Kids.

Win More Miles: Don’t forget that Monday is AAdvantage Day at the Frugal Travel Guy. Go share your favorite AAdvantage advice in the comments section for a chance to win 2,500 AAdvantage Miles!

Save Money: High jumping blogger Michael W, over the at Michael W Travels, is sponsoring a drawing today to give away two American Airlines discount codes. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment on his blog. While you’re there, check out his Top 5 Animal Encounters post; it’s a feature in this month’s ScotteVest newsletter (congratulations Michael W!).

Photo: Universal’s logo in the ’40s
Credit: PappyV on Flickr

It’s been a busy week for me, and you may have noticed a decline in number of updates I’ve been able to post.   If there’s been an increase in the general quality of  the internet these last few days, I hope it’s merely coincidental.

Speaking of busy…the folks over at @AmericanAir have been busy too: in the last few days they’ve released a new “Behind the Scenes” video, created the official American Airlines Pinterest page, and launched a new Facebook blogger contest.

Pinterest

I was at a Bar-B-Q last year and the hostess was telling me about about how much fun she was having pinning stuff on Pinterest.   At the time, I had never even heard of it, and while I thought it was a cool idea, I would never have guessed that it  would experience such crazy growth.

You’re probably familiar with it by now, but if you haven’t paid much attention to it, Pinterest is a “content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard. Also includes standard social networking features”.

They’ve grown from about 600,000 monthly visitors in June 2011, to more than 17 million last month, and it’s a big enough audience that American is hoping to inspire travelers and aviation enthusiast with their new pinboard.

It’s only been up for a few days, but they’ve already pinned some interesting images (take a a look at their Retro board).

Anyway, I’ve thought about creating my own AAdvantage Geek Pinterest page, but I’m not sure that I need another distraction.   Go here to take a look at American’s Pinterest page.  

Facebook

Earlier this month, American launched a new Facebook promotion: share your favorite AAdvantage tip for a chance to win 5,000 miles. If you haven’t entered yet, hurry – the deadline to submit your entry is approaching:

Want the scoop on the best ways to maximize your AAdvantage membership? Read these top tips submitted by AAdvantage members like you! Got a tip to share? Submit your tip now through 5/1 and you’ll be entered for a chance to win 5,000 AAdvantage miles. On or around 5/23, we’ll select our 10 favorite tips to win.

There’s even a blogger component to the promotion: five bloggers (including me) were asked to offer their favorite AAdvantage tip.

Here are the details: the blogger with the tip that gets the most votes will win 5,000 AAdvantage Miles for themselves and 5,000 AAdvantage miles to give away in a reader contest of some kind (for the record, if I win I’ll donate my 5,000 miles to AA’s Miles for Kids program).

I’m flattered that I was asked to take part in a promotion with The Frugal Travel Guy, The Weekly Flyer from Points, Miles & Martinis, Mommy Points, and Matt Long at Landlopers, so this is pretty exciting to me.

There are lots of good suggestions on the AAdvantage Facebook pages, so go read them, submit your own AAdvantage tip, and vote for your favorite expert advice (look for the “Expert Tips” tab)!

YouTube

American has just released their second video from their YouTube series: How does de-icing work? Behind the Scenes @AmericanAir

Two thoughts:

1. I like this video series, watching them feels sort of like taking a field trip without having to leave your desk.

2. I want a de-icing truck!

Photo: Daily News
Credit: Seth Anderson on Flickr

Good morning. Travel, and some technical difficulties at Boarding Area, conspired to keep me away from updating for a few days, but I’m back home and back to the blog.

Reader Giveaway Results:

Last Wednesday, I shared the seating dilemma I was facing, when I had to choose between a middle seat on an exit-row, or a non exit-row aisle seat. I asked readers to weigh in with their advice for a chance to enter a random drawing to give away an @AmericanAir USB Card with free Gogo Wifi code.

Congratulations to mangoMan! His comment, “Aisle. Sometimes exit rows suffer from a shorter seat base than regular seats and I find this particularly uncomfortable.” was randomly selected to win the AA USB card and wifi code.

Thanks to everyone for all the comments, I decided to take the aisle seat, something that 41 out of 58 readers said that they would do too. I got really lucky, the middle seat on my aisle stayed empty, so the window seat passenger and I were able enjoy the extra elbow room and extra storage space.

Speaking of advice, there are two ways for you win AAdvantage Miles today for sharing your favorite AAdvantage tip.

It’s MondAAy at The Frugal Travel Guy

The Frugal Travel Guy has lined up sponsors to give away reader prizes with each of his Deal of the Day updates.  American is the sponsor on Mondays and you can earn 2,500 AAdvantage Miles today just by sharing your favorite American Airlines related deal:

For today’s Deal of the Day American Airlines AAdvantage has provided 2500 AAdvantage miles for the best deals, fares, promotions, anything related to American Airlines, their oneworld partners or AAdvantage partners. Add it to the comments section of this post or this afternoon’s Deal of the Day post to be eligible to win.

One of my favorite tips is to redeem mileage awards to Europe in March or April.  Availability is is good and you can save miles by redeeming them at reduced MileSAAver Off-Peak levels. Besides, Spring in Europe beautiful and the museums aren’t as crowded.  Go here to share your tip. 

Check out the AAdvantage Facebook page

You can also win some miles by sharing a tip on the AAdvantage Facebook page (hat tip to Michael W Travels):

Do you think you’re an AAdvantage miles expert? Do you research which retailer will earn you the most miles? Are friends and family in awe of the trip to Europe you took with your miles? Share your knowledge! Introducing the new Tips Tab, where you can share your AAdvantage program advice—from earning and redeeming miles to program benefits and reaching elite status.

Share your favorite AAdvantage program tip today and enter for the chance to win 5,000 AAdvantage miles!

Go here to get started.

I used to work with this guy that grew up in Louisiana and despite the fact that we kept all these gourmet coffees in the office kitchen, he’d bring in bags of Community Coffee.

At some point I got around to asking him why, and he told me that if you’re not using Community Coffee, then you’re just making brown water.  You can take the man out of Louisiana…

Anyway, Commumity Coffee and American Airlines have teamed up to offer the “Navigate NOLO” sweepstakes on Facebook:

Want to win a trip to New Orleans? Test your knowledge of The Big Easy and enter to win!

The winner receive 2 American Airlines travel certificates good for travel anywhere in the lower 48 states and a $3,500 gift card for travel expenses.

One (1) Grand Prize (the “Prize”) will be awarded consisting of: (A) Two (2), Roundtrip Coach Class Travel Authorization Certificates on American Airlines from any city served by American Airlines or its Airline Associates in the 48 contiguous United States, to the destination of the winner’s choice in any of the 48 contiguous United States, the Bahamas, Canada, the Caribbean or Mexico (Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”), $750.00 for each Travel Certificate),

A gift card with a value of $3,500.00 for expenses that the winner may incur with use of the Travel
Certificates.

Ten enter, all you have to do is go to the Community Coffee Facebook page, like their “Navigate NOLA” app, then answer these four questions (scroll below to see the answers):

Question 1
What national historic park in new orleans has the oldest collection of oak trees in the country?

Question 2
What music festival has taken place in new orleans every spring since 1970?

Question 3
Which of the following universities is not located in New Orleans

Question 4
True or False: The Mercedes-Benz Superdome is the world’s largest fixed domed structure?

It’s one entry per person and the deadline to enter is 11:59:59 p.m. CT on March 31, 2012.  You can find the complete rules here (warning, it opens as a PDF in your browser).

Go here to enter.

Good luck!

Scroll down for the answers:

Answer 1: City Park
Answer 2: Jazz Fest
Answer 3: Louisiana State University
Answer 4: True

American Airlines and LAN are moving in together at JFK”s Terminal 8:

American Airlines and Latin America-based LAN Airlines today announced an expanded relationship in which LAN Airlines affiliates, including LAN Chile, LAN Peru, and LAN Ecuador, will co-locate in Terminal 8 with American at New York’s JFK Airport. LAN’s move into Terminal 8 marks the fourth oneworld alliance carrier, besides American, to operate from the terminal, significantly improving convenience for customers by housing the airlines in the same facility.

Some other LAN news

LAN and Global Traveler Magazine have teamed up to sponsor a sweepstakes:

South America: Get There In Style with LAN Airlines

Enter to win two round-trip business-class tickets on LAN Airlines from one of LAN’s four U.S. gateways (New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco) to a South American destination of your choice.

To enter, all you have to do is the following:

In 200 words or less tell about your best travel experience to South America or the South American dream vacation you plan to take in the future.

The deadline to submit you entry is 11:59p.m. EST on March 15th 2012.   Go here to enter and for complete details.

This sweepstakes started almost two weeks ago and I didn’t notice it until yesterday, so hurry if you want to enter:  the deadline is 11:59 p.m. CT on January 31, 2012:

Hey Ski Fans! American Airlines and Telluride is giving you a chance to win a trip for 2 to Montrose, Colorado and attend The Ultimate Gay Ski Week Getaway February 26 through March 3, 2012.

Enter the Telluride Gay Ski Week Getaway Sweepstakes for your chance to win:

• First Class airfare for two to Montrose, Colorado
• Transportation to/from the airport to the hotel
• 7-night hotel stay at The Peaks Resort & Spa, the official host hotel
• 5-day lift tickets for two
• Ski/snowboard rental fees for two
• Two T-Passes to attend all Telluride Gay Ski Week Events

The terms and conditions are a little odd in that New York and Florida residents can’t enter:

Open to legal residents of the contiguous 48 United States (except the states of Florida and New York) the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico who are 21 years or older. (Update: The organizers of Gay Ski Week were nice enough to Tweet an explanation, “Issue with NY and FL was the legal reqmt to get a bond and there wasn’t enough time to secure before launch”.)

The ARV $10,332 and the winner is responsible for taxes.

To enter, all you have to do is visit the Gay and Lesbian Travel section at AA.com and submit your entry.

Photo: Vertigo anyone?
Credit: Robert Tadlock on Flickr