Service

The purser, Steve, was really nice and professional. Perhaps he was a bit too nice, since he engaged every passenger with a smile at every interaction. Ultimately that’s what I love to see from pursers, though the issue is that it meant the main meal service took nearly 3.5 hours.

Kudos to the guy for being so friendly and talkative, because he gave just about every passenger ideas for what to do in Japan, jetlag and transportation tips, etc. The couple seated across from me were celebrating their 40th anniversary, so he even made a card for them and had the whole crew sign it.

Food

Ultimately American’s food is simple and tasty. I’ll trade caviar for an ice cream sundae any day. There are definitely airlines with better food out there, though there was nothing inedible, as I sometimes experience on other airlines when they try a bit too hard.

Amenities

This is where American has really stepped up their game, and what impressed me the most. Late last year American added pajamas and turndown service in first class. The pajamas were comfy and high quality, comparable to what’s offered by other foreign carriers.

The turndown service was also quite nice though simple, and consisted of a thin mattress pad being placed on the seat. Interestingly the lack of any sort of a turndown service was my biggest gripe with American first class when I flew them last year from Miami to London, so with the new offerings they do have a more competitive product.

It really is so refreshing to see American actually investing in their product instead of only cutting back, like other US airlines.

And while I’m looking forward to my flight back to the US in a few days, I’m looking forward to Kyoto even more.

Let’s step back for a second. I was thrilled when TSA announced the Pre-Check program a while back, whereby certain travelers could use a special lane where they don’t have to take their shoes off, don’t have to remove the liquids and laptops from their bags, and go through a metal detector instead of a full body scanner. Basically it’s the opportunity to experience pre-9/11 security once again. My frustration has been that in over a dozen transits at Pre-Check airports I haven’t once been selected for the Pre-Check line.

I chalked it up to bad luck, strange itineraries, etc. But today after going through security with a friend on the same itinerary and seeing him selected for Pre-Check while I wasn’t, I nearly lost it. Actually, I think there was cartoon style steam coming out of my ears as he stood on the other side of the checkpoint taunting me.

So when we got to the Flagship Lounge he suggested he look at my profile to make sure I had my info loaded in there correctly. I responded with “how stupid do I look?” though I reluctantly agreed.

He logged into my profile and saw everything looked correct, though asked to see my Global Entry card just to make sure the number looked correct. Again, I responded with “how stupid do I look?”

Well, as it turns out I had the wrong Global Entry number in my profile all along. Instead of using the number on the left side of the card, I had entered the number on the top right of the card.

At least I rest well knowing this is the same friend that lost his passport on a trip… twice. Makes me feel just a little bit less stupid (or at least makes me feel like I’m in good company).

On Thursday night I flew from Dallas to Seattle, an upgrade I figured would be near impossible to clear since Thursday night upgrades are among the toughest. At the same time tonight I was flying from Seattle to Chicago, an upgrade I figured was a given since Saturday is one of the easiest days to clear upgrades.

What ended up happening? My outbound upgrade cleared 100 hours out, while my return upgrade didn’t clear (I’m writing this from seat the exit row). Of course I don’t mind flying coach, though this upgrade hurts my head more than my rear. After all, if I can’t clear a Saturday night upgrade, what can I clear anymore? The other interesting data point was that there were only a total of two people on the upgrade list at the gate, and I was one of them. Oddly enough there’s something comforting about being at the top of one of United’s 100+ person upgrade waitlists as opposed to American’s two person upgrade waitlists.

But American really does know how to take care of Executive Platinum members in coach. As the flight attendants rolled the cart to the front of the cabin they first stopped at my seat, addressed me by name, and asked if I might be interested in a free drink or snack. Awesome.

While many of those benefits didn’t interest me as an Executive Platinum member with American (since I get them anyway), I loved the 10% refund on AAdvantage award tickets, up to 10,000 miles per year. Given the $95 annual fee, that basically means I’m “buying” 10,000 miles per year for less than a cent each, which is a fantastic value.

While these benefits didn’t apply to American’s business credit cards, Citi did announce some new benefits for the CitiBusiness AAdvantage World Mastercard yesterday, including the following:

• Earn More Miles From Select Purchases. Earn two AAdvantage® miles for every $1 of purchases on American Airlines and on business purchases at certain office supply, telecommunications, and car rental merchants.
• Enjoy An AAdvantage Mileage Anniversary Bonus When You Renew Cardmembership. Receive a five percent AAdvantage® mileage bonus based on eligible purchases made with the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® during the cardmembership year, provided cardmembership is renewed.
• Save Money While Traveling on American Airlines. First checked bag is free for the primary cardmember and up to four companions traveling on the same domestic reservation for travel booked and ticketed on or after May 14, 2012. For a business owner and four employees traveling together within the U.S. in the main cabin, this would save $250 roundtrip. In addition, the cardmember will receive 25 percent savings on in-flight purchases of food, beverages and headsets when purchases are made with a Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card.
• Save Time in the Airport. Priority boarding for the primary cardmember and up to four companions traveling on the same reservation for travel booked and ticketed on or after May 14, 2012.
• Earn an American Airlines Companion Certificate. Earn an American Airlines Companion Certificate for domestic main cabin travel each year in which $30,000 in eligible purchases are made on the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® and the card is renewed. Redeeming the certificate costs a $99 ticketing fee (plus $21.60 to $43.20 in government taxes and fees based on itinerary).

While these benefits may prove valuable to those without elite status, there’s nothing here that really makes the card a “keeper” for me. Two miles per dollar spent on American? I’d rather earn three Membership Rewards points per dollar spent with the Premier Rewards Gold card or 2.14 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The 5% annual points bonus? I’d still rather earn the 7% annual points bonus from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, or use the Starwood American Express card, where I can convert the points to American with a 25% bonus when transferring in increments of 20,000 points.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see them adding benefits, though in my case they just don’t justify the annual fee. I’m sure these new benefits more than justify the annual fee for many of you.

They usually cost $50 per pass, though through this promotion cost $30. The fine print is as follows:

• One-Day Pass is valid up to 365 days from date of purchase
• Visitors must be 18 or older in order to purchase and/or use a One-Day Pass
• Up to 3 children under the age of 18 years of age may be admitted at no additional charge with adult One-Day Pass visitor
• Purchaser is not required to be a visitor
• Purchaser will receive printable One-Day Pass(es) for each visitor via email

While it’s better than the normal price, I’d still be hard pressed to pay $30 to visit the Admirals Club unless:

• I had a really long layover
• I had three children under the age of 18 with me
• I was transiting multiple airports with Admirals Clubs in one day, since this is a day pass and not single visit pass

Still, free wifi, soft drinks, and “basic” alcoholic drinks are worth something, and I’m sure everyone can crunch the numbers based on their own valuations of the amenities.

I get Admirals Club access through my American Express Platinum card, which I still consider to be the best value for getting Admirals Club access.

After yesterday I was reminded why mobile boarding passes suck. I’m all for saving paper when possible, though this is an area where the savings don’t justify the inefficiency of it all, in my opinion.

First I went to the TSA checkpoint, where the agent didn’t have a mobile boarding pass scanner, so she had to leave the line and go to a scanner on the other side of the checkpoint to verify my boarding pass, which held up the line for about a minute.

Then I got to the Admirals Club, where my mobile boarding pass wouldn’t scan, so my flight information had to be looked up manually.

Then I got to my gate, where once again my boarding pass wouldn’t scan, even though I pulled it up correctly. Then I had to present my ID in addition to my seat number, once again holding up the line.

In Miami I accidentally pushed the wrong button on my phone, and closed my mobile boarding pass. I tried to once again pull it up from the link in the email, and it wouldn’t come up. Fortunately they have a PDF version as well, so I showed the gate agent that for my Miami to Tampa flight, and she manually entered my seat number and said I can go ahead.

Then as the door is about to close from Miami to Tampa the flight attendant comes up to me and asks me for my boarding pass. I show him the PDF copy, and he walks away satisfied. Then the gate agent walks aboard and asks for my ID, which she walks off with. In the meantime I overhear the guy behind me telling his wife that I’m probably trying to sneak into first class. A couple of minutes later the gate agent comes back with my ID and says “I’m sorry about that Mr. Lucky, we had a bit of a mixup.”

Anyway, I just can’t help but think that mobile boarding passes are a massive waste of time/resources. Online check-in is great, but does any frequent flyer actually consistently use mobile boarding passes?

Let me know in the comments section or the poll below!

Departing San Juan today I flew American to Miami at 1:25PM, while a friend flew United to Newark at 1:05PM. Not only did his flight leave closer to lunch time, but it was also 600 miles further than mine.

Upon landing we traded food pics, and I couldn’t help but feel like I came out victorious.

Here’s his United meal, for which there was no choice (and no nuts):

While here’s my American meal, where I had the choice between chicken quesadillas and a salmon salad:

How United considers a 1:05PM flight a “snack” window is beyond me…

And this is one of the (many) reasons that American’s catering is the best of any US airline, in my opini0n.

Earn 10% Back on Your Redeemed American Airlines AAdvantage® Miles

For benefit to apply, your Citi® / AAdvantage® account must be open and active at the time of redemption. The American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles you earn through this benefit will be based on 10% of the total AAdvantage® miles you redeem each month during the calendar year. The maximum number of AAdvantage® bonus miles you can earn annually from this benefit is 10,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles per calendar year, regardless of how many AAdvantage® miles you redeem in that calendar year. This benefit only applies to AAdvantage® miles redeemed from the primary cardmember’s AAdvantage® account. Discover all the ways to redeem AAdvantage® miles at www.aa.com/redeem. Please allow 6-8 weeks after your redemption for the American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles to post to the primary cardmember’s AAdvantage® account.

Anyway, I was thrilled to see 6,250 AAdvantage miles deposited into my account this evening, back dated to my booking date. This was for a 62,500 mile award ticket for travel on Japan Airlines. There was a bit of confusion as to whether or not this benefit applied to award redemptions on partner airlines as well, so I’m happy to see that is in fact the case.

This benefit alone more than justifies the $95 annual fee of the card, since I’ll basically be earning 10,000 miles per year on the card just for keeping it in my sock drawer and paying the annual fee. Less than a cent per mile? Yes please!

Kudos to American for this new benefit!

Think American was in the right, or were they just trying to pull a fast one to get the liability off their books?

The funny thing about American’s award routing rules is that they’re simultaneously the most generous and least generous of just about any airline.

They’re the most generous because American lets you exceed the MPM (maximum permitted mileage) for a city pair by 25%. For those of you that have no clue what an MPM is, for many international fares airlines publish the maximum permitted mileage between a city pair, which is often roughly 10% over the direct distance, accounting for the fact that connections are often necessary. On partner awards American lets you exceed that by an additional 25%, which is incredibly generous.

Take, for example, Hong Kong to Los Angeles. Cathay Pacific publishes an MPM of 8,698 miles, meaning American will let you fly a total of 10,872 miles to get from Hong Kong to Los Angeles.

In practice that means you can fly from Hong Kong to Los Angeles via New York, which is pretty awesome given that American allows stopovers at the North American gateway city (meaning you could stop in New York for as long as you wanted).

The next most generous airline is United, which lets you exceed the MPM by 15%. Actually, I guess I should really say that US Airways is the most generous, since they let you do whatever the hell you want, not intentionally, but out of incompetence. But that’s neither here nor there.

But that’s the end of my American love fest, in this instance. While American lets you go 25% over the MPM, they’re total c%&*blockers beyond that, given that they’ll do just about anything to prevent you from maximizing your routing.

This is because American has two rather silly restrictions on award tickets:

1) The transoceanic airline has to publish a fare for the city pair you’re flying. This has to be the silliest rule of all. With American you can only fly between a city pair if the airline you’re flying on your transoceanic flight publishes a fare between the two cities. Say, for example, you want to fly from Los Angeles to the Maldives on Etihad Airways via New York and then Abu Dhabi. It’s about as direct as routings get to the Maldives, but the award can’t be booked.

Why? Because Etihad doesn’t publish a fare between Los Angeles and the Maldives. Using ExpertFlyer I searched for Etihad fares between Los Angeles and the Maldives:

And unfortunately it returned no results:

So this means there’s no way to book an Etihad award between Los Angeles and the Maldives using American miles on a single award. You could however book Los Angeles to New York on one award, and then New York to the Maldives on a separate award, given that Etihad does publish a fare for that city pair.

2) With few exceptions, you can’t transit a third region. Per this FlyerTalk post, you can’t transit a third region when booked on an American partner award with the following exceptions:

To/From Via
North America to/from Indian Sub Continent/Middle East can connect in:Europe
North America to/from Africa can connect in:Europe
North America to/from Asia 2 can connect in:Asia 1

Central/South America to/from Indian Sub Continent/Middle East can connect in:Europe
Central/South America to/from Africa can connect in:Europe
Central/South America to/from South Pacific can connect in:S. America 2

South America 2 to/from Indian Sub Continent/Middle East can connect in:Europe

Indian Sub Continent/Middle East to/from Asia 1 can connect in:Asia 2
Indian Sub Continent/Middle East to/from South Pacific can connect in:Asia 2

Africa to/from Asia 1 can connect in:Asia 2

Asia 1 to/from Europe can connect in:Asia 2
Asia 1 to/from South Pacific can connect in:Asia 2

Let me put this in terms of an example. Say you want to fly from San Francisco to Delhi. Using OneWorld carriers, the most direct routing would be to fly from San Francisco to Delhi via Hong Kong, the distance of which is 9,257 miles. The problem is that Hong Kong is in “Asia 2″ region while India is in “Indian Sub Continent/Middle East” region, and you can’t transit another region on a partner award. The only exception for travel to India is as follows (per the chart above): “North America to/from Indian Sub Continent/Middle East can connect in:Europe.”

So in other words you can fly from San Francisco to Delhi via London, the distance of which is 9,558 miles, while you can’t take the more direct routing via Hong Kong without paying for two separate award tickets (one between the US and Asia 2, and one between Asia 2 and India).

The irony of it all? The MPM between San Francisco and Delhi is 11,922 miles, and American will let you exceed that by 25%, meaning you could fly 14,902 miles. Despite the fact that the routing via Hong Kong is over 5,000 miles under the MPM, it’s still not allowed.

It’s worth noting that the above applies to American’s partner award chart, and not to American’s distance based award chart, which can be used to your advantage to get around some of the above restrictions.