Back in April I wrote about the awesome new benefits that Citi added to their Platinum Select AAdvantage credit cards, including a free first checked bag, priority boarding, a 25% savings on in-flight purchases, a 10% refund on award redemptions, and more.

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.

Quick — what’s the name of Singapore’s best flight attendant? Okay, if you’ve been reading my blog for more than a week I’ve probably sufficiently shoved the answer down your throat. Yes, I’m talking about Wong Chin, who words simply can’t do justice. I flew with her from Singapore to Tokyo Narita a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I have a nasty cold right now, which is rare, since I almost never get sick. I’ve probably slept for 40 of the past 48 hours, so unless I have reason to believe otherwise I assume that everything is a dream and not reality. I did nearly fall out of my bed this morning when I had an email from Wong Chin in my inbox.

So just how small of a world do we live in?

• She found my info because her sister shared my blog post on her Facebook wall, suspecting I was talking about her.
• She was also on the last Singapore Airlines longhaul flight I took without either of us knowing it. She was working economy which is why our paths didn’t cross on that flight. Some of you may remember this was a less than pleasant flight where the First Lady of Zimbabwe and her entourage were taking up half of the first class cabin.

Now let’s see if I can find a way to get on another one of her flights.

British Airways is presently running one of the best business class fare sales I’ve ever seen them offer, for bookings made through May 18. The eligible travel dates for this promotion are May 26 through June 9, 2012, and fares are as low as $1,952 roundtrip including all taxes and fees.

While $1,952 all-in business class fares aren’t too unusual from the east coast, what makes this such a spectacular deal is that these fares are also valid from the west coast. I don’t remember the last time I saw a sub-$2,000 business class fare from San Francisco or Los Angeles to London.

And based on my searches availability is still excellent for those dates. For example, Los Angeles to London prices out at $1,947 roundtrip:

What you’ve gotta love is that the base fare for this ticket is only $771, while the rest is taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges:

So this is a case where it no doubt makes more sense to book a revenue ticket than to use British Airways Avios, since the Avios you’re using would only replace the $771 base fare, and not all the other taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges.

While it’s by no means a mileage run, this is as tempting of a business class fare sale as I’ve seen in a long time…

Despite living in Florida I very rarely visit the Caribbean. Fares from Tampa to San Juan are consistently low, often as low as $69 each way thanks to JetBlue flying between the two cities nonstop. So I finally pulled the trigger and booked a 24-hour trip to San Juan. A friend found equally good fares from the west coast, so booked a stay at the same time.

I really struggled in regards to where to stay. I try to stick to Hyatt, Starwood, and Priority Club as much as possible, though in this case no option was ideal. Hyatt doesn’t have a hotel in San Juan, so they weren’t an option. The InterContinental San Juan gets awful reviews in terms of their Royal Ambassador treatment, so I did what I could to avoid it.

That narrowed it down to the two Sheratons, one of which is at the convention center, and the other of which is in Old Town. I was tempted to go with the convention center location since it’s a new hotel and gets generally good reviews. The Old Town Sheraton also gets good reviews, though is a much older hotel.

So in the end as a result of indecisiveness I decided to book the Ritz Carlton, which seemed to offer the best of both worlds (though at a cost). It’s close to the airport, at the beach, and gets all around great reviews.

The rate for one night was $339. That’s by no means cheap, though by booking through a Virtuoso agent we received a $100 resort credit, full daily breakfast, and a room upgrade at no additional cost. Like I said it isn’t cheap, though when you’re splitting the costs two ways and get all those extra perks, it really is a pretty good value, in my opinion.

Anyway, I arrived in San Juan at around 1PM and we took a taxi to the Ritz Carlton. San Juan seems to have a bit of a taxi mafia as all the prices are fixed. In the case of the Ritz Carlton, a taxi cost $10 plus $1 per bag (there was a bit of a discrepancy as to whether a backpack or laptop bag counts as a bag for these purposes, since we were charged $12 on the way out and $14 on the way back). The ride took less than 10 minutes.

Ritz Carlton placard

As soon as we arrived at the hotel we were helped with our bags by the bellman and escorted to check-in which was located just inside of the lobby on the right.

Hotel exterior

Hotel entrance

There was a wait of about five minutes, though I was happy to see they had bottled water and juice set up on the side of the lobby, since it was hot as heck outside.

Lobby bar

Lobby

Water and juice

Our check-in agent was courteous and explained to us all the benefits we would be entitled to. He checked on the best room upgrade for a room with either a king bed or two double beds, and the best he could do was a king bed with a pool view on a low floor (which is a one category upgrade). The hotel was packed due to a wedding party taking up half of the hotel, so we were perfectly happy with that.

The elevators are key activated, and we took it up to the third floor, where our room was located pretty close to the elevators.

Hallway

Room entrance

The room itself wasn’t huge though was nicely decorated and arranged. It featured a very comfortable king bed, large seat, and desk with comfortable chair. There was also a well stocked minibar, though the only place I ever use minibars is at hotels where they’re free or at InterContinental hotels, where I get free beverages as a Royal Ambassador member.

Room

TV and desk

View from room

Minibar

Room

The bathroom featured a shower, double sinks, and a separate room with the toilet. All the toiletries were Ritz Carlton branded.

Bathroom

Toiletries

Shower

While it has been a few years since the hotel was renovated, I feel they did a spectacular job maintaining the rooms, since there were virtually no scratches/stains.

The only negative was that the room had no bottled water (with the exception of in the minibar), which I found strange given that they even had free bottled water at check-in.

The resort itself was really beautiful. It featured both a huge pool with plenty of seating, as well as a beach. Admittedly there are nicer beaches in the Caribbean than in San Juan, though this one seemed very nice by San Juan standards.

Pool

Pool

Resort exterior

Beach entrance

As you approach the beach there are employees there that help with setting up the lounge chairs based on where you want to sit, and that can help with any other requests. As an aviation geek I thought it was pretty awesome that there were great airplane views from the beach, as the runway is only about a mile away.

Beach

One of the reasons the hotel was so packed was because of a huge Indian wedding at the hotel, and they got married on the beach, which I thought was pretty cool.

Wedding

And these people really did know how to party morning, day, and night. The morning we left they seemed to have some impromptu rock concert on the driveway of the hotel.

Some concert

At around 4PM we were pretty hungry so decided to have a late lunch at obg, the beachfront restaurant. It was much more casual and we were wearing shorts and t-shirts, not to mention I really wanted to enjoy the beach views.

Menu

Pina colada

The prices were what you’d expect for a Ritz Carlton restaurant with a beach view. I had a pina colada, which was $14, and then had fish tacos, which were $19. Fortunately the $100 resort credit more than took care of lunch.

Fish tacos

All the employees I interacted with were friendly and eager to help. They were a bit more laid back than at the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong, for example, but I kind of expect that for a beach hotel in Puerto Rico.

The hotel also has a huge gym that’s actually located inside the spa. The downside of being located inside the spa is that it’s only open from 6AM till 9AM, so if you have weird hours like that be sure to keep that in mind. That being said, the quality and variety of the equipment was excellent.

Gym

Gym

In the evening we went to Old San Juan. Once again the taxi prices are fixed, and it was $20 for the roughly 15-minute ride to the Old Town. Old San Juan was stunning, and I can’t wait to return.

It was a Friday night so the atmosphere was great, with live music on the street, all kinds of street vendors, and plenty of people watching.

Street market

Concert

We had dinner at a restaurant we found along the way, which was delicious. I had sausage to start, and shrimp with yellow rice as the main course. For dessert was tres leches cake, which was among the best I’ve had.

Appetizer

Shrimp with yellow rice

Amazing tres leches cake

I was a bit surprised to return to the hotel and find that they hadn’t done turndown service on our room. I’m not sure if it was an oversight or they only do it upon request, but we at no point had the “do not disturb” sign out, so I’m not sure why.

Like I said breakfast was included since we booked through Virtuoso, so we had breakfast at around 8AM at Mares Restaurant. We had the full buffet, which would have cost $28 per person.

Mares Restaurant

The spread was top notch in terms of quality and variety. They had all kinds of pastries and breads, yogurt, hot dishes (scrambled eggs, quesadillas, etc.), fruit, cereal, etc. The service was really attentive as well.

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

The biggest props, though, have to go to the chef at the omelet station. I was looking at the various options, and he said “I see you eying my food. Let me know if you need the lowdown on anything, I ga’cha covered.”

At around 11AM the following morning it was back to the airport after an all too quick trip.

I can’t believe I haven’t visited San Juan before because it really is beautiful, and from what I’ve heard there are plenty of other things to explore on the island of Puerto Rico as well. Also, Puerto Rico feels nothing like the rest of the US, so it really is a nice change of pace.

The Ritz Carlton is a fantastic choice, especially when booking through Virtuoso or American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, and I wouldn’t for a second hesitate to return if the value is right. That being said, I’d also consider staying at hotels on other parts of the island, which I’ve heard great things about as well.

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Jake for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Pismo Beach, California
Winner: Marty

If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.

Win 25,000 SPG points from the Starwood American Express!
Review: Sheraton Tribeca New York
Attending the SPG AmEx Screening of “Mansome” at the Tribeca Film Festival

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As I wrote about in April, I was thrilled to be approached by the Starwood American Express to join their SPG Amex Stars program, whereby I’ll get to experience a lot of the great benefits of the Starwood American Express credit card throughout the year. Best of all, for each experience I have you guys will get to have an equally awesome experience as well. Over this year I’ll be giving away 210,000 SPG points plus a $250 gift card courtesy of the Starwood American Express.

This partnership has already taken me to the Tribeca Film Festival, and will also take me to New York Fashion Week, the US Open, the new St. Regis Bal Habour, and more!

In this series of posts I’ll be sharing with you the amazing experience I had in New York at both the Sheraton Tribeca as well as American Express’ Starwood card member screening of “Mansome,” which was hilarious. Best of all, there were plenty of people from both Starwood and American Express, so it was great to be able to provide them feedback and also hear their thoughts during the cocktail reception. It’s clear they’re looking at maintaining the card’s industry-leading position.

Cocktail reception before screening

But before I get too deep into the trip report, it’s time to give away some points. Like I said, with each of my experiences there will be a corresponding giveaway, and for the Tribeca Film Festival the giveaway is 25,000 SPG points, enough for two nights at the Sheraton Tribeca. Of course you’re more than welcome to use the points in New York, though the beauty of SPG points is how much flexibility they have.

Here are just a few examples of what you could do with 25,000 SPG points:

• Spend two nights at the Sheraton Tribeca.
• Spend eight nights at Le Meridien Bangkok using Starwood’s awesome Cash & Points option. Instead of redeeming 7,000 SPG points per night you can redeem 2,800 points plus $45 per night, which is a spectacular value.
• Convert them to 30,000 airline miles with American, Delta, US Airways, or any of a number of other airlines. For every 20,000 points you transfer to an airline program, you get a 5,000 point bonus, which for me is one of the key selling points of the card.
• Spend ten nights at Le Meridien Chiang Rai. The hotel can be as cheap as 3,000 SPG points per night, and when redeeming SPG points for free nights the fifth night is free. So at 3,000 points per night with the fifth night free, 10 nights at Le Meridien Chiang Rai takes only 24,000 SPG points.

Sheraton Tribeca lobby

While I’ll be running the giveaways through a variety of methods, the first giveaway will be through Twitter.

How to enter:

1. Follow @OneMileataTime on Twitter.

2. Tweet which Starwood hotel you’d like to stay at in New York (here’s a list), and be sure you include both @OneMileataTime and the hashtag #SPGAMEX in the Tweet

3. You can Tweet me once per calendar day (let’s define that as 12:00AM ET till 11:59PM ET), and the contest will run through 11:59PM ET on Sunday, May 27.

For example, an eligible Tweet would be:

@OneMileataTime I’d stay at the Sheraton Tribeca #SPGAMEX

Basic terms:

While I won’t post the full four pages of terms and conditions, the basics are that you have to be at least 18 years old and have an SPG account to be eligible to win. If anyone needs any clarification, feel free to ask below in the comments section or email me.

Picking a winner:

A winner will be picked at random within a week of the end of the giveaway. Each eligible Tweet counts as one entry, so the more days you enter, the better your chance of winning. If my math is right you can enter up to 14 times.

Good luck, happy Tweeting, and let me know if you have any questions! Tomorrow we’ll pick up at the Sheraton Tribeca.

I just received an email from American promoting a two-day sale for 40% off Admirals Club day passes, which runs through 12PM CDT on Wednesday, May 16.

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.

Through September 3, 2012, Priority Club is offering 1,000 bonus points per qualifying night, up to a maximum of 20,000 points.

Registration is required on Priority Club’s Facebook page. After “liking” them you’ll be prompted to enter your Priority Club number and PIN to complete the registration process. Apparently this promotion will go “public” beyond Facebook on June 1, 2012.

This promotion is stackable with other Priority Club promotions, like the one offering a $50 prepaid travel Mastercard for a consecutive two-night weekday stay through August 2, 2012.

Introduction
Lufthansa First Class Lounge New York JFK
Lufthansa First Class New York JFK to Frankfurt
A day in the Lufthansa First Class Lounges/Terminal Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Singapore
InterContinental Singapore
Exploring Singapore
The Singapore Airlines Private Room
Singapore Airlines First Class Singapore to Tokyo Narita
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita
Japan Airlines First Class Tokyo Narita to New York JFK

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I flew this exact route on Japan Airlines back in 2009 (you can find the trip report here), though back then it was operated by their 747 featuring their old first class product. That’s the main reason I took this flight, since their new first class product is a huge upgrade over the old one, and I wanted to see how it compared firsthand.

Anyway, at gate 61 boarding was announced for first and business class at around 10:50AM, and moments later I was aboard.

Departure gate

Plane to NY

Boarding queue

Japan Airlines 6
Tokyo Narita (NRT) – New York (JFK)
Tuesday, May 1
Depart: 11:20AM
Arrive: 11:25AM
Duration: 13hr5min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 1K (First Class)

At the door I was greeted by the friendly flight attendants that directed me to my seat in row one. One frustrating aspect of flying Japanese airlines is that Japanese aviation regulations prevent Japanese airlines from serving pre-departure beverages on the ground, and you’re also not allowed to use electronic devices while on the ground. This makes it advantageous to actually board as late as possible, since you’ll sit there in utter boredom. And I always find it rather silly that Japanese airlines are bound by these rules while foreign airlines flying to Japan aren’t, essentially giving foreign carriers a competitive advantage.

The first class product on the 777-300ER is the JAL Suite, which is a fairly private and spacious suite with a decent amount of storage space and well padded seat.

JAL Suite

The bedding is provided by Tempur-Pedic, including the pillow pictured below, which provides for great support.

JAL Suite

JAL Suite

JAL Suite

As you can see below, each seat really does have a huge amount of privacy, so being in 1K I really couldn’t see anyone else.

View of cabin from my seat

To the right of the seat were the entertainment and seat controls, as well as a vanity mirror.

Entertainment and seat controls

As soon as I settled in the flight attendant offered me Bose Quiet Comfort headphones. That was quickly followed by slippers and pajamas.

Bose headphones

Slippers

Pajamas

I didn’t immediately change into the pajamas, though the guy seated across from me changed right away. I was rather alarmed when I noticed he placed his underwear on the tray table, and obviously wasn’t wearing any.

After that I also changed into my pajamas, and as I emerged from the lavatory the purser hung my clothes for me.

As departure time rolled around all eight first class seats were taken (I was the only westerner), and the captain advised us of our flight time of 12hr30min.

As we pushed back the safety video started playing, and at the beginning the flight attendants positioned themselves in the aisle to bow. I found it rather funny that they positioned three flight attendants in first class to bow, for only eight passengers.

We had a fairly quick taxi to the runway, which was made rather enjoyable by the nose camera that was displayed on the cabin monitors.

Nose camera

After a long takeoff roll we were airborne, and within 10 minutes the seatbelt sign was turned off.

Climb out

As we leveled off the purser came through the cabin to distribute menus and introduce herself. The menus are displayed in very nice leather folders containing both the menus and the wine list.

Menu cover

Menu folder

The menu read as follows:

And the wine list read as follows:

Service started with a hot towel, which was quickly followed by a small smarter. I’m still not exactly sure what it was. The crew’s English wasn’t especially good, so I wasn’t about to find out.

Hot towel

Starter

That was followed by a basket with a variety of Japanese snacks, from which I selected some crackers and almonds.

Diet Coke with crackers and almonds

Next was the amuse bouche, for which I’ll simply suggest you reference the menu above, because I still have no clue what it really was, though it was fairly good.

Amuse bouche

The next course was caviar. Even though it had some sort of a zesty “bar,” it lacked the traditional garnishes you get on other airlines.

Caviar

For the main course I went with wagyu beef. I’ll never understand peoples’ excitement over wagyu beef, but that’s not to say it wasn’t fairly good.

Wagyu beef

The dessert consisted of both a strawberry tart and some cheesecake ice cream. The tart was delicious, but the ice cream really wasn’t (and it’s rare for me to come across ice cream I don’t like).

Dessert

On the whole the meal service was nice, though not nearly as memorable as those I’ve had on ANA, Cathay Pacific, and Singapore, just to name a few. The flight attendants were all very friendly, though there was definitely a communication barrier, and also at times I think that led to them also being a bit less proactive. I do find that ANA crews generally have a better grasp of English.

After lunch I was dead tired so decided to get some sleep, given that I had taken a redeye the night before. I requested turndown service, and the flight attendant set up my bed with a Tempur-Pedic mattress pad. I’m not going to lie, the pad was *really* comfortable. I tried to fall asleep while the cabin lights were still on, figuring they’d be turned off momentarily after everyone finished their meals, as is the case on virtually every longhaul flight.

After about an hour I asked the flight attendant if the lights could be dimmed. After apologizing profusely she went to the galley and dimmed the lights a little bit. The purser returned and explained some passengers were trying to read, which is why they weren’t dimming the lights all the way. Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t that what the reading lights are for?

Bed

After a while I decided there was no way I could fall asleep, so I played around with JAL’s entertainment system. While the system itself is fairly thorough with movies, TV shows, audio, etc., the actual quality of the selection was just horrible, at least when it comes to US selections.

Entertainment system

So eventually I just decided to get started on my trip report, which I did for a few hours, until we were already approaching Vancouver with about five hours to go to New York.

Airshow

Airshow

Airshow

Funny enough at this point the purser comes up to me and asks if it would be alright if she dims the cabin lights because some passengers are trying to sleep. You don’t say?

Of course I took that as an opportunity to catch a few hours of shut eye as well, so slept until about 90 minutes out of New York.

JAL has a rather interesting menu in that other than the main meal, they just have an a la carte meal from which you can dine at your leisure. The options are all over the place, as follows:

The purser came by to take my meal order, and initially I wasn’t sure if I was in a breakfast or dinner mood. I decided on the “Everyone’s Favorite” pasta, and as the words started coming out of my mouth a look of pure horror filled the purser’s face. “I’m so so sorry. So sorry. We are out.” The look on her face made it seem as if both of the pilots had the fish for dinner and were unconscious, and I needed to land the plane. Fortunately that wasn’t the case.

I then decided on the “Western Tray,” which was a breakfast option.

In the meantime I had already ordered a Diet Coke, which was served with a hot towel. I guess I’ll be enjoying breakfast with soda today!

Diet Coke and hot towel

The breakfast portion was tiny, basically consisting of a small waffle cut in half and a spoon full of scrambled eggs. It was also served with a very small container of plain yogurt.

Western tray

Again, I was completely puzzled by what time of day it was in terms of food, so had some ice cream for dessert, hoping it was better than the cheesecake ice cream served earlier in the flight.

Ice cream

Oddly the amenity kits were distributed about 30 minutes before landing. I’m not sure if it was an oversight on the part of the crew or what, but I found it rather strange. JAL does have one of the nicest amenity kits, though, including Shiseido branded products and (oddly) a large towel/rag, the purpose of which I’ve yet to figure out.

Amenity kit

20 minutes before landing the seatbelt sign was turned on and the captain advised us of our slightly late arrival due to us having to slow down on approach to NY.

Once we landed at JFK we had a fairly long taxi to our arrival gate.

Taxiing in

Fortunately thanks to Global Entry I was outside within five minutes, ready to conk out.

So how do I feel about JAL? Well, I’m happy to have flown their new product and tried them again, but now it’s on my “been there, done that” list. Overall I’d rank JAL’s first class product as a second tier first class product, ahead of US airlines but behind the best in the world. While the flight attendants are friendly their English skills are lacking. The issue with that isn’t the language barrier, but it makes it tough for them to feel more confident in their service. But I’d certainly recommend JAL ahead of US airlines and many foreign carriers. If only first class award space wasn’t so hard to come by on them…

Yesterday I flew from San Juan to Tampa via Miami on American, and decided to use a mobile boarding pass. The check-in queues were rather long, so I pulled up my mobile boarding pass in a matter of seconds.

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!