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Another frequent traveller checking in as well. I do about ~250,000 miles a year, mostly domestic, all on American Airlines. I normally book my travel on full fare first and as a result got awarded "ConciergeKey" on AA, much like the guy from "Up in the Air". I also do about 150 nights a year in Starwood properties and just hit lifetime platinum with them.
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Nov 27, 2012 04:05
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Lyon posted:God drat, what do you do? That is a lot of freaking miles. I would love to travel more and have considered looking for a new position but I can't justify it until they don't give me a raise or I stop learning things. High level dude in a large company. Traveling is great but there are a lot of considerations you need to take regarding your personal life, which is really the big downfall for a lot of people. If you can travel on your companies dime it's an amazing opportunity to see the US or in some cases the world.
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Nov 27, 2012 04:55
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Daeus posted:drat. I've done 100-150k a year on AA past few years almost all domestic but 250k is just incredible esp with only 150 nights. I have a few friends who do 250-300k a year but its mostly TPAC and TATL. Hope you get to spend the majority of the time in 767/777s... Sadly I don't, most of that has been in 737s. Nifty posted:What sort of resources/websites/searches do you guys use to take advantage of exploring the areas you are in? I would love to know cool things to do and look at, but I feel like I'm not always using my time and the area I'm in to their fullest. I usually ask the people I am working with for good spots to check out, and I know its dumb but I use Yelp a lot.
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Nov 27, 2012 16:13
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sellouts posted:
I prefer Boeing over Airbus for a number of reasons and would rather they add newer 767s on the domestic routes that utilize them but with how old the 767-200s are, I can't complain too much. Status actually did matter a bit as it makes things exponentially easier when rebooking and changing flights, which I do a lot, sometimes 3-4 times a week if not more. First certainly gives you some priority, but ultimately I had to call in through the regular numbers with questionable service. The Exec Plat line almost answers instantly and the people on there are really good. Plus I do a lot of single class flights and boarding first is a godsend on those. ConciergeKey, however, is a whole different story, when I go and check in at the airport, I am greeted by an AA CK rep who brings me through security (Think Pre-Check) and directly in to the lounge. I get to board before the disabled people and best of all I get to use the international first class lounges even when on domestic. The level of service on the dedicated line is insane to the point where they call to apologize if there are even short delays. It's pretty awesome but at the same time earning it is an enormous pain in the rear end. As far as my miles, I am banking them. I am not much of a vacation guy and I rarely take a day off, including weekends. At some point I will probably give them away as I doubt I'd ever use the ones I have. I normally give my unused SWUs to members of the military anonymously so they can fly first class home for Christmas and I may do the same thing here. In spirit of this thread I am posting this from the front of the cabin in a 737-800. sellouts posted:It's $350 and completely worth it if you travel that much. AMEX Plat/Centurion is the best card in the world if you travel. If you don't travel the card is a huge waste. Belldandy fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Dec 3, 2012 |
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Dec 3, 2012 00:26
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sellouts posted:Hey Belldandy, with all of your travel did you ever utilize the AAirpass? If not, why not? No, because it is all business travel and my company doesn't seem interested in the program for some reason. The lifetime personal ones have been discontinued for a few years.
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Dec 4, 2012 18:48
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TouchyMcFeely posted:In a total subject change, does anyone know if the Pre-Check needs to be renewed yearly? No, but it is on an airline by airline basis. So if you had it for Delta and wanted to get it on United you'd have to go through the steps again. The NEXUS pass is great but under no circumstances indicate that any of your Canada travel is business related. I almost got arrested due to that argument.
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Dec 6, 2012 18:48
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Cocoa Crispies posted:Emphatically wrong. I qualified for Pre-check based on AA status and living in an AA hub city (MIA is an AA hub), and the first chance I got to use it was with DL at ATL. All you have to do is copy over your "Known Traveler Number." You are "emphatically" incorrect here, have your programs confused, and are missing a key point. Let me clarify: "Vanilla" TSA PreCheck is granted by the airlines themselves to frequent fliers and is ultimately where TSA pulls their information from. By that virtue, a passenger qualifying under one airline can’t use PreCheck if flying another carrier as they would not share this information. However, if one has Global Entry, which is what you most likely have, this supersedes PreCheck and by virtue of having Global Entry (And other programs like NEXUS/SENTRI) you have PreCheck, which is where you ultimately have your "Known Traveler Number" crafted from. Because Global Entry is TSA initiated and because TSA requires you to fill out an application, which they can deny, they can share this information and grant PreCheck status regardless of airline. Belldandy fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Dec 7, 2012 |
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Dec 7, 2012 07:28
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Mitsuo posted:Welp, bookmarking this thread ASAP. I'm starting a data center engineering job in January which will involve up to 75% travel, based out of Austin. Not sure which airlines I'll be using most just yet, but I have a feeling that as I get into it I'll be referring back to this thread pretty often. AUS is kind of one of those awkward airports like BOS that serves a decent sized city but doesn't really go anywhere. You will be served the most routes by Southwest but also will have deal with all of the downsides of flying Southwest. My suggestion would be to use AA or UL, you'll basically be shuttling to either DFW or IAH but you will have a TON of options from that point. Both DFW and IAH have fairly frequent flights to AUS and both are about equidistant to drive to in a bind.
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Dec 7, 2012 07:31
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kitten smoothie posted:Could one ever get EQM/P from credit cards on AA and could qualify for status for a given year off card spend? Yep, you are right, You used to be able to get Lifetime Gold/Plat from the miles generated by the Citi AA CC but not actual yearly status via the Million Miler program back before they changed it this year. Man, the middle seat thing sounds great, too bad they got rid of that but also understandable.
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Dec 7, 2012 22:33
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sellouts posted:Can the admirals club sometimes block a seat if they know the flight is not sold out? I've honestly never asked, but I'll be traveling tomorrow so I can find out ! Morby posted:How many of you guys are still on the road? I had my last trip for the year this week. I went Minneapolis for the second time this year and my wallet got stolen. It's been a ton of fun working things out with various banks! I'm slated to head to Puerto Rico the first part of January. Are you guys already scheduling for next year? Do your companies do a "freeze" period? Still on the road here, I am normally booked out 3 weeks in advance. I am gone all of this upcoming week and the week after (thankfully I get a good excuse to miss my girlfriend's friends incredibly lame parties - WOO UGLY SWEATERS!!!), nothing during Christmas week and probably the week after but I already have some stuff starting Jan 7th.
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Dec 8, 2012 17:20
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routenull0 posted:So when you hit a status mid year, you have it for the following year as right? And you just have to hit it again or more to keep it active? Yep, and theres a bonus for being fast: I was at 100k or so miles within 5 months and my status was good to 2014.
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Dec 8, 2012 20:36
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Lyon posted:Am I the only one who has never rented a car? I always take public transportation (if it is available) or taxis. I guess all of my trips have been to Europe or major US cities where the airports are fairly close and taxis/public transportation are readily available. I've had status at pretty much all of the hotel chains and I like SPG the best with Hyatt as second best based on awards and overall quality of hotels.
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Dec 9, 2012 19:30
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size1one posted:No experience with hookers, but here is a protip for bring women to your room in general. If you don't have a condom the front desk will often have some. Unless it's the Trump.
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Dec 11, 2012 02:05
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size1one posted:You have two choices for PreCheck: PS all the interview cities are like in Canada or Detroit, Buffalo, and Seattle. Have fun!
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Dec 14, 2012 01:37
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I want to hope that TSA dissolves before that. They are just the absolute worst.
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Dec 14, 2012 04:18
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kitten smoothie posted:It took me 3 weeks to get an application approved and the soonest interview timeslot in the Vancouver area was 2 months away. When I did mine Detroit had them open within a 1.5 - 2 week wait.
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Dec 17, 2012 17:55
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FrozenVent posted:I'll trade your regional jets for DASH-8 and Q400 any day of the week. Oh they're not that bad, especially the Q400.
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Dec 19, 2012 23:03
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FrozenVent posted:You've never had a four hour flight in one, have you? Admittedly that was a DASH-8, and we landed a few times to pick up and drop off people, but drat did I hate my life that day. (Only had to do that once, thank God. I don't fly enough to be bitching in this thread, really) I sure have, a Porter Air flight out of YTZ, so at least it had good food and booze.
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Dec 20, 2012 02:24
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FrozenVent posted:Porter's planes are Q400 set for 70 seats instead of 78. Also it's Porter, where they have things like service and food. My funtime 3.5 hour flight (preceded by a different two hours Dash-8 flight) was in a Dash-8-100, the 37 seater. Yeah, Porter is absolutely how every airline should be run. They are awesome. Plus YTZ is leagues better than YYZ.
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Dec 20, 2012 06:07
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Non-Q Dash-8s are pretty bad, but the Q400 is nice as all hell. Porter is the most consistently good flying experience outside of, like, Cathay, Emirates, and Singapore Business/First cabins. I'd become Canadian to use them always.
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Dec 27, 2012 23:25
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You'd have to stay in Ontario and points east, though. There are places in Canada that aren't Toronto?
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Dec 27, 2012 23:39
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Lyon posted:Hah I promise US Air isn't that bad.. I pretty much only fly US Air and United and I have never noticed a major difference. I am very curious as to what will happen if US and AA merge, sounds like US Air would leave the Star Alliance which will suck. Yeah, it's rumored to happen but in my opinion it looks unlikely. I think US Air is horrible so I am dreading it for the most part. None of their hubs offer a lot of value, in my opinion, except for maybe DCA. however the interesting thing they've stated is that AA will not leave oneWorld. Ideally if they merged having access to both programs would be pretty slick.
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Dec 28, 2012 17:45
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Lyon posted:I got my first official assignment of the new year that will require a flight which will be Milan, Italy sometime in February. I need to get the dates worked out but hopefully the first of many. All of January is virtual training and then a week long trip to New Jersey, which is local for me, so February is the start for me I suppose. Last year winter was really busy but this year we seem to have more virtual trainings than on-site ones so far, hopefully that changes. I've already done 12,000 miles, amazingly. Should be hitting 30k or so by the end of the month due to several East to West coast trips. Woo.
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Jan 8, 2013 07:38
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lavaca posted:Today I enjoyed a few beers at a bar during the 49ers-Falcons game. The bar happened to have a big spread of free food, so I ate a bit of it. Does that justify claiming the cost of the beers as a meal expense? I approve expenses for my team and I would not be really happy if they maxed out their allowances daily because it will hurt them in the long run. I don't personally care because I know being on the road is a pain in the rear end, nor will I "do" anything about it because you are entitled to it per our T&E policy but, I do know that Sr. Management in finance DOES care about it and will make submitting expenses an absolute pain in the rear end if you are within the top spend tier. The fact that most of my team are people managers also makes this difficult because they are expected to set an example for individual contributors about responsible expense policies. With that said, I have had people try to expense some pretty ridiculous poo poo. So basically, if you are on the road 5 days a week eat Taco Bell 1 or 2 times.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:41
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Lyon posted:Just out of curiosity, what are your limits again and are your employees' expenses billable to a customer? I ask because I almost always hit or slightly exceed the daily spend limit on food and I definitely would if I accounted for everything appropriately. Non-billable as we are sales, but our consulting arm is billable and I am not familiar with their system. We ask to keep it between $75-100 a day. With that said, what we care more about is quarterly spend. Most of our guys are allowed about $3000 or higher a quarter on personal expenses (food, travel, lodging) depending on their territory size. If a customer is involved the sky is the limit and I have personally tested that. I was sweating after I hit "submit". Coming from my viewpoint and many others in senior management, if you are a good sales rep you can pretty much get away with murder. One of our guys who is consistently around ~200% the past 6 years is allowed a country club membership on us because this is how he closes deals. I'd imagine unless you work for a really unreasonable company and that unless you completely suck your manager doesn't really care if you exceed spend. Furthermore in most cases they would defend you unless you are doing something vastly retarded. I get a little red flag in our expense system on plane tickets > $500 and hotel stays > $300 night. I generally do not ask for any justification nor have I ever denied anyone as a lot of the times we have stuff pop up last minute. We have a set rate with a car rental place and those usually end up at about $40 a day before taxes.
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Jan 22, 2013 02:17
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Lyon posted:Okay, I NEVER exceed $75-100/day unless a customer is involved. I was curious what your company considered reasonable in regards to daily expenses. Sky is the limit if a customer is involved for us as well, some people definitely abuse it a bit though (steak dinners, nice scotch, etc) without actual customers involved or no true justification to take junior level customers out to such a dinner. Yep, $75ish would be very reasonable for us. For our dinners with customers we usually list the people involved and their positions. I have never seen anyone audited but if they had a bunch of non-decision makers and they got flagged it could be bad. And yes, territories are fairly compact. Most of the time our guys will be doing a single overnight stay, if that, a few times a month. Very rarely will they be on the plane - once or twice a month and it will be a destination pretty close so most people don't surpass 3k.
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Jan 22, 2013 08:49
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Radio Talmudist posted:I just came back from a family trip to India and have one of the most overwhelming and unpleasant flying experiences of my life. My flight from Paris to NY was cancelled and I had to take a confusing jumble of international and domestic flights to get back home 8 am yesterday. Oh, and my baggage is missing. All the time. Going from just ORD to BOS and back yesterday I had 8.5 hours in delay due to weather and mechanical issues. Another fun fact to note is that you are more likely to hit a delay/cancellation in the spring vs the winter as snow doesn't normally shut down operations whereas thunder does EVERY TIME. Stuff doesn't normally get hosed up for me completely, I have had it happen once but if something is SUPER DUPER important I'll fly out the night before just so I have a second chance in the morning to make it there. Usually second time is a charm. I also don't check bags, ever, for the reasons above. There are lots of things you can do but they aren't good for casual travels or people without a ton of expendable income. I have a Priority Pass membership which means I can pretty much hang out at any international lounge in the event of a delay. At least then I can sleep without worrying about my poo poo getting stolen or get drunk for free. But again, unless you travel enough or just don't care about a $500/year membership it isn't worth it. With that said, more airports have lounges that can be entered with a variety of credit cards and other pay-by-the-hour options for lounges. If you are stuck go ask about a day or hourly pass, it is a way better way to spend your time vs sitting in a noisy smelly terminal. On another note, has anyone here encountered a more vile smelling terminal than CDG (Paris?) I've been all over the world and that place is just gross.
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Jan 23, 2013 16:31
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Shbobdb posted:Basically this. Plus an Rx for Ambien and/or amphetamines. I like the amphetamines myself, one of my co-workers swears by Ambien. Different strokes (in my case literally) for different folks. I want to take Ambien so badly on the plane but I am afraid I'll do something dumb based on how I act at home on it. 
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Jan 28, 2013 23:21
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How did everyone end up this month? I am right at ~29,000 miles as of tomorrow morning. I had a few meetings get cancelled on me and should have been around 33k or so. Kinda bummed as 33 would put me right on track for a 3 month EXP renewal.
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Jan 31, 2013 01:53
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Shbobdb posted:Man, I think I travel a lot but I'm a baby at ~20K. I don't, stopped after 6 months and never looked back. I think I have pretty good justification if ever questioned. Corporate travel services don't scale to people who do heavy travel. I would expect my guys who are infrequent travelers to utilize it as it is great for the occasional trip, but when you are making 3+ changes a week to your schedule having to go through a dumb corporate portal is a nightmare.
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Jan 31, 2013 11:58
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Lyon posted:The argument is that the/a corporate travel portal provides extra protection for your tickets/trips/etc but I have never found that to be the case in reality. Concur charges you $25 to call the line and fix any problems... so we're paying all this money and a $7 fee per flight just to have access to Kayak? Then for an additional fee they will help you adjust your flights/trips/whatever? Awesome. Yeah this is total bullshit.
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Jan 31, 2013 19:53
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FrozenVent posted:My plane landed in a snowstorm bad enough that I didn't see the ground before the wheels hit the runway. Get into the terminal, half the flights are cancelled and most of the ones that aren't are delayed. Yeah I am "stuck" in California. I was supposed to leave Thurs night but everything got cancelled. The earliest I can get home is Sat night, all in time to turn around Sun morning and fly out again. Thankfully I am on a work trip so I just extended my stay and have been chillin' (drinking).
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Feb 9, 2013 03:24
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The AMR-US merger is official: http://www.aa.com/arriving/index.html
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Feb 14, 2013 15:42
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Lyon posted:I just landed in Philadelphia flying on US Air and they announced it briefly on the plane that the merger was official. Time to burn my modest accumulation of miles before they update all the mileage charts. oneWorld is total poo poo compared to StarAlliance. US Air FFs just got hosed.
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Feb 14, 2013 22:59
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My guess is the hub structure will look as follows in a year: PHX (West Coast/Asia) - DFW (Central/LAM) - MIA (LAM) - PHL (East Coast/Europe) Focus Cities: ORD - CLT I think the AA side will drop LAX and JFK/LGA where they are not number 1 in favor of PHL and PHX given the proximity. I think CLT will be dropped or downgraded in favor of MIA where they are #1 and already have an established line of flights to LAM. The only one I am a bit iffy on is the future of ORD where they are #2 behind United. I don't think it will drop off the face of the earth completely but I believe they will scale it down to a regional only or a focus city for both carriers. I think DCA will be downgraded to a similar setup to RDU where they serve both regional and main carriers with a few additional routes. FT is saying this will most likely be the layout so it turns out I was totally wrong, maybe: quote:Prior to any post-merger rationalization, the two airlines will have around 94,000 employees, 950 planes, 6,500 daily flights, and nine major hubs (American: Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York; US Airways: Phoenix, Philadelphia, Charlotte). Although the carriers promise to maintain all current hubs, Phoenix and Philadelphia are likely to be downsized in the post-merger “rationalization.” Belldandy fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Feb 15, 2013 |
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Feb 15, 2013 01:42
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sellouts posted:I gotta disagree here wholeheartedly. Oneworld has LAN which does a great job in South America and Cathay Pacific which I would put up against Singapore or anyone else. With Malaysia on board they cover a ton of Asia pretty nicely. Qantas availability sucks but south pacific is nicely covered as well. A great spread for your elite status to matter. Yeah, oneWorld has good Asia carriers but I think Star Alliance has better carriers - ANA and Singapore are incredible and IMHO better than Cathay and JAL but I may just be nitpicking. oneWorld Europe is just bad. I am totally unimpressed with BA whereas was totally impressed with guys like Swiss and Lufthansa. The only area I think they shine, to your point, is with LAN in LAM. I have no experience with Malaysia. Regarding the hubs, as said above, there is a TON of overlap with those hubs could really cause an odd structure. While I certainly HOPE they don't scale back operations in LAX or JFK, both of those hubs are relatively small compared to CLT, PHX, DFW, MIA or even ORD. AA serves relatively few routes in LAX or JFK. From a pure financial standpoint it may make sense to pull out completely and hold fort where they are already number one and have a large route base. AA's plan for a while now has been to consolidate to a small number of profitable hubs and in past mergers they ALWAYS migrate to the larger hubs. Take for example TWA, namely with the STL hub, which once served over 800 daily flights, depreciated to nothing in a matter of years in favor of ORD as it was larger. I think in both of the cases of LAX/PHX and JFK&LGA/PHL this is a similar sort of setup. But also as said, the "brand value" of LAX and JFK is incredibly high and obviously it makes sense for airline partners. So, I *HOPE* FT is right. My dream setup: LAX - JFK - DFW - ORD - MIA Focus Cities: DCA - LGA - SJC (Third times a charm) Belldandy fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Feb 15, 2013 |
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Feb 15, 2013 20:50
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I think we can all agree that SkyTeam = ShitTeam. Also I am totally pissed going from a mostly Boeing to a mix of Boeing/Scarebus.
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Feb 16, 2013 01:37
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TheLizard posted:Star Alliance has both COPA and TACA/Avianca in LatAm. Both are really good and cover a pretty respectable number of cities. Yeah, I flew Copa out of Panama last year and was super impressed, mostly at their alcohol selection. Plus I almost proposed to one of the disgustingly hot stewardesses on the spot.
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Feb 17, 2013 00:50
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Nifty posted:Hilton raised the points required to book a bunch of their hotels. I have been loyal to Hilton but am considering switching. At times I go to middle of nowhere towns, and Hyatt etc do not have enough locations for me to regularly book at, so the only other option is Marriott. I switched from HHonors to SPG and never looked back. I don't do nowhere towns really often at all but in the cases I have, I can usually find a Four Points around the area. Sadly those lack compared to an HGI or something.
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Feb 20, 2013 19:27
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How did everyone do this month? Just hit 50,000, slow month for me due to lots of cancellations and reschedules of meetings.
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Feb 28, 2013 03:52
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