Happy Flier 

It was time for another mileage run to San Francisco (SFO) this weekend as I try to earn as many bonus miles as I can during the special January promotion period. This is my fourth tip to SFO this month.

The trip got off to a nice start: I spent the night at the Hilton Hotel at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. You may recall from a previous post that I had gotten a great rate, $23 a night and had paid for it in advance; my confirmation letter stated the rate was non-changeable, non-cancellable, and non-refundable. Given those stringent limitations it surprised me last Wednesday when I got a reminder email from Hilton that showed the rate to be $118. I called Hilton guest services, explained the situation, and told them that if it turns out the original rate was a mistake and they were not going to honor it, I understood that, mistakes happen, all I ask is that they refund my pre-payment. They called the hotel and found that it was indeed a mistake but the hotel would honor it.  So, I was able to spend the night there, eat breakfast at the hotel, and then take their van to the terminal.

Everything was uneventful. I spent some time in the Admirals Club, then boarded my 8:40 a.m. flight to DFW. Shortly after they closed the door, as I was getting ready to turn off my cell phone, it rang, I was getting a call from American Airlines flight status update. (This is a free service and is one of the best features American offers, you’d be foolish to not sign up for it whenever you fly on AA.) The update was not a good one — my flight from DFW to SFO had been cancelled. What do I do now?

I called the AAdvantage Platinum desk and explained the situation: they said they could get me to SFO on a later flight, but would not be able to get me back to Austin that evening. Since AA is also offering bonus miles to Los Angeles, I asked if they could send me there instead. The representative put me on hold — unfortunately I never found out her answer as I had to turn off the phone before she got back on the line.

If passengers has still been boarding my DFW flight I might have been able to get off, but once they closed the door I was stuck on that plane. I didn’t think that was too bad a deal — DFW offered me many more flight options than AUS did so maybe I’d be able to salvage the day after all.

When I got to DFW I turned my phone back on and had a call from AA, (this one from a person and not a computer!) telling me to call the Platinum desk. My experience in situations like this is that it is better to go to the Admirals Club and get face-to-face help from the AAngels who work there — they have always provided exceptional customer service.

I checked in at the club and explained my situation to one of the ladies behind the counter and was surprised by her response, she told me to call the AAdvantage Platinum desk to see what they could do for me. I was surprised because I had always gotten such great service from the staff at the clubs before — I’m not sure why this happened this time.

I called the Platinum desk and found there was not much they could do for me other than book me on an earlier flight back to Austin. I asked if I would be able to get credit for the SFO flights that I would miss, all they could do was tell me to call AAdvantage Customer Service which would not open for another 20 minutes. So, I did just that.

Customer Service told me that I would get the credit but I would need to wait until the next day when my DFW flights posted.

With that knowledge I went back to the ladies in the Admirals Club, making sure I did not get the one who did not help me earlier. This time I spoke with a lady who was most helpful and booked me on an Austin flight that would leave in 45 minutes. I took that and was back in AUS by 1 p.m.

I stopped off at the Admirals Club, when I walked in the door the AAngels behind the desk said, “What are you doing here, you’re supposed to be flying!” I explained what happened and one of them said she could not believe she had let me get on a flight that morning when the next flight had been cancelled. She looked up the flight information on her computer and saw the cancellation had come through at 8:23 a.m., a half hour after I had left the club.  She told me I should not have a problem getting my miles for the missed flights, all I needed to do was call AA Customer Service and tell them I had taken a trip in vain. That’s AA’s legal language for someone starting a trip but not being able to complete it due to a problem with an AA flight.

It turns out I was very lucky that I did not make it to SFO. My return flight was scheduled to depart at 1:40 p.m. but did not leave until 7:31, almost six hours late. It landed at DFW after midnight, long after the last flight to AUS had departed. If I had been on that flight I would have spent the night at DFW and hoped to get an early AUS flight the next morning. I guess things work out for the best after all.

Getting my miles

The miles for my DFW flights posted on Monday. When I saw them I called AAdvantage customer service and told them I had traveled in vain and requested the miles for the SFO flights. They agreed to give them to me and said they would post the next day. I checked on Tuesday and saw I had only received miles for the DFW-SFO flight but not for the return. I called again, the lady promised to submit the miles and said they would appear the next day. As I write this it’s two days later and I still have not received the miles.

I’ll call again today and if I don’t get the miles I’ll write to them on the website. I had a similar situation a few years ago when I did not receive the miles for a red-eye from Seattle to DFW.  After several failed attempts at submitting my miles, they changed my flight number to an earlier SEA-DFW flight and that worked. Perhaps the same thing is happening here. I’ll let you know what happens.

Update: I spoke to AA customer service on Thursday, the representative confirmed that my miles had not posted, said she would resubmit and would also monitor the situation and take further action it they don’t post by Friday. Today is Friday, I just checked, and the miles are still not there.  I’ll give them until Monday to see if they can get it right this time.

Saturday morning and time for my first mileage run of 2012. As I explained in my previous post, the first leg of my trip would be on Jet Blue, nonstop from Austin to San Francisco. After that I’d take American Airlines to Los Angeles and then nonstop to Austin. I was doing this trip to take advantage of the triple miles bonus that AA was offering.

I arrived at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at 6:30 giving me plenty of time to check-in for my 8 a.m. flight. Since my first flight was on Jet Blue I expected to have a normal boarding pass and not a Priority Access pass that I get on American, meaning that I would have to wait on the security line rather than going to the front as I normally do. The only thing I did not know was where I was supposed to go to check in.

My itinerary on AA.com listed the Jet Blue flight, so I first tried to check in at one of the American self-serve kiosks. That did not work, I got an error message telling me that it was unable to process my request. So, I went to Jet Blue and tried to check in at their self-service kiosk. Jet Blue had sent me an email confirmation that had a bar code on it which it said I could scan to check in. I tried that, no luck, it did not work. So I tried to check in manually; I thought I was making progress, it asked for my full name, date of birth and gender, the standard information for TSA, but when I completed that I got a message that I would need to check in at the counter. Fortunately the line was short and I quickly got my boarding pass for the Jet Blue flight, but not for the AA flights.

I cleared security and then had time for a quick stop at the Admirals Club where they gave me my AA boarding passes, and then went to the gate to board. This would be my first flight on Jet Blue. I boarded the plane, an Airbus A-320 and was immediately impressed. We had leather seats and each seat had a TV screen with Direct TV and Sirius/XM radio.

The leather seats on Jet Blue were very comfortable and featured more legroom than a comparable seat on American Airlines.

I was even more impressed when I sat down and felt how comfortable the seat was. While it did not have as much legroom as I get while in an exit row seat on AA, there was definitely more legroom than a regular coach seat on American Airlines has.

The in-flight entertainment featured 30 channels.

The captain did one thing that I thought was very nice. Every flight features the captain welcoming the passengers, saying how much he and the airline appreciate us, and giving information about the flight. We got that on this flight, but the captain actually stood at the front of the passenger compartment where we could see him rather than speaking from a closed cockpit as normally happens. Do all Jet Blue pilots do this, or was this his idea? I don’t know, but I thought it was a nice touch.

The pilot came into the passenger compartment to welcome us aboard the plane before we took off..

The four hour flight to San Francisco went smoothly. Jet Blue served beverages and a snack (cookies). I decided not to order one of the meal packages.

We arrived on time at San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 1. I had flown out of SFO in the past and did not remember a modern terminal. They have done a major redesign since I was there: I don’t know if Terminal 1 was an old terminal that had been renovated or was new, but either way, it felt like a brand new terminal. And it did not cause one of my met peeves — they actually had clocks in the terminal!

There were several locations in Terminal 1 at SFO where clocks were installed. I don't understand why more airports don't do this.

My American Airlines flight to LAX would depart from Terminal 2, so I followed the signs that would take me to that terminal. I was disappointed to find that although I did not have to go outside to change terminals, I did have to leave the secure area and would have to go through security again in Terminal 2. Fortunately my next flight was on AA and my boarding pass said Priority AAccess which would allow me to go to the front of the security check-in line.

They have done a nice job with the terminals, even putting artwork on display.

Apparently some consider this to be art. Oh well, each to his own taste. Regardless, it was nice to see them put this in the airport to break up the otherwise sterile atmosphere.

After a long walk I eventually made it to the far end of Terminal 2 where gates 50-59 were located. I quickly cleared security and as I was putting my shoes back on I looked up and saw something that I had never before seen at an airport — a Yoga Room.

I wasn't the only person surprised to see a Yoga Room at SFO, I actually had to wait to for other people to take their pictures and get out of my way before I could take this one.

Terminal 2 was recently renovated and is now home to American Airlines and Virgin America.

The first thing I wanted to do was eat lunch. I went to the food area and was not impressed with the selections. Really what I wanted was something like a Chili’s where I was familiar with the menu, or a seafood restaurant like those at Sea-Tac. I found neither. There was a sushi bar, a burger joint (named The Burger Joint ) It turns out that the airport has a high standard when choosing restaurants and, “The airport expects its food and beverage tenants to provide sustainable food to the greatest extent possible.” I suspect that requirement would stop many food chains from having a location at SFO. (You can read more about SFO’s high environmental standards at this page.) I eventually found a Mexican restaurant where I ordered a burrito.

When I finished I went to the Admirals Club. On the way I found that SFO has a special location where people can refill their water bottles.

I really appreciated this water bottle refill station, I wish more airports would do this. It was much easier than trying to refill the bottle at a water fountain or sink.

In addition to the water refill station, the terminal had one thing that more and more terminals are adding — locations where passengers can plug in their laptops, tablets, or phones to recharge.

This was one of several charging stations at Terminal 2.

In keeping with the modern feel of the terminal, they had some modern seats.

I wondered if this chair would be comfortable so I tried it. My answer: no.

It was also easy to tell the time in Terminal 2.

One of several easy to find clocks in Terminal 2. How hard can it be for other airports to do this?

I went to the Admirals Club where I was able to use one of their computers to check my email and also charge my iPhone while waiting for my next flight.

After resting for a while I made my way to the departure gate where I boarded the 737-800 for my flight to Los Angeles. As soon as I boarded I knew this would be a special flight — this would be my first opportunity to fly on a plane with Boeing’s new Sky Interior.

Boeing developed the Sky Interior for the 787 Dreamliner and has made it an option on the 737. So far it has delivered over 200 of these new aircraft to airlines around the world. There are several things that make the Sky Interior special.

The first thing you notice when you board is the LED lighting and the new design of the overhead luggage bins.

The LED lighting is more efficient than the lighting systems on older aircraft. The crew is able to change the color to match the outside conditions. It was a sunny day outside so the lights were blue to match the sky.

The newly designed luggage bins are huge, 25% larger than on older aircraft. I did not see anyone fighting to get their bag to fit, they all went in smoothly.

Amazingly, although the luggage bins are larger than they are on older planes, there is actually more headroom beneath them than on a standard 737.

Boeing gave a lot of thought to the panel directly above the passengers and used a new design.

The overhead panel features LED lighting for the passenger, a speaker above every row to make it easier to hear the announcements, air vents that are easier to adjust, and they moved the flight attendant call button (the blue button) away from the light switches so that you don't accidentally call the FA when trying to turn on the light.

There is an old joke about doing something that seems obvious. “If we were able land man on the Moon in 1969, why did we have to wait another 25 years for someone to put wheels on our luggage?” Moving the flight attendant call button away from the light switches is like that, it is such an obvious thing to do that I wondered why it had not been done sooner.

We took off for our short flight to LAX. I had a window seat, the middle seat was empty, and it turned out that the gentleman in the aisle seat was from the Dallas area and was also doing a mileage run take advantage of the triple miles bonus American was offering. He was also supposed to fly on my DFW-SFO flight that was cancelled. Whey they offered him the chance to fly on Monday he did something I should have done — he called the AAdvantage Platinum desk and got a much higher level of customer service than I got. They ended up booking him on a DFW to Chicago to San Francisco route which actually earned him more miles than his DFW-SFO flight would have given him.

As soon as I looked out the window it was easy to see I was on a new plane, the engine was still shiny.

He and I had a nice talk, it turns he is also on FlyerTalk and is making the trip several times in January as I am. When I took my camera out of my bag he laughed, we even had the same camera!

It was near dusk when we landed at Los Angeles, so the lighting on the plane changed colors to reflect the outside conditions.

We landed on time at LAX: I had enough time to go to the Admirals Club, relax for a while and watch the NFL playoffs on TV, and then board my flight to Austin where something unusual happened.

When a plane lands and pulls up to the terminal the crew makes an announcement, “Please remain seated with your seats belts buckled until the plane has come to a complete stop at the terminal.” Immediately after that we hear a “ding” and the lights come on, telling us we can get out of our seats. But that did not happen on this flight.

We landed on time in Austin, pulled up to the terminal and heard the announcement, but the bright lights did not come on. Very odd. After a minute or so I saw the pilot had left the cockpit and was talking to someone as we remained in our seats. And then I saw why. Two Austin police officers came on board the plane, told a passenger in First Class to get up, and then escorted him off the plane. I found out that this passenger had been very loud, used bad language, and when the passenger behind him asked him to quiet down he shoved him back into his seat. But he didn’t shove him by pushing on his shoulder — he pushed on the man’s face. And that is how you get the police to take you off a plane.

I was surprised the next morning to see that the miles for my AA flights had already posted, that used to take 2-3 days. That afternoon I called AAdvantage customer service, told them about the flight cancellation and asked for the miles that I did not get due to my “involuntary reroute” after they cancelled my flight. The representative took a few moments to verify what had happened and even told me why the DFW-SFO flight had been cancelled — the aircraft had been damaged in a bird strike. It may seem hard to believe that a bird can damage a multimillion dollar aircraft that weighs many tons, but it can. Do you remember the US Air flight that landed in the Hudson River a few years ago? That plane was damaged after it flew through a flock of geese. He agreed to give me my miles and said they would post the next day.

So, I got all the base miles for my trip (the bonus miles will take 6-8 weeks to post), had the chance to fly Jet Blue and a new AA 737, and got home on time. All in all, it was a good day. My first January mileage run was complete, leaving me four more for the month.