Aadvantage Gold

I've been an American Airlines Aadvantage member
since 1990. Aadvantage is their frequent flyer
club and every time you fly with them, you get
miles to use on free flights. We used our miles
last summer to go to South America. We fly on
Qantas Airlines between the States and New
Zealand and because the two airlines are partners,
when we fly on Qantas, we get miles on American.
So today, I received from Lynn in the mail, my
new Aadvantage card, which is Gold status. This
means that I can get extra miles when I fly,
upgraded seats sometimes and free bag check in
instead of paying to check each bag. Not a huge
deal, but a nice little perk. Hopefully it will
come in handy over the next year or so.

What You Get

Today we booked our flights to Quito Ecuador, leaving from
Grand Junction in April and returning in July. We used Frequent
Flyer miles. To me, this is semi-momentous since I think that
the practice of airlines giving Frequent Flyer miles to the
average, non-business traveller will shortly become a thing
of the past. The airlines wouldn't dare take away this perk
from business travelers since this segment is the bread and
butter of their operation. However, most non-business, leisure
travelers don't fly enough to get upset over losing something
that they're probably never going to take advantage of
anyway. So who will this hurt? People like Lynn and I who
are somewhere in between. We fly roughly 25,000 miles per
year, which is not quite enough for a free ticket for
international travel, but too many miles to brush off as
something to be ignored.
Of course, I'm not basing this theory of disappearing miles
on anything but a gut feeling, so hopefully I'll be very wrong.
In the meantime, we're going to enjoy our free flight next
month. I hope it won't be our last free trip that we're able
to take using miles.

Left Holding the Bag

Of course this photo is a joke...

When have you seen a plane this empty lately???

Today I read an article >here< that American Airlines
is now going to be charging for each piece of luggage
brought onto a plane, beginning with $15.00 for the
first bag.

"AA says its elite frequent-flier members and those who
purchase premium tickets (first, business or full-fare
economy fares) will not have to pay the fees. The fees
apply only to flights within the USA and Canada".

"Additionally, AA says it also "has increased its fees
for certain other services, ranging from reservation
service fees to pet and over-sized bag fees. The
increases mostly range from $5 to $50 per service.
The company estimates that new and increased fees
announced this month will generate several hundred
million dollars in incremental annual revenue."

What's next?!?! I'm guessing that carry-on items will
be charged and soon each person will be charge based
on their height or weight as they arrive on the plane.
To save weight, we may be asked to strip down to nothing
before boarding the plane. Sound ridiculous you say?
Maybe...but charging for items that once seemed
untouchable a few years ago, such as a checked-in bag
would have sounded crazy a few years ago.

I've been told that this won't affect international
flights and all connecting flights to an international
flight would be included in the no-charge clause.
However, the recent trend within RPSC employees of holding
orientation in Denver for Summer and Winter folks coming
south will cause two separate flight segments...just to
get to LAX for the flight to New Zealand. Is Uncle Ray
going to eat this cost of paying an additional fee to get
our bags to Denver? Hardly. I believe we have seen the
last of the Denver orientation sessions and will be going
back to holding these sessions in Christchurch, which in
my opinion were a bit of a cluster. Either way, it will
be another huge expense and it bodes poorly for the USAP.