US Airways Archives - asthejoeflies

Aug 13 2015

Thoughts from a Quick Trip to Las Vegas

I recently was in Las Vegas for a wedding and had a few random travel thoughts that I thought I’d put down on paper. Nothing earth shattering, but maybe a useful tip or two nonetheless.

Let’s cut to the chase:

Flying

On this trip I had the chance to compare two domestic first class flights, though both had their downsides. On the outbound I flew United first BOS-EWR-LAS. My major issue here? On the BOS-EWR, United was happy to have me pay $6 to watch half an hour of Direct TV (I was in the back for that leg), on the five hours EWR-LAS leg, there were zero IFE options. I know a lot of people don’t care about IFE, but I do and that was downright annoying.

On the return, I knew there wouldn’t be IFE, but I got hit by a bunch of delays due to traffic reduction in Boston. I was stuck in Charlotte for two extra hours, which I didn’t mind. What I DO mind a little bit is when they say that your flight is delayed to 4:40 PM and it is 4:45 PM and they still haven’t updated the time. I assume it’s some operational thing, but I’d love for someone to enlighten me as to why they don’t just tell the truth and say “we’re not sure how long this is gonna be”, or at the very least, update the estimated departure time to a time that isn’t BEFORE the actual present time.

To US Airways credit, the pilot was very up front when we were hit by a further delay on board – in fact he gave us the up to date minute we were supposed to be wheels up (from ATC) and it was right on the money.

A couple other travel related thoughts: Autoslash is awesome. Not only does the service just automatically rebook you into cheaper vehicles, on my literal day of travel I need to make a few adjustments. I just e-mailed Autoslash and they took care of it for me. It’s like having a travel agent that you don’t have to pay.

I ended up using a IHG free night at the Palazzo (and then paying for my last three nights). I was staying with friends and we had a bunch of various parameters so that was the best fit for us. Now we have my wife’s IHG free night floating around with no real way to use it, which I’m sure FQF will be delighted to rub in my face! Jk…sorta.

Oh almost forgot – when we landed in Las Vegas United wouldn’t let us get off the plane because apparently the baggage in the rear cargo hold was too heavy and they were afraid if people got out the plane would tip over. So many thoughts about that, but mainly – if they’re so afraid of the imbalance, was it safe to fly? Seriously never heard that one before…

Food

Las Vegas remains a wonderful place to eat. Some thoughts:

– We have a tradition of going to Fatburger. We decided to try out Fuku Burger instead. Mistake and a lesson – never try new things. 😛

– The Wicked Spoon buffet at the Cosmo was thoroughly underwhelming. We went for weekday brunch, but it definitely didn’t live up to its lofty reputation. I had read that it had dropped off a bit in the last couple years but we might as well have eaten at the Flamingo (okay maybe that’s extreme). Just my two cents on the matter.

– Anchor Bar is a branch of the place where Buffalo Wings were supposedly invented. It didn’t disappoint (and we didn’t have to go outside to get there, score).

– Carnevino remains one of the finest steak houses I’ve ever been to, though the markups on the cheaper wines are pretty nuts (5X). Still…what a steak.

– Grimaldi’s pizza is pretty good but goes down way easier than expected (four of us split two smalls but were still hungry). The sauce is slightly on the sweet side as well.

Fun

What’s Vegas without a little bit of gambling?

– A lot of the casinos only pay 6 to 5 on blackjacks at the lower limit tables. This is straight up horrible, the difference between 3 to 2 and 6 to 5 is significant for your bottom line (aka how much money you lose). I could only find $10 minimum tables paying 3 to 2 at the Flamingo and the Cosmopolitan (and maybe Harrah’s?). Venetian/Palazzo for sure did not have any.

– That being said, there are these new (to me at least, it’s been two years since I’ve been) blackjack machines where five people can sit down with a cartoon dealer. It’s not as fun as interacting with a real human dealer (well, the ones that are not robots), but most of these machines pay 3 to 2 on blackjack. Just check the pays table. As an added bonus, some of these machines even use four decks instead of six. The biggest drawback is that at a real table, if you do something stupid like try to double down on a twenty, your dealer will ask “are you sure?” The computer just happily takes your money. This is something I actually saw happen, except I think the person thought they were making a brilliant play. DOUBLE DOWN ON A TWENTY. Still cracks me up thinking about it.

– Don’t expect to win any money while gambling. Duh. So fun though.

– Parlays are evil. Soooo evil. Yet I still can’t resist.

– Roulette has horrible odds, but I love it. What can I say, I’m a sucker.

– We drove to the Palms to watch Mission Impossible. A good movie with the added benefit of only costing $8 for two hours of entertainment.

Final Thoughts

These were just some random thoughts from my last trip. Thanks for indulging me. Back to parenting!

Jul 13 2015

Baggage Charges for Infants and Toddlers – A Guide

Earlier today while Matt was gearing up for a trip with his family he wrote the following tweet:

Have to start researching bag charges to Mexico with a lap infant… No status and some cards- any other posts to look at first?
— Saverocity (@Saverocity) July 12, 2015

Nobody seemed to reply to him (or I don’t know how to use my Twitter properly, which is probable) and he got my curious, so I decided to look up baggage fees for infants and children.

When we were only dealing with one infant we managed to still travel light – two roller carry ons plus caddy/carseat combination were enough. It was a bit cumbersome at the airport but doable.

When our infant became a toddler, we ended up getting a car seat bag – in all our travels we were able to check the car seat bag for free (and stuff it with diapers and other stuff). At that point we still could have gotten away with two carry on rollers (plus gate checked stroller), though we never had to pay bag fees for one reason or another so we started checking bags.

Either way, I was curious whether checking car seats for free is a standard thing for all US based airlines or whether we had just gotten lucky. I decided to write it in the form of a guide of baggage charges for infants and toddlers – what can you expect to pay/not pay for when flying US based airlines with children and infants. And remember you can use a car seat bag like the one we bought as a de facto checked bag for a couple items in addition to the car seat itself. Feel free to let me know if you’ve experienced otherwise in the comments!

This stupid car seat bag is ugly and bulky but can be very useful

Alaska Airlines

Infant policy here, carry on policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Diaper bags DO count against the regular carry on allowance. So if you are bringing a lap infant that’s one less carry on for yourself. A FAA approved car seat/infant restraint seat can be brought on for free if your child is going to occupy it on the plane. Strollers can be carried on subject to space availability (space guaranteed only with purchase of a ticket for an infant.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked without charge when traveling with a child/infant. All other standard fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Allegiant Air

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Each fare paying passenger may travel with a diaper bag at no charge. Diaper bag does not count against carry on allowance

Checked Baggage – There is no charge for checking or gate checking both a car seat and a stroller for children and infants

Car Seats and Strollers – See checked baggage policy above.

American Airlines

Not the greatest website. Information on children and infants here, general baggage allowance info here. Also notable that they group children and pets together…okay then.

Carry on Baggage – You are allowed to bring an umbrella stroller, approved safety seat, and diaper bag on in addition to the regular carry on allowance. My guess is in practice they’ll make you gate check some of that stuff (I’ve never successfully gotten a stroller into an AA cabin).

Checked Baggage – It doesn’t look like you get anything above the standard adult allowance which means it technically costs money to check baggage in for your infant or child (unless traveling internationally on flights that allow free checked bags for adults). However since you’re allowed to bring a car seat on as carry on, my guess is they’ll let you check that at the counter as well.

Car Seats and Strollers – See carry on policy above.

Delta Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – It’s unclear whether a lap child gets a carry on baggage allowance, but I think so, since the website says “In addition to the one bag carry-on allowance, you may bring a booster seat, other infant seat or bassinet onto the plane as an additional free item (subject to carry-on size restrictions).” This has been my experience in practice as well. I read this as lap infants get one bag to carry on, ticketed children get the regular allowance adults get of course.

Checked Baggage – For unticketed infants, none. For ticketed international lap children 1 checked bag up to 20 lbs with a maximum outside dimension of 45 inches, for all other ticketed children the standard adult baggage allowance applies.

Car Seats and Strollers – You can check both a car seat and a stroller for free anywhere between curbside and the gate. They are not counted against the standard baggage allowance.

Frontier Airlines

Another airline that groups family and pets! Policy here. Baggage policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A diaper bag can be brought on board for free.

Checked Baggage – No charge for checked strollers or car seats.

Car Seats and Strollers – Stroller must be gate checked.

Hawaiian Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – If a seat is not purchased, no carry on or checked baggage allowances apply (read: the diaper bag will cost you a bag, theoretically). However you may bring a child restraint seat on board if there is an empty seat available for the infant AND the car seat bears the following two required labels:

This restraint system conforms to all applicable federal motor vehicle safety conditions.
This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft. (in red lettering) (NOTE: Labels that indicate U.S. or Foreign Government approval or show the seat was manufactured under the standards of the United Nations are also valid.)

If there is no space available you can gate check the car seat.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked free of charge (including at the gate).

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Jetblue Airlines

Policies here.

Carry on Baggage – Infant car seats are considered a special item – each customer can carry one on board the aircraft. Each infant is allowed a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Lap infants receive no checked baggage allowance. For ticketed infants/children, standard allowances and fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – Car seats and strollers can be checked free of charge at the gate or at the counter.

Southwest Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A child restraint device for a ticked child is not considered against your allowance. No mention of a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Child restraint device and stroller can be checked for free in addition to regular free baggage allowance (two bags per ticketed customer). I assume that means paid tickets.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

United Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – In addition to the regular carry on allowance, you may bring on a diaper bag and government-approved car seat

Checked Baggage – “The standard checked baggage allowance applies to children with purchased tickets, including infants traveling internationally on 10 percent of an adult fare.” The takeaway here is if you pay for an adult checked bag, you pay for a kids’ checked bag on United.

Car Seats and Strollers – United accepts one stroller and one car seat free of charge for each child. In my experience we’ve been able to check these anywhere from the curb to the gate.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is, if you have to pay for a checked bag for an adult you probably have to pay it for you infant/toddler/child/adolescent. If you feel you need a little bit of extra space, I think the car seat bag is the way to go. Also, it’s not mentioned in any of the policies explicitly, but you never need to worry about gate checking a caddy/car seat combination. Hopefully this list helps you as you plan for your travel with your young ones!

The caddy and car seat is the way to go for infants in my opinion

Mar 24 2015

Some Simple AA Credit Card Mistakes You Probably Know to Avoid

Update: Literally 5 minutes after I posted this, I got an e-mail from AAdvantage saying programs would start combine on March 28 (though no real details).

Most are savvy enough to have avoided these mistakes, but for relative newcomers here are a few reminders. Currently, you can get 100,000 AAdvantage miles pretty quickly with two credit card sign ups: the Barclays US Air card and the Citi AA Platinum card.

The theory is simple – sign up for the Barclays US Air card and get 50,000 US Air miles after first purchase ($89 annual fee not waived). Sign up for the Citi AA Platinum card and get 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3000 in three months. Once the programs merge (imminently!), you’ll have 103,000 AA miles, 7000 short of flying round trip to Hong Kong in Cathay business.

Guess I've got too many of these — Guess I’ve got too many of these

The problem is, if you’ve been in this game a lot, getting that Barclays approval is tough. Read some theories on how to improve your chances from Chasing the Points and Miles to Memories, then read about my unsuccessful attempt (I applied before I read either of those posts).

I made quite a few mistakes when I applied for my US Air card. For starters, I was applying for my third card. I knew it’d be a long shot but I hadn’t applied for a Barclays’ card for over six months so I figured it was worth a try. Barclays is all about the instant approval – if you have to call reconsideration you’re dead in the water more often than not. Especially if you’re going for your third card of the same product (and fourth overall). I applied and got the dreaded “pending” page, and pretty much was dead from there.

Let it be said that people have had success getting approved for a third card instantly, as I was informed on Twitter. Not me though.

@asthejoeflies Yep, got 'em in 2013, Nov '14 and again last Friday. Used diff offers each time (50k no anniv bonus, 50k w/ 10k anniv bonus)
— Brandon Hamada (@bhamada01) March 23, 2015

@asthejoeflies yes, wife and I both were approved for 3rd card last week
— James Storie (@JamesStorie1) March 23, 2015

Well, I realize now I could have improved my chances by lowering my credit limit on one of my other cards. (Those guys didn’t, but I could have improved my chances if I had).

Other mistakes not to make are not using your card or applying more than once every six months – but Miles to Memories more or less has that stuff covered so I’ll leave it there.

After I finally got my rejection letter I called in – they specifically told me they wouldn’t give me a third card. I didn’t push it too hard, win some, lose some. I figured an easy 50K with no work was worth a hard pull on my Transunion score which never gets dinged (except by Barclays).

Applying for the Citi AA Platinum is a bit more straightforward. Nowadays, it seems like Citi won’t approve you for the card if you have opened or closed another AA Platinum card within the last 18 months – so you can screw that up easily if you don’t get your timing right.

They've redone the look of the Citi AA Platinum Select card, but you still can't get a new one if you opened or closed one 18 months ago — They’ve redone the look of the Citi AA Platinum Select card, but you still can’t get a new one if you opened or closed one 18 months ago

Best practice is probably to open a card, get the 50K bonus, keep for 18 months, open a new card (Citi is great about moving credit lines around as long as you’re not breaking their arbitrary time rules), then close the old one (or keep it forever). That way you can get a new card every 18-19 months or so. I haven’t tried it personally but that’s what makes most sense to me (let me know in the comments if you’ve been successful or otherwise with something like this).

Note the verbiage in the fine print

One thing to note for the truly new players in the game: a buddy of mine applied for the Citi AA card but didn’t have an AAdvantage account yet. Currently he’s not sure where his miles are. Theoretically, AA should have opened an account for him but if they did he can’t find it – he also opened his own AAdvantage account after getting the card. Anyway, I think it’s just simpler to enroll in AAdvantage first and then apply for the card.

AAdvantage miles are still some of the best miles out there – get them while they’re still hot! Just make sure you dot your i’s and cross your t’s along the way.

Mar 17 2015

3 Days in New Orleans: Heading Home

I find airports the most peaceful at dusk

After a great time in New Orleans, it was finally time to head home. We had a little bit of a snafu on our return flights, so that definitely made things interesting the night before (read: a lot of time on hold with AA). Here’s how we spent our last few hours in town.

US/AA reservation mix-up

So really, this one is my own fault. I’ve written before about how I can be…obsessive. It bit me in the butt a little this time, I’ll explain a bit so hopefully people don’t make the same mistake.

Basically, I took advantage of the free changes to AA awards to search for better flights home. I found flights I wanted searching online and called in to make the change. The agent said he didn’t see the flight I wanted, which is when I made my first mistake.

Thanks to our flight mix up we had a little more time to explore the city

Instead of hanging up and calling again, I just decided to take what the agent was offering me. But after I changed the reservation, I checked online again and the space on the flight I wanted was still there. At this point I determined the agent had just messed up (I was booking US metal with AA points) so I decided to call again.

The next agent saw the space I wanted and switched our flights for us. Long story short, AA thought we were on one set of flights while US thought we were on another. I didn’t find this out until I tried to check in so I had to spend an hour on the phone fixing our reservation the night before we left.

Basically, if I had waited until one set of flights was ticketed before changing, it would have been fine, but I tried to change the flights while they were still on request so that caused the computer ever. Lesson learned.

Wandering the French Market

The upshot of the flight change was that we had enough time in the morning to go visit one more site in New Orleans. We were thinking about visiting the Mardi Gras or the Children’s museum, but ultimately we settled on taking a walk so as not to feel rushed.

The French Market seems like it would be super crowded during lunch time

We made our way back towards the Riverwalk and eventually ended up at the French Market. Unfortunately it was too early for the food stalls to be in full swing, but we had a nice time wandering around the flea market area. We even bought a Blue Dog print – M had become obsessed with the dog over the course of our trip.

I would have loved to see the French Market in full swing but that wasn’t in the cards. We took one last stroll down the Riverwalk and made our way back to the Intercontinental – picking up a muffaleta and a salad from Merchant along the way.

Flying Home

There are no directs between MSY and BOS on US/AA, so we routed through Charlotte on the way home. Our flights were pretty uneventful and peaceful, M fell asleep for a good portion of the second leg.

Staring out the window, I was just reminded of my love for lying and travel – we got to see a nice sunset and we landed parallel to a second US Air plane which was pretty neat. All in all a peaceful journey home after a great trip.

Final Thoughts

I never really thought of New Orleans as a family destination, but after this trip I realized that it has a lot to offer for both kids and adults. Though I’m finding as a parent that every city is that way – you just need to know where to look. Maybe we’ll go for Mardi Gras proper one of these days – until then I’ll be dreaming of gumbo.

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction and Outbound

Kid Friendly Activities

3 Days of Eating

Feb 19 2015

3 Days in New Orleans: Introduction and Outbound

Disclosure: I have credit card links in this post for your reference. None of them are mine, none pay me a commission, and there are likely better offers out there. Do your research!

So despite some dodgy weather, we made it to New Orleans! This was as spur of the moment as we get and a very toddler-centric trip so I thought it worth documenting. It also happens to be our first domestic vacation with M that required a flight. And I didn’t have to see snow for a few days. Winning all around.

Planning: The Flights and the Hotel

Booking a last minute flight can have its advantages. Despite (or perhaps because of) booking this flight two days before President’s Day (and, as I would later find out, three days before Mardi Gras), I managed to find three domestic first class seats at sAAver level for 50,000 AA miles each RT. These flights were all on US metal, which would lead to some problems down the road.

We had to pay $75 each for a close in ticketing charge – luckily I hadn’t bought my gift certificates to trigger my AMEX Platinum airline reimbursement credit yet. So I have already had $200 of the $225 in close in ticketing fees refunded. Yay.

For the hotel, I’d been looking for a good way to use our two free nights from our IHG Rewards Club credit cards. We used these two nights at the Intercontinental New Orleans – which was retailing fore $383/night. Not bad for keeping a $49/year annual fee card.

We booked a third night at the same hotel with 50,000 IHG points I had lying around from a cancellation on our Germany trip this past summer. No taxes and fees on top of the redemptions so I’m extremely happy with our hotel accommodations. I also just noticed that the IHG Rewards Club card is one of those Chase cards where you can get the bonus again after 24 months…hmmmmmmm.

Dealing with Delays

I was pretty stressed out about our flights since a storm was rolling in to both Boston and DCA (our connecting city) when we were scheduled to travel. The weather in Boston turned out to be no big deal for once – we took off on time and arrived in DCA on time.

Unfortunately, once we got to DCA we were hit with a two hour delay on our connecting flight – it took two hours for them to de-ice the inbound in Detroit. Wow. It did lead to a semi-amusing exchange at the gate that I witnessed.

After the Detroit flight landed, one of the pilots was talking semi-heatedly with the gate agent. He was like, “We just need 10 minutes!”. Apparently they were doing our flight to New Orleans as well. The pilot walked off huffing and puffing (I had missed the beginning of the exchange). The gate agent turned to his buddy and said, “See, that’s why he ain’t never gonna be mainline.” SICK BURN. Moving on…

Toddlers are Tougher than Infants

Although M was fairly well behaved on both flights, toddlers are definitely a lot tougher than infants. Infants are great – they just sleep, and eat, and sleep, and eat.

Even when a toddler is well behaved, a flight can be pretty tiring

M wanted to climb everywhere as usual and rip up every piece of paper in sight. We also had to find her food at DCA (overpriced!) and thanks to the delay she was overtired when we got onto our flight to New Orleans.

She fussed a bit before finally falling asleep on top of Jess – who was then incapacitated for two hours on the flight due to a sleeping toddler. Anyway, this trip definitely justified my decision to pay a little bit extra for a direct flight to CLT for FT4RL2. And we haven’t even taken off for the home leg yet.

Arriving in New Orleans on Mardi Gras

We had the unique experience of landing in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday. There were a few memorable situations we encountered while trying to get to the hotel.

First, as we exited the airport, we followed signs to “Taxis and Transportation Center.” Except, I didn’t see any taxis. We ended up in the transportation center which was just an empty parking lot.

So we backtracked, at which point I saw a taxi just kind of idling. I flagged him down and was like “Yo – Intercontinental.” He mumbled something about the police which I didn’t quite catch.

This travel bag is as bulky as it is ugly.

At this point I started unpacking our stupid car seat which we brought for the trip to and from the airport (I’m so torn as to whether we actually should have brought it or not). I’ve got this half installed in the car when this cop comes up and is all, “HEY! WHY ARE YOU PICKING THESE GUYS UP?”

At this point, it registers with me that the taxi driver had said something about cops when he stopped. Apparently he was picking us up illegally, which was a point I didn’t grasp until he was getting into it with the policeman. Umm………so should I take my car seat out now?

I’m like, “OK, sorry officer, but where can we get a taxi?” At which point the officer points me to the taxi stand that is like 50 feet away that I had somehow missed up until this point. Embarrassment city. Anyway the cop shooed the taxi driver away although we saw him cruising for fares from our legit cab five minutes later. Tsk tsk. Anyway, if you’re going to New Orleans and don’t see the taxi stand at first – don’t be like me – look harder.

The Intercontinental had given me special Mardi Gras driving directions which our cabbie ignored. He then proceeded to stop two blocks away from our hotel and point us in the direction that we should walk. Normally, I’d have been totally fine with this, except for the freaking car seat we were dragging in a giant duffel bag. UGH! To his credit, he was super nice about it and didn’t leave until he was absolutely sure I knew where I was going.

The fences were still there the day after - the day before this had been staffed by security — The fences were still there the day after – the day before this had been staffed by security

We made our way towards the parade route – unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) the parades were all over. We had to pass through a bunch of gates to get to the front door of the Intercontinental – they had staff posted at each gate to let us through.

At some point I stepped into a gigantic brown puddle thanks to being off balance due to a giant duffel bag containing a car seat. I was told that said brown puddle was hot chocolate. Wow. I really hope that was the truth.

Final Thoughts

It was an eventful trip, but we made it safe and sound (and mostly happy) to New Orleans. I’m kind of sad we missed the parades – but at the same time I’m not sure we would have made it to the hotel if they were still going on. I guess we could have froggered across? We’ll never know…

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction and Outbound

Kid Friendly Activities

3 Days of Eating