Category Archives: American Airlines

Update- Citi AA Card Retention Bonus- Success!

American Airlines, Citi, Retention

I decided to call Citi one more time to try for a retention bonus on my American Airlines business card. The rep was very helpful and gave me two very nice offers:

  1. 2,500 bonus miles to keep my account open & do nothing
  2. 10,000 bonus miles if I keep my account open & spend $5,000 in 6 months

Since I don’t have any new cards to reach minimum spends on, I went with choice 2. Spending $5,000 in 6 months is not too hard and well worth 10,000 bonus miles!


Just remember when you want to cancel your Citi AA card-call and ask for a bonus to keep your account open & it’s never too early to ask, this card was opened in June!

AA Vacations: Piece Together Your Next Vacation & Chance to Win 100,000 AA Miles

AA, AAdvantage, American Airlines, Puzzle, Vacation
AA Vacations is running a fun promo. Complete a puzzle to reveal six offers, then book a vacation for a chance to win 100,000 AAdvantage miles.

Here is how to play:

  • Choose from one of six types of vacations
  • Complete a puzzle which then gives you 6 offers to pick from
  • Choose your offer
  • Book anny eligible vacation package for your chance to win 100,00 AAdvantage miles
  • Flight + Hotel package myst be $1250 or higher
  • Reservations must be made by March 9, 2012
  • Travel until August 31, 2012
  • Not valid for travel 2/18-2/21/12

Check out the promo here

American Airlines: AAdvantage Dining- Get Ahead Bonus

AAdvantage, AAdvantage Dining, American Airlines, Bonus
a car on a road
American Airlines AAdvantage Dining is running a generous offer:
The Get Ahead Bonus lets you earn 2 AAdvantge bonus miles per dollar and dine at a higher level
To earn the bonus miles you need to:
  • Register for the Get Ahead Bonus
  • Spend $75 at program restaurants by 3/31/12 & complete dining reviews within 30 days of visit
  • Earn 2 AAdvantagebonus miles per dollar for each subsequent dollar spent dining through 4/30/12 (and continue completing dining reviews within 30 days of each dine)
  • This offer is open to all AAdvantage Dining members. If you are not a member you can earn a 1,000 mile sign up bonus. (sign up here)

*The $75 dine does not have to be at one restaurant, it can be any combination of dines at participating restaurants.

Sign up for the Get Ahead Bonus,  Click Here

TSA Pre-Check Program Coming to JFK Airport

AA, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, JFK, Pre-Check, TSA

How would you like to go through a speedier screening process at the airport??? I am sure that we all would. The TSA’s Pre-Check Program will be coming to JFK Airport in NY this year.
(no exact date was announced) 
It is already being used at several other airports as a pilot program and open to select individuals.

The program includes no longer removing items like:

  • Shoes
  • 3-1-1 compliant bag from carry on
  • Laptops
  • Light jackets
  • Belts

It is currently available at:

  • Atlanta: T-South Checkpoint (Delta only)
  • Dallas: Terminal C, Checkpoint C30 (American only)
  • Detroit: Checkpoint 2 on the ticketing level (Delta only)
  • Miami: D2 Checkpoint (American only)
  • Las Vegas: D Gates First Class Checkpoint (American and Delta

The program is currently open to:

  • Frequent Flyers: Delta Air Lines and American Airlines (AA) have contacted eligible frequent flyers with an invitation to opt-in. Once the passenger opts in, the airline identifies the individual as a TSA Pre-Check participant when submitting passenger reservation information to TSA’s Secure Flight system.
  • Custom and Border Protection Trusted Travelers (Current members of CBP’s Global Entry, SENTRI and NEXUS Trusted Traveler programs are automatically eligible to participate in TSA Pre-Check)

Find out more about the TSA Pre-Check program here

AwardWallet- Not Really Losing American Airlines Tracking

AA, American Airlines, Award Wallet, Mileage, Miles

Sites like AwardWallet are extremely useful for keeping track of all of your airline & hotel mileage balances all in one place.
I definitely recommend that you sign up if you don’t have an account.
If you would like an invite to join or a free upgrade coupon (for first time users, 10 available), please e-mail me at michaelwtravels@gmail.com)

When American Airlines account tracking was removed from MileWise a couple of months back, I figured that AwardWallet would soon follow due to pressure (legal action?) from AA.

I am happy too say that this is not exactly the case for
AwardWallet.
I received an e-mail earlier today stating that they will no longer be able to store our American Airlines information/ passwords. They will release a browser extension which will allow each AW user’s browser to store the info. This will let our AA information to continue being shown with our other mileage accounts!

Here is the e-mail:

Dear Michael,
American Airlines has contacted us and stated that we may not access its website on your behalf and that we may not store any of your American Airlines account data on our servers. As a result, in the coming weeks we will release a browser extension which will enable you to check your balance and still display that balance along with the rest of your loyalty account balances; however, the data, such as your username, password, balance and any other attributes will only be stored in your browser so we will never have access to it. Also, this browser extension will be accessing American Airlines website from your computer and not from our servers. Since we do not have this extension ready yet, please save all of your American Airlines accounts and password in a secure place so that you can enter that data when we release the extension. Here are the accounts that you have stored with AwardWallet today:
Please open this page to print these account numbers along with your passwords before December 4, 2011. In the coming weeks we will release the AwardWallet browser extension to those users who wish to participate in our beta. If you want to be included in the beta, please follow this link: http://awardwallet.com/participateInBeta/

We will send you an email when we are ready for you to participate in the beta. Depending on how many volunteers we have we may not be able to invite everyone to limit the amount of support requests.
Please note that your American Airlines data will be removed from our servers on December 4, 2011. This will not have any impact on your actual American Airlines account or mileage balance.
If you have any questions regarding this email, please read this FAQ first : http://awardwallet.com/faqs.php#34
Also in order to avoid too many redundant emails regarding this matter please post your questions on our forum: http://awardwallet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1567
We apologize for this inconvenience, and we always strive to make AwardWallet the best reward tracking service.
Thank you,
AwardWallet team.
AwardWallet.com

If you have AwardWallet or plan to sign up, make sure to register for the beta if you want AA to still be tracked.

What is your favorite site for tracking all of your account balances???

CitiBank: "There is no impact to your Citi/AAdvantage Credit Card"

AA, AAdvantage, American Airlines, Chapter 11, CItiBank, Miles
The American Airlines Chapter 11 restructuring should not have much impact on future travels/ AAdvantage accounts from everything I have read.
The bulk of my airline mileage account is made up of AAdvantage miles & I am not too worried about their safety.

Today I received an e-mail from Citibank regarding the AA Chapter 11 reorganization:

Dear Michael W,
On Tuesday, November 29th, 2011, American Airlines filed for reorganization under Chapter 11. Throughout the process, American Airlines has expressed its commitment to meeting its customers’ travel needs. As a valued
Citi® / AAdvantage® customer, we appreciate your continued loyalty and would like to share some additional information with you about your credit card:
There is no impact to your Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card account and American has given its assurance that your American Airlines AAdvantage® miles are secure.
You will continue to earn American Airlines AAdvantage® miles for your purchases on your
Citi® / AAdvantage® card without disruption.
You will be able to redeem AAdvantage® miles for the same great flight awards, upgrades, car rentals and hotels and more, subject to usual policies.
Citi is committed to our longstanding relationship with American Airlines and to continually improving our products to provide exceptional value and experiences to our customers. We would like to thank you for your continued business and loyalty and look forward to serving you throughout this holiday season and in the future.
Should you have any questions regarding American’s reorganization process, please visit www.AA.com/restructuring.
Sincerely,
Terry O’Neil
Executive Vice President
Citigroup North American Cards

It is reassuring to hear from Citi regarding the current state of American Airlines. I am glad they looked into what would happen with AAdvantage & were told that all miles were secure.

I am hoping AA will sell billions of more miles to Citi to offer for even more lucrative credit card signups in the future!

American Airlines Files for Ch.11 Bankruptcy Protection

AAdvantage, American Airlines, Bankruptcy, Ch.11

This has been expected for a while…From what I have read, most do not believe it should have any impact on passengers. I sure hope not as I have a ton of AAdvantage miles in my account and recently reached AA Gold.
I wrote about it One of My Mileage Goals Reached- AA Lifetime Status 


I just saw this article on the main page of Yahoo:


American Airlines files for Ch. 11 protection

APAP – 16 mins ago

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The parent companies of American Airlines and its regional affiliate American Eagle are filing for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection.
AMR Corp. and AMR Eagle Holding Corp. said Tuesday that they filed voluntary petitions to reorganize, saying it’s in the best interest of the companies and its shareholders.
American says it sought protection to reduce its costs and debt to remain competitive in the airline industry.
American was the only major U.S. airline that didn’t file for bankruptcy protection after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
American says labor-contract rules force it to spend at least $600 million more than other airlines.

American Airlines Twitter Gifts

AAdvantage, American Airlines, AmericanAir, Twitter

A couple of weeks back I tweeted a blog post about American Airlines to Twitter. This led to a converstaion with @AmericanAir, American Airlines official Twitter Channel. After writing back and forth with them I jokingly (kind of) asked if they had any AA souvenirs to send a big fan. They immediately wrote back that they would check to see if they had anything & soon after direct messaged me asking for my mailing address.


I was wondering what they could possibly be sending me. It couldn’t be an AA t-shirt since they didn’t ask for my size and I also figured that it wasn’t a gift of AAdvantage miles. I was hoping it would be one of those small airplace models with the airline’s logo on the side…


When I got home from work the other day, a package from FedEx had arrived from AA. I excitedly opened it up and received three items.
1- AA baseball cap
2- AA red pen
3- Two AA wings sticker patches

a white hat and pen on a carpet

I want to thank @AmericanAir for the nice gifts!


To reach American Airlines through Twitter , you can write to:
-Customer Service- @American Air
-AAdvantage- @AAdvantage
-Europe- @AAEurope

American Airlines Reaching Gold Status- Bonus Choices

500 Mile Upgrade, AAdvantage, American Airlines, Bonus, Gold Status, Million Miles
a red and blue logo with a bird
I reached AA Lifetime Gold about a month ago. For reaching Gold status I was given 8- 500 Mile Upgrades. It seemed like it may have been better to wait until after the new AAdvantage program changes to cross the million mile mark. Starting December 1 2011 AA will be giving 35,000 miles as a bonus.

I definitely value 35,000 miles more than the 8 upgrades so I decided to call the AAdvantage customer service desk and ask if anything could be done. I was transferred to another operator that was more than happpy to switch the upgrades for miles!
She said to wait 24-48 hours for the miles to post.
I checked my account when I woke up and was happy to see the miles in my account less than 10 hours after I had called!
Now that is service!


American Airlines- Win A Trip to Vail & Beaver Creek

American Airlines, Beaver Creek, Contest, Vail

I saw this contest posted on Facebook. If you enter you have a chance at winning a Grand Prize 7 night trip for 4 people or one of five First Place Prize 4 night trips for 2 to Vail and Beaver Creek. Prizes include American Airlines AAdvantage® miles, luxury accommodations, ski rentals, lift tickets and ground transportation!


I’ve never won a travel contest but it’s definitely worth a shot & registering for it takes less than a minute.


Register at http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/vail_BCMarketingPage.jsp?anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=skitrip&anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=skitrip