In the comments to a recent post about food (in which I wax philosophical about chili coconut shrimp), Mike and kd5mdk engaged me in a lively (7 comments long!) discussion about steak on domestic airplanes.

My position is that steak on domestic planes is disgusting. It's overcooked, difficult to eat with the not-sharp-enough knife they give you, and is never a decent cut of meat. For all those reasons, the meat tastes crappy and results in an unpleasant eating experience.

Mike ...

I'm on the tail end (sitting in the Admirals Club on the way home) of a long eight-day business trip to Stamford, CT, New Rochelle, NY, and Toronto, ON. So forgive me for the lack of timeliness on this post...

I left LAX on October 31, which happened to be Halloween. Before I go any further, I should provide full disclosure and tell you about my bias. I think Halloween is a stupid holiday. It has no real purpose, and is especially stupid when celebrated by adults. If ...

I'm sitting on an airplane right now, AA flt. 21 JFK-LAX.

Apparently it's very windy in Los Angeles right now, and my wife (thanks, a lot, my dear) just sent me this article from the LA Times:

Strong winds this evening forced one flight heading to Los Angeles International Airport to be diverted to another airfield,  said Allen Kenitzer, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. He said the winds, gusting up to 35 knots, forced two other flights to use ...

I have eaten
the chili coconut shrimp
that were in
the service cart

and which
you were probably
saving
for the guy sitting next to me

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so spicy

(apologies to WC Williams)

Lets start here: I have mentioned in the past that I've noticed AA flight attendants providing better service to celebrities sitting in first or business class than they provide to regular folks sitting in the same class of service. In other words, the FAs fawn over the celebrity ("Oh Keanu, let me get you another chainti...") and ignore the rest of their customers who also deserve hot nuts and frequently-refilled beverages.

But I disagree with NY Times columnist ...

I'm currently sitting on AA flt 1104 STL-LGA. I've got a few free GoGo coupons, and this particular MD-82 has internet (and DC power), so here I am surfing at 35,000 feet. (I don't have an altimeter in my pocket, but FlightAware says 35,000 feet, and I believe them.)

Anyway... here are my hot nuts, which I took care to photograph (with my new iPhone, natch) because the hot nut mix has been an issue of much controversy of late on AA forums.

As far as I ...

Thank you for flying PopeAir, a member of the OneWorld Alliance.

I spent the last year getting far more serious about airline status. Early in the year I learned about routing rules, planning complex multi-city itineraries, and other tricks of the mileage earning trade. And now I have top-tier status to show for it.

So what's next?

Now I'm looking to do a better job with hotel earnings. At this moment, I have gold status from Marriott through a promo. It expires at the end of the year, seeing as I haven't even come close to staying 50 ...

(Note: Hunter helped with this post. I might even venture to say that this is a "co-post" by both of us. Enjoy.)

Scott Carmichael is an idiot.

He's a writer at Gadling.com, and he usually writes about travel tech. (This gives him the opportunity to try and convince the masses to use the Zune. Like we said... he's an idiot.)

Today he posted a blog entry called Airline elite status - does it still have any value left? In it, he spreads a bunch of misinformation ...

As should be clear by now, I'm a pretty dedicated AAdvantage member. [It's not that I necessarily believe that AAdvantage is the best program for everyone (or that AA is the best airline). It's just that AA was the best program for me.] I'm also stuck with just one airline. I fly enough to have achieved top-tier status on American, and not enough to get status with anyone else. And while I'm glad to do a MR or two here or there to earn miles and perks on my airline of choice, I ...

Just checked my account.

A few hours ago, it said:

YTD Elite Qualifying Miles 99,836

Now it says:

YTD Elite Qualifying Miles 102,311

I now have Executive Platinum status.

Words of advice on achieving new status on AA:

1. If you have reservations for future flights that were ticketed before you achieved your new status, call the ...

Mike just posted an informative piece about AA's 500-mile upgrade instruments (colloquially called "stickers") that can be used by Gold and Platinum elites.

I wanted to add a few more details... (So read his post first.)

1. Those upgrades get more expensive ($35 instead of $30) if you have to buy them at the airport.

2. If you request an upgrade w/out having enough stickers in your account and that upgrade clears, you MUST buy the stickers. You can't ...

In a previous post, I shared my thoughts on whether or not I should get myself a membership to AA's Admirals Club lounges. So now for part two: How shall I pay for this AC membership?

As I see it, I have three options:

1. Business Extraa points. When I was last on the UPGRD podcast (episode no. 18), I discussed AA's Business Extraa program. Basically, the program allows businesses to earn points above and beyond the miles earned by their traveling employees. You get a ...

Let this be a lesson to you.

Start a spreadsheet right now. On the top row, put in the amount of EQMs you have right now. Then, in subsequent rows, list flights you plan to take (broken up into segments), along with the mileage you'll earn for each segment. Include mileage from double EQM promos and class-of-service bonuses.

What happens if you don't do that? You end up 134 miles short.

I flew a ton in the last month or so, during which time AA was running a double-EQM ...

I'm currently reading an interesting book by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. It's called Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. The book is basically about the ways that we can "nudge" people to make good decisions without eliminating their freedom of choice. For example, workers in a school cafeteria can "nudge" students to make healthier choices by giving prime placement to healthy foods. Kids can still choose junk food, but the ...

...That is the question.

Right now I'm an AAdvantage Platinum (PLT) member. In a few weeks, I'll be EXP (Executive Platinum, the highest level in American's program).

I am not currently a member of the Admirals Club, American's lounges. But I'm thinking about it. There are two issues here. First, is membership even worth it? Second, if membership is in fact worth it, how should I acquire said membership? I'm going to deal with the first question below, and the ...

American Airlines announced recently that it was severely cutting flights at STL, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, which is effectively ending STL's standing as an AA hub.

The move makes perfect sense. American inherited the hub from TWA, which left it with three hubs in the central time zone, and two within 300 miles of each other. Having hubs at both ORD and STL is just wasteful, and it came as no surprise to American customers that the bulk of STL's flight load was ...