Matthew wrote a great post a couple days ago about how he'll be making the jump to American Airlines for the rest of the year.

His primary reason for switching includes the following:

Frustration with United's IT System Integration More (8 on AA v. 2 on UA) Systemwide Upgrades with the Ability to be Used on Any Fare (United requires at least a W fare) Better Likelihood of Clearing with Domestic Upgrades Being Overall Slighty Disgrgruntled ...

Last week news started breaking out that US Airways has buy-in from the American Airlines (AA) unions to support a merger of the two airlines.  

So why would the American Airlines unions so agree to a merger?  And when someone comes out ahead, someone loses.   The answer?  Apparently Doug Parker has committed to the AA unions to just about anything they want and most important, seniority over the US Airways and America West unions.   ...

The Maldives are one of the most coveted destinations in the entire world. Located in the the Indian Ocean, not far from India and Sri Lanka, this collection of thousands of islands houses some of the world's most lavish resorts, most occupying their own island.

My fiance has always dreamt of going to the Maldives for her honeymoon, and with us being frequent fliers, I had to figure out how to best utilize our miles / points to get us there. I'll ...

As part of their ongoing 30th anniversary promotion, AA announced today that they were giving triple miles (or, more specifically, triple the usual amount of miles) for donations to the airline's two pet charities. So if you make a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® or American’s Miles In Support of All Who Serve (which benefits the USO), you'll get 30 miles for every dollar donated.

I wouldn't necessarily buy miles at $.033/mile, but for a donation (especially if you ...

I just got this rather disturbing e-mail from my company. It looks like we'll be switching to American Express as our Corporate Travel Agency. What does this mean for me? Well, I don't really know... I'm asking you! Does anyone else work for a company that forces you to use this? I wonder if this is as small of a change as just booking all the flights / hotels I want through a direct-bill service and not getting credit card points. Or is this more complicated? Am I no longer going to be able to pick my flight of choice? Does anyone else have something similar in place with their company? Regardless of how sweeping the change is, I can't imagine there being any actual benefit to me. It's humorous that a bolded benefit is "offline / online booking tools." Like... WOW! You mean.... I can book travel online!?!? Or by calling someone!??! What a huge benefit!

Dear flight attendant,

It's called a "mixed drink" because it's supposed to be served mixed. If I wanted bloody mary mix with a vodka floater, I would have ordered it that way.

Sincerely,

- josh