Earlier this year I nearly lost all my American Airlines miles due to account inactivity. With AA, your miles expire after 18 months of dormancy and to reinstate them, AA charges $50 for every 5,000 miles plus a 7.5% tax and a $30 fee. I avoided losing my miles by subscribing to the Wall Street Journal. Had I not had the impluse to check my account, I would have lost the miles.

That got me thinking about my other accounts that I rarely use--such as Starwood, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, ...

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 ...

(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 ...