Yesterday, American Airlines revised its frequent flier mileage redemption amounts for some awards, increased some ticketing fees and took away some baggage benefits. But the worst news was that they removed the ability to tack on a free one way trip to an international award. Luckily, you can still book a free one way ticket in the US and I’ll share how on, you guessed it, United Airlines.
Have you ever been running so late that you’ve missed your flight? I cut it very close the other day on the United Airlines 6:35pm departure from Newark to Milan. I wasn’t able to complete online check in because I was randomly asked to have a United Airlines ticket agent double check my passport before issuing my boarding pass. I got into a cab at 5:05pm – the middle of rush hour – and didn’t make it to Newark until 6:10pm, well past the one-hour-before-departure cut off for international check in. If I had my boarding pass it would have been plenty of time. But I still had to check in, so I quickly scanned the ticket agent faces and looked for someone who seemed friendly and potentially sympathetic. I found one and politely asked her if there was any way that she could get me onto the flight to Milan. She initially, with a lot of regret in her voice, said no, but then I asked the magic question which had me sitting on the plane 10 minutes later: