What Exactly is American's Policy?

Does American Airlines follow its own policies? I don't know.

In early May I was scheduled to fly from Dallas to Boston to San Francisco. The departure from DFW was delayed for a variety of reasons including no ground crew, fuel spill, leaking toilet, late incoming flight, and weather, among other things. You can read it all here.

My flight landed in Boston five minutes before my SFO flight was due to depart. We pulled up to the gate right next to my outgoing flight, but as soon as they opened the doors on my plane, the other one pulled away. It was at the gate next to mine, I probably did not have to run more than 100 feet to catch it. If they had delayed the flight for just a few moments, I would have made the connection.

I sent a complaint about this to AA. They replied with an apology, but added that passengers need to be at the gate 15 minutes before departure; obviously I was not. They added, "We certainly don't want to leave customers behind and I'm sorry things worked out like they did on this occasion. At the same time, however, we are doing everything we can to make sure that we operate our flights on time. Like our customers, we believe that everyone is best served when we maintain our schedules." (emphasis added)

Imagine my surprise then when I flew home from Chicago on Friday night, after attending a 2-day conference. My flight, 2491, was filled to capacity and was scheduled to leave at 7:55 p.m. However, at 8 o'clock, the pilot announced that the flight would be delayed to allow passengers connecting from other flights to get to ours.

Those passengers eventually did make it to our flight, but we took off 20 minutes late. So, American Airlines policy said that they could not hold my SFO flight last month for 5 minutes, but there was apparently no problem holding my flight Friday for 20 minutes. True, this was the last ORD-AUS flight of the night, but my BOS-SFO flight was also the last one of the night, and they saw no need to hold it for me.

This leads me to ask, "What exactly is their policy?" I don't know.

Mileage Run to a Lunch in San Francisco

I've been on several mileage runs in the last few months, taking advantage of American Airlines double elite qualifying miles bonus. This would be my final mileage run of the group, a one-day trip to San Francisco, featuring a trip into town to eat lunch at Fisherman's Wharf.

The day started well with a 6:00 a.m. departure from Austin-Bergstrom International to Dallas/Fort Worth. Those early flights are not fun, particularly when the plane is filled to capacity, but the senior flight attendant (FA) on board helped brighten our day with her announcements.

"It's 5:45 in the morning, and while we are at the terminal you can still use your cell phone to call your loved ones. But if they get mad at you for waking them, it's not my fault."

As we approached the end of the taxi-way she said, "We are about to take off. If you are still using your cell phone, please repeat after me, "I love you and will call you from DFW. Click'"

We're only in the air for 37 minutes during an AUS-DFW flight, which makes it difficult, if not absurd, for the flight attendants to serve refreshments to 120 passengers. The FA pointed this out when she said "This is a very very short trip, so when you get your coffee, please remember that this is a gulping flight, not a sipping flight."

Many thanks to that FA for brightening our trip. How great would it be if she could be on the same flight as Captain Don?

We arrived on time at DFW and I transferred to Terminal D for my flight to SFO. We were departing from gate 37; the last time I was at that gate was the start of my horrible flight from DFW to Boston. Thankfully, nothing like that happened on this day; we boarded and departed on time. I had a delightfully uneventful flight to San Francisco, landing at 9:45 a.m. My flight out was scheduled for 3:55, a little more than 6 hours later. Since I needed to be at the airport one hour before the flight, that gave me 5 hours to go into town, eat, and get back to the airport.

Thankfully, Googlemaps had helped me create my itinerary. Following its schedule, I took the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train from the airport to downtown, getting off at the Embarcadero station. I walked upstairs, crossed the street at the intersection of Market and Main streets, and took the F streetcar to Fisherman's Wharf. From the time I got off the plane til I arrived at the Wharf was less than 90 minutes!

The F streetcar at Fisherman's Wharf.

None of the streetcars in San Francisco look the same. The city has purchased them from a variety of cities around the world, including Philadelphia and Rome, Italy and fixed them, but kept the same paint job and design as the original owner. I rode on a car from Rome, some of the signs were still in Italian.

That streetcar (show above) was a tribute to Harvey Milk, the gay member of the San Francisco city council who was killed in 1978. (Sean Penn won the 2009 Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of him in the movie Milk.) Milk's picture and life story were on the inside of the streetcar; he was recognized for being a strong supporter of public transportation, and the only member of the SF City Council to use it during his time in office.

A seagull at Fisherman's Wharf stood patiently, waiting for someone to drop some food for him.

Alioto's and Fisherman's Grotto are two of the many seafood restaurants at Fisherman's Wharf.

It was a gorgeous day with mild temperatures and a clear sky. I walked to Pier 47 at Fisherman's Wharf to my favorite San Francisco restaurant, Scoma's. I've been there several times and have never been disappointed. The food and service are outstanding!

The entrance to Scoma's on Pier 47 at Fisherman's Wharf.

Scoma's opens for lunch at 11:30 on Saturday, but the bar opens at 11. I arrived at 11:20, had a beer at the bar, and was promptly seated at 11:30. I love fresh seafood, and while there are restaurants in Austin that claim to have fresh seafood, there is no way they can match a restaurant like Scoma's that serves fish that had been caught in the Pacific just a few hours earlier.

The menu offered a large selection of entrees, including baked fish, fried fish, and fish with pasta. I decided on the fried fish combo plate that featured jumbo shrimp, mussels, and clams. It was superb. The shrimp had a very light batter, so light it almost seemed as if it was not there, but they were still crunchy without being too tough, as sometimes happens if the shrimp are fried too long. The fish were served on a bed of rice and vegetables, with a side plate of fresh sourdough bread. Wonderful!

This is indeed a small world, I spoke to the people who sat next to me at the bar, they also had a table near me. It turns out they were also visiting from Austin, but would be there for a few days longer than I would.

When I finished the meal, I had enough time to walk around before heading back to the airport. So far, this was a perfect mileage run!

As I stood at the end of Pier 47, I could see the Golden Gate Bridge rising out of the fog.

These fishing boats, and others like them, provide much of the fresh seafood in the San Francisco area.

After walking through this beautiful area for a while, I took the streetcar back to the BART station downtown, and the train back to the airport. I cleared security quickly and went to the Admiral's Club for my 3:55 flight to DFW.

That flight was scheduled to board at 3:25, so at that time I said goodbye to the AAngels behind the desk and walked over to the gate where I noticed one small problem: no airplane!

I went back to the club and they confirmed the 3:55 departure. I asked how we could do that without an aircraft? They called Operations and found the incoming flight would not land until 3:41, so I waited. At 3:40, the departure board still showed a 3:55 departure for my DFW flight, which was very odd, AA is normally very good at updating schedules when there is a delay. The staff called Operations again and found my new departure time was 4:20.

That worried me. My layover at DFW before my AUS flight was only 50 minutes; my flight from SFO would not arrive until 9:45 (if there was no delay). Would I have enough time to change terminals and get to my AUS flight at least 15 minutes before departure. AA made it very clear to me in their letter after the DFW-BOS-SFO fiasco that passengers had to be at the gate 15 minutes before departure or they would not be able to board.

I boarded the plane and hoped for the best. My flight to Austin was the last one of the day, if I missed it I would have to stay overnight at DFW, something I did not look forward to doing.

We had a smooth flight to DFW. The plane was not crowded and I told the FA that I had a very tight connection at DFW; she let me move from row 20 to row 7, the first row of coach, shortly before we began our descent; that would save me at least 5 minutes in getting off the plane. We landed precisely at 9:45. I got off the plane as quickly as I could and ran to the Skylink station to change to terminal D.

I wasn't the only one on the Skylink train trying to catch the AUS flight. Six of us ran through terminal D to our gate; we arrived there 12 minutes before departure and were, of course, allowed to board and take our seats. Apparently AA's policy requiring passengers to be there within 15 minutes of departure is not enforced uniformly.

We had a smooth flight back to AUS, and I was home by midnight.

This had been a wonderful trip! I earned 7,856 miles and 3,928 EQMs. Once the bonus ends, they will credit me with an additional 3,928 EQMs. If my math is correct, I'll have over 50,000 EQMs once all the miles and bonus miles have posted, earning me Platinum status until February 2011. I also went over the 800,000 lifetime miles mark with this trip, 200K more and I earn lifetime elite status on American Airlines.

I also spent a wonderful afternoon in a beautiful city and had a fabulous meal. All in all, this was a great trip!

Mileage Run With Dinner in Seattle

Some of my recent trips have been the least appealing type of mileage runs: I never leave the airport, never see the city, and am doomed to eating airport fast food. Or, even worse, do like I did on my Boston to Los Angeles flight a few weeks ago flight when I ate overpriced airline food.

This mileage run to Seattle was different, I'd have a four-hour layover in SEA, not really enough time to see the town, but enough time to at least get a good meal. But where would I eat?

I started my research on Google maps and searched for "restaurants near Sea-Tac airport." Instantly I had a listing of over 20 restaurants in the area; in most cases I could read reviews of the food and also visit their website. Sharps Roaster and Ale House had good reviews and was the closest to the airport, so that was my choice.

The trip started nicely with a 7:25 a.m. flight from Austin to DFW. I've started many mileage runs with a 6 a.m. flight, so the later departure was a pleasant change. After a one hour layover at DFW, I flew to San Jose.

I love flying over the Western United States, the scenery is stunning!

I'm fascinated by the channel that a river can carve through solid rock.

A marina has been built on the lake in the foreground.

We arrived early in San Jose, giving me extra time to make my connection to Seattle. That flight would be on Alaska Airlines, requiring me to change terminals. I not only had to change terminals, I had to take a bus to the next one! I look forward to San Jose completing construction of their very large new terminal building which should be able to handle all flights from one terminal.

Alaska Airlines flies out of what can be called a temporary terminal at SJC, passengers have to walk out to the aircraft and then up a ramp to board. Thankfully, there was no rain.

We had a nice flight to Seattle, passing near San Francisco on the way.

San Francisco Harbor, with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge visible in the foreground.

As we prepared for landing at Sea-Tac, the plane flew over Seattle, then turned to the south for the final approach. Again, I got some great views.

The Space Needle was built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and is the most easily recognized structure on the Seattle skyline.

We passed over Boeing Field, where a group of aircraft await pickup by their new owners.

I hope to visit the Museum of Flight on a future trip to Seattle. A Boeing 747 and the Concorde are among the aircraft on display outside.

We landed at Sea-Tac and once again we were early. Every flight I have taken this year, except for the DFW-BOS mess, has arrived early.

Now that I was in Seattle, it was time to eat! It was a very short walk to Sharps: I left the terminal, walked to International Blvd, turned right, and walked another two blocks. In less than 10 minutes I was there.

Sharp's Roaster and Ale House is a short walk from Sea-Tac airport.

If you are a vegetarian, Sharps is not the place for you! This is a place for meat-eaters! I tried to choose between the chicken, sausage, and ribs, but could not decide; I finally ordered a combination plate.

Dinner at Sharp's Roaster and Ale House.

I got a huge plate with BBQ ribs, BBQ chicken, BBQ sausage, pulled pork, beans, cole slaw, and delicious honey corn bread. This was a lot better than anything I could get at an airport! I had enough food to feed two people, but I had not eaten since I left home almost 12 hours earlier and I knew I could eat it all. It was great!

Sharps is also a micro-brewery, so I ordered their Sharps Hefweizen, a German wheat beer. They offered three sizes; small, medium, and large, and I went for the medium. Their idea of medium is 22 ounces! There was so much food that I needed another beer and tried a regional one, Moose Drool Beer from Montana. I decided to go for the large, and got a 34 ounce beer. So, I can say I only had two beers at Sharps, I'll just leave out the part about them totalling 56 ounces.

After the meal I walked back to Sea-Tac and took a late flight on Alaska Airlines to Los Angeles. I slept most of the way there. The only problem with connecting from Alaska Airlines to American at LAX is the different terminals. Alaska uses terminal 3, American is at terminal 4.

So, I walked out of Terminal 3, past the international terminal, and entered terminal 4. I had to clear security again; I don't know if they were training new staff, but it was one of the slowest lines I have ever gone through, taking almost 30 minutes for me to get through. And this was at the special line for elite passengers.

After a short stop at the Admirals Club I boarded the flight to DFW and promptly fell asleep. This was the same flight I took after my BOS-LAX flight a few weeks earlier, and again we arrived early at DFW. Again I ate breakfast at McDonalds, and again I took a shower at the Admirals Club. At 8 a.m. my flight left for Austin, arriving at 9, I was home by 10 a.m. Sunday.

It was a long weekend, but I had a great meal in Seattle and got home safely. I earned 10,644 miles, and will get double EQMs for the American Airlines segments (Austin to San Jose, and Los Angeles back to Austin). All in all, it was a good trip!

American Gets It Right

A friend of mine is a chaplain who usually performs 2-3 wedding services on the weekend. I thought I would share this story that he sent me.

On Saturday, May 23rd, I completed officiating a wedding the backyard home of a fine young Austin, Texas couple. After the ceremony, there was a lot visiting and celebrating.

I meet a very nice lady who had just flown in from her home in Chicago. She was enjoyable and a fine conversationalist. Then, she told me of her airline experience.

When she got to the gate to board at O'Hare, a seasoned citizen in front of her was told that her ticket was not for 8:30 that morning, but rather for 8:30 that night. The 'would be' passenger was stunned and a bit confused. However, the gate attendant told her they would try to get her on that flight anyway.

Sure enough, after everyone boarded that Chicago to Austin flight, that particular lady was allowed to go ahead with her plans...almost twelve hours earlier than scheduled.

I was really pleased to hear that story and it made me feel good about that airline. It has renewed my faith in traveling. And, it showed compassion by the employees who were working that day.

The name of the airline? American, of course.

And the Answer Is...

I posted a review of the Great Circle Mapper website last month, and ended it with this question:

"American Airlines offers nonstop service from Chicago (ORD) to New Delhi (DEL). Continental offers nonstop service from Newark (EWR) to Singapore (SIN). Let Great Circle Mapper draw these routes for you, and see if you can tell me what makes them both so unique."

Answer: It doesn't matter which city you depart from, you have to fly north to get to your destination.

If I fly from New York to Chicago, I go west. If I fly from Chicago to New York, I go east, the opposite direction. With these two city pairs, there is no opposite direction, you always go north!

BTW, EWR-SIN is more than 2,000 miles longer than ORD-DEL.

San Francisco Trip - the Response

American Airlines has a "contact us" feature on its website; it lets users send a compliment or a complaint to Customer Service. After everything that happened on my mileage run to San Francisco, I used the feature three times. Two messages were compliments, one for Captain Don and one for the wonderful ladies at the Boston and Los Angeles Admirals Clubs who helped me so much. The complaint, obviously, was about the missed connection in Boston when they would not hold the plane for 4-5 minutes so that I could make the flight.

I sent my complaint message on Sunday, and received a reply from AA on Monday. The quick reply is appreciated.

The letter began with an apology for all that had happened, and let me know they were putting additional AAdvantage miles in my account. I thank them for that.

The customer service representative explained the problem with the late departure from Dallas, saying the ground crew had analyzed the situation and, with the information they had, thought they could fix the problem promptly; thus, other flight arrangements were not made. Anyone who has ever tried to fix their car only to find that something else was causing the problem can certainly understand that.

The rest of the letter dealt with the missed flight at Boston. The representative explained that AA has received a lot of feedback from passengers explaining how important it is that the airline operate on time. To make this happen, they have established a 15-minute cut-off time that says you must be at the gate and checked in 15 minutes before departure (30 minutes for an international flight) to keep your seat. This is done to give the airport staff time to complete important last minute details before departure.

The letter said that the whether or not to hold a flight for a connecting passenger is one of the most "troublesome decisions" they have.

"We take into consideration the inconvenience to those travelers who will miss their flight, as well as the impact to those customers who are already on board, the possible "domino effect" on subsequent flight assignments for the aircraft, the downline misconnections that may disrupt a greater number of people and the chance that we might miss our takeoff assignment, which could lead to a substantial delay for all the customers on board. Weather conditions, as well as air traffic congestion, also influence our actions. It is unfortunate that in this particular case our decision caused you such difficulty."

All of that from a 4-5 minute delay? If 5 minutes can cause that much trouble, can you imagine how much havoc the pilot of my DFW-AUS flight on Sunday caused by having us leave 25 minutes late?

"We certainly don't want to leave customers behind and I'm sorry things worked out like they did on this occasion. At the same time, however, we are doing everything we can to make sure that we operate our flights on time. Like our customers, we believe that everyone is best served when we maintain our schedules."

Let's take a look at AA's comment.

They say I needed to be checked in 15 minutes before departure so that the ground personnel could complete the last minute details. I believe that if they knew what incoming flight I was on, knew when it was due in, and knew that it would be at an adjacent gate, they could have checked off every detail they needed with the knowledge that I would be boarding 4-5 minutes after scheduled departure. I once had a late connection in St. Louis. They held the plane for me and I was the last person to board. As I entered the aircraft they closed the door behind me, and by the time I found my seat, put my carry-on in the overhead compartment, and sat down and buckled in, they had already started to push back from the terminal. That could have happened here.

As far as all the additional potential problems listed above, I can certainly see that for a flight that is delayed 30-90 minutes. I find it difficult to believe a delay of only 5 or 6 minutes could cause that much trouble.

Early this year AA announced they had adjusted their schedules to allow more time for ATC and ground delays. The adjustments worked: every single flight I had taken since February (and that includes transcons and trans-Atlantic flights) arrived early. Building spare time into the schedule was a good idea. Apparently, there was not enough spare time though for me to make my connection.

I guess AA and I will agree to disagree on this one.

San Francisco Mileage Run -- the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

My San Franciso mileage run got off to such a great start! Captain Don was fabulous and made my flight to DFW memorable. I knew this was going to be a great day and an outstanding mileage run! How wrong I was.

My itinerary would take me from Austin to Dallas, then on to Boston. In Boston I would get a flight to San Francisco; with AA offering triple miles on west coast flights from Boston, I had to take advantage of it. I'd take the red-eye out of SFO that night back to DFW, and be back in Austin at 9 a.m. Sunday morning. At least that was the plan.

My DFW-BOS flight was scheduled to depart at 12:35 and would arrive in BOS at 5:25 p.m; my SFO flight would leave 1 hour and 10 minutes later. I thought that would be enough time to make the connection.

The Bad

I went to gate D37 at DFW for the BOS flight. At 12 noon, we had not started to board. At 12:10 still no boarding. At 12:15 my cell phone rang, telling me there was a gate change to D40. (Why did I get the call? Because I had registered for AA flight notifications, one of the best services AA offers. It lets me know about gate changes, changes in departure times, etc. frequently before they are announced at the gate. I sign up for it before every flight as you should.) We all moved down three gates where a different aircraft was waiting for us. At 12:20 we were still not boarding; the gate agent explained that the plane had just gotten in from Calgary and the passengers were just now getting off. Uh oh, doesn't look like we'll be leaving at 12:35.

At 12:30 the gate agent announced our new departure time, 12:57 and said the additional delay was because the plane was an international arrival, requiring additional security measures. I wasn't very concerned about this, the new time was only 27 minutes after our scheduled departure, I'd have no problem making my connection in Boston.

What followed was an absurd period where Murphy's Law came true: anything that can go wrong will go wrong! I'll let the timeline speak for itself (remember that the flight was supposed to leave at 12:35):

• 12:30 - Passengers finally deplane at D40, our new departure time of 12:57 was announced.


• 1:00 - We finally board the aircraft


• 1:15 - We've all boarded, they've closed the doors, but the plane has not backed away from the gate. The pilot announces that there is no ground crew to help with the push-back; there had been a fuel spill at an adjacent gate and all the ground personnel were working that issue and would continue to work it until the EPA approved the clean-up.


• 1:20 - Pilot has good news for us, it was not a fuel spill but a leaking toilet at the other gate, so we will be able to get ground personnel to help us depart.
  


• 1:25 - Still sitting at gate.


• 1:35 - The plane was finally pushed back from the gate, but once the tractor pulled away from us, we did not move. We sat there for another ten minutes, and I was getting concerned about making my connection in Boston.
  


• 2:00 - One hour after boarding we finally taxied to the runway and were #3 to depart. But now the pilot announces that there is an Air Traffic Control (ATC) delay due to bad weather near DFW. The controllers are requiring ten miles between each aircraft, so there will be an additional delay until we take off.


• 2:05 - Pilot announces that ATC has told him there is additional bad weather over the Southeast, and orders him to shut down the engines. He apologizes for the delay.


• 2:10 - Pilot gets permission to restart the engines.


• 2:15 - We take off for Boston.

We were now 1 hour and 40 minutes late and I knew there was no chance I would make the San Francisco flight at 6:35. I told the flight attendant (FA) about my connection, she said she would see what they could do, maybe the SFO flight would be delayed too. The people sitting in the row in front of me had a similar problem; they were scheduled to take a 6:40 flight from Boston to Paris and it looked like they would miss it too.

Fortunately for me, I had downloaded an electronic copy of the AA flight schedule earlier in the week and saw that there was a flight from Boston to Los Angeles at 7:25, maybe I could get rerouted to that one.

The flight to Boston went smoothly and I was surprised at 6:15 when the pilot announced that we had found a 108 knot tailwind, averaged over 600 miles per hour, and would be landing in 20 minutes.

Twenty minutes? That would put us down at 6:35, the time my SFO flight was scheduled to depart. If they could hold it for a few moments, I'd be able to make the connection! Luggage would not be an issue, I only had my carry-on. I spoke to the FA as did the people going to Paris, and reminded her about our very tight connections. The pilot even announced that he knew there were people trying to connect to Paris and San Francisco and he would try to get us there on time for the transfer.

The Ugly
We touched down at 6:30. I turned on my cell phone and got a flight status update: my SFO flight would leave at 6:35 from gate 34. The FA announced that we would arrive at gate 36, the gate next to my connecting flight! I might make it!

As we pulled up to the terminal I saw my flight at the gate, the boarding ramp had not been pulled away, I would make the connection! All they needed to do was give me enough time to go from one gate to the next one!

We pulled up to our gate at 6:35 and as people started to get off my plane, I was sickened to see my San Francisco flight push back from the terminal and depart! Just as that happened, the FA announced on the public address system that the Paris flight had already left, but the SFO flight was at the gate next to us. Apparently, she did not see it leave.

This made no sense to me. I had told the flight staff about my connection; our crew knew what time we would land. All they needed to do was ask the other plane to hold for an additional five minutes and I would have made the flight. I don't know if they didn't ask, or they did and the request was ignored, but either way, I missed my flight, as did the Paris passengers. I can understand the SFO flight leaving if I was 90 minutes late, but cannot comprehend why it could not wait for just five more minutes. I can think of countless times that I have sat in a plane past the departure time as we waited for connecting passengers, particularly when the flight is the last one of the day, as the SFO flight was.

I got off the plane and went to the Admirals Club to see if the AAngels behind the counter could re-route me to Los Angeles. I had to wait a while because they were busy trying to reroute the Paris passengers to JFK for a flight to France.

The Good
When it was my turn, I explained to them what I wanted to do, they checked the schedule and said they could get me to Los Angeles, and then send me to Dallas and then home to Austin. Great! The only problem was they had the difficult task of getting my involuntary reroute correctly entered in the computer with the proper codes.

As they tried, I heard the announcement that Group 1 for Los Angeles was boarding, then Group 2. The AAngels tried a different code, but it would not go through. Now Group 3 was boarding. One more try on the computer, but again it did not go through. By now Group 4 was boarding, so the ladies gave me a boarding pass to LAX and told me I could get my additional passes at the Admirals Club in Los Angeles, they would make the appropriate entries to make sure it would go through.

I thanked them, ran to the gate and boarded. I was on the exit row with a middle seat. I started to talk to the man next to me; it turned out that he too was doing a mileage run, flying from Boston to Los Angeles and back. The one way ticket was on sale for only $79 -- combine that with double EQMs and triple miles, and it was an offer he could not refuse. In fact, he was also going to do the trip again on the next two weekends.

We had a smooth flight to Los Angeles as my new friend and I traded mileage run stories and solved all the problems of the world for the next six hours. We parted ways at Los Angeles and I went to the Admirals Club.

The AAngel there was able to issue me my boarding passes back to Austin. At 12:10 a.m. I was on a flight back to DFW.

We landed 15 minutes early at 4:45 a.m. At 5:00 the McDonalds in the food court opened and I was able to get my first meal in quite a while. At 5:30 the Admirals Club opened and I was able to take a long hot shower. After all that had gone on, it felt great!

My flight to Austin was scheduled to depart DFW at 8:00 a.m. We boarded and waited for our departure. At 7:55, the FA announced that there would be a delay. After all the delays the day before, I wondered what the reason could be this time. I have to admit I was not expecting what she said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be delayed until we can find a pilot. He was supposed to be here by now but isn't. We'll wait for him but will also try to find another pilot to get us to Austin." No pilot? That's a new one!

At 8:10 he arrived and we took off at 8:25, landing in Austin shortly after 9 a.m. The Good-Bad-Ugly mileage run was over. The delay in Dallas was bad, the missed connection in Boston was ugly, but the assistance from the ladies at the Admirals Club was very good!

It was a tiring and frustrating weekend. But, if my math is correct, I earned almost 13,000 EQMs and over 15,000 total miles. That was worth it. I now have enough miles in my AAdvantage account that I could tell me wife to look at the AA flight schedule and choose where in the world to go for her birthday. We have enough miles to fly anywhere on the OneWorld system in either First Class or Business Class. That makes it all worthwhile to me!

Welcome to the World of Captain Don!

Some people go to work just to work. Others love their job and do their best to spread good times to everyone around them. The pilot on my AUS-DFW flight today is in the second category. In the category? Heck, he OWNS that category!

We've all heard the boring announcements from the flight deck on every flight, as the Captain welcomes us on board, tells us the flying time to our destination, reminds us not to smoke, etc. Sometimes it sounds like he can hardly wait to finish the speech, but not my pilot today.

As we sat at the AUS terminal, we heard the following. "Good morning everyone, this is your captain speaking." Five seconds of silence and then, "Oh my gosh, that sounds so cool that I have to say it again! Good morning everyone, this is your captain speaking."

"Welcome aboard flight 1959, but that sounds so boring that we'll just call this flight The Scooter. Welcome aboard The Scooter! I am Captain Don."

"As you look out the right side of the aircraft, you will see a group of burly men jumping up and down on your luggage. Don't be concerned, this is normal procedure. At American Airlines we believe in the pizza box philosophy of luggage; the flatter we can make it, the easier it will be for us to load."

Plainly, this was not your average AA pilot.

As we backed away from the terminal, he continued. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have completed the most harrowing part of our flight, backing away from the gate in Austin. We're now ready for our short 42 minute flight to DFW aboard The Scooter."

When we got to the end of the runway Captain Don said, "Ladies and gentlemen, The Scooter is now number one for departure. Please sit back with your seatbelts securely fastened as I attempt to get 113,000 pounds of aluminum, nuts and bolts into the air!"

This was great stuff. Sadly, Captain Don was quiet during the flight. This may be because it is such a short flight; not long after leaving Austin it's time to get in line to land at DFW. It wasn't long before we arrived at DFW and had one of the smoothest touchdowns I have had in a long time. This guy knows how to fly!

As we taxied to the terminal, Captain Don said, "Ladies and gentlemen, The Scooter has landed! Welcome to Dallas/Fort Worth airport. We hope you had an enjoyable flight and thank you for flying American. Please tell all of your family, everyone you know, your friends and neighbors, and if you run out of them go to the shopping mall and grab strangers and tell them that you flew The Scooter!" Everyone enjoyed that, we all applauded.

As we got off the plane Captain Don did something I rarely see: he stood in the cockpit door and, with a big smile on his face, thanked every single passenger for flying The Scooter. This was not the standard automaton-like "thank you, thank you" that we usually get; it was obvious that Captain Don was speaking from his heart and meant every word of it.

I wish there were more pilots like Captain Don, he truly made my flight, short as it was, enjoyable. Thank you sir!

Great Circle Mapper Shows Your Route on a Round World

For years, cartographers (map makers) were faced with a challenge: how can they accurately depict a round planet Earth on a flat piece of paper? That was not a problem for short distances, but when the early explorers started to travel around the world, that became a problem. Their maps were flat but the world wasn't, and therein lies the problem.

Fast forward several hundred years to the 21st century as we fly around the world and have the same issues.

It's easy to figure out the route for a flight from New York to Chicago, go west. Miami to Boston is pretty easy too, go north. But what about a longer flight, such as Los Angeles to Hong Kong? The route may not be as obvious as it seems. When looking at a flat piece of paper, it's not easy to determine the great circle route between two locations. What is a great circle route? Answers.com defines it as "A segment of such a circle representing the shortest distance between two terrestrial points."

I have found a fabulous website that can help, Great Circle Mapper (http://gc.kls2.com/), where you can enter your itinerary and quickly get a map showing the great circle route that you would follow on that trip.

The main page of Great Circle Mapper features an easy-to-use interface.

When you get to the front page, you enter the route that you are interested in. You can enter it using the airport abbreviation (Chicago O'Hare = ORD) or you can use the name of the city. If the city has more than one airport, you will get a list of the airports in that area and can select the appropriate one.

The itinerary I have entered above is Dallas-New York-Chicago-Dallas (DFW-JFK-ORD-DFW).

The map of the DFW-JFK-ORD-DFW route.

Great Circle Mapper provided the map above, showing the route, the mileage for each leg, and the initial heading that the aircraft will take. Is this the exact route the flight will take? No. Weather problems and Air Traffic Control issues could send you on another path, but you do get a pretty good idea of what the ideal route is.

As I mentioned, this itinerary does not cover a very great distance, so you could probably draw this same map route on a map of the United States. Great Circle Mapper shines however on long-distance itineraries. Let's look at a long-distance flight: Chicago to Frankfurt.

Chicago to Frankfurt route

The map above shows two different routes. The one in black (which I added) is the straight line route that I would draw if doing this on a flat map. The path in red is the great circle route that Great Circle Mapper has drawn. It is a much shorter route than the one in black, although it may not look it on a flat map.

Dallas to Tokyo route

The difference between the great circle route and a straight line on a flat map is even more pronounced as the flight gets longer. Here is the route from Dallas to Tokyo. If I were to draw this on a flat map, I probably would not have the flight going near Alaska, but that is indeed the shortest route.

Los Angeles to Frankfurt route

The curvature of the route is very evident on a trip from Los Angeles to Frankfurt.

Great Circle Mapper provides more information that just the route. If you click on the name of an airport, you'll get an a page with a great amount of information about that airport, including location (exact latitude and longitude), elevation, time, weather, an airport chart, and number and length of the runways.

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport information

Here is the information for the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) airport, where the longest runway is 13.402 feet (4,085 meters).

Great Circle Mapper has one other feature that I find interesting: What is the most distant place on earth from that airport?

The most distant location from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

From Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the most distant location is Plaine Corail, on Rodrigues Island, in Mauritius, 10,930 miles away. The most distant location from Logan Airport in Boston is Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia, 11,763 miles away. This feature could come in handy the next time your co-worker says they would really like to get away to some place distant, or you can use it to win a bar bet.

I enjoy knowing the route my flight will take so I always visit this before I take a trip. Give Great Circle Mapper a try, it's a great travel tool.

When you visit, see if you can get the answer to this question: American Airlines offers nonstop service from Chicago (ORD) to New Delhi (DEL). Continental offers nonstop service from Newark (EWR) to Singapore (SIN). Let Great Circle Mapper draw these routes for you, and see if you can tell me what makes them both so unique. I'll post the answer next week.

Yes, You Can Eat Well During a Mileage Run

I have three mileage runs scheduled from now until June 6: between them all I'll be stopping in Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Dallas/Fort Worth. Since the airlines no longer serve meals on the flights (unless I want to pay $10 for something worth $4), I try to look elsewhere for food.

On some mileage runs, my only options will be the food served in the terminal. Sometimes, that can be very good! I've had some good meals at the seafood restaurants at Seatac airport in Seattle. A few weeks ago I ate well at the On The Border in the Los Angeles terminal. Other times I have not been as lucky and have ended up getting a frozen ice cream from the McDonalds at O'Hare, or the cookies in the Admirals Club. However, on a trip where I never leave the airport, miles are my main goal, not food.

There are some trips however where I have time to leave the airport and that's when I'll look for a good meal. Since we have some good food here in Central Texas, I'll look for something I can't get at home, such as very fresh seafood, genuine Italian food, etc.

Later this month I have a four-hour layover in Seattle. Too much time to just sit in the terminal, but not enough time to take the bus downtown and eat at one of the many fine restaurants near Pikes Market. So, what do I do?

The answer is simple: Google! I went to GoogleMaps and entered "restaurants near Seatac airport" as my search term. In just a few seconds I had a list of hundreds of restaurants that I could sort by distance, cuisine, or user rating. It can't get any easier than that! I am narrowing down my choices, and it looks like I should have a pretty easy time getting a good meal and still get back to the terminal in time for my return flight.

A few weeks later I have a six hour layover in San Francisco, more than enough time to get into town. I looked at the website for BART, the local transit system. It is very user friendly, letting me plan my itinerary by departure and arrival time. I chose the Embarcadero station, and used "restaurants near Embarcadero BART station San Francisco" as my GoogleMaps search term. Since this is Google, I got back a ridiculous 143,000 results, but the first 30 or 40 will give me a multitude of choices. On the first page alone I found restaurants serving Italian, Chinese, Korean, Mexican, Thai, French, and American cuisine. (I also found McDonald's! haha) Now I just have to narrow down my choices.

So, if you are taking a mileage run and have enough time to leave the terminal but don't know where to go for food, remember to use GoogleMaps and search for restaurants near the airport. You'll be amazed at the choices you get.

Bon Appetit!