Traveling ‘Round The World…(But Not Just Yet)

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Posted at 5pm PST some 37,000 feet in the air:
Post 3: Have anything you’d like to talk about? I’ve got 3 hours left to kill on this flight and would be happy to tackle your questions about miles, credit card, or anything else under the sun…just post a comment or make a post at the DansDeals Forums AMEX Platinum Charge Card for sponsoring this free wi-fi session that normally would cost $12.95!

Thanks for the recommendations to check out “The Kitchen Table” restaurant in Mountain View. Unfortunately my flight to SFO was delayed and there won’t be time to rent a car and make it there for dinner, so I guess it will just have to wait until next time!

After dealing with dozens of AA agents throughout the day (including numerous phone agents, ticketing agents, and the 3 gate agents in DFW who kept on insisting that our carry-on bags were too big and had to be checked through to Hong Kong even though they fit just fine in the bag sizer at the exact same time as they let others with the same Costco carry-ons go right on by) I just have to say that flying Continental is a downright pleasure compared to flying on AA (or USeless Airways for that matter)
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Posted at 3pm CST in the DFW AAdmirals Club:
Post 2: Oh the joys of irregular operations…My advice if you’re flight i canceled? Stay calm. Do your research about alternate options and politely give suggestions to the agent. And know when to hang up and start with a different agent.
Here’s a timeline of my day so far:
12AM: I login and find that my British Airways flight in First class to London is canceled which means I’ll also miss the connecting Cathay Pacific flight in First class to Hong Kong. I didn’t receive any notification at all.
1AM: I speak with an agent who tells me my only option is to fly on First class on AA to Tokyo. AA First class is hardly a replacement for BA and Cathay Pacific though! I suggest a routing from Toronto to Hong Kong but there are no AA flights to Toronto that would make the connection and they refused to book me on Continental. They also rebuffed my suggestion that I book the Continental ticket separately to get to Toronto as you can’t switch the country of origin apparently. She offers to book me from Columbus instead of Cleveland but I would need to drive there right away. I tell her I’ll consider it and call back…
1:30AM: I try my luck again, but now the hold times are growing longer. It took 40 minutes to reach an agent who proceeded to book me on a business class flight. I was none too pleased after burning a boatload of miles on a round-the-world First Class ticket…I suggest a routing via San Francisco and after 2 hours it’s finally approved and booked.
3:30AM: The ticket wasn’t properly reissued. I call back and the system says the wait time will be 24 minutes. I stay up on hold for nearly 2 hours before falling asleep to the hold music.
9AM: I wake up and get on the phone again. Hold time to talk to an agent is over an hour. The agent sees what was done wrong (they changed it as if it was a ticket change which the system rejected instead of as a forced schedule change) It takes her 2 hours to finally book me CLE-JFK on AA in Coach, JFK-San Francisco on AA in First, and San Francisco-Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific in First. During this whole process I packed our stuff into the car and drove to the airport. She finished ticketing literally as we pulled up to the airport.
11:15AM: As we’re about to get to the counter they announce that CLE-JFK was being canceled! That exact same second I get an automated call from AA about the cancellation and that I was being rerouted via Chicago in coach.

Not having much luck so far today!

The airport agent refused to change anything but a quick call to the AAdvantage Platinum number and I was rebooked in First class via Dallas. It took the lead ticketing agent in CLE to allow me to check bags with just 25 minutes until flight time. They even held the plane to allow for our bags to make it on!!!

Bright spot about all the rebooking: Many times when you get rebooked you will earn miles even when you’re on a mileage ticket!
The downer? We don’t get to try out British Airways First class and their awesome lounges with great kosher food and even massages.
We also won’t be getting kosher food on any of our flights, and in First class those meals can actually be quite good at times. But we do have plenty of food, so we’ll survive

Anyway we’re just idling away the 5 hour layover in Dallas in the AAdmirals Club and then we’ve got another nearly 5 hour layover in San Francisco. It will take just as long to travel via the Pacific as it did via the Atlantic.

So are there any kosher restaurants in San Francisco that are worth leaving the airport for?
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Posted at 9am EST at home in Cleveland:
Post 1: My wife and I were supposed to be on an AAmerican OneWorld (Round The World) award ticket right now, but of course our first flight was supposed to be via London Heathrow, which is shut down now.

I hope to be able to give you guys an idea of just what you can do with some airline miles and hotel points, but for now I’ve got to find flights that will let us get on with the trip!  Wish me luck, I spent hours and hours on hold last night and this morning without too much luck…I’m going to the airport now to see what can be done.

I’ll keep updating this site as time permits, but posting will be lighter than normal for the near future. Feel free to check out the awesome DansDeals Forums where hundreds of people discuss and help each other out on all kinds of topics every day.