Small Group Travel Blog: Expert Travel Tips, Destination Guides & Tour Advice

Here are 3 more almost useless facts about flying:

How to Get More Award Miles on a Direct Flight:  Let's say you want to fly from New York JFK to Los Angeles LAX.  You spot a non-stop flight that comes out to 2,470 award miles.  But you see another flight, a direct flight from JFK to LAX, all on the same plane, that has a stop in DFW.  Because the distance from JFK to DFW is 1,390 miles and the distance from DFW to LAX is 1,230 miles, you're going to get 150 more award miles than the non-stop flight, right?  Wrong.  On a direct flight (same plane but with an intermediary stop), the airlines will give you the same award miles as a non-stop flight between two points.  But there is a way around that.  On your ticket, change the seat on the second leg of the trip and you will get the extra 150 award miles.  So for example, Bob is in seat 14A and Sue is in seat 14B from JFK to DFW.  If Bob and Sue go online or have an agent switch their seats from DFW to LAX, they will both get the extra 150 award miles.  If that isn't an (almost) useless fact, we don't know what is!

Do Flight Attendants Accept Tips?   Of course they do, but most airlines frown upon or even prohibit cash tips.  However, if you want to give something like an unopened box of candy or chocolates from the duty-free shop, go ahead.  Another good idea are gift cards from places like coffee shops.  American airlines has a program where passengers can give flight attendants (and other employees) Employee Recognition Certificates that can get them cash awards from the airline.  Elite AAdvantage members receive these certificates which in turn they can give to employees.  On American Airlines, employees can submit these coupons and possibly win cash awards. 

Order Meals in Advance:  Don't you hate when the flight attendant gets to you and says, "we just ran out of the grilled chicken" and the only option left is the cold tofu platter? On most airlines you can go into the "manage my trip" section of their website and pre-order a meal.  In some cases, you will even be served before the other passengers.

Get even more useful travel tips and learn about our small group tours by going to The Traveling Professor website.