Lee Abbamonte
Try to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world
Airlines’ Checked Bags Policy
By Lee | 
9 Comments » 
There is no business quite like or more annoying than the airline business. It is the ultimate in sticking it to the customer and passing costs along to the customer. But now I will add it’s the ultimate in nickel and diming people to death. OK, I understand that fuel is at an all time high. However, I also understand that nearly every flight I have flown on in the past 3 years has been sold out or overbooked and there are far less flights and airlines than there used to be. I also understand that fares are as expensive as they’ve ever been too. So explain to me how the airlines are losing money…please, I don’t get it. But the last straw for me is this stupid new checked bags policy that American and now United have adopted.
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Mexicana to Join One World Alliance
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
After all of the recent airline turmoil especially among American Airlines, a charter member of the one world alliance, they finally have some good news. It was just announced that Mexicana will be joining the alliance as a full member in 2009. This will expand the alliances network by 24 destinations within Mexico and several others scattered around North America.
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The Delta-Northwest Merger
By Lee | 2 Comments » 
Not to get too much into the financial viability of this merger agreement but focusing on what this could mean to travelers, I believe this is a bad sign for the airline industry and for the choices that we as paying customers have with the airlines. It started several years ago when American swooped up TWA and American became the worlds largest airline. Recently the Merger between USAir and United was blocked and now rumor has it that United and Continental are close to some type of agreement as well. These types of deals may be economically viable but in the end they will end up hurting the little guy, aka the us-the passengers because it could create a few mega airlines as opposed to several that we have to choose from.
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American Airlines Flight Cancellations
By Lee | 3 Comments » 
So after reading the news the last few days I am sure everyone is aware that American Airlines has cancelled a number of flights the past few days. However, luckily for me I don’t fly to Phoenix until tomorrow but alas I called just a second ago to find out the status of my flight and nobody picked up-just a machine with a lovely message. “I’m sorry but your flight has been cancelled” says the machine and then it attempts to connect me to a person to tell me my options and as you might expect-all lines are busy. This is thrilling to me because I have no idea what my status is for my flights tomorrow and if they can reschedule me. Now I have to keep calling all day until I hopefully get someone on the phone and then who knows anyway. The worst part is I have an early 6am flight tomorrow and have no room for error as I have to be at the airport by 5am.
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Maximize Your Miles
By Lee | 6 Comments » 
Travel always causes a great debate for me. Should I pay for the trip or use miles? In general, I like to pay for long flights because then you get the miles and if you have status, for instance platinum status on American Airlines, then you will receive double miles in addition to the miles equal to the price of the ticket. Additionally, paying for flights will give you a leg up on re-qualifying for elite status for the following year. Obviously, this debate is for people who have a lot of miles and have status with an airline or would just like to get started.
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I Hate the Airlines
By Lee | 4 Comments » There is absolutely nothing worse and more frustrating than dealing with the airlines on the phone or in person for that matter. I just got off the phone with American Airlines who is acting as the lead airline on a split ticket I have with them and US Air to return to New York from Cabo. I want to come back a day early and they say that there is no availability on any single airline leaving Cabo for New York tomorrow all day. However, if I want, I can buy a one way ticket for tomorrow and be able to get on a flight. Now if they were full, how can I buy a ticket for tomorrow when they said they can’t switch my ticket? This is just one reason that besides parking ticket people and tow truck drivers, airline people are the worst to deal with because you simply cannot win.
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Save Money In South America With An Airpass
By Lee | 7 Comments » South America is a very big place and has a lot to see. Almost every country is a destination in and of itself. Some countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina are huge and cover a lot of ground. Other places like Peru and Bolivia have a lot to see in different parts of the country but have poor infrastructure and poor mountainous roads which makes overland travel time consuming, treacherous and potentially deadly. If you are on a strict budget or have all the time in the world then perhaps 24-48 hour bus rides are your thing (many people do this in South America) but for most people, that sounds like a nightmare. That’s why air passes are the way to go in South America.
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Safety Of Airlines You’ve Never Heard Of
By Lee | 3 Comments » After the crash of the One-Two-Go Airline plane last week in Thailand, a lot of people have asked me whether these little and discount foreign airlines around the world are safe and if I flew them. My answer is always an emphatic, of course I do. It’s very seldom that airlines crash and the likelihood is slim to none that it actually occurs. Understandably, people get scared and nervous when they read about scores of people being killed in a crash but in truth it rarely happens. It happens just as often to major US carriers as it does to small and discount airlines around the world which is hardly ever.
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In Transit at Heathrow
By Lee | 2 Comments » I am currently in the British Airways lounge in terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport. I arrived at 6:10am this morning and have been in London all day because my flight to Baku isn’t until 9:05pm tonight. Crazy layover but thankfully my good friend Morroni has a flat here in East Central London so I went to his place and basically just slept all day while he slaved away at work. He left work early and we hit my favorite London spot, Pizza Express for a quick bite before I jumped on the Heathrow Express back to the most hectic and disorganized airport on Earth. However, the British certainly do one thing right and that’s these airport lounges.
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New Travel Tool from American Airlines
By Lee | 3 Comments » DealFinder is a new downloadable desktop tool offered by American Airlines which allows you to receive automatic, personalized fare alerts and other information via your computer desktop. Once you download the tool and set your travel preferences, DealFinder will alert you about deals to your favorite destinations. By creating searches for your upcoming trips, DealFinder will also show you the current lowest prices and alert you when the price is at or near your target price.
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