Air Travel

My friend and I departed San Francisco International Airport on March 15, 2016, so excited to be finally going to Japan, a trip we had been planning for about a year. During our planning, we discovered that few people we knew had been to this wonderful country. 

Travelers with a stopover at Munich Airport in Germany can use the online “Stopover Guide.” Visit www.munich-airport.com/stopoverguide, input the date of your arrival and the flight numbers of your incoming and outgoing flights, and you’ll get a list of activities and sites of interest that can be experienced around Terminal 2 within your stopover’s time limit.

Many travelers return home annoyed or furious with their recent airline experiences, but I have to share with you my very positive experience with British Airways (800/247-9297, www.britishairways.com).

In taking the reverse itinerary of the river cruise “Eastern Europe to the Black Sea” with Grand Circle Travel (Boston, MA; 800/221-2610, www.gct.com), April 2-18, 2016, I flew to Bucharest, Romania, the day before the cruise-tour began and, following the cruise, disembarked in Budapest, Hungary.

My wife and I take frequent trips to foreign locations. We regularly travel business class because the additional room and services we receive are worth the extra cost. We also value the fact that, when taking an international flight in business class, we can use the business-class lounge before departure.  

It was therefore a considerable surprise to learn, when we checked in at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for a flight to Fiji via Los Angeles in January 2016, that we would not be allowed to use the American Airlines Admirals Club lounge there. 

In eastern China, a man at Shanghai Pudong International Airport threw a glass bottle containing explosives at a check-in counter on June 13, injuring himself and four others when it detonated. After throwing the bomb, the man attempted to commit suicide with a knife. Chinese authorities reported that the attacker was motivated by extreme gambling debts.

Those flying into London at Gatwick, Heathrow or London City airport can have their luggage delivered anywhere in the city by AirPortr (phone +44 203 384 6677, http://portr.com). A traveler can leave his luggage at the AirPortr desk in the airport, and it is guaranteed to be delivered within five hours or delivery is free. He also can have bags delivered from a London location to the AirPortr desk in the airport. 

My wife, Mary, and I traveled to Germany in September 2015, as we had been invited — as family — to attend the wedding of our former exchange student. The bride lived in Vechta, about an hour’s drive southwest of Bremen, so we booked a flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands, with the idea of (after a short adventure) renting a car and driving to Germany.

I deliberately scheduled seven days of unplanned time before we were expected at the bride’s home, with the idea that, once in Europe, we would go to a “last-minute-flight window” and fly to wherever. 

Starting on Aug. 1, American Airlines’ AAdvantage members will earn frequent-flyer miles based on the fare amount as opposed to the distance traveled. For each $1 spent, standard AAdvantage members each will earn five miles, while Gold, Platinum and Executive-Platinum members will earn seven, eight or eleven miles, respectively.

In making this change, American Airlines joins the other major US carriers, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, both of which switched their mileage programs from being distance-based to being fare-based in 2015. 

United Airlines and Spain’s Iberia ended flights to Nigeria due to difficulties in converting Nigeria’s currency, the naira (NGN), into dollars. Nigeria has a shortage of dollars, as its government has blocked Nigerian banks from accessing foreign-currency markets since 2015. Iberia’s final flight to Nigeria occurred in May, while United’s Houston-Lagos route ended on June 30.