Air Travel

On a trip to Japan with our granddaughter in March-April 2014, my husband, Mike, and I flew United Airlines and learned a number of lessons that may help us during and after future flights.

• When checking in for a flight at an airline’s check-in counter or kiosk, double-check all boarding passes for the members of your party to make sure they are accurate and complete for all legs of your journey. Do this before leaving the counter. In fact, print out all boarding passes at home before your departure so there is ample time to inspect them.

Dear Globetrotter:

In the letter “Issues with Global Entry” (Dec. ’14, pg. 51), a traveler enrolled in the Global Entry program wondered why she and her husband rarely were assigned TSA Pre√TM (Pre-check) status for easier security clearance for domestic flights. In answer, another traveler noted that members had to use the correct series of numbers from their Global Entry cards (Feb. ’15, pg. 14).

There’s another common reason many people often don’t receive Pre√ status on US flights. 

Preparing to fly back to the US from our second trip to Japan in 2014, my husband, Clyde, and I were at Narita International Airport on Dec. 16. While waiting for the United Airlines check-in counter to open, we saw a new rule posted above each of United’s couple dozen check-in stations: all checked luggage had to be left unlocked, even bags with TSA locks.

This caused us much concern until we spoke to an agent at the check-in desk and learned of an easy solution.

Through a travel agent, my wife and I scheduled a US Airways flight for Nov. 19, 2014, traveling from Detroit to Philadelphia and then to Rome, with the return along the same route on Dec. 3. 

After receiving our confirmation number, we went onto US Airways’ website (www.usairways.com) on our own and upgraded our seats from economy class to Economy Choice. Our move was from aisle seats in row 14 to aisle seats in row 10.

A Germanwings flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed in the French Alps on March 24, killing all 150 people on board, including three US citizens. 

Radar data showed that, about 40 minutes into the flight, the plane rapidly descended from a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet to 6,175 feet, at which point it struck the side of a mountain. The copilot, who had been treated for depression in the past, is suspected of deliberately crashing the plane in a murder/suicide event. 

China now allows 72-hour visa-free stays in an ever-increasing number of cities: Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Guangzhou, Guilin, Hangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai, Shenyang and Xi’an. My husband, John, and I made use of this to visit Shanghai. 

Think of this visa as an extended-time transit visa. 

On March 15, 2015, I had just competed back-to-back group tours and was continuing traveling on my own, scheduled for a 5-day adventure at Angel Falls. (I fly a lot in premium class, and putting many trips together saves airfare.)

At the international airport in Lima, Peru, I was preparing to board an Avianca flight to Bogotá, Colombia, and on to Caracas, Venezuela, when two men at Avianca’s check-in counter told me that Venezuela had become restrictive on visas and recommended that I not try to go there, since I did not have a visa.

Members of AirAsia’s “BIGshot” frequent-flyer program can purchase an ASEAN Pass for MYR499 (near $138) or an ASEAN Pass + for MYR888.

Each pass has a value in “credits,” 10 for the ASEAN Pass, 20 for the ASEAN Pass +. For flights to any AirAsia destination in the 10-country ASEAN region (which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), each route costs from one to five credits.