January 1st means the clock resets for elite re-qualification. So... we're all back to 0 miles. Thanks to an attractive AA First Class "sale" one weekend last October, I decided to pack a ton of AA flying into one month and then play the field for the rest of the year. Crazy? For sure. But nothing as insane as jona970318's 5 day back-to-back-to-back marathon.

So here we go... flying AA again and again in January to virtually re-qualify for American Executive Platinum status for the next two years... all by early February.

We start on January 1st with the last leg home from our Christmas trip to New Zealand. Our Singapore A380 landed just before noon and we headed to a quiet corner in the Admirals Club for a couple of hours. At around T-50, we headed out to Gate 44 and the bus shuttle to the Bus Terminal, yet another reason to start playing the field.

AA 5929
LAX-Denver
E75
3:00p-6:24p
January 1, 2016
Dinner

Granted that after 26 hours in SQ Suites, anything AA is going to pale in comparison. But like wearing an old shoe, it feels morbidly comfortable back in the mediocre AA saddle. Oh, joy... not one but two "emotional support" dogs today...





...and a clueless FA who woke people up while still at the gate to ask their meal selection, "salad with chicken" or "pastrami sandwich". No PDB until the captain announced a mechanical delay and then only after someone asked. In the air, she passed out ramekins of nuts but no drinks. Drinks came 10 minutes later on the meal tray. Chicken turned out to be the pecan crusted chicken which catering forgot to season today. On the other hand, the chocolate mousse cake was tasty.





Naturally, once done, trays sat on tables for at least 10 minutes as FA disappeared into Y to help out there.



On the other hand, she made two passes with mints, although I'm thinking that she forgot that she had already made a first pass.