Folks there is a lot more involved than these simple tips.

First "calling or arrival and departure times"...."if your plane is supposed to dapart from ORD in two hours and the plane is still in New York, you're not leaving on time!"....not always TRUE!! It is very common place especially in hub cities to replace the inbound aircraft with one that's already in ORD......flights are swapped frequently in hub cities just for this reason. If an inbound flight is 3 to 4 hours late on arrival there's likely chance that the airline will swap equipment (if avail.) Now if you call and the agent tells you that your flight is stuck in LGA and will be at least two hours late...don't use this as guidence for your departure time! You could be missing out on a "ship change". This also goes for comparing arrivals and departures....If the airlines are working behind the scenes for possible solutions they are not going to post a flight as being delayed! Once a delay is posted passengers then will not be in the gatehouse until the new time of departure. If an equipment swap takes place these people are left high and dry.

"The Secret Rule 240"...what the heck is so secret about 240? It's been around for many many years and worse of all it's used very infrequently!! It's rule 120.20 which is a simple endorsement of the coupons value to another carrier. 240 is used only when absolutely necessary and only used for award tickets, being flown to another city than your original (origination and distination is now different than the original ticket), date changes. Just aske the agents if they can endorse your ticket to another carrier....that's it....you don't have to "invoke rule 240".....it's an agreemant amongst carriers.

Oh ya the "secret seats".....The crew rest seats are only blocked for International flights, and they are not left blocked for domestic flights. Some seats are saved by the airline to grant the gate agents flexability when trying to seat families together...

Also ..haiving a paper ticket is fine, but remember that an agent still must stamp the endorsement or actually provide another ticket that is valid for the carrier. There's still a line....remember you can't loose an electronic ticket, but paper one's can disappear....and it's not cheap going through the lost ticket application process. You repurchase then at a much later date you are granted a refund. Electronic tickets are far more beneficial than paper tickets. Also with electronics changes can be done over the phone...and ticket reissues can also be accomplished over the net or phone. Any changed with paper.....you've got that nice ticketing line to stand through at the airport. The Electronic ticket change ..goes straight to the gate......