Welcome to Flyertalk!

The Newbie Lounge is a place for newer and less experienced members to ask their questions about American Airlines and the AAdvantage program and have answered by our more experienced and knowledgeable members. Feel free to ask any question related to American Airlines and AAdvantage here.

NOTE: This is a "flame free" thread; flaming, personal criticism for "failing to search" etc. is not allowed (if posted, the post will be summarily deleted, the poster subject to sanctions).

We volunteer Moderators monitor this "lounge" thread to assist you as well. When browsing the fora, look at the page tops of the various forums. There will be a menu, and often "sticky" threads, and threads with header "wiki posts" (created and maintained by the FlyerTalk community) with important information relating to that forum / topic.

Don't hesitate to contact a moderator or another member if you have any additional questions. You can PM the Moderators by clicking on , which pops up a message box; the message goes to all this forum's Moderators. Note that unlike some sites with paid staff moderators, FlyerTalk Moderators are volunteers, and most work, travel, go on holiday, etc. You can Private Message us using the PM system (My Flyertalk) and our handles.

We're glad you've chosen to join the Flyertalk frequent flyer community!

Your American Airlines | AAdvantage Forum Moderation Team,

AZ Travels the World, aztimm, dstan, JDiver, JY1024, Microwave

(Our thanks to thread founder / "plank owner" HNL.)

Q. How can I find information more easily than reading through all the threads? Now that I'm here, what do I do next?

Check out the following resources:

Searching can be key to finding important information and answers without waiting for someone to drop by and answer, and it helps prevent that information fragmentation. FlyerTalk Advanced Search can seem quirky to the infrequent user, but it's fairly powerful if one knows how to use it. There are several ways to search:

Forum basics: Now that the new AA has become by some measures "the world's largest airline", this new, combined has become a "mega-forum", very large, very active - and theoretically very difficult to find information and easy to lose one's place. Having to search for and sort through dozens - or more - of threads on baggage, airports, minimum connect times or the like could soon become unproductive and discouraging.

To prevent this from occurring, please note we try to:

Keep a few "sticky" threads: such as GUIDE posts, OSO / IROPS, etc. for urgent and quick reference, such as basic "where do I find" reasons

Keep threads to specific topics: Prevent information fragmentation and loss by consolidating questions, answers and discussion of one topic contained in one thread. (This also honors those members who have already shared valuable information and experiences.)

"Popular" threads are likely to have a wikipost at the head that will summarize important information and have resource links. These are "community property", and as any wiki are established, maintained and updated by the members (with 90 days of tenure and 90 posts on FlyerTalk).

You may find your question or post merged into one of those threads. Be sure that we will leave a link behind from your original thread, and to look up to see if there's a wiki with information. We apologize for any possible inconvenience or difference between this forum and others, but we think you'll like some of the resources and tools here to enable more convenient, comfortable travel on AA and greater knowledge sharing.

Keep it welcoming: We're proud the members of both FFPs have kept the brickbats to a minimum; we want this forum to be welcoming, civil and information rich, so name calling (including calling a member one disagrees with "AApologist") and snark are not tolerated. Posts with such are likely to be summarily deleted in their entirety; repeated such behavior may result in suspension of one's membership privileges or being banned from this forum. Let's keep it friendly and in accordance with the FT Rules.

FlyerTalk Rules (We all agree to abide by these, and are held accountable.)[/LIST]