United nonstop Dulles to Kuwait
 

Service starts in October 2006.

Dulles departures Tue, Thu, Sat, at 9:56PM arriving KWI next day at 5:55PM

Departures from Kuwait Mon, Thu, Sat 12:35AM arriving IAD at 6:27AM

At 6574 miles o/w it might be useful for a mileage run if the price was right.

and a nice plastic gloved welcome by US customs....:D

I'm not sure a trip to Kuwait is in my future. But I was happy to see that you can now check in online for international flights (departing from the US, anyway). I don't think that was the case when I flew to Europe a few weeks ago.

Yes, maybe, AAFF. What's that like anyhow? With all your travel in S. America I suppose you would know? ;)

ms_go, thanks I will try the OL checkin tomorrow (for LAX-LHR on Wednesday).

I know AAFF is mostly joking, but the fact is that travelers, even Americans, do get more scrutiny coming back after visiting a Islamic country.

My parents go through US immigration/customs at EWR 3-4 times a year for the last 7 years. The only time they were slowed down was last year after they visited Morocco. Now, Morocco is probably the most US-friendly Islamic country in the world (US visitors do not even need visa); still my parents were sent to secondary check. They did not get ask many questions, or have their bags searched. Rather, the officer just keep typing on the keyboard for 5-10 minutes - presumably checking their names with database of terrorists. Keep in mind that my parents are Chinese in their 60's and 70's.

So, please don't schedule tight connection on your return if you do this kind of MR. :)

good advice from both of you, thx

from LAX it looks like SIN may be the best MR

The Easy Chicken online gave me an "International Card" with seat assignment for LAX-LHR with instructions to see a United CSR. Also a contact info form, a "Connection Card" with directions to get to the BMI flight, and an "error summary" saying the checkin failed for the BMI flight (which is more than 24 hours from now). No bp for the UA flight. Guess I'll have to use the kiosk for the bp.

The International Card is a boarding pass. Got me thru security but it didn't have my MP number or status on it so I took my 1K card which the lady at the RCC used. Was supposed to put in first name and middle name in the Given Name field when entering passport info during the online checkin.

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try when I go to Japan next week and pay extra attention to the name/passport information fields. But I guess this is progress, yes?? Have a good trip.

mrwunrfl,. how was the trip (mileage run?) to London?

Good trip except for bmi. Not a MR. Went to Dublin and to west Clare. Then to the Curragh for the Irish Derby. My sister backed the winner!

ms_go, if you haven't left yet you should print out a copy of your e-tinerary and take it with you. The lady at pp control in Heathrow wanted to see a return ticket, or a printed itinerary. She stamped me thru without that info, tho. YMMV in Japan.

Oh, that's right, the Irish Derby! Cool! How many MP points for that trip?

and what is YYMV?

<b>Y</b>our <b>M</b>ileage <b>M</b>ay <b>V</b>ary.