Alon’s Blog

Visa, Mastercard, American Express

Contrary to what you may think, this post is not about credit cards. It’s about the process of obtaining a United States J-1 (Exchange Visitor) visa.

So, my story begins at 8:00 in the morning on Thursday when I wake up. I take the train to Tel Aviv and a bus to the US Embassy, the only US Consulate in Israel. In the embassy I wait in line (line - not queue - this is the American embassy…) for about half an hour and submit all my forms for inspection including my all so precious DS-2019 and SEVIS fee confirmation. They quickly check the forms, and I’m on my way to the next step - fingerprinting.

In America, foreigners don’t have privacy rights, and this includes the requirement to surrender your fingerprints. They had to scan me again even though they already had my fingerprints in the system from my previous visa request. The next step is the visa interview.

According to what it says on the embassy website, you need to bring lots of documents to the interview: Salary slips, student permits, and proof that you have ties to Israel. Well, I did bring all that, but the only thing the consul looked at was my invitation letter from Stanford, and specifically on the paragraph saying how much they’re going to pay. After this very short interview my visa was confirmed, but I had to leave my passport and all forms behind.

The last step of the process was to pay to have my passport and DS-2019 mailed to be by courier. I payed the 33.50 NIS (US$8) fee by MasterCard, and off I went. The whole process took less than an hour. This is what I call American Express…

June 23rd, 2007 at 00:43 Posted by epsalon | USA | 3 comments

My thesis: Almost ready to submit

Here it is! Five copies of my PhD thesis (or disseratation), all bound and ready to submit. I applogize for the low quality of the image, as it was taken with my camera phone. The table is not even wooden.

Now I am only waiting till my examiner board is approved and I can submit my thesis. After that, I need to pass the exam and perform my final submission, and then you can call me Doctor Altman.

Tomorrow would be a long day, I’m getting my J-1 US visa and attending a local AI Conference. Expect updates later this week.

June 21st, 2007 at 02:10 Posted by epsalon | Academia, USA | no comments

So, why do you need Gold/Platinum?

I promised a post about gaining levels, so here it comes.

Elite Status gives the frequent flyer several advantages. The first advantage is more miles, in Platinum status I get two miles for every mile I’ve flown. Just to put that into perspective, in Platinum level for every flight from Israel to the US west coast you get a free flight from Israel to Europe (30,000 miles). And for two such flights you can get another flight to anywhere in the US.

The second important bonus is access to lounges. From Gold level onwards you get free access to airline lounges of all SkyTeam partners.

The third bonus is free upgrades. When a flight is overbooked in Economy class, the airlines upgrade some passengers to Business class. These upgrades are usually given based on frequent flyer level.

So, some info about myself. Here’s my plan for this year:

June 20th, 2007 at 09:00 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer | one comment

Miles and More

The title of this post is the name of Lufthansa‘ s frequent flyer program, but the post is about my quest for miles in general. The purpose of this post is to try and explain what these miles are and why and how I collect them.

First of all, for those of you who think I’m crazy, or want to join me, I suggest visiting FlyerTalk - The world’s leading frequent flyer community.

In this post, I’m going to focus on the frequent flyer program I’m enrolled in - KLM/Air France Flying Blue.

The basic idea is simple: Whenever you fly with the airline or their partners you get miles based on distance flown, which you can then redeem for free tickets based on zones in the world. There also status miles which are reset every year and let you gain Elite levels if you pass some threshold.

Optimizing for miles means many things. First, it means planning all your flights on one alliance of airlines, in my case SkyTeam, which covers three US airlines (Delta, Continental, Northwest) and many European airlines (KLM, Air France, Czech Airlines, Alitalia, etc.). Second, you must make sure your flight gives you 100% mileage, as some cheap flights only give 25%. Third, you can plan your itinerary in order to maximize your mileage, without compromising cost.

For example, if I need to fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Frankfurt (FRA), I can fly direct with Lufthansa, and gain 5,700 miles on Lufthansa one way:

I can fly via Newark (EWR) on Continental and get 6,434 flying blue miles:

or I can add another free connection in Houston and get 6,904 miles:

I am going to pick this last path, mostly because this way I will qualify for Platinum level, which requires 60,000 miles per year. More on levels in a later post.

June 18th, 2007 at 09:00 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer | 2 comments

Air France Replies

In a previous post I wrote about the disservice I had on board an Air France flight. I have recently received the following letter in reply (Scanned image of the letter):

Dear Mr ALTMAN,

Your letter was transmitted to us by the by the Flying Blue Service. Thank you for having taken the time to write to us, thus giving us the occasion to communicate with you. We welcome feedback from our passengers, as we realize that this is our best means to maintain, and whenever necessary, improve the quality of our service.

We are sorry to learn that you were dissatisfied with the conditions during your flight from Paris to Tel Aviv, on 22/05/07. l fully understand your displeasure, and wish to apologize on behalf of Air France. We try to satisfy the passenger’s seat requests. but we cannot guarantee them. l regret the Exit seat couldn’t be assigned to you for safety reasons.

Furthermore, we do our utmost to insure the all-round professionalism of Air France cabin crews throughout their career. Your cabin crew is required to speak three languages, including English and french. We are generally proud of the professionalism af Air france personnel. I am sorry that on this occasion the service you received was not up to standard.

I do hope that you will afford us another opportunity to serve you to your entire satisfaction.

Yours sincerely,

LISE LEVY
Customer Relations Officer

No miles were credited to my account. I’m not sure if I’m going to take this futher.

June 16th, 2007 at 16:00 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Hawaii, Travel | no comments