travel tips I learned today

• Air Berlin is now a member of "oneworld", the same airline alliance as American Airlines
• Air Berlin operates a direct flight from Düsseldorf to Los Angeles - 11 hours nonstop!
• Europe-to-mainland-USA award tickets can be had for only 20,000 miles on American Airlines
• American Airlines has a credit card deal with a 40,000 mile bonus and waived annual fee

Result: almost-free trip home for Christmas, albeit not on my first choice of travel dates. 

• The (German) BahnCard 25 discount is valid for trips in Switzerland and Austria that originate in Germany
• One trick for intra-Switzerland trips is to book the ticket from a (fake) German origin and just not travel that segment
• Roundtrip tickets on the "Europa Special - Schweiz" are the same price as two one-way tickets
• The people at the Deutsche Bahn ticket counter cannot be relied upon to book anything you can't already book yourself online

Result: finally managed to book tickets to visit shephi and pixieza in Switzerland!