Need to know

Flexible miles

American Airlines is letting its 60 million-plus AAdvantage members book award travel on a one-way basis. Each one-way segment can be booked for half the miles of a round-trip award. American is not the first airline to do this. Alaska Airlines, for instance, allows mix-and-match awards. But American is by far the biggest. Under “One-Way Flex Awards” (in what’s the largest mileage program in the world), you can, for instance, use 12,500 miles to fly outbound on a restricted domestic MileSAAver award and 25,000 miles to return on an AAnyTime award. That’s helpful if MileSAAver seats aren’t available for the return flight. (Under the old system, you would have had to use 50,000 miles for a round-trip AAnytime award for that trip.) You can also pamper yourself with a pricey business or first-class award seat on the way out and return on a more miserly economy-class award.

-- Jane Engle

Walt, the man

It’s not a theme park, but it does bear the name Disney. A new museum about the life of Walt Disney will open in three buildings in San Francisco’s Presidio in the fall, but don’t expect any spinning Tea Cups or a Haunted Mansion. “My father’s name is probably one of the most well-known names around the world, but as the ‘brand’ or trademark has spread, for many, the man has become lost,” his daughter Diane Disney Miller said in a release about the museum. The museum will feature many personal items such as home movies, as well as drawings and cartoons, particularly early ones of Mickey Mouse. Tickets (price to be determined) will go on sale Aug. 1 at www.waltdisney.org (the website is still under construction).

-- Mary Forgione

Flip-flop socks

How do you wear comfy flip-flops or thong sandals but still keep your toes warm? With SolSoks, soft, stretchy fleece socks with a split at the toe -- kind of like mittens for your feet. SolSocks come in unisex sizes in midweight and lightweight styles, ankle and midcalf lengths, and about 20 colors and patterns, including black, lavender and bright stripes. They are machine washable and quick-dry. Cost: $15 to $17. Info: (910) 313-0466; www.solsocks.com

-- Judi Dash

Honor restored

Boarded up for renovations for five long years, the Museum of the Legion of Honor in Paris has opened again. It faces the Musee d’Orsay on the Left Bank and occupies a wing of one of the city’s finest palaces, the Hotel de Salm, completed in 1788 and much admired by Thomas Jefferson. The museum first opened in 1925 to showcase French national decorations such as the royal orders of St. Michel, founded in 1469, and the Legion of Honor, created by Napoleon in 1802. Galleries of the Hotel de Salm explain why orders of merit came into being and identify recipients, such as Thomas Wiltberger Evans, Napoleon III’s dentist, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and American wine critic Robert Parker.

-- Susan Spano