Expert Flyer is no longer able to show United upgrade and award availability. Apparently United contacted them and let them know that they weren’t ‘authorized’ to have access to the information, and demanded that they stop making it available. United previously demanded that Seatcounter remove access to this information as well. Over the past several months United has gone to great pains to restrict access to advance confirmable upgrades. Over the summer these upgrades became very sparse for cross-country flights. Overseas flights they’re also much harder than in the past. One explanation for difficulty in upgrading internationally is fewer seats as United reconfigures planes with their new business class. I predicted this would be a problem when they first announced the retrofit of their aircraft, since the new business class cabins feature fewer premium seats…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for January 2009.
See Where Big Brother Has Been Watching You Fly
The Budget Travel blog tells you how to get your Homeland Security Automated Targeting System files which include your international travel activity since 2002. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is required by law to make your records available to you, with some exceptions. Your request must be made in writing on paper and be signed by you. Ask to see the “information relating to me in the Automated Targeting System.” Say that your request is “made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552).” Add that you wish to have a copy of your records made and mailed to you without first inspecting them. Your letter should, obviously, give reasonably sufficient detail to enable an official to find your record. So supply your passport number and mailing address. Put a date…
LAN’s Award Chart Changes
LAN’s current award chart is being ‘enhanced’ on January 18 — and I don’t care one bit. Because there aren’t going to be any changes to their business class oneworld distance-based award chart. While at first glance those awards appear to be expensive, they become a better value when you realize that Starwood points transfer at 1 -> 2 into LAN. And the double conversion rate applies to the transfer bonus as well. So 20,000 Starwood points yields 50,000 points with LAN…. 95,000 Starwood gets you 40,000 kilometers of oneworld business class flying and 120,000 Starwood points gets you 56,000 kilometers of oneworld business class flying. (E.g. Los Angeles – Hong Kong – Sydney and return, with stopover, would cost 95,000 Starwood points for Cathay Pacific business class, with kilometers to spare, award inventory permitting…
American Dining for Miles VIP Fast Track Offer
Rewards Network (ok, I’ll call it that) is offering a ‘fast track to VIP’ with their co-branded American Airlines program. If you dine four times by February 28th, spending $25 or more at qualifying restaurants, they’ll upgrade your account and give you 500 bonus miles. Registration required.
Lima Restaurant: Good Food, Abominable Service
Last night I had dinner with a small group of Flyertalkers. At my suggestion we ate at Lima Restaurant. They had availability for our sized group, they offer a pre-theatre menu (3 courses, $35 dollars) until 7 p.m., and I’ve been meaning to go back and try them since they re-opened after a renovation. The food was surprisingly good. The service was appallingly bad. It was the worst service I’ve had since brunch at Poste. The waiter came over to take orders but the person he started with wasn’t ready. He refused to start with someone else at the table, and hovered over the member of our party who wasn’t ready instead. He said that he had to rotate in the specific order he was asking for, and couldn’t rotate beginning at a different spot…
Citibank Ending Fixed Point Flight Redemption?
According to Frugal Travel Guy Citibank’s Thank You Points will no longer offer ‘fixed point redemption’ come March 1, 2009. This is a huge blow to the program. It allowed points to be worth 2-3 cents apiece, instead of the standard 1. Truly a disappointing development. Variable point redemption lets you use points to buy flights, with the points worth a penny apiece. Fixed point redemption lets you buy tickets up to a specified dollar value for a set number of points. Ending this option makes Citibank credit cards earning these points that much less valuable. I will be putting a bunch of money on my current Citi Platinum American Express (which is pooled with a fixed-point redemption-eligible account) to get up to 90,000 points in order to make my next redemption level. And I’ll…
$10 Weekend Rates at Alamo
Through May 31, Alamo is offering $10 per day weekend rates on rental cars that are kept for a Saturday night. This works for economy through premium cars, one day minimum and four day maximum rental. You can pick up as early as Thursday at 9 a.m., and must return by Monday. The rates are capacity controlled, so always try to book early as you can cancel (or not..) if you don’t need the car.
Northwest Introduces Award Booking Fees
Northwest announced several more changes to their WorldPerks program as they proceed with their merger with Delta Skymiles. They’ve introduced elite qualification by flight segments (good) and are removing Saturday stay requirements for saver-level redemption bookings beginning January 15 (also good). As I’ve previously suggested, it will become possible to move miles between a WorldPerks and Skymiles account in February (good). And they’re introducing a three-tiered award structure like Delta and raising the price of many awards (very bad). But here’s the whammy from today’s e-mail: Also effective January 15, 2009, Northwest will introduce a new award ticket redemption fee and will increase our award reissue and redeposit fees from $50 to $100. Award Ticket Redemption Timeframes (WorldPerks Platinum Elites are exempt from this fee) Award Ticket Fees 3 days or less prior to departure…
The Frustrations of Booking United Awards Before Their Gutted Award Chart Went Into Effect
Yesterday was another “award booking day,” where I spend a bit of time helping various friends with their award travel. One managed a Bali trip in first class on Asiana and Singapore. Another started off with a Thailand trip, ran into a bit of difficulty, and settled on Bali as wlel. Both were using United miles. Yesterday, it turns out, was actually award booking day on United for much of the frequent flyer world. That’s because as the New Year struck, so did United’s bloody award chart increase. In fact, at one point yesterday the regular international awards phone number featured hold times in excess of 90 minutes. That’s the number I usually favor, instead of elite agents, because the international call centers are frequently very helpful. Domestic agents can sometimes be helpful, and sure…
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