This morning’s post on award bookings generated several questions and interesting comments in just a couple of hours. I thought I’d pull out a few and offer some followup. Jeremy asks several questions: I would like to hear a Singapore riff for sure. Also the deal with NZ on LAX-LHR using Alliance points. [T]he lack of UA one-way awards on partners must be killing more folks than just me… That’s a lot of questions! Singapore Airlines rarely offers more than a single premium cabin seat long-haul as an award at the same time. Sometimes once a seat is booked a second seat will immediately appear, than usually not. Long-haul that’s true for both business and first class. Intra-Asia that’s usually only true for first, it’s certainly possible to find multiple business class award seats at…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for April 2010.
Reader Mail: What Mileage Programs to Choose for Last-minute Emergency Travel?
Reader Ian writes: [M]y wife and I live an ocean away from some of our closest relatives. In our case, we’re in Texas (Houston) and our parents are in North-West Europe. ..at some point we’re going to want/need to fly TATL at short notice. There’s a fair chance that we’ll be upset and not thinking straight. We’re not necessarily going to know how long we want to stay for, so will probably want one-way tickets or low change fees. We’re going to want to arrive as fit as possible in the circumstances, so business class seats and non-stop flights will be priorities. Paying a close-in fee isn’t going to be a deal breaker. The question is: if you needed to fly to Europe tonight, tomorrow or the next day, is it realistic to look for…
Lessons from Scores of Recent Premium Class International Mileage Award Bookings
As many folks know, I probably book more award tickets than anyone else in the world. And I develop a really good sense for the value and ease of using different sorts of mileage and what routes offer the best availability. So for those looking to do it themselves, or just thinking about what’s possible and wanting to set expectations accordingly, I thought I’d offer a bit of stream of consciousness on award availability. It occurred to me yesterday that the conventional wisdom changes frequently, at least in terms of available routes. That’s because I noticed first class award seats available on Thai almost every day during the summer from Zurich to Bangkok and back. I assume this will tighten up quickly, but it really struck me because the Zurich route was perhaps the most…
A Nice Endorsement from Frugal Travel Guy, and American Airlines Oneworld Awards
Frugal Travel Guy offers up the following gracious endorsement of my award booking service: I contacted Gary at the View from the Wing blog and he was very helpful with his award booking suggestions. He knows more tricks than I will ever remember. I did this one all myself, and I went a different way than he suggested (my vouchers were expiring), but it was great to have a real pro as a sounding board. He really knows his stuff and I can assure you if you are at all hesitant to try something like this, his award booking service will be worth every penny you spend on it. Gary will save yo money and miles Rick was planning a trip through several cities in Europe, and has a boatload of American Airlines miles. One…
US Airways 100% Bonus on Transferred Miles
US Airways has brought back their 100% bonus on mileage transfers through May 31. The cost is 1 cent per mile plus a $30 processing fee, and up to 50,000 bonus miles can be earned. Transfer 50,000 miles to someone for $530 and they receive 100,000 miles, enough for business class from the US to Europe.Transfer 45,000 miles to someone for $480 and they receive 90,000 miles, enough for business class from the US to North Asia. This bonus is on top of the 25% bonus for elites who transfer miles. So for elite members of US Airways Dividend Miles this is a really outstanding value.
250 Free Air Canada Aeroplan Miles
Earn 250 miles for joining Aeromove by June 30.
1000 British Airways Mile Bonus Per Hilton Stay
Hilton is offering 1000 bonus British Airways miles per stay, on top of the usual BA miles earned for stays, from April 1 through June 30. Registraton required. The bonus only applies to stays booked after registration. So if you want this bonus, and have already made cancellable bookings (and this price of those reservations hasn’t risen) you may want to cancel and rebook. The bonus can be earned a maximum of 5 times, so 5000 miles max. Personally, I’ll still credit my Hilton HHonors double dip miles to british midland: 1000 points per night (up to 3,000 points per stay) is the standard offer.
1000 Bonus Starwood Points for Every Stay in April
It’s not a publicly promoted, it was announced on Flyertalk: you have to register and then all stays in April will earn 1000 bonus points. No need to rebook any existing stays, reservations you already have will qualify for the bonus. And in my experience, hotels sometimes even code award and cash and points stays as qualifying, so even if you only have an award stay planned it’s still worth registering ‘just in case’ it shows up as a qualifying stay.
Continental’s Mile-a-thon Bonus Begins
Continental’s new Mile-a-thon promotion is now live. You need to register between April 1 and May 31, 2010, and complete qualifying activities between April 1 and June 30, 2010. It’s actually not that lucrative for most, you need to fly on at least mid-priced coach tickets to earn points by flying. There are good-sized bonuses for higher-priced tickets, for signing up for a credit card (which makes this a good time to do so — extra bonus miles on top of the usual signup bonuses) and for signing up for their debit cards. And there are piddly points for signing up for emails, or registering for Onepass if you aren’t already a member, or ordering flowers. Here are the mileage-earning opportunities: Purchase a full-fare BusinessFirst® round-trip ticket 20 Purchase a First Class or BusinessFirst round-trip…
30% Off W Hotel Beds Before Upcoming Price Increase
I can’t vouch for the validity of this, but an email from the W Hotels Store yesterday says that a price increase (of how much, I have no idea) is coming April 5. But in advance of that, promo code X9T8R is good for a 30% discount. If you’ve been on the fence, it’s worth considering now.
