British Airways began offering full mileage-earning to their Executive Club members, even on discounted fares. That’s huge. No more 25% mileage-earning and never quite reaching an award. A monster step forward for a European program, and one that has Flying Blue scrambling and shaking their heads. Every European discount fare traveler with a choice, not wedded to a non-stop (or not able to access one from their home airport) and not striving for elite status in a competing program really should consider British Airways Executive Club. With bmi’s Diamond Club slated to go away, BA Executive Club became in one fell swoop arguably the best frequent flyer program in Europe. Sure, there are arguments to be made for Miles & More. But their award chart is expensive and has gotten more so. This really was…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for January 2011.
Expedia Launches New Points Program (By Invitation Only, How to Join Enclosed..)
Expedia has just launched a new rewards program that offers points for bookings made via the site. They used to partner with Citibank’s Thank You Points but ended that relationship. Now their new offering is out, it lets you earn points for bookings made on their site and of course doesn’t interfere with the points you’ll earn from the travel provider as well (provided that the travel provider offers points for bookings made via Expedia, e.g. Starwood won’t give you points for room rates booked there). Unlike the previous Thank You Points offering, you can earn points not just for ‘special rate’ hotels and hotel/air booking combos. Standalone flight bookings earn points as well, so do vacation packages except that car rentals don’t earn points unless tied to a hotel booking and cruises don’t earn…
Lotus of Siam New York Begins to Implode
The New York Times reports that the family associated with the Lotus of Siam name, which built their reputation at their Las Vegas outpost, have split from the new New York outpost. I’m only sharing this news because of my recent posts about both their Las Vegas and New York locations. The New York Lotus of Siam is a major disappointment and this piece offers some clues, perhaps, as to why. had disagreements with their partner, Roy Welland, who had owned the upscale restaurant Cru in the space where Lotus of Siam is located. She said her parents wanted the restaurant to be more homey and affordable than Mr. Welland did. But, she added, Lotus of Siam would remain open and that “nothing will change there.” …”Our reputation is at stake; as a result, we…
The Two Most Difficult Frequent Flyer Award Redemptions Out There — And How to Book Them
I find the single most difficult award to get from North America is flying to Australia and New Zealand. It used to be easy, fortunately for me, because I have family there. For the past couple of years it’s been truly the needle in a haystack exercise. Not that many years ago United offered a brief period where every flight had the full first class cabin available on points, but that was a glitch. More often than not there’ll be seats opening on United when the schedule loads, perhaps a single first class award and a couple of business seats, and those go quickly. Randomly across the schedule as time progresses more seats will open, but any given flight may be very tough to get. Expertflyer automatic searches and email alerts are very useful here.…
50,000 Miles (or More!) for a Continental Airlines Mastercard, No Fee the First Year
There’s a new all-time best offer for the Continental Airlines Mastercard, 50,000 miles after first purchase and no fee the first year. (HT: Rick.) Continental and United have merged. Next year the frequent flyer programs will be combined. So there’s no reason to wait for a better offer for the Continental card. You can usually only get the signup bonus for each Chase credit card only once, if you haven’t had a Continental Mastercard before now is certainly the time to get one because the product will cease to exist in less than a year. And of course your Continental and United mileage balances are going to be merged, so even if you’re just a United person you should consider grabbing these 50,000 miles because they’ll be added to your Mileage Plus balance down the…
80% Bonus on First-time Transfers from American Express to Delta
I recently wrote about the 30% bonus on transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Delta Skymiles and the 50% transfer bonus that folks are eligible for if they’ve never made a transfer before. Both offers require registration. MilesQuest reports that the bonuses are stackable. If you register for both of them, and you’ve never transferred from American Express Membership Rewards to your Delta account before, you’ll earn an 80% bonus (through March 31). Plus if you transfer 50,000 points or more from American Express, you’ll earn 25,000 elite qualifying miles. Now, if it’s me I’m probably not making the transfer for an 80% bonus (which I wouldn’t be eligible for anyway, because I have made some small transfers in the past). But it’s a lot more tempting than the usual offers, for sure.
250 Free American Airlines Miles Just for Joining Best Western Rewards
Best Western is offering 250 American Airlines miles just for signing up for their frequent guest program. You need to set your “earnings preference” to American miles by April 11 to earn the free miles. (Hat tip: MilesQuest.)
Using Delta Upgrade Instruments to Upgrade to Air France Business Class
TM Travel World points out that since Delta upgrades can be used on Air France there’s a real strategic improvement that many people are missing. Folks still need to buy nearly full fare economy tickets in order to upgrade from economy. And in general there’s much displeasure that upgrading from economy on Air France — now that Air France and KLM upgrades are now possible via the Skymiles program — only gets you premium economy. But Troy points out that often buying premium economy is cheaper than buying full fare economy. And buying premium economy lets you upgrade to business class. So that’s sometimes the best strategy to use with Delta upgrades — discounted Air France premium economy fares to get business class on Air France, rather than buying full fare economy on Delta or…
150,000 Free American Airlines Miles Just For Getting Two (No Annual Fee) Credit Cards
I’ve been writing about this occasionally for several months, but credit card signup bonuses have been incredible over the past year. First there was the 100,000 mile signup bonus offer from Chase for a British Airways Visa, then Citibank came out with their 100,000 mile offer for their American Airlines cards. Chase even had a 50,000 mile offer for the United Visa. Just incredible. Sign up for a credit card, maybe grab a second one (a small business card, most people are able to get one e.g. Their Name & Associates) and go anywhere in the world. In a premium cabin. Sometimes for an annual fee, other times even that’s been waived. Those banks, they must really think acquiring a customer is valuable. Well, the current big offer is 75,000 miles for an American Airlines…
How to Dispute the Value of Miles or Prizes Reported as Taxable to the IRS
Carol points me to a Flyertalk discussion from the past few days about Citibank sending 1099 forms to customers who earned miles from their checking accounts. I’m going to explain how to dispute 1099 prize value. Folks are shocked, even though there have been plenty of references in early threads on Citibank banking promotions indicating that they do report the ‘value’ of miles provided to the IRS. It’s definitely not new. Citbank reports as taxable the value of miles earned via bank accounts, but not credit cards (though apparently they once did this too – as a mistake! – since the latter are considered non-taxable rebates). This 2009 Flyertalk thread discusses Citibank reporting miles earning from banking products as taxable. Aside from being annoying, folks think they’re getting a tax-free benefit but learn it will…
