Joe Brancatelli whom I often disagree with but is always worth listening to, writes about frequent flyer award redemption at portfolio.com, and points out that airlines aren’t being dishonest when customers find their miles are difficult to use: I never go on a radio or TV show without my sound bite at the ready: “What part of restricted did you think the airlines were kidding about?” If your goal is to fly the family to Disney World for 25,000 miles a seat on President’s Day Weekend, you’re sure to be disappointed. If your rating of a frequent-flyer program is based solely on your ability to fly first class to London for Wimbledon later this month for only 50,000 miles, I’m comfortable saying that you’ll be watching tennis on television. If you think you can have…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for June 2011.
Amazing 50% Bonus on American Express Membership Rewards Transfers to British Airways
The U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to British Airways Executive Club through July 31. Points from Amex transfers post to BA instantly in real-time, and the bonus posts right away as well. (The fine print says ‘one bonus per cardmember’ so you may only get to do this once during the promotion period, though time will tell whether or not that’s enforced.) In February and March there was a 40% transfer bonus offer and that was a huge deal, of course this is even better. While I wouldn’t make transfers without a specific award in mind, because I do hugely value the flexibility of Amex points more than I do most bonuses, and it’s important to understand what BA miles are good for and what they aren’t,…
US Airways 3000 Bonus Miles for Crediting a Flight, Hotel and Car Rental to Dividend Miles
US Airways is offering 3000 bonus miles for crediting a flight, hotel stay, and rental car to your Dividend Miles account between June 1 and July 31. No registration required. Hotel points transfers don’t count, Starwood Platinums can’t just transfer 1 point over to US Airways to get their hotel credit for the promotion. It’s not a huge bonus but might get me to throw an odd hotel stay their way and once I’ve done that the rental car piece makes sense, I suppose this sort of engagement is meant to get people in the habit of crediting their non-flight activity to US Airways in the hope or expectation that they’ll continue to do so out of habit. I’d wish for a bigger bonus, but every 3000 helps!
Was the Government Really Prepared to Kill Everyone Onboard the United Flight that Returned to DC After a Seat Reclining Incident?
Scott McCartney blogs about the incident Sunday night onboard United’s DC- Accra flight where the aircraft turned around after two passengers got into a fight over a reclined seat. He notes “[w]ith seats squeezed together closely in coach cabins, reclining seats have become a major annoyance for many passengers” and flags etiquette issues. I think there’s a more important point here. McCartney notes, Two F-16s from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled to shadow the flight until it landed safely. Now, there is only one thing that the F-16s could have done in this situation. Either they do nothing, or they shoot down the plane. I’ve seen quite a bit of coverage over this incident, most of the coerage notes that fighter jets were scrambled to respond. But nobody points out that those fighter jets…
United-Continental Will Keep Offering an International First Class
One of the last major questions remaining (ok, there are tons of minor questions) was whether the combined United-Continental would retain international first class. The answer is yes, as I’ve speculated in the past, although we don’t yet know which routes will have it or whether they’ll retain as many aircraft in that configuration as they do now. It’s certainly unlikely to spread. United’s entire transatlantic and transpacific fleet offers three-cabin service, while Continental offers business and coach only. We know that they’re keeping United’s economy plus, although of course currently if you get a Continental aircraft you don’t have that benefit. Continental sees it as profitable, from the upsells, so they’re keeping it and they seem to discount the importance of the loyalty benefit that it offers. To me, it’s why United Mileage Plus…
How to Score the Best Hotel Room Upgrades
I was riffing yesterday morning over at Milepoint on different ways to get upgraded at hotels and thought I’d share the advice here as well and maybe blow it out a bit. Back in 2005 I offered up some recommendations, the upshot of which was to find a way to just ask (without being a jerk). I think I’m a bit more experienced now than I was then, and can offer some additional insight, hopefully some of it is new or will spark some idea about how to go about it. The crux of the advice from back in 2005 remains, though. There are a lot of guests in a hotel, man of which have some sort of status, and some get the upgrade and some don’t, some get the ‘special’ suites while others get…
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