I cancelled my Citibank Thank You Points-earning card about three years ago when they last devalued the program, I used to get 3 cents a point in value by booking domestic business class tickets then cancelling and retaining a credit that I would use towards other travel. By booking Delta tickets, I’d be able to split up the credit into multiple itineraries (and even use the credits not just for myself but – after the first ticket re-issue – for others as well). Back in the day Citi Thank You Points were even more valuable than that, since they didn’t cap the price of tickets they’d buy for you… .. but when the program basically became 1.25% cash back towards travel I became a whole lot less interested. However, in my December credit card churn…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for January 2012.
Priority Club Increasing Points Requirements for Reward Nights on January 18
As reported by Live from a Lounge, Priority Club sent out their monthly e-statement with this ominous note, Effective 18 January 2012, Priority Club will make changes to the number of points required for Reward Nights. No clue as to what the changes would be were included. However, at this moment, the Priority Club Reward Night page brings up new award levels when using the Google Chrome browser, strangely when using Internet Explorer only the old rates come up. It’s not an across the board devaluation. Rather, whereas Priority Club has historically charged a single points level based on the brand of hotel you were redeeming for, and in recent years has added some segments within each brand (so that an Intercontinental might be 30,000 or 40,000 points). Now they’re adding greater segmentation: Candlewood Suites…
Reminder of All The Ways to Keep Up with View from the Wing
I want to make sure you get all of the best deals and opportunities I write about in 2012, obviously I think it’s worthwhile or else I wouldn’t be writing it. And hopefully you think it’s worthwhile, since you’re reading it! At least the vast majority of emails I get suggest that folks find my posts useful, and if you’re one of ten thousand or so a day checking in here then you may want to pick the easiest method for your own particular taste. You can follow me on Twitter Or friend me on Facebook You can of course bookmark the blog, or just type www.viewfromthewing.com into your web browser. There’s also an RSS feed for this blog, so you can subscribe via your favorite blog reader. I used to love Google Reader but…
News and Offers from Other Blogs
Delta Points describes how to get instant Delta Diamond status by prepaying $50,000 for travel which you’ll have three years in which to spend. Incidentally, in my experience with United and their “Pass Plus” program you can pre-pay $50,000 and get Global Services up front. It’s not mentioned online, but you can contact United and they’ll negotiate benefits with you in exchange for your payment. Mommy Points flags a United Mileage Plus promo, 500 bonus miles when you make a single purchase of $75 or more with any retailer at the Mileage Plus shopping portal. (No registration required.) Live from a Lounge says that Air India — whose invitation to join Star Alliance was suspending because it’s such a basket case — is apparently in talks again to join Star. Kingfisher joins oneworld next month,…
Award Booking Tip: Placing Award Reservations on Hold
Though I have an upcoming trip to the Maldives, I don’t have a ton of exciting travel to look forward to beyond that, at least exciting by the standard of flying international first class on a premium airline to an exotic destination, hopefully one I haven’t been to before. So this weekend I decided to start playing around with future trips. First I put an award on hold to the United Arab Emirates — American miles to fly Etihad first class (suites with doors!) to Abu Dhabi, then a business class hop over to Delhi and back, the though was to stay either at the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi and/or Park Hyatt Dubai while in the U.A.E. I wasn’t sure if that especially appealed, but the ability to hold the award without committing was nice.…
Travel Technology Re-think
I’m working through my technology solutions for the year ahead and would love reader input. There are some travel items that I’m thoroughly happy with. I love my Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer laptop bag, it’s a great bag with plenty of room and the right pockets for me and it unclips to sail through the TSA without taking out my laptop. Sadly foreign countries that require laptops to come out don’t recognize “TSA Approved” laptop bags, even when they enforce “TSA Silly” liquid bans. I wish they’d follow the US lead in those few customer-friendly initiatives that exist, not just in the stupid ones. A laptop bag may not be electronic, but a good one fits my definition of travel technology. I’m happy with my five year old D-Link wireless pocket router, which has been…
Mysteries of American Airlines Life
I’m learning all of the little quirks of flying American, and it’s certainly an adjustment when you’re frequenting a carrier you aren’t used to. Even just having different food options in your home airport is strange, at DCA though American and United share a pier but my DCA departures have tended to be on US Airways where there’s a Five Guys Burgers, something I miss flying American. There aren’t any good food options airside. And the airport desperately needs better coffee post-security than the Dunkin Donuts that’s a standalone kiosk near the gates without the ability to offer full service preparation. A Starbucks would be really, really great — and not just upstairs by ticketing, at least until the TSA declares an end to the War on Liquids. But there are two things that I’ve…
37.5% American AAdvantage Purchase Miles Bonus
On American’s buy miles page it’s still listing a one-third bonus from last month: Between now and December 31, 2011, when you buy the AAdvantage® miles you need to book your travel now, you’ll earn a special bonus — for every 6,000 miles you purchase, you’ll earn 2,000 bonus miles, up to 20,000 bonus miles! But when you click through the January offer is available. A 40,000 mile purchase for $1100 yields 55,000 miles — a purchase price of 2 cents a mile. Now, I’m not stocking up at 2 cents apiece. But it’s not an unreasonable rate for topping off. Lower mileage purchase amounts are more costly per mile and less attractive. Still, given how readily available Cathay Pacific and Etihad first class awards are much of the time, it’s not unreasonable to put…
Delta 50% Bonus on Mileage Transfers Between Accounts
Delta’s transfer miles page shows a 50% bonus for moving miles from one account to another (at a cost of a peny a mile). When you click the link to the offer it takes you to the page from the 100% transfer bonus offer which expired December 16th (and was actually pulled at the beginning of that day rather than the end, blocking my plans to take advantage of the bonus at the last minute). So we don’t know how long this one is scheduled to last. I won’t be taking advantage of the 50% bonus. While I think that a 100% bonus offer is a great opportunity to effectively buy miles at 1.1 cents apiece, and despite all of the drawbacks of Delta Skymiles (I’m the person who coined the term Skypesos, after all)…
The Rise and Fall of Egyptian Tourism
I struggled with how to title this post. Certainly Egypt has become a destination that many in the West avoid, and i know from working with clients through my award booking service that despite excellent business class award availability on the non-stop New York JFK – Cairo EgyptAir flight that most folks aren’t keen to connect in Cairo these days. So certainly the parts of Egypt dependent on tourist dollars are suffering. Still, this seems like a very poor coping mechanism: An Egyptian newspaper reported that a young man from the city of Luxor in the south cut off his penis and buried in a graveyard after suffering depression as a result of the decline in tourism since the outbreak of popular protests that led to the removal of former President Hosni Mubarak in February.…
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