Registering for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan with a California address using this link will provide you with a $50 discount on an Alaska Airlines flight. Register for Mileage Plan as a California resident by October 26 (though it’s conceivable that Alaska could pull the offer earlier). You’ll receive an email with the $50 discount within 48 hours of registration. Discount must be used for the Mileage Plan member’s travel only. Valid for travel between September 5 and November 10 for travel departing from California, and excludes travel to Prudhoe Bay. It’s the requirement that travel must originate in California that presumably helps them limit non-California residents from registering with a California address. Though I wonder how well that will work, since Alaska generally prices roundtrips simply as two one-ways and the terms and conditions don’t…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for August 2012.
Alaska Visa 40,000 Mile Signup Bonus
Bank of America is offering a 40,000 mile signup bonus on the Alaska Airlines Visa: 25,000 miles on approval and then 15,000 more after $7500 in spend within 6 months of account open. $75 annual fee not waived the first year. I’ve only seen a 40,000 mile signup bonus on this card once before (albeit that was with no spend requirement). The standard bonus is 25,000 miles on account opening. Alaska partners with several members of Skyteam and of oneworld, and has a new partnership with Emirates and Icelandair. Their award chart is generally reasonable and fuel surcharges apply only on British Airways awards. The only real drawbacks are that there are no one-way awards on partners, that you cannot mix and match different partners on a single award either so you have to fly…
Lucky and I Were Flying Los Angeles to Melbourne…
Two Qantas first class passengers delayed a flight when they refused to fly without first class pajamas that fit and refused substitutes from business class. They chose to leave the plane and the flight waited for 30 minutes while their baggage was offloaded. The A380 – which can carry more than 400 passengers – eventually arrived in Melbourne on time this morning. I do think that Qantas should have properly stocked their A380 so that first class passengers had first class pajamas that fit, the size in question is not unusual. I cannot, however, imagine offloading oneself from the flight because of it. (HT: @GlobeTrotScott)
Reminder to Enter to Win My Starwood Starpoints Giveaway
Just a reminder that I’m giving away 60,000 Starwood points — 30,000 points apiece to two lucky readers. Enter by Tuesday August 14 at 5pm Eastern (and you can enter once every 24 hours). American Express offered the points to help you “stretch your summer” with a last-minute getaway. Click to enter to win the Starpoints here. Now, for all of the folks entering and trying to be cute saying they’d love to “stretch their summer” with a stay at the St. Regis Llasa, let me just suggest that unless you’re a group of 5 or more coming in from Nepal or a citizen of the UK, Norway, Korea, Austria, the Philippines or Vietnam, good luck getting a Tibetan Visa for end of summer. Just sayin’. (Note that the links to the Starwood Preferred Guest…
100 Free ANA Mileage Club Miles for a Quick Survey — And Why That Matters to You
ANA has a survey you can take for 100 miles in their Mileage Club program. It’s 11 multiple choice questions (including an optional free form question at the end for your additional comments) about their New York – Tokyo service going twice daily and which flight you prefer. Here’s why you care. Two years ago ANA made it difficult to search for awards for folks without any miles in their account, although there was also a workaround which I described. Folks who use the KVS Tool to access award search on the ANA website effectively have the workaround automated. But with 100 miles in your account you can search for Star Alliance award space using the All Nippon website, find the flights that are available, an ring up your preferred frequent flyer program with flight…
Frequent Traveler University Los Angeles Announced!
The next Frequent Traveler University will be held November 30th through December 2nd at the Sheraton Gateway LAX. Here’s the Milepoint discussion thread for the event. The last two Frequent Traveler Universities (both in the New York area) sold out. Cost of the event is $99, register here. The event runs Friday evening with a kickoff holiday cocktail party, includes lunch Saturday and Sunday, and a Starbucks card for use in the lobby courtesy of Million Mile Secrets. The group rate for the hotel is $105 per night including internet, bookable here. Speakers confirmed so far include: Gary Leff (gleff – that’s me) and Ben Schlappig (lucky9876coins of the One Mile at a Time blog) — you are certain to learn a ton about redeeming your points. Million Mile Secrets will offer a solid introduction…
Premier Silver Sues United Over Loss of Economy Plus
A frequent flyer is suing United over their taking away economy plus at booking and two free checked bags from Premier Silver members. He argues that United published a set of benefits in 2011 which induced members of the program to fly that year in exchange for benefits in 2012. But after members had done most of that flying, United reneged on the deal. The elimination of economy plus at booking (making it subject to availability at check-in only) for 25,000 mile flyers was announced in September 2011. I have always said that I believed the right thing to do is to announce substantive changes at the beginning of a year to take place the following year. Anything less is duplicitous. I am not sure, however, that it is actionable. Incidentally, the individual seeking to…
Government Over-regulation of Inflight Entertanment, Vietnam Edition
It’s tough to be an airline in Vietnam. VietJet Air was the first private airline to gain approval to operate in Vietnam in November 2007. And yet it didn’t actually begin operations until December 2011, with regulatory issues contributing to the delay. They expected AirAsia to take a 30% stake, but that airline pulled out over Vietnamese regulatory challenges. Today the airline operates 3 leased Airbus A320 aircraft. This month they faced a new regulatory challenge as they were fined 20 million Vietnamese Dong over unapproved inflight entertainment. It wasn’t a problem with the installation of a seatback video system. Instead, 5 bikini-clad candidates in a local beauty contest performed a dance onboard the airline’s inaugural flight to Nha Trang. Since the 3-minute show had not been approved in advance, it was deemed a violation…
Travelocity Weighs In On Their Refusal to Honor Discounted Travel Packages
Last week I noted that Travelocity was cancelling bookings made with their $200 off air and hotel coupon. The discount had been offered in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind convention in Dallas. NFB tweeted it out, and Travelocity even re-tweeted it. The terms and conditions of the coupon did not require NFB membership, but many folks who took advantage of the deal joined the National Federation for the Blind — only $10 and it was either in honor of the offer, or to be ‘on the safe side’ since it is members of that organization who were ostensibly supposed to benefit. But Travelocity hadn’t really anticipated that since it could be used to book hotels in completely different locations from where air travel took passengers to, it would be possible to spend…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 9, 2012
Around the travel, points and deals world in one post: United 4 Mile Hong Kong Award Ticket Glitch Update: CBS News New York says that United gave $200 credits to customers who had booked the 4 mile Hong Kong mistake award tickets. (“Last July, United mistakenly offered $40 flights to Hong Kong. It dealt with the problem by issuing $200 gift certificates to some customers.”) I didn’t get a credit, I haven’t heard of anyone else that did. I wonder whether it’s misreporting (as is common) or whether anyone out there reports receiving a goodwill gesture from the airline? American Bankruptcy Update: American’s pilots rejected a new contract, which puts the airline back in the position of asking their bankruptcy judge to unilaterally impose new terms. Meanwhile, American’s mechanics approved an agreement. And flight attendants…
