On Monday when US Airways came out with its double elite qualifying miles offer for tickets booked on their website and paid for with a Mastercard, I pointed out that the terms and conditions were confusing and left several questions unanswered. US Airways has since updated the terms and conditions to clarify some of those questions. The original, full terms and conditions said: Registration is required. You must purchase a ticket on usairways.com September 17 – October 31, 2012 for travel September 17 – December 31, 2012. Use a valid MasterCard card to get double miles or use a valid US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard card to get double Preferred-qualifying miles on flight activity. US Airways will award miles 6 – 8 weeks after travel has been completed. All Dividend Miles terms and conditions apply.…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2012.
300 Free La Quinta Returns Points
Through October 31, La Quinta Returns is offering 300 free points on the page you reach after watching a video. Points should post within 72 hours.
Bits ‘n Pieces from Programs I Don’t Use Much
News and Notes that Won’t Much Affect My Frequent Flyer Life: Spirit Airlines has introduced online booking for award tickets. I don’t have any Free Spirit miles, I love that the airline exists but don’t want to fly them. Their miles have the most draconian expiration policy I’ve ever seen: Miles will expire when an account becomes inactive for a period of 3 months or more. An “inactive” account is one that has no miles credited to it from any source during the preceding 3 months. La Quinta is offering 1000 Delta miles per stay through December 30. I recall from reading the autobiography of Southwest Airlines founding President Lamar Muse that the founder of La Quinta was an early investor and board member of the airline. The chain got it’s name because the cheapest…
American Airlines Pilots Behaving Badly
Yesterday I suggested that American’s pilots were engaged in a sick out because after new contract terms were imposed on pilots through the airline’s bankruptcy process, we started seeing lots of flight cancellations — over 5% on Sunday, again over 5% of the schedule on Monday, and already quite a few for today. I didn’t even get into the really poor on-time percentage being logged by American’s flights, which weren’t unduly affected by weather. It certainly seemed like something was ‘up’. Which was also confirmed in comments I was reading on the post and elsewhere, such as reports of 20-plus minute times to taxi, and planes even being beaten out by tugs moving faster than they were. Sky Talk gets a comment from the airline’s pilots union: “No one at APA has either sanctioned or…
The US Airways Double Miles MasterCard Promotion Is Really Confusing
The offer I wrote about earlier today of double miles on flights if you pay with a MasterCard and double elite qualifying miles if you pay with a US Airways MasteCard is actually confusing rather than simple. Or maybe I’ve just been thinking about it too much? When I wrote the post it seemed so straightforward. You get double miles for paying by MasterCard for any US Airways flights booked at USAirways.com by October 31, for travel through the end of the year (provided you register). But then I got my e-mail from US Airways, and as a co-branded credit card holder the marketing language didn’t even mention the double redeemable miles, just the status miles. Here are the full terms and conditions, it sure seems to leave a lot to the imagination. Registration is…
Double Redeemable and Elite Qualifying Miles on US Airways
US Airways is offering double miles on flights booked at USAirways.com by October 31 with a Mastercard for travel through December 31. And if you pay with a US Airways Mastercard, you get double elite qualifying miles as well. Registration by October 31 is required. The offer does not apply to flights booked prior to September 17, and miles are expected to post 6-8 weeks after travel. Promotion code is MCDM. For a US Airways flyer, this is very cool. The offer covers a full three and a half months of travel. And for US Airways elites who don’t already have the co-branded credit card, it’s a great time. The best offer for the credit card that I’m aware of comes with 40,000 miles after first purchase and no fee the first year. Non-elites get…
Are American’s Pilots Engaged in a Sick Out?
FlightStats.com has some really interesting tools. I’ve written in the past how to use the site to look up award availability on a variety of airlines. You can also look up on-time statistics, taking a variety of slices. One of those is looking at a given airline’s stats for the previous, current, and next day. And looking at yesterday, American Airlines seems to have had to cancel about 5% of its flights. And already today they’ve cancelled a bit over 5% of their schedule. As part of its bankruptcy restructuring, American received court approval to make changes to its pilots contract. (Pilots were the only group that didn’t come to a new labor agreement with the airline, voting down a contract sent out by union leadership.) Last week the airline imposed new terms on its…
Hawaii Fare War: United Drops Dallas, Newark, and Miami – Honolulu to ~ $450.. American Matches
Flying United to Hawaii from American’s hubs in Dallas or Miami is running about $420 all-in. Flying from Newark is $465. You can start in Miami and route via Newark for less money and more miles. Looking at the fare rules for Miami – Honolulu, GE73FS, I see: Travel must begin by November 14, 7 day advance purchase required, 60 day maximum stay. If you depart Sunday through Wednesday, then return has to be at least 3 days after departure. If you depart Thursday or Friday, then you can come back as early as Saturday. For Saturday departures you can come back as early as Sunday. You can stopover at a United hub once in each direction for an extra $55.81 Availability is pretty good, too. For Miami departures in October, here’s a fare calendar…
500 Free Hilton Points for Watching a Hampton Inn Video on Facebook
Go to the ‘Hamptonality Moments’ tab on the Hampton Page on Facebook and watch the video posted under the title “Winning Team.” Then complete the entry form and submit, and you’ll receive 500 Hilton HHonors points in 6-8 weeks. You’ll need to ‘like’ the page on Facebook before being shown the video. You don’t actually have to share the video, and it doesn’t look like you have to have even watched it. Underneath the button to ‘Share & Enter’ you can unclick “Share on Your Wall.” You’re then taken to a page where you enter your name and Hilton HHonors number. The offer is available “until 11:59 p.m. PST on 09/25/12 or until promotion is closed” and is open to residents of the US and Canada.. although void in Quebec.
What Do Tanning Salons and Airport Security Have in Common (Or, On Second Thought…)
F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom has a chapter titled “Why the Worst Get on Top” .. and so it is with management of security at Cleveland’s airport. 45 year old John Dialinos has been charged with telecommunications harassment and public indecency. He is currently on unpaid administrative leave from a $64,000 a year city job, as the manager of airport security at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. North Ridgeville Police say they’ve received a number of complaints, since December of 2011, that a man was observed spending long periods of time in the parking lots of tanning salons in North Ridgeville. …When officers made contact with the suspect, he could not provide a legitimate reason why he was parked there, or why his pants were unzipped. He had three pre-paid cell phones, and the only contacts…
