Air France KLM’s Flying Blue is an American Express and Starwood Preferred Guest transfer partner. And while Delta isn’t able to access their business class award seats through at least early June, they’re even discounting those seats at half off on certain routes. (Although transatlantic flights do incur fuel surcharges via Flying Blue.) The new dates are rolling out across the different language and country sites, they’re not fully up yet on the US-English page, but the new awards are valid for travel through March 26th rather than just for a couple of months out. Intra-Europe awards are available in coach only. Europe 1 – Europe 1 for 7500 points each way Europe 1 – Europe 2 for 9375 points each way Europe 1 – Europe 3 for 11,250 points each way Here’s the definition…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2012.
Korean Air Awards Now Bookable at Delta.com
Delta has added Korean Air award space to its website. This is huge because Korean Air has outstanding award availability in business class, and because previously there was no way to search Korean Air business inventory online. Korean Air’s website doesn’t even let you search unless you have enough miles in your account for the award. Expertflyer has displayed it on some intra-Asia routes only. So someone with Delta miles had to call Delta to hunt and peck for space — dealing with agents who might not be willing to make more than three searches in a call, agents who don’t know where Seoul is let alone cities beyond Korean’s hub, and agents who don’t know that Korean is even a partner let alone how to search for their award space. Here’s Korean Air business…
Best. Airport. Hotel. Ever…?
Most airport hotels are the ‘best’ because they’re halfway decent and incredibly convenient. Examples I have in mind are the airport Sheratons in Frankfurt, Paris, and Toronto — all attached to the terminal. None is a great hotel, the Frankfurt property has a pretty good club lounge but the furnishings remind me of a college dorm. (The Kempinski Gravenbruch is a very nice hotel but too far from the Frankfurt airport, I would hate to be heading in during morning rush hour.) There are a few airport hotels that are actually nice, the Novotel Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok is certainly a nice hotel but way too expensive for what it is, where it is. The Skycity Marriott is a very nice Hong Kong airport hotel, and one of the most convenient to the airport but not…
Up to 5000 United Miles for Purchasing Marriott Gift Cards
You can earn up to 5000 United miles for buying Marriott gift cards through November 26. Two $400 gift cards and a $250 gift card will earn the maximum allowable 5000 United miles per member account during the promotion period. As I explained in “Quadruple and Quintuple Dipping with Marriott” you can choose to earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points for Marriott gift card purchases instead. Then make your Marriott reservations through your favorite shopping portal, like the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall. Earn points for the stay and the credit card spend. And also earn a credit in Marriott’s free night MegaBonus promotion. MegaBonus and the gift card components of all of this offer-stacking are the limited-time components.
Why Credit Card ‘Zombie Links’ Continue to Work Long Past Their Sell By Date
There are some folks out there who warn readers off of ‘zombie applications’ — suggesting you shouldn’t use links that are ostensibly expired or don’t have landing pages describing an offer. Those folks are wrong. Some folks promote links that provide them with referral credits even when those links aren’t for the best available offers. For instance, there’s been an American Airlines credit card link offering 30,000 points as a signup bonus. A few folks want you to use that link, when there have been several 50,000 point offers out there. The 50,000 point offers haven’t had a ‘landing page’ showing the offer, they just go to an application. That makes people nervous, but the links have simply continued to deliver the bonuses. I’ll explain why in a moment. I give folks the benefit of…
Hyatt’s Jeff Zidell Talks About their Diamond Guests and Improving Hotel Rooms
Randy Petersen has posted a new video interviewing Hyatt Gold Passport’s Jeff Zidell over at Milepoint TV. He talks about working with the MegaDO frequent flyer trips, their attitude towards building the value proposition of their Diamond top tier, how charity fits into priorities, and how they’re working with customers to improve their rooms.
United’s Award Routing Rules Make No Sense — And Why That’s a Good Thing
Yesterday MileValue wrote about United’s award routing rules — for instance, the rules that determine what flights you can take when booking an award, how many miles you are allowed to travel between cities, and which partners you can combine on a ticket. What he discovers, in essence, is that ever since United and Continental integrated their computer systems on March 3, the Continental rules and procedures applied. And that the Continental rules and procedures make no sense, something which has been the case at least since Continental joined Star Alliance. United’s rules had been quite clear. Before they began cozying up with Continental, you were permitted a stopover (visiting a city on the way to or back from your destination) or an open jaw (flying into one city and back from a different city,…
AviancaTaca LifeMiles for 3/10ths of a Cent Apiece
AviancaTaca LifeMiles is offering 250 bonus miles per purchase with no limit through their shopping portal during the month of October. Regular readers know that this is one of the most generous frequent flyer programs in the world. As a Star Alliance member with a reasonable award chart, no fuel surcharges, one-way awards at half the cost of roundtrip, and ‘cash and points’ awards, their miles are quite useful. Searching through the merchants that are a part of the LifeMiles shopping portal, I know that there are many inexpensive items at drugstore.com — I’ve used that site myself in the past to earn credit in shopping portal promos. And you get free shipping with Shoprunner no matter how small your purchase (so no need to hit $25 minimum for free shipping). I went section by…
American Adds Air Berlin and Finnair to Online Award Search
American’s website has introduced two new airline partners for online award booking, oneworld airlines Finnair and Air Berlin. I do a lot of award searches, and this seems new today. Online booking is a real convenience to customers. I frequently talk to people who do not realize that there are award seats available that aren’t offered by an airline’s website — even though I find that most awards can’t be booked online. Delta has very few partners online. US Airways doesn’t have any. And even though United has virtually all airline partner award space bookable on its website, the site often shows phantom availability (especially with Lufthansa) and isn’t smart enough to think of all possible routes to get between an origin and a destination. So websites can’t be completely relied upon. But bringing more…
Why I Still Love Priority Club Even Though Their Elite Program Frustrates Me
Intercontinental Hotels offers perhaps the most rewarding elite level of any chain. You pay to join their ‘Ambassador’ program but the level you can earn is Royal Ambassador. And this in many ways is the most lucrative elite level there is: not just 4pm late checkout, but also guaranteed 8am check in; suite upgrades that often aren’t capped and can yield the biggest and most impressive suites; free drinks from the minibar (not to mention a free pay movie if you want it and free internet). I’ve had some of my absolute best suites from Intercontinentals over the years — from the Presidential suite (twice) in Manila, a Diplomatic Suite in Bangkok, Ambassador Suite in Singapore, a Terrace Suite in San Francisco at the Mark Hopkins, to name just a few. But the program is…
