News and Notes from around the Interweb: Sentences that will never come out of my mouth: “I had a really hard time deciding between coach & business class..” New Girl in the Air then declares, “from now on, coach will be adequate for all my European travel.” Perish the thought! Buy Macy’s Gift Cards for the Miles, Put the Money on Your Macy’s Credit Card and Get a Check Back. Here’s the full scoop. I’d add to PointChaser’s thoughts that you could also buy the gift cards from an online gift card trading site like PlasticJungle at a discount and make a cash profit from these transactions! United Clubs charging $2 for bottled water? Reports are, however, that the toilets remain free (with the newly increased price of membership of course).
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for December 2012.
bmi’s Diamond Club Has Only a Few Hours Left in Existence
At least for US british midland members, the program will be ending tonight. And it will be ending as well for members in most of the world. UK-based members may still maintain bmi Diamond Club accounts, since there are still credit cards that earn miles in the program, and that card was open only to UK residents (though those miles can only be spent by transferring them out to British Airways — and there’s no longer any reason at all not to do so). Australia and New Zealand residents couldn’t join British Airways’ program, so their accounts are frozen. They can’t earn miles any longer, as there is no way to do so. And they can’t spend miles since they aren’t permitted to join the British Airways program where they can be spent. Presumably once…
Bring the Andaz 5th Avenue Home: Make Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes in Your Own Kitchen
There’s much love for the greatest breakfast food ever invented, which can be found at the Andaz 5th Avenue. I discovered them during my first visit to the hotel in December 2010, and I really haven’t been the same since. Here’s what they look like delivered by room service: Million Mile Secrets explained, I was looking forward to trying the lemon poppyseed pancakes which Gary salivates about. Sure enough, they were as good as he said they were! …We liked the poppyseed pancakes with orange essence and fresh orange slices so much that we ordered them again. We also ordered Brioche French toast and scrambled eggs with chorizo and breakfast potatoes. The French toast came with two giant slices of toast but was a little bland (especially compared to the orange poppyseed pancakes)! He also…
An Unexpected (and Very Nice..) Stay at the Grand Hyatt DFW
On my way back from Frequent Traveler University in Los Angeles at the beginning of December I turned up at LAX and found that my Los Angeles – Washington Dulles flight was delayed by about 4 1/2 hours. Already if the flight was on time I wasn’t going to get home until nearly midnight. Now I was looking at closer to 4am, and I was supposed to be at work in the morning. I thought about sitting in the lounge — as a British Airways Gold I have access not just to American’s Admiral’s Club but also their first class Flagship Lounge — and then taking the delayed flight home. But I never sleep more than 20 minutes at a time in near-upright domestic first class seats, so I figured most of my next day…
American Airlines Pilots Approve Transition Agreement for Merger with US Airways
Former American CEO Bob Crandall told the pilots they needed the details of a transition approved in advance. It had to be clear how the pilot work groups between American and US Airways would be merged, how seniority would work, and — he suggested — even what would happen to their pilot bases. They made clear that they agreed, it did need to be sorted in advance, and that was seen as a barrier to a merger happening prior to American exiting from bankruptcy. After all, US Airways’ pilots weren’t able to agree on these issues amongst themselves after the America West merger. The work groups still haven’t merged. Was this all going to be universally agreed-upon in the coming weeks? Apparently it looks like that may have already happened. The American Airlines pilots union…
Free Checked Bags and Priority Boarding on Delta if You Have Status with Another Airline
Three weeks ago Hack My Trip wrote about Aerolineas Argentinas offering status matches in their program. The reason this is interesting — because why would you care about having elite status in the Aerolineas Argentinas program unless you’re actually going to, like, fly Aerolineas Argentinas, right? — is that they are a Skyteam airline. Which means having status in their program confers certain benefits when flying other Skyteam airlines. Like Delta. This is even a published offer from Aerolineas Argentinas. You have to join the Aerolineas Argentinas program first. You have to have status in a competing program that you can demonstrate. You aren’t allowed to already have elite status in a Skyteam frequent flyer program (but how would they know?). How to Get the Status Match They’ve published a chart to illustrate what status…
Reducing the Cost of Delta Skymiles One-Way Awards
While we’re on the subject of getting the most out of Delta Skymiles, I wanted to point out that it’s possible to get one-way awards for less than the published price on their award charts. First, some context. United, American, and British Airways (among other programs) offer one-way awards for half the cost of a roundtrip. Alaska Airlines and Aeroplan offer one-way awards for half roundtrip cost only on their own flights and not on partners. US Airways and Delta do not.allow one-ways at all for a discount, they charge the full roundtrip award even if you only fly one-way. Different programs have different features, and this in and of itself isn’t an indictment of the program. But I do find it to be a real drawback, since I can’t combine Delta miles one-way with…
Bits ‘n Pieces for December 29, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Jet Airways JetPrivilege is offering 2500 miles just for signing up. Lufthansa’s Miles&More has an award sale. American Airlines pilots seem to agree with Bob Crandall: they believe that they and US Airways pilots need to come to agreement with management on new contract terms before a merger. And that’s no uncomplicated matter, since US Airways own pilots haven’t managed to do that with each other since the airline combined with America West. Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus is going to quarterly (rather than annual) expiration of miles unused after three years and changing the qualifying period for status (.pdf).
Morgans Group’s The Hudson: So this is What a Normal Hotel Room in New York City is Like?
A few weeks ago I went up to New York to tape a segment for The Colbert Report. It won’t run for awhile, if it runs at all, but doing the taping was a blast. They first thought we’d get started in the early afternoon and were going to arrange the train up and back same-day. But when they went to schedule crew and studio time they ran into some snags, and wanted to schedule a first thing in the morning start time so I headed up to the city the night before. I go to New York all the time, living in the DC area and 10 minutes from the airport it’s almost like going to the exuurbs for me, and I do it with greater frequency. I’m pretty much always given towards staying…
Alaska Airlines Miles Will Be Able to Redeem Awards on Emirates Starting January 16
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members will be able to redeem miles for Emirates flights beginning January 16. Alaska’s award chart for Emirates has not yet been published. And to date — I’ve long expected this to change, but no luck so far — Alaska requires roundtrip awards on partners (no one ways), and the roundtrip must be on a single partner (plus Alaska flights optionally), no mixing and matching partners in an itinerary. Still, depending on award pricing, this could be outstanding. For now Japan Airlines miles (which can be obtained via Starwood Preferred Guest) remain the best way to score awards — including A380 suites awards — on Emirates.
