Airline seats used to be thought of as interchangeable. You have a seat that gets you from A to B. In many cases you have to connect, through a hub, and most of them have similar degrees of efficiency. Airlines pretty much competed just based on price, and given how technologically advanced pricing is the price of a trip on most airlines is going to be about the same. Sometimes airfare will vary for a given flight but there’s usually a reason — either that flight is mostly sold out, or perhaps there’s competition with a low fare carrier… so the major airline matches the price only on their flight that’s running at about the same time as the competition’s, while charging more for flights at different times throughout the day. That’s a terrible business…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for May 2013.
Are Travel Blogger Who Take ‘Press Trips’ More Ethical Than Traditional Travel Media?
BBC runs a piece on travel junkets for bloggers and ethics policies, and how blogger travel compares. I came away from reading the piece with the sense that the ethical boundaries are less clear than sometimes thought, and also realizing that some publications are taking free travel that I never realized. Traditional media, where journalists aren’t “taking a free trip,” may have the assignment arranged between the advertising and publishing department. The magazine may be bringing in more than enough on the advertising side to cover the trip expenses, and this still generates editorial coverage. Lonely Planet makes exceptions to their no freebies policy “when it is the only possible way to research a destination.” I took a trip (that I paid for, while others were comped) where an industry publication representative explained that they…
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 2, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Standard domestic airline change fees are now $200: On April 21, United upped their change fees by $50. US Airways matched 3 days later. Then on April 30 it was Delta’s turn, at which point it was a foregone conclusion that American would make theirs $200 as well.. which they did on May 1. The price of buying up to a Choice Essential fare on American which includes a $0 change fee remains unchanged at $68. Homeless Shelter Makes Tripadvisor’s Top 100 Hotels in the U.K.: I assume that the property was so highly ranked because it serves Tuscan whole milk as part of its complimentary breakfast. Car service discount: I’ve become a much bigger fan of Uber, with its on demand mobile app (a couple taps on…
Preparing for the Dreaded American Express Financial Review
American Express ‘financial reviews’ send shudders down the spines of frequent flyers (and Amex cardholders) everywhere. But in my opinion they shouldn’t. So I’m going to explain what a financial review is, what we know about what triggers a financial review, and why financial reviews don’t worry me a bit. Your opinion may differ on whether these are a big deal — and that’s fair — so hopefully this explanation helps you prepare in case you’re faced with one. This past weekend at Frequent Traveler University I answered an audience question, and Frequent Miler offered by way of followup that I should highlight the risk of an American Express Financial Review as part of my answer. I did, because I agree it’s something that is helpful for cardholders to understand — even if it doesn’t…
Badges? Badges? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Security
What I’ve seen get the most attention is that the Chief Operating Officer of American’s regional carrier, American Eagle, used his security badge to bring his wife airside at DFW airport. This was apparently one of about 140 such violations by a variety of individuals at the airport over the past two years. But what the rest of the reporting uncovers seems far more shocking to me. DFW police caught a TSA supervisor taking another worker through an employee door. Officers seized a badge from a Federal Aviation Administration manager caught using it to board a flight for personal reasons. And police even stopped an analyst who works for the DFW airport board, the agency that issues the security badges, as she escorted her husband through an employee door to board a flight. “The vast…
Reader Question: Booking Europe With Low Fuel Surcharges or Domestic US Flights With British Airways Points
Reader M.K. asks, Dear Gary, I have 161,878 BA Avios miles, built up almost entirely by getting the BA credit card, which we have since relinquished. The miles expire … this year. [We] are simply not going to be able to go to England this year (and anyway, we are repelled by the gasoline surcharges). But I think we can use the points on American Airlines. I have gone to the site and punched in Vancouver from any WAS airport, anytime in July. The BA web site never shows any availability. I cannot believe there is NO availability. Is there any way to check this out? First, there are ways to get to Europe without exorbitant fuel surcharges. flights on British Airways’ oneworld partner Air Berlin have no fuel surcharges Aer Lingus is a British…
100% Bonus on Purchased US Airways Miles is Back for May
US Airways is running tiered bonuses for mileage purchases through May 31. Buy/gift 5,000 – 9,999 miles, get a 25% bonus Buy/gift 10,000 – 19,999 miles, get a 50% bonus Buy/gift 20,000 – 29,999 miles, get a 75% bonus Buy/gift 30,000 – 50,000 miles, get a 100% bonus For purchases of 50,000 miles you get 50,000 bonus miles, and your 100,000 miles cost you 1.88 cents per mile. (Incidentally, through May 17 American will sell you miles at 2 cents apiece.) US Airways has been dubbed the ‘consolidator of Star Alliance premium class seats’ since seats that aren’t expected to be sold (distressed inventory) tend to be offered as awards, and US Airways has been the most aggressive about letting members straight up buy those seats cheaply via purchased miles — even putting awards on…
New Mileage Earning Restrictions on BankDirect Checking Accounts
I’ve been a BankDirect customer, earning American Airlines miles, since July 2003. In a low interest rate environment, the return to a mileage checking account turns out to be pretty good. I don’t use it as an alternative to investing but since I have fairly large business expenses that get reimbursed, I deposit those checks in my account and they sit for a month before I pay off my credit card — and I earn plenty of miles. The Durbin Amendment made checking accounts less profitable for banks and BankDirect responded by instituting a $12 per month fee on all accounts, something you can’t avoid with direct deposits or minimum balances. So at $144 a year, the account makes the most sense for generous signup bonuses in the first year, and then only if you…
- Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 6
- 7
- 8
