News and notes from around the interweb: Best and Worst of Skymall Outstanding award availability New York – Buenos Aires, even over Christmas, on new Aerolineas Argentinas route. Great use of Delta Skymiles, though not the most modern business class product. Kip Hawley talks sense on airport security. Don’t you kind of wish he’d have said these things – and done these things – when he was director of the TSA?? Russian man writes his own credit card terms and conditions fine print. And successfully sues the card issuer for violating them. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the live online chat with the heads of the Hyatt Gold Passport and MGM M Life hotel loyalty programs. Chase has allowed the purchase of their Ultimate Rewards points at 2.5 cents per point, up to…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for August 2013.
Book Award Travel For Your Whole Family to the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent.. Using Skypesos!
Here are some propositions that are true: Getting several business class award seats on the same flight is hard, much harder than two (which is much harder than one). It’s often tough to find award space during major holidays. Using Delta Skymiles for premium cabin award travel at the low level is highly frustrating. And yet I’ve written in the past that if you want to fly non-stop from the US to Australia, Delta Skymiles are actually your best bet — not that you’ll find much ‘low’ level award space on Delta’s Los Angeles – Sydney flight. Instead, Delta partners with Virgin Australia which has by far the best award space on the route, even multiple seats during high season on their Los Angeles – Sydney, Los – Angeles – Melbourne, and especially Los Angeles…
3000 JetBlue Point First Time Hotel Booking Bonus from Rocketmiles
The founder of Rocketmiles emailed me yesterday to let me know that they’ve added JetBlue as a points-earning partner for hotel bookings. Now normally I would not choose to earn JetBlue points instead of United, American, or Alaska miles. Though I am interested in trying JetBlue’s planned lie flat seats for New York JFK – Los Angeles and San Francisco flights. It’s worth flagging that as part of the new partnership, Rocketmiles is offering a first time booking bonus of 3000 JetBlue points for new customers. This is in addition to the ‘1000 to 5000 points per night’ that you normally earn for booking hotels. Rocketmiles now features over 100 cities — they don’t have hotels everywhere, and have a limited set of hotels in each city. That’s about triple the size they were when…
Some People Don’t Want Their Air Travel to Be Better — They Just Want Yours to Be Worse
Most rants about premium cabins conjure up a mythical past when air travel was better and suggest that economy has gotten worse while premium cabin travel has gotten better. As I related when critiquing a poorly done New York Times piece in this genre, the sentiment is captured by Renee Zellweger’s character in Jerry Maguire who looks forward from the coach cabin and up to where Tom Cruise is sitting and tells her son, First class, that’s what’s wrong. It used to be a better meal, now it’s a better life. Of course, food used to be better in domestic first class than it is today. And that’s so because airfares were regulated, airlines could not compete on price. Price regulation was meant to keep airlines profitable, to prevent them from competing away their profits.…
Airline Marketing Aside, Business Class is About the Seat and It’s Not a Restaurant
Yesterday I wrote about the best meal I’ve ever eaten on a plane. It was Laksa – a spicy Malaysian noodle soup with seafood – and I had “pre-ordered” it in business class on Singapore Airlines for a two hour hop to Bali. I would have been utterly thrilled to receive that in a restaurant, in fact I desperately wish I could find a restaurant anywhere in the area I live that could re-create it. Asiana serves outstanding food in its long haul first class. If you like Japanese food especially, but even if you don’t, All Nippon’s first class meal service is truly outstanding. Beyond that, though, no matter what the hype — it’s food in the sky, served under very difficult conditions. And you’re at an altitude where you simply don’t taste things…
Review of the Andaz San Diego: Stylish, Needs Improvement
I checked into the hotel at nearly midnight. There were a couple of guests hovering around the front desk and there was a bit of a party scene as well. One thing I’ve noticed about San Diego’s Gaslamp region is that it is a going out town — the women get dressed up to party, and the guys with them look like they rolled out of bed in what they’re wearing out (shorts, flip flops). They wouldn’t get into clubs anywhere else. I’ve tried to figure out the economics of it — is there a surplus of women relative to men, so they have to impress but the guys do not? — but I lack the data to develop a coherent theory. The Andaz San Diego has a traditional front desk rather than roving check-in…
Sorry, Op-Ed Writers, Air Travel That You Don’t Understand Just Isn’t an Analogy for Your Pet Political Issue
Last month the New York Times ran an op-ed trying to argue that airline seating contains lessons about income inequality and class struggle. It didn’t do a very good job of it. It’s one thing when you try to stretch an analogy farther than the facts will take it… It’s another still when you get those facts wrong. In the Times piece it seemed like some were literally made up. The snacks in the piece suggest a JetBlue flight. Yet the author talked of cramped legroom (JetBlue is generous) and a forward cabin (JetBlue doesn’t yet have one). Supposedly first class offered “white linen tablecloths, with actual bone china.” And amenities kits. On New York – Miami. Which is a route JetBlue does not fly. Jayson Blair, much? Now it’s the Washington Post‘s Harold Meyerson…
The Best Meal I’ve Ever Eaten on a Plane Was a on a 2 Hour Flight in Singapore Airlines Business Class
Singapore Airlines offers a ‘Book the Cook’ service. You can pick the meal you want from an extensive menu that varies based on cabin class (business class or first class) and varies from city to city. Different airports have different choices. It’s only offered on flights departing from 14 cities, and 16 total airports: Amsterdam Munich Dubai New York (John F. Kennedy, Newark) Frankfurt San Francisco Hong Kong Singapore London Sydney Los Angeles Taipei Melbourne Tokyo (Haneda, Narita) Singapore isn’t the only airline with such an offering. For instance, Thai Airways makes this available, so does EVA Airways. And if you want a Royal Korean meal on Asiana flights departing Seoul you need to order it in advance. Choices and quality varies, and sometimes you may be happier with what’s offered onboard than what you’d…
How to Get 50,000 British Airways Avios — And Then Double Their Value
Back on July 29 I noted that the card offer had change so that in addition to 50,000 bonus points after $2,000 spend within 3 months, there would be a $0 fee the first year ($95 thereafter). The card has no foreign transaction fees and earns 1.25 points per dollar spent. The real unique selling proposition of the card, though, is the ‘Travel Together Ticket’ you earn each calendar year you spend $30,000 on the card.that lets you book two passengers on an award ticket for the mileage cost of one. Getting the Best Value from the British Airways Program BA charges more for longer flights, charges separately for each flight segment, and charges twice a coach ticket for business and three times a coach ticket for first class. Conveersely, short non-stop flights are really…
Quintuple Dipping with Marriott is Back On: MegaBonus Free Nights Return!
Last week I wrote about the opportunity for Quintuple Dipping With Marriott. There’s a huge earning opportunity with Marriott stays, since you can: Make your booking through a shopping portal (~ 4% rebate) Buy Marriott gift cards to pay for your stay, earning 12 Southwest points per dollar (~ 20% rebate) Earn points for the credit card spend on those gift cards (~ 2% rebate) Earn a free night via a promotion (~ 15% – 50% rebate) Earn points in the regular Marriott Rewards program for the stsays (~ 5% – 7% rebate) The only catch was that the last free night promotion — ‘Unexpected Bonus’ — was no longer open to registration. Of course it’s so unexpected that it was the promotion they always run, and are running again, this time reverting to its…
