Previous Installments: Introduction and Trip Planning The Empire CLS car dropped me off at Dulles airport and I went to check-in with Etihad. Etihad’s counters are on the backside of the main terminal, and signage isn’t great, so it’s worth knowing this in advance. There was a big posterboard advertising onboard internet, but the poster was turned to the side which was my first indication that this flight wouldn’t have internet. I was flying out on a Sunday night, so wouldn’t be missing much work by not being online, and it’s no longer free for first class passengers. Not a huge loss, but Etihad has internet now on a large chunk of their long haul fleet (I had it flying Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf back at the end of February). There was one person in…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for December 2013.
Here’s How to Redeem Miles for Qantas A380 First Class Between the US and Australia
Australia is One of the Very Toughest Awards to Get Award travel between the US and Australia is one of the very toughest frequent flyer bookings there is. It’s doubly tough during peak periods of November through March. Getting two first class seats non-stop is pretty much impossible. Getting two business class seats is very, very hard (although Delta partner Virgin Australia does often have space). Here’s a month-long calendar from the American Airlines website, showing not a single day with 2 first class seats and just one day with two business class seats. Most of the time it’s necessary to route via Asia in order to make an award happen, which several programs permit. It’s a lot of extra flying, but at least in one direction you can generally break up the trip with…
A Quick Jaunt to Southern India: Etihad First Class and a Park Hyatt Chennai Suite (Introduction)
Dec
28
2013
I recently spent four nights in Chennai, India flying Eithad first class (business for the regional flight) and staying in a suite at the Park Hyatt there. On the surface it may seem strange to fly to India for just four nights on leisure, as well as to choose to travel to Chennai as a tourist. But it made sense to me for several reasons. I have way too many miles. With large balances in both US Airways Dividend Miles and American AAdvantage, my points stash will become even more concentrated. Despite three international first class award trips in 2013, I end the year with more points than I began. So my willingness – and even eagerness – to spend points is high. Though I’ve been to India, I’ve never visited Southern India. Chennai is…
The Best Lounges in the United States and Opening Date News for the Next Centurion Lounge
Update: Great news on a date for the San Francisco Centurion lounge opening. And a clarification that the ranking of best US lounges that I call out is meant to highlight best lounge that anyone can access for a fee (rather than making the broader claim about best). Wendy Perrin lists her top domestic U.S. lounges. And in the process she breaks some news. The American Express Centurion lounges are certainly the best lounges in the United States. Currently there are Centurion lounges in Las Vegas and in Dallas (see my review of the spa and showers, as well as the food and drink). The Dallas lounge is the best in the United States in my view, but pales in comparison to the best international lounges. They’re planning to open many more, with both San…
Cute Promotion: Turn Unwanted Holiday Gifts Into Miles
So you shouldn’t turn your gift cards into miles. But is there anything miles-related that you can do with unwanted Christmas gifts? Hotel booking site Rocketmiles, which rebates airline miles in the program of your choice for the reservations you make, is offering 1000 miles for your unwanted Christmas Gifts. Only… it’s not a straightforward exchange of gifts for miles, you get bonus miles with your next hotel booking. And the bonus is limited to the first 200 people who send in their gifts. Here are the key terms: Participants MUST include their Rocketmiles user name (email address). Limited to the first 200 participants. Limit one bonus per person. Item must be unopened and non-perishable. Items must be properly packaged and shipped to Rocket Travel, Inc. 560 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago IL 60661 and received…
DON’T Turn Your Holiday Gift Cards Into Miles
PlasticJungle.com, a website that allows people to sell gift cards, has a co-branded offering with United that allows you to turn your gift cards into miles. Basically you’re (a) selling your gift cards and (b) using the proceeds to buy miles. And this ‘bundled transaction’ turns out to be a bad deal, because they’re selling miles at way too high a price. Now they’re offering a 30% bonus on the miles you’ll receive when trading in gift cards. And it’s still a bad deal. Here’s the website’s example of what you’ll get trading in gift cards: This example has you paying 2.9 cents per mile. Even accounting for gift cards being worth less than cash, that’s a bad price for miles. United’s coming devaluation on February 1 makes this an even worse deal. You’re generally…
Free Points for Joining Southwest’s Frequent Flyer Program
Join Southwest Rapid Rewards, and receive: 250 Southwest points for enrolling 500 Southwest points for subscribing to their emails (and staying subscribed for at least 3 months) 100 My Coke Rewards points You’ll receive an email with a claim code for the 100 My Coke Rewards points shortly after signup. (HT: Points, Miles, and Martinis) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Free $5 From Amazon
Via Heels First, Amazon will give you $5 for downloading something — anything, even a free item — from their Android App Store through December 28. You can even be an existing customer of their app store, just update to the latest version of their app. You have to have one-click ordering turned on in order to use the credit. And app store purchases made via Kindle Fire don’t count. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
TODAY ONLY: 200% Bonus on Purchased LifeMiles
I only got an email reminder about the Avianca LifeMiles 100% bonus on purchased miles that expires in a few days. But GlobetrotterHQ received notice of a short-term 200% bonus. You can only purchase miles through this offer by calling a call center. Mommy Points didn’t receive the e-mail but confirmed with LifeMiles at 1-800-284-2622 that they would honor the offer for her. I don’t love not being able to take a screen shot of the offer myself (the graphic GlobetrotterHQ received notwithstanding), but it’s a fantastic opportunity to purchase miles at about 1 cent apiece. It’s likely targeted, responses from agents may very, I would call myself but I am inflight and bans on inflight calls remain in place (for now? hah!). Some will find it worth calling, though! When they joined Star Alliance…
Post-Christmas Open Thread
What’s On Your Mind? You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
