News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Six things that every smart traveler should do this month. My contribution to Wendy Perrin’s Conde’ Nast list was to redeem US Airways miles for travel on Star Alliance airlines before they depart for oneworld at the end of the month. Inside the World of Mileage Runners from finance site Minyanville. They offer my case that mileage runners can be profitable for an airline, remembering the ‘Baht Run’ and giving props to wanaflyforless (whose name doesn’t appear in the piece) for making Executive Platinum on American in 17 days plus a shout out to The Flight Deal. American opened a new club in Philadelphia located in Terminal A-East between gates A4 and A6. That brings US Airways/American to 4 clubs in Philadelphia. British Airways has a club there…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for March 2014.
SriLankan Airlines Set to Join the oneworld Alliance May 1
SriLankan now has an official joining date of May 1 for entry into oneworld, making them an alliance partner of American (and US Airways) as well as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and more. And they’re a great addition to oneworld for frequent flyers. With American you’ll be able to include them in AAdvantage distance-based oneworld awards, for instance flying over the Atlantic and connecting in Europe to Asia, or including them on trips to the Maldives or India and Pakistan. Bangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Tiruchirappalli in India as well as Male in the Maldives are short hops from Colombo, Sri Lanka that will only cost 4500 British Airways points each way. (Of course many of these short hops are also quite inexpensive to buy.) In Europe SriLankan flies to Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Paris, and…
Delta Releases Its New 5-Tier Award Charts: What They Mean For Travelers
Delta announced their new revenue-based points-earning scheme last week, and curiously absent was details of what changes were going to look like on the redemption side of the equation. Delta had told us there would be a five tier redemption chart, unlike two tiers that most programs have and three tiers that Delta has had since 2008. But that they wouldn’t reveal the specifics until the fourth quarter of the year. Delta Made the Right Decision to Come Clean on Their Award Chart Changes I’ve been highly critical of Delta for the decision to hold back details of changes to their award chart. You can’t evaluate a program knowing only how points are earned. Redemption is 50% of the equation. Members are earning points now that they will redeem next year, and Delta wouldn’t tell…
Delta’s Revenue-Based Points Earning Should Mean Fewer Points From Flying, But More Points Overall
We’re likely to see fewer (base) miles earned by flying at Delta with their new revenue-based points-earning scheme. But we’re also likely to see more miles earned overall in 2015 than we see in 2014 and than were earned in 2013. Net net I expect rewarding miles based on ticket price to mean fewer miles earned in total from butt-in-seat flying. With a ‘break-even’ average of 20 cents per mile in ticket price to earn the same number of miles in 2015 as in 2014, and with Delta earning less than 20 cents per seat mile on average, they should be printing fewer miles. In order to average 20 cents per seat mile across passengers, they’d need ‘passenger revenue per available seat mile’ to be 16 cents at a systemwide 80% load factor for the…
W Hotel Store 60% Off (Including Mattresses), Best Prices I’ve Ever Seen
The W Hotel Store is offering 60% off of everything with promo code W6EM9. In December and in October they ran 50% off, and that caused prices to be about the same as when I purchased my bed from them in March 2007 prior to a price increase. 60% is better, of course. I’ve found my queen bed plush top with feather bed to have been a good purchase. I chose the ‘plush top’ rather than pillow top mattress and it’s lasted wonderfully, though I’ve since changed out the feather bed. (There are reports that the pillow top version won’t last as long, that it has a ‘memory’ or rather it wears out more quickly.) In my experience W Hotel Store purchases post as double points earning when paying with a Starwood Preferred Guest American…
Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report: British Airways First Class Lounge JFK
Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
3000 Bonus Miles for a Hotel Booking With Rocketmiles
Rocketmiles is a hotel booking site with a limited number of hotels and in a limited – but growing – number of cities. It rebates you a potentially large number of miles for your reservations. (You generally won’t earn hotel points for your stays booked through the site.) You get to choose whose miles you want to earn for your stays. In addition to the standard bonus they are now offering a 3000 mile bonus in your choice of mileage program for completing your first booking by April 11. I had thought that the 3000 mile bonus in your choice of program offer for making a first-time booking with Rocketmiles had expired at the end of 2013, but Tim R. pointed out to me that it’s still available. Key terms: Qualifying Activity: To qualify for…
Delta Is Releasing Their 2015 Award Redemption Chart Early!
A frequent flyer program is equal parts earning and redemption. Delta’s new revenue-based frequent flyer program has only shared details of how miles will be earned — based on the money you spend, rather than the miles you fly (time spent with an airline on their planes) — and not how miles will be spent. As a result we really don’t know the impact of the changes. Delta had said they would release the award redemption half of the program during the last quarter. They’ve had their new redemption chart, but they had planned to keep it a secret. Their members would fly all year, saving points to redeem next year, but not knowing how much those points are worth. Word today — three different people had shared with me by the end of the…
Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report: Introduction, Positioning and the Hilton New York JFK
Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
Barbecue Throwdown: Black’s is the Absolute Best
On the subject of Austin barbecue, having written about the world-famous Franklin (“Is Austin’s Franklin Barbecue the Best in the World?“) and Lamberts (“The Best Barbecue Restaurant With Sit-down Service and Online Reservations“), it seems worth giving coverage to what I consider to be my favorite, most flavorful brisket… Black’s in Lockhart. Black’s is probably the restaurant I’ve written about the most, more even than Elephant Jumps Thai in Merrifield, Virginia (if you find yourself anywhere near Northern Virginia… go!) or Lam Zhou Homemade Noodle in Manhattan’s Chinatown. (See here, here, and here.) Now I should start by saying that Franklin is considered almost universally to be the best brisket around. And the best barbecue should be judged by the best brisket. I would hazard a guess that if you asked the folks from Black’s,…
