I asked readers to share what’s on their mind and not surprisingly one of the questions was about getting upgraded. I’ve shared all of this advice before, but it seemed useful to pull it together and repeat it because it’s not just a reader question it’s one of the most common questions in travel. Airline upgrades are almost exclusively done by formula, with little discretion allowed to gate or check-in counter agents. The only time there may be wiggle room is when a flight is oversold, and while elite frequent flyers may get preference for moving up to a premium cabin, the most important priority is getting a flight out on time. Other than these “operational upgrades” though, upgrades are going to be based on published criteria – not who is nicest, who dresses best,…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for April 2014.
How to Get the Seats You Want on Your Next Flight
I asked readers to share what’s on their mind and one reader mentioned being unable to sit with her husband on a recent trip, and wanted to know how to make that work on future travels. Now, it can be really hard to get seats together on flights — flights are full, airlines are charging for many of their coach seats (calling them premium when they’re not really different than other seats — perhaps just not in the back or not middles). During the holidays it gets even harder with more families traveling so trying to sit together (compared to solo business travelers). For most passengers, your ticket doesn’t come with a ‘seat’. Obviously that isn’t literally true, since safety rules require all passengers to be seated. But there’s a limited number of seats on…
12 Great Ways to Save Money on Rental Cars
Airlines and hotels get most of the ink in travel and in terms of getting the best deal. But I rent cars. A lot. I’ve earned status with rental car chains, as well as Her list, my comments. Now, here’s the most important tip to improve your car rental experience. But here’s how you can save money renting cars: Rent off-brand. Fox, Payless, and others will often have lower rates than Avis and Hertz. The question is whether the lower rate is worth the extra hassle, and that’s a personal tradeoff. The lesser known brands may be off-airport in several cities, so more of a hassle to get to the car. (Although off-airport may be a savings in itself, see below.) They don’t all have the streamlined checkout and checkin processes that you can at…
AirTran A+ Rewards Program Ends November 1
Southwest Airlines acquired AirTran and has taken its sweet time in folding the two airlines and two frequent flyer programs into one. But we now have a definitive date. You can already transfer AirTran credits and Southwest Rapid Rewards points back and forth. AirTran accounts will be closed on November 1. You’ll be able to set up permanent linking later in the year so that points from AirTran will transfer smoothly (at 1 credit -> 1200 points, and half credits become 600 points) when the transition happens. If you have an AirTran account and not a Southwest one (or they can’t find your Southwest account), they’ll create a Rapid Rewards account for you. You’ll be better off creating and linking your own accounts later in the year, however, since there’s no risk in winding up…
Porn Stars Shut Down for Credit Card Perk Abuse, and the Future of PreCheck and Inflight Internet (Bits ‘n Pieces for April 29, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Scott Mayerowitz reports that TSA PreCheck is now being rolled out with international airlines. AT&T plans to offer inflight internet service. Competition is a good thing. If you don’t want your credit card account closed down, stay out of the porn industry. Total speculation: Chase employees aren’t watching films to identify banking clients. Instead, perhaps accounts receiving funds from specific high risk businesses are being deemed high-risk by extension. Always interesting when “goodwill adjustment’ bonus points show up in an account when you haven’t made any sort of complaint. It’s like Christmas in April! Seattle’s KOMO tv news runs a piece with me on overweight carry on bags. It will be interesting, with more than than just Spirit, to see if carry on bag fees reduce how common…
ACT NOW: US Airways Award Tickets On British Airways Without Fuel Surcharges
Debating Whether or Not to Share This I struggled with whether to post this or not. Since US Airways joined oneworld a month ago there’s been a big opportunity. But I also suspected that once I posted it, the opportunity would disappear quickly. There’s always a balance. I want as many people as possible to benefit from a deal, but I also don’t want to overexpose something either. If I think something is sustainable I will post it. If I think that an opportunity will end from my shedding a light on it I won’t. I don’t always get the balance right, but I do my best. This deal was posted on a handful of minor blog sites, and I didn’t take the bait. But this morning I saw The Points Guy cover it. And…
Maximize Your Earning on a Short Hyatt Stay: Triple Miles for Summer With 8 Airlines
Hyatt is offering triple American AAdvantage miles beginning with your second stay between May 1 and August 31. Registration is required. See all 8 offers below. You cannot earn both Hyatt Gold Passport points and miles at the same time. However earning miles still allows you to earn stay and night credits towards elite status. Since it’s fixed-earning… 1500 miles instead of the usual 500.. this is a great deal for inexpensive stays (for instance, a $200 one-night stay) and not a very good deal for pricey stays (multi-night, and high room rate). Here are the 8 airline offers and their respective registration pages: Air France KLM Flying Blue American AAdvantage ANA Mileage Club British Airway Executive Club Japan Airlines Mileage Bank Jet Airways JetPrivilege Miles & More United MileagePlus The bonus can be earned…
100% Bonus on Purchased US Airways Miles Expected to Return May 3
According to Loyalty Lobby, US Airways will be back with a purchase miles bonus of up to 100% between May 3 and May 25. Over the past few years they’ve run buy miles bonuses — sometimes targeted — about 75% of the year. Which means that the 100% bonus is more or less ‘regular price’. Nonetheless, that means they sell miles less expensively than most airlines including less expensively than American Airlines — and these miles will become American miles when the two programs merge. As a long-term play it’s cheaper to buy miles from US Airways and have them become American miles than to buy those miles from American. (One imagines that when the programs do merge, that the higher price of American miles will prevail.) Good Deal? At a 100% bonus, priced at…
Earn 25,000 Bonus Points By Making Transfers Into Aeroplan
Aeroplan is offering a bonus of up to 25,000 miles for transferring in points from other programs. Through May 25, the more points you transfer the more bonus points you’ll earn. These are threshold bonuses rather than a straight percentage bonus, but the total bonus you earn is based on the cumulative amount of points transferred into the program. In other words you can make multiple transfers from several programs if you wish in order to get up to the next level of transfer bonus. We’ve certainly seen this promotion before, such as back in November. This bonus doesn’t require a single transfer to be as large as a bonus threshold. Aeroplan will count the total miles transferred in from eligible partners when calculating the bonus you earn. Hotel partners, Hertz, and points.com are eligible…
Earn the Most Points Possible for Renting a Car
You can generally accrue in a rental car company’s points program (those companies that have one) or earn miles and not both. Rental car companies generally pass on the taxes for miles awarded with your bill. And most rental car accrual offers are quite weak, such as 50-100 miles per day. In those cases I definitely take the rental car points or credits. But when there are bonus offers at play, the miles can be the better deal than credit towards free rental days. I used to credit my one-day Avis rentals to Virgin Atlantic for their 1000 mile minimum. Believe it or not there are good uses for Virgin’s points even though they’ve devalued tranfers to Hilton. Back in the day of course you could earn 1700 bmi miles on a single Hertz rental,…
