Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for July 2014.

20,000 Starwood Points Gets You 30,000 American Miles This Month

Through July 31 there’s a 20% bonus for transferring Starwood points into American miles. From July 1 through July 31, 2014, simply convert your Starpoints® to American Airlines AAdvantage miles and earn a 20% bonus. As always, for every 20,000 Starpoints transferred within the same transaction, SPG® will automatically add another 5,000 miles. With the additional 20% mileage bonus offered by the AAdvantage program, you will receive a total of 30,000 miles from the transaction. Starwood can post up to 79,999 points to a given airline mileage program during a 24 hour period. And of course you want to transfer in chunks of 20,000 to maximize your bonus. So don’t transfer more than 60,000 Starpoints (which will yield 90,000 American miles) in a 24 hour period. If you want to make a larger transfer, break…

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Always Double and Triple Check Your Awards!

I know these lessons well, I’ve had every mistake in the book made on the airline side. Was the correct name entered on the reservation? Was the correct flight booked on the right date? (Especially challenging for flights shortly after midnight.) Was the ticket actually queued to issue correctly? So many things can go wrong. It always amazes me that members in general are able to issue award seats at all, at least for those itineraries that are not bookable on an airline’s website. Given the number of mistakes an agent can make — and that is after, even, battling to actually find award space on the flights you’re looking for — it’s important to make sure all of the details are correct. And especially in the case of partner airline awards, to make sure…

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Man Hit With 2000 Euro Bill for Scamming Lufthansa Lounge Access!

Six months ago the story went ’round about the Chinese man who ate free for a year. He bought a fully flexible ticket, changed his travel date each day, used the airport lounge for food and drink and then refunded his ticket at the end of a year. Lots of folks thought this was a brilliant hack. Although it certainly wasn’t new. Ever since September 11th and the requirement that you actually be flying same-day to go past security, there are people that have found it convenient to buy a refundable ticket, meet friends at their gate, and then refund the ticket rather than get a gate pass. And if doing that, you might as well buy an international first class ticket, to take advantage of any available first class lounge while waiting. Back when…

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Your Next Flight May Land in a Totally Different Way

The thing I miss the most in my flying is listening to Channel 9 air traffic control on United. There’s a certain familiarity to the discussions that’s just soothing. The usual patter on approach of “descend maintain one two thousand” is going to change though — and at some airports is already changing. (HT: Alan H.) That’s because more airports are moving to bringing planes in on a steady path to the ground instead of descending, leveling off, and descending again. Leveling off involves cranking up the engines, which burns fuel. A steady glide to the ground burns less. And it allows descent to begin later, where the new approach pattern has been implemented descents begin a couple miles closer to the airport. Usually, planes approaching an airport drop altitude in steps, cranking up the…

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