News and notes from around the interweb: 1000 free Lufthansa Miles&More miles. This is from a Best Western promotion, in German, use Google Chrome to translate. Offer comes via Doctor of Credit and appears targeted to me so unclear if the miles – registered for very quickly and painlessly – will post. Chime and fuel rewards signup bonuses. Choice Hotels is offering stay twice and get a free night which is really just bonus points enough for a free night, and Choice points at that so not something I get especially excited over. But better than a hole in the head if you’re staying at one of their properties. Sadly it’s not as generous as the IHG Rewards great promo that is sadly limited to two free nights but not capped in terms of what…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2014.
Man Denied Boarding in New York Because of His Israeli Passport. Here’s How He Should Play It.
Reader David H. passes along a scenario from a post on Flyertalk – Customer, who holds an Israeli passport, books a ticket between New York and London on Priceline. He’s given an Air India ticket, with Air India flight numbers, operated by Kuwait Aiways He’d denied boarding by Kuwait Airways. Even though an Israeli passport is valid for travel to the U.K., the airline’s home country does not recognize Israel.
Treasure Map Revealed: Making the Most of American (and BA) Miles for Business Class to Europe!
American’s primary transatlantic partner is British Airways, but American adds fuel surcharges to awards on BA. Fuel surcharges can run $828 roundtrip for a simple New York – London roundtrip, pushing total taxes and fees up close to $1200! (Although there’s a trick to shave some money off this.) This is especially frustrating because it’s not like you will often find any business class award space to Europe on American’s own flights. So how do you get to Europe using American Airlines miles? Air Berlin, of course, which doesn’t add fuel surcharges to their paid tickets even which means you can also book these flights with British Airways without paying extortionate fuel surcharges. Finnair via Helsinki but business class award space is quite limited. US Airways, which has a fantastic business class seat and an…
Learn the Lessons from Visiting Every Country in the World!
Chris Guillebeau, a speaker at Frequent Traveler University last spring and organizer of The World Domination Summit — and whose book R100 Startup profiles my award booking service) — visited every country in the world. Auditorium for World Domination Summit in 2012 His new book, The Happiness of Pursuit about meaning and quests is now out and his book tour begins today. This book represents the culmination of a ten-year odyssey to every country in the world—but it doesn’t end there. As I approached the end of the journey, I spent two additional years researching and interviewing other people who have undertaken a quest. My goal was to tell the stories of those who have done amazing things, extracting their lessons and seeking to understand how the rest of us can apply them. I received…
American’s First 787 is in Final Assembly — Here’s What to Expect
American’s first 787 is in final assembly. According to AirlinePilotForums, the first delivery is scheduled for November 28. Airlines usually start new aircraft types flying domestically while they work out any kinks. This one is rumored to begin flying New York JFK – Los Angeles for a month after delivery (presumably before it starts flying New York JFK – Paris), which strikes me as odd because American’s 787 will not have a first class cabin and American otherwise flies 3-cabin (A321T) aircraft on the route. Over at TravelingBetter.com, JonNYC reports that the plane will be configured with 28 business class, 48 main cabin extra, and 150 economy seats. (The 787-9s that come later will substantially grow the economy seciton — 28 business class, 51 main cabin extra, and 210 coach seats). Forum member IceTrojan mocks…
United is Lying to You, In Their Own Words
There is a very important lesson, that’s easy to forget sometimes. Your frequent flyer program is lying to you (although some lie more than others). There’s no purity here, so the offenses are all relative and need to be kept in perspective. Still, United coming right out and saying that they don’t keep their promises and don’t need to should be galling. Despite explicitly promising in late 2011 not to take away benefits or confirmed upgrades from million mile flyers, United did exactly that in early 2012. A lawsuit was filed for breach of contract, with one suggesting being that the million miler program was separate and apart from MileagePlus itself and the latter’s claim that members have no rights and United could do whatever it wished wasn’t a get out of jail free card.…
Potentially Huge: Earning Miles for Paying Your Bills at 7-11 With Debit and Gift Cards
Doctor of Credit writes about 7-11 ATM bill pay as a tool for using PIN-enabled gift cards and mileage-earning debit cards to pay bills. Many 7-11 stores now have the ability to pay bill via their ATM machines. You can find which ones have the feature here. These allow you to use some PIN enabled gift cards, line OneVanilla cards. And it allows you to use debit cards, like my Suntrust Delta debit card (that I haven’t heard any recent successful reports of signing up for, some I’m grateful for my legacy card that earns 1 Delta mile per dollar; eventually that has to go away). You can use the machine to pay bills like cell phone, cable, and insurance — all things I pay directly by credit card anyway. You can also pay some…
25% Off Virgin Atlantic Economy and Premium Economy Awards
Virgin Atlantic a 25% off award seat sale discounting economy and premium economy redemptions. This is a sample of available cities and roundtrip prices, though the sale applies to nearly all routes. Open jaws are permitted as long as both city pairs are eligible for the promotion, for instance Los Angeles – London – San Francisco is allowed. Virgin Atlantic has run award sales many times over the years. As seen in the charts above, there are fuel surcharges added to award tickets. But those have been reduced for economy awards (the flipside of course, is that this is an offer for economy awards only, so you won’t get a‘onesie’). Award cancel and redeposit terms are generous. It used to be you’d lose 25% of your miles but there was no cancel/deposit option within 7…
The World’s Cheapest Award Tickets (Just 1500 Miles) — And How to Get Even Those Miles Free!
air berlin’s topbonus — a program in which you can earn miles regularly free or cheap — has discounted economy awards — specific routes on sale for as little as 1500 points one-way. Over 500 city pairs are on sale, both long haul and short haul. You must book by September 14 for the current deals. Travel periods vary, but in general run through March 31. Flights are as little as 1500 miles plus taxes and fees each way. You get 500 point for joining (they’ve given as many as 1500 just for signing up!) and you get 500 miles for registering with a duty free shop (offer was extended for 2014). Boom. No doubt some will be tempted to rinse, repeat. Points presumably won’t post quickly enough from the newsletter in order to use…
Lifemiles Eliminates Their Online Shopping Portal
Avianca’s LifeMiles has ‘discontinued’ their online shopping portal. Our e-store has been disabled, we regret any inconvenience this may cause. If you have transactions that are pending, these will be credited once the stores approve purchases and miles to be credited. If you have any further queries please write to soporte@lifemiles.com I’m surprised to see this go. Online shopping portals are usually quite a good deal for the airlines selling the points. And of course the President of Lifemiles has said he considers the miles they sell to be far better for the company than those awarded for flying. This is a company that outdoes even US Airways in selling miles on the cheap. There were some good opportunities to earn miles with the eStore, entirely apart from the feeding frenzy two years ago. So…
