It moves pretty slowly but is cute enough. “But I am Sky Priority!” “Can you do something about the gate lice?” Some will enjoy it: You can join the 40,000+ 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!
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for November 2014.
Things That Get Flight Attendants Fired, a 75,000 Point Signup Bonus, and the Most Uncomfortable Airline Seat in the World
News and notes from around the interweb: Are United’s new Slimline seats the most uncomfortable in the sky? What airplane seats were like in the 1970s Things that get you fired as a Turkish Airlines flight attendant Next Saturday Pittsburgh airport is inviting everyone to come airside to do some shopping (HT: @JohnnyJet) Doctor of Credit says you can get an American Express Business Gold Rewards card with a 75,000 point signup bonus offer. Club Carlson is offering 100% bonus on purchased points for Cyber Monday. You can join the 40,000+ 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!
Etihad Upgrading Their Premium Services — Starting Right Away!
I love the way that the Middle Eastern carriers are elevating the travel experience, in many ways beyond what’s supported economically by a profitable business model for the airline narrowly conceived. Here’s Etihad’s strategy for lighting huge sums of money on fire to build Abu Dhabi into a global aviation hub, investing in money-losing airlines the world over in order to direct connecting traffic through the capital of the UAE. Towards this end they’re also continually evolving their product. And they’ve just announced improvements to the service and amenities going into effect December 1. Here’s the new first class soft product improvements: And the new business soft product, although the description may describe a hard product improvement as well: Economy is getting some new features as well: It seems like some of these changes are…
Time to Act: Here’s What to Tell Delta and United About Their New Frequent Flyer Programs
Frequent flyer programs do roll back changes — but don’t like to admit they’re wrong when they do it. American did just that when they introduced a $5 online award booking fee that never went into effect. The idea was dropped, no announcement. Because it was stupid. Here are five more heroic times when consumers won against frequent flyer program changes. If you don’t like Delta’s revenue-based frequent flyer program coming in 2015, or United’s copy cat version of the same and the gutting of the United mileage currency, there’s something you should do about it. Put your money where your mouth is, buy tickets from airlines offering you a better value proposition. Fly American and Alaska Airlines. Status match. Earn status with American or Alaska. Let American and Alaska know why you’re buying tickets…
Now a oneworld Frequent Flyer Program Announces a Devaluation
On top of a new Star Alliance program devaluation, oneworld member Japan Airlines Mileage Bank — one of the surprisingly most useful frequent flyer programs out there — has announced their own devaluation. Americans care about the JAL program because: You can transfer Starwood points to JAL JAL has a reasonable distance-based award chart They partner with airlines like Emirates (and can be a cheaper way of getting Emirates awards than even Alaska Airlines) in addition to their oneworld partners. Fortunately, the devaluations aren’t bad. Awards business and first class awards on JAL itself rather than on partner airlines will be going up in price effective November 2015. That’s nearly a year’s notice. Here’s the new US-Japan pricing: Business class goes from 80,000 to 100,000 miles roundtrip (one-way awards will be half the cost of…
Book a Stopover… Even When Your Frequent Flyer Program No Longer Gives You Free Stopovers
Just because your frequent flyer program no longer allows stopovers included free as part of an international award (American eliminated them entirely, Delta sheds them completely January 1), doesn’t mean you shouldn’t book a stopover. The point of this post isn’t that it’s possible to still trick a program into giving you a stopover for free, although some programs with distance-based award charts can give you cheaper awards with a stopover than without one. (British Airways, which prices each segment separately, can be an example of this.) Rather the point is that a stopover may cost you fewer miles than you think — certainly fewer miles than making an additional trip to another region of the world. So it may make sense to spend the miles to visit another city, even though it isn’t “free.”…
Massive Airline Ticket Fraud, 22% Off Hyatt, and Pig Kicked Off of US Airways
News and notes from around the interweb: Washington Dulles airport is shrinking, and that’s a problem for Washington. The reason is simple: Washington Dulles is a very bad airport. 118 arrests in massive airline ticket fraud A woman brought a pig onboard a US Airways flight on Wednesday as an emotional support animal. The woman and the pig were asked to deplane (prior to departure) ‘after it became disruptive’. (HT: Reid F.) The FAA has ruled in favor of US Airways in the past for carrying a pig onboard (in first class). The sun will rise in the East, and United will eliminate stopovers on awards. 94 Year Old Has a Firearm Seized at New York LaGuardia Stackable Hyatt savings for 22% off. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis…
International First Class Isn’t Disappearing – It’s Surging Like Never Before!
Last month I asked, Why is International First Class Disappearing? I concluded that it isn’t — there are certain trends that are causing it to disappearing from some airlines and some markets, and for those airlines that retain it to ‘right-sze’ the cabins (no more 16 seat first class cabins on Lufthansa!). But airlines aren’t letting first class die, they’re re-investing in some of the greatest products we’ve seen — like Singapore’s Suites and Emirates’ onboard showers. And even where it’s going away, it’s merely then name that disappears — because today’s top international business class products are far better than what first class used to be. The Financial Times now makes the case that far from disappearing, international first class is seeing a resurgence (subscription may be required). In fact, the number of first…
Another Star Alliance Program Devalues
tommy777 passes along two articles in Norwegian cover the details of SAS EuroBonus’ plans to devalue their program on January 1. Changes from January 1, 2015 in brief: Lower point earnings on the cheapest tickets in SAS Go and SAS Plus Europe will be 1 zone (not 3 as before) Higher point earnings in SAS Business to/from the US and Asia Lower point requirements for Gold status: 45 000 Basic points (previously 50 000) or 45 one-way trips* (previously 50) Lower point requirements for Diamond status: 90 000 Basic points (previously 100 000) or 90 one-way trips* (previously 100) *Valid on SAS flights and selected destinations on Widerøe. The new earning rates have fixed earn based on where you’re traveling. All of Europe has a single amount of miles earned based on the fare class…
Inside Donald Trump’s 757
Donald Trump has made a lot of money by always appearing in character, as a buffoon. He’s done some awful high profile real estate deals, which led to three bankruptcies — but has also earned a large amount of money as a public character (although he may not be as wealthy as he says he is). Part of projecting success is having an over-the-top private jet. Trump’s is a 757… not Middle Eastern Prince-worthy, but still quite impressive by US business standards. And there’s a touch of Middle East sheikh chic: “You’ll notice the seatbelts, as well as everything else, are 24 karat gold plated.” This doesn’t impress me, even the Trump Shuttle (earlier the Eastern Shuttle, now the US Airways Shuttle) used to have gold plated fixtures in the lavatory.. Here’s a three year…
