Reader Megan asked, What’s the best way to travel first class to Asia? Buy a ticket and upgrade, or go with miles? Great question, because it gets at understanding several key issues about international airline travel, and about miles and points. First of all — although once upon a time American Airlines used to allow double upgrades — no airline is going to permit upgrading from coach to first class. Business class is a different story, although many people use the terms interchangeably. If you want first class you need to buy a business class ticket (say, $3000 to $8000) and upgrade. So for the rest of this post I’m going to read the question as, “should I book an award ticket, or buy a coach ticket and upgrade to business class?” If you’re an…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for November 2014.
What You Can – and Can’t – Take from a Hotel Room. And a Naked Man Falls Through the Ceiling at Boston Airport…
News and notes from around the interweb: Woman dies after airport scanner interferes with her pacemaker Naked man falls through ceiling of Bostom airport’s terminal C and attacks 84 year old man AirAsia launching $148 all you can fly air pass Choice Hotels double points for booking through their mobile app. Promotion runs through December 17 and registration is required. Larry Ellison’s Island Air wants pilots to return their Christmas bonuses. Presumably they’ll get the bonuses paid out again next month. What you can and cannot take from hotel rooms (HT: Alan H.). 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…
What Points Should You Earn, and How Many Points Are Too Many?
Reader Rob P asked for, [a] post on your “earn and burn” philosophy would be helpful. How do I know if I’m hoarding too many UR points and not spending them enough? I explained ten years ago why points programs devalue. They’re private currencies without any binding constraints. The Supreme Court even limited your right to sue this year. Programs can do as they wish with impunity. There’s tremendous value in frequent flyer programs but you should not save points now for some future day in which you might spend them. In general your points will never be worth more tomorrow than they are today. The only real exception to that has been the introduction of alliances. The ability to redeem across partners, even on the same award ticket, made existing points more valuable not…
Here’s My Elite Status Program and Plan
Reader Denis asks about my elite status, and since I write about what I think people ought to do what I actually do is fair game. How are you planning status (airlines) for year end? Do you need to MR? Lifetime status? I’ve re-qualified for American’s Executive Platinum (100,000 mile) status already. I should end the year with about 120,000 qualifying miles, and 10,000 on US Airways from spend on their credit card, that will ultimately get combine when the two programs are joined next year — although there will be no benefit to me for being over 100,000 since I won’t hit 125,000 points (which would likely get me – upon request of AAdvantage Customer Service – 2 additional confirmed international upgrades). I’m also a lifetime American AAdvantage Platinum member — American gives lifetime…
Why Don’t Airlines Make Empty Seats Available as Award Space?
Reader Jered asked, Why don’t airlines open all remaining international premium cabin seats for awards for day-of travel? Surely getting something for them is better than having them go empty? Here’s Jered’s question — if a seat is going to go empty, an airline is getting literally nothing in exchange for that seat. They get something, whether reduction in liability (and thus recognition in revenue) for their frequent flyer program and a transfer of funds from the program to the airline… or cash for the seat from an airline partner. So why would an airline let a seat take off empty, rather than reaping an incremental revenue gain for it? Now, many airlines do follow this strategy. They make seats they expect to go unsold available as awards. Some seats may be opened early on…
How Do Airlines Compensate Each Other For Taking Passengers During Irregular Operations?
Reader Jered wants to know: How do airline awards work when redeeming points for travel on a partners? How much if anything do they compensate each other for award seats? More broadly, “when I am accommodated on another airline, how does that work behind the scenes?” e.g. “[D]istressed United passengers on the BOS-ICN mistake fare having boarding passes for re-accommodation on Singapore Airlines being torn up by the Singapore gate agent because the passengers weren’t ‘worth enough’ so clearly some money is changing hands…” Accounting for award tickets varies when you’re using an airline’s miles to fly on their own flights. Generallhy speaking the actualy cost of that ticket to the mileage program may be close to the marginal cost of carrying an additional passenger, such as $50 for a domestic flight. It’s a little…
6 Easy Ways to Get More Enjoyment from Your Trips
I’ve shared this before but it really bears repeating — the best advice comes down to: spend time planning vacations, take more trips, work while you’re gone, and experience new and unusual things. Planning vacations contributes more to your happiness than actually taking them. You may need to go on vacation to justify all of the planning time. You get all of your relaxation benefits on the trip itself, but don’t expect to be relaxed when you get back. We quickly snap back into the stress of daily life, sans any benefit from the vacation. Go in knowing you’ll enjoy yourself while you’re gone, but don’t set the bar for “needing a vacation” that you expect to be reset, relaxed, and in a different place with work upon your return. Being on vacation can actually…
How to Ensure You and Your Family Sit Together During the Busy Holiday Travel Season
It can be really hard to get seats together for flights during the holidays. Flights are full. More families are traveling together so more people are trying to sit together (compared to solo business travelers). And more and more airlines are holding back the number of seats they assign for ‘free’. 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 the seat map that airlines will let passengers reserve in advance unless the passenger: is paying the exorbitant full fare is an ‘elite’ frequent flyer doing 25,000 miles or more a year (usually) on the airline pays a fee for a ‘premium’ seat which sometimes just means an aisle or being closer…
6 Things That Will Make Your Thanksgiving Travel Easier
If you’re traveling this week in the U.S., best of luck to you! Here is my nickel’s worth of free advice as you prepare to depart along with 40 million other Americans for the Thanksgiving holiday (fortunately they won’t all be flying). Give yourself lots of time. Wednesday and Sunday are amateur days. Everyone else will slow you down. Flights instead of being 80% full are 100% full (that alone would be a 25% increase in people) and frequent travelers are replaced by occasional travelers who don’t know the drill as well. Be patient, across the whole process — getting to the airport, parking (if that’s your thing), clearing security, boarding while other passengers try to sneak bags into the overhead bins on that wouldn’t fit in a shipping container. Avoid checking bags. That’s counterintuitive…
Fuel Dumps Explained
Reader doug asked about “fuel dumping on award and paid tickets[.]” What he’s asking about is the idea of adding a flight segment to a ticket that you do not intend to fly but that has the effect of reducing the fuel surcharges you have to pay for the ticket. This is soemthing airlines doubly frown upon: Ticketing a flight you don’t intend to fly “Tricking” their pricing systems into charging you less. Nonetheless, it is a technique that generates savings. And I explain how it works with both paid and award tickets in some detail in these posts: “Fuel Dumps” Explained Here’s how ‘fuel dumps’ work on award tickets, too You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one…
