News and notes from around the interweb: Etihad may be far more interested in growth of its Abu Dhabi hub than profits, but there are limits to its deep pockets it seems: the Swiss Airline operating as Etihad Regional faces restructuring and possible layoffs of 20% of staff. A good reason to be in DC that day: On May 8, two dozen types of vintage World War 2 aircraft will fly over DC to commemorate the 70th anniversary of V-E Day. The historical aircraft expected to participate include the P-40 Warhawk, P-39 Aerocobra, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, FG-1D Corsair, B-25 Mitchell, B-17 Flying Fortress, and many others. IronyWatch: A Kuwaiti firm has been awarded a 45 year contract to develop and operate a new airport in Iraq. Will Boeing develop a new 757…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for February 2015.
Hyatt Launching Two New Diamond Benefits March 1: Gifting Status on Award Nights, and Lounge Access
Hyatt Gold Passport is introducing two new benefits for top tier Diamond members. Ability to Make Your Friends and Family Diamond for an Award Stay Hyatt calls the program ‘Guest of Honor‘ — starting March 1 when a Diamond member redeems points for someone else’s award stay, that person will receive Diamond benefits for the stay. That way Diamond members can treat their family and friends to the same kind of experience with Hyatt that they receive themselves. I love the idea of letting Diamond members give their friends and family the same Hyatt experience that they have, it lets them share their love for the brand in a way they can be proud of. Having a spouse, child, or good friend taken care of I think really reinforces a connection that’s more than transactional.…
United Voiding All Those Cheap Business and First Class Tickets They Issued Today
This morning flights originating in the UK were pricing in Danish Kroner at a price that’s pennies on the dollar what they normally run. You could fly from the UK to pretty much anywhere in the world in business or first class at price hovering around $100 or less. This wasn’t a United-specific glitch, but United.com was the most common place to buy these tickets. That’s because: United.com lets you choose your country and thus currency in which to be charged, so it allowed booking UK-originating tickets in Danish Kroner It was possible to book there with a US-issued credit card. Not all Danish sites were offering this pricing. For instance, Expedia.dk seemed to price much higher. United’s twitter team was just as excited about this as frequent flyers were: However United tells Ben Mutzabaugh…
Does Thailand’s Government Want to Ban Orgies, Save on UK Departure Tax from These Cities, and 4 Ways You’re Using Miles Wrong…
News and notes from around the interweb: New day room booking site and app Hotels By Day is giving away free day rooms. There are surprisingly few entries, so your chances of winning are good. So enter. The inside scoop on United’s ellusive Global Services status. In addition to everything mentioned there, Global Services members departing Frankfurt or Munich in United first class get access to Lufthansa first class lounges. The cities in the UK where you can originate your return from Europe without paying the premium cabin luxury tax on a BA Avios redemption. 4 Ways You’re Probably Using Your Airline Miles Incorrectly (from me over at USA Today Travel). Does Thailand’s military government want to ban orgies? Orbitz and Skiplagged — the website that helps you find throwaway tickets to save money on…
Book American’s Brand New 787 Starting This Saturday
American has released details of its plans for the Boeing 787. As hinted previously, The plane will be based at DFW. Its initial domestic revenue flights, before it begins international service, will be Dallas – Chicago starting May 7 It will fly Dallas – Beijing June 2 And Dallas – Buenos Aires June 4 The 787 should be loaded into the schedule this Saturday, February 14. American has 42 firm orders for the 787-8 and 787-9 and options on an additional 58 planes. American plans to load 28 lie-flat business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration and then 198 main cabin seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. 48 of those main cabin seats will be used for Main Cabin Extra The business class product — or at least photos they’re releasing — appears similar to the…
Update: The MobileSuites App Big Hotel Point Giveaway!
The Mobile Suites app will let you order room service, request housekeeping, set up transportation, and reserve restaurant and spa services at your hotel, regardless of where you’re staying. They’re working with the major hotel chains and rolling out quickly across their portfolio of full service hotels. The first 2000 signups that enter an email address on their website will receive early access to the MobileSuites app (on March 1st). Anybody that signs up and refers a friend will be entered into a drawing for a free 3 night stay at any of the hotels on the app. They tell me that starting March 1st the app will be available at nearly every full-service Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott hotel across the country. They offered to give a View from the Wing reader a bunch…
Hilton HHonors Lifetime Diamond Status Revealed
Hilton has made details of their much-anticipated lifetime Diamond status available. The requirements are: 10 years of Diamond status (does not have to be consecutive) 1000 paid nights Diamond status is normally achieved for a single year through any one of: 30 stays in a calendar year 60 nights in a calendar year 120,000 HHonors Base Points in a calendar year $40,000 spend in a year on either the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card or the American Express Hilton Surpass Card While you can meet the 10 years’ requirement with spend alone on the premium co-brand credit cards, doing so doesn’t help you meet the 1000 paid night requirement. Interestingly there’s no lifetime Gold offering. Starwood offers lifetime Gold with 250 nights and 5 years of status, and lifetime Platinum with 500 nights and 10…
$85 Business and First Class Sale Fare, Europe – US on Several Airlines
Hat tip to this Flyertalk thread, it’s possible to purchase tickets between several cities in the UK and several cities in the US — in business class — for under $100 roundtrip. You have to originate in Europe. This works from London, but not exclusively so. This was first discovered on United, but it appears to work for most carriers. Here’s some of the airlines that the ITA Matrix will price an itinerary like this in business class — in Danish Kroner (so you’ll want to use a credit card with no foreign currency fees when purchasing). And here’s ITA Matrix pricing first class, it even prices for Swiss and Lufthansa first class. The question is, where to book. It was initially suggested to use United.com, and indeed you can get the price to come…
Delta Just Quietly Made a Change to the SkyMiles Terms and Conditions That May Reveal Their Whole Game
Yesterday I asked if Delta was slipping a whole new mileage redemption system in the back door. They’ve made lots of changes lately, totally in the dark and without announcement. They’ve pulled award charts off of their website, and now say that awards cost whatever price members are presented with at the time they search an itinerary. It’s still strange that they’ve done this mere weeks after implementing a brand new award chart, but it looks like they’re gradually moving to a revenue-based redemption model — just not telling their members about it. Just like seeming to require more than 3 weeks’ advance purchase to get the lowest mileage prices for an award. Now they’ve quietly changed their program rules in a way that seem to prepare for a new redemption model to become official.…
US Airways Brings Back Access to AAnytime Awards on American Airlines
A week ago American and US Airways launched the ability to redeem miles for ‘extra award availability’ at an additional mileage cost on each others’ flights. The idea of spending extra miles to get the seat you want isn’t universal, you can’t do it with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic miles for instance. Most European and Asian carriers don’t offer this (although some like Singapore Airlines do). But it’s near-universal for US airlines, though they do it in different ways. United only lets elites and co-brand credit card holders spend extra miles for last seat availability, for instance. General members without a United credit card only get access to most seats at a much higher mileage price. But they have only two mileage levels. Alaska, American, US Airways, and Delta all have more levels. The…
