Earlier I reported that Delta appears to be charging more miles for elites booking economy awards than general members. Logged in elites would see a one-way flight for 17,500 miles that general members would see priced at 12,500 miles. Delta spokesman Anthony Black emails, I Saw your note on the award price issue. We are currently investigating and working to resolve the issue. I’ll let you know what we find. It sounds as though this is not intentional, and should not be an ongoing issue. That doesn’t mean Delta won’t adopt variable award pricing in the future, and that the formula for such pricing won’t be opaque. But it doesn’t seem as though they intend to charge elite members logged into their accounts more miles for the same awards that general (non-elite) members can get…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for February 2015.
Delta Currently Charging Elite Members Extra Miles to Book Award Tickets That Everyone Else Can Get for Less
Update: See Delta’s response. Last week Delta ‘tuned up’ the SkyMiles technology and I wondered if I was being paranoid to believe that was more likely than not bad for members. This week we’re learning that Delta — whether by glitch or by design — seems to be charging their own elite members more miles for economy awards than they are general members. Delta used to give extra award availability at the lowest pricing to their elite members. They eliminated that benefit last month. In order to check for the ‘extra availability’ online, there’s a button the search page for the member to indicate they’re one of the passengers. Elites saying so seem to be getting higher prices for economy awards than general members. Flyertalk member hnewman posted these screen shots. There’s plenty of 12,500…
Why Airlines Should Improve Their Coffee
Coffee fuels business travel, and most providers don’t understand that. Have you ever actually tried to drink the coffee on a US domestic airline? American’s new Airbus A321T flying between New York JFK and Los Angeles and San Francisco has a cappuccino machine in first class. I have only flown business class on this plane, though, so I’ve not had a decent cup of coffee on a US airline’s plane. Cathay Pacific makes a decent cappuccino but the airline won’t serve hot drinks when the seat belt sign is on. A little turbulence on approach to Hong Kong after a long overnight flight and having no access to coffee is another form of coffee fail. Delta got a lot of mileage out of its announced change to Starbucks this month. I wasn’t especially impressed. United…
Save Big Miles on United Partner Awards, How to Survive a Plane Crash, and Amex’s Future in Jeopardy?
News and notes from around the interweb: Ask the Captain: Surviving an Emergency Evacuation. And Here’s How to Survive a Plane Crash. Last chance for United’s partner award pricing glitch that became an official sale. It ‘expires’ February 28 (if they’ve managed to fix it, and if the mistake doesn’t come back… again). These seem like they may be seats (or some variant thereof) that American could put into their 757s flying transatlantic. We should know soon enough.. “American Express’s whole credit-card business will have to be reinvented” My take is different.
American’s Business ExtrAA Getting New Earning and Redemption Options
What is American Airlines Business ExtrAA? I’ve written in the past about earning points two, three, four, and even five ways at a time when booking travel — earning your miles for the flight, for the credit card spend, for going through an online shopping portal to make the booking, and by attaching a small business rewards account to the reservation as well. An airline’s small business program lets you accrue points in that business program account in addition to miles in the traveler’s frequent flyer account. What’s more, you can earn points this way both for yourself when you travel and also in your business program account when other people travel and include your business account number. I’ve made good use of American’s Business ExtrAA program, especially for low point value redemptions like gifting…
The DOT Guts its Post-Purchase Price Increase Prohibition to Help United Out of a Jam
Two weeks ago 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. United voided these tickets. Thousands of Consumers Complained to the Department of Transportation The Department of Transportation received thousands of complaints, apparently, and they’ve now ruled on whether United violated their rule against post-purchase price increase, which forbids cancelling tickets after purchase. And as I wrote that I expected, they’ve sided with United. While the DOT promulgated a rule requiring airlines to honor tickets that have been purchased regardless…
Buy Miles Opportunity at $0.0168, Target’s New REDperks Program, and Another Card Enters the 2.2% Game
News and notes from around the interweb: Doctor of Credit says the Priceline Visa is adding a 10% points rebate for travel redemptions so those who still have the old 2 points per dollar Priceline Visa will see that card become a 2.2% rebate card when using points for travel. Of course that merely makes it the equivalent of Barclaycard Arrival+ which anyone can still get and comes with a 40,000 point signup bonus offer. I can’t decide, read the hilarious suggestions in the comments of this post and then reply here to tell me which reader should win? American Airlines wants to win Los Angeles. Kristen Bell likes them (but does she like Delta co-brand issuer Amex even more?). But PT Anderson doesn’t like them (and he’s more important to frequent flyers). They have…
More Than 1 in 5 Starwood Hotel Awards Are Changing Price in 2 Weeks. Here’s How Your Points Will Be Affected.
Starwood has released a list of hotels that will be going up and down in award category for 2015. Here’s a .pdf of the full list of changes. (.pdf) Each hotel has a category assigned and that determines its price in points. The category is based on the expected average room rates the property will achieve in the coming year. Award categories aren’t based on hotel quality, they’re based on the prices of its rooms. It’s an annual process for Starwood, and their list is ‘near-final’ which is to say that occasionally there are changes not disclosed on the list (a hotel may appeal its categorization — it could want a lower category, encouraging more redemptions and incremental revenue, or the opposite .. and there could be amendments to a hotel’s projected room rates). Most…
$400 Account Opening Bonus for Citibank Checking Account
Citibank is offering $400 for opening a new Citigold checking account by February 28. You have to deposit $50,000 within 30 days to earn the bonus but you only need to keep the funds there for 15 days. The bonus funds don’t credit for 90 days so you have to keep your account open that long — pull the funds after 15 days, you’re looking at $90 in fees but net of $310. $310 in 15 days on a $50,000 deposit should work out to something like a 15% annualized return on those funds. Obviously this offer isn’t for everyone or even for most, it’s a good return for those with $50,000 liquid. It highlights how valuable a new high net worth account is to the bank — though it’s striking that they only require…
Is It Time to Regulate Frequent Flyer Programs?
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything as egregious as Delta over the past few weeks. Delta eliminated their award charts — just pulled them off the website — without telling anyone. When asked they said that members now get all they need to know from the award calendar. That suggests pricing could change and change rapidly, or at least they’re preparing for it to. Delta now has 21 day advance purchase requirements for the lowest award prices in many (most) markets. They’ve made your miles less valuable, without notice or even acknowledgment, for one of the only strong uses for domestic coach awards. One candidate for ‘worst action by an airline frequent flyer program against its members’ as noted by a commenter on the blog is fuel surcharges, especially the continued charging of these…
