Monthly Archives for December 2015.
Who knew it was possible to fly Air New Zealand using American miles! Under a brand new rules change, for one specific flight at least, it now is.
Since so much of the AAdvantage award rules are unpublished, I wrote the Ultimate Guide to Booking Award Tickets Using American Miles.
During 2015 American AAdvantage gave a boost towards elite status to members buying premium fares in the form of an ‘elite qualifying points’ bonus.
For 2016 they’ve eliminated qualifying points and are instead incorporating the premium fare bonus into extra qualifying miles for premium fares.
United is matching.
It’s the end of 2015 so remaining hotel promotions are ending, and the new year is upon us. We now know what three of the major hotel chains have in store for the January through April timeframe.
And I’m especially interested to see what Hyatt is going to do once they have a new CRM in place in the coming days.
Qantas doesn’t have a very strong rewards program, i.e. points earning-and-burning, in Qantas Frequent Flyer.
But within the confines of the Aussie market they do a really good job recognizing their top tier elites.
Years ago I used to like getting cookies from Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan when I held their MVP Gold status. However this holiday note was sharing with me by a Qantas top tier Platinum One member. And it blew me away.
Yesterday I attended an American Airlines event near LAX highlighting the new soft product offerings for their Los Angeles – Sydney flight.
They’re flying as part of a joint business venture with Qantas (the particulars of which are still pending Department of Transportation approval). Qantas is reducing their flying Los Angeles – Sydney and redeploying aircraft to re-start San Francisco flying. And Qantas customers are used to a certain level of catering. Plus it’s a pretty premium route that’s also very competitive since it’s served by United, Virgin Australia, and Delta as well.
Taken together, American saw the need to up its game — pajamas in business class and a redesigned menu.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
It’s always striking to me that legacy American Airlines crews so rarely offer anything to drink prior to takeoff. Naturally the priority is an on-time departure, and it’s difficult to move around the cabin during boarding of a single aisle aircraft. But other airlines – including legacy US Airways crews – get this done far more often than American flight attendants do.
American has a new push to remind flight attendants that this is an important service element. This morning, at least, it worked.
There’s no reason for many people to use a travel agent for a simple roundtrip airline ticket, and very few travel agencies are interested in making those bookings. Brick and mortar agencies saw their commissions cut, and began instituting fees or such bookings. They were mostly put out of business by the online travel agencies like Expedia and Orbitz. Now, travel agencies mostly exist for specialized services such as managed business travel and high end trips.
Something was lost in the process. Some customers do need handholding, the kind they used to get from travel agents of varying quality.
We’ve taken one step back towards what we used to have today — mass customization — through Kayak’s new data partnership with Route Happy.
Starwood’s first quarter promotion is out , and it’s really disappointing.
Register anyway, of course, because earning double points if you happen to stay 2 nights at a Starwood hotel during the promotion period — or at a 250 bonus point participating hotel — is better than not earning those points.
Rumors have been swirling about this for days. Citibank just confirmed it for me: Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard no fee authorized users now have American Airlines Admirals Club access!
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
