Monthly Archives for May 2016.
Each year, for 7 years now, IdeaWorks has published a study (.pdf) on which airlines offer the best award availability. And each year it is so fatally flawed as to give consumers almost the worst advice possible.
Roughly speaking this year’s piece — just like last year’s — finds that overall airline award availability is getting better and low cost carriers are better for flyers looking for award seats than legacy airlines.
I was genuinely sad to learn on Monday that Suzanne Rubin is planning to leave American Airlines in early summer. She shared with the AAdvantage team that it’s to care for immediate family, and my thoughts are with certainly with her.
She ran the largest loyalty program with over 100 million members, and took it through turbulent times (a bankruptcy and a merger) and successfully managed the integration of AAdvantage with the Dividend Miles program — with barely a hiccup.
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.
Two US Senators — Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal — want airlines to drop checked bag fees for the summer to reduce TSA checkpoint lines.
The idea is that passengers would be willing to check bags if they didn’t have to pay to do so, and lines would be shorter at security checkpoints with fewer bags to be screened there. I’d point out three things, however.
It’s usually either male TSA agents that are sexually molesting passengers or a creepy male passenger molesting the woman beside him (or molesting a flight attendant).
But make no mistake — women can behave just as badly in an airport or on a plane as men can. Whether it’s actress Lara Flynn Boyle flashing her breasts and crawling into bed with a male stranger in British Airways First, or a drunk realtor exposing her breasts inflight as she refuses to put out her e-cigarette.
American launched a big transatlantic mileage bonus today up to 25,000 miles per roundtrip (up to 50,000 miles for two roundtrips).
Roundtrips on American Airlines, British Airways (including OpenSkies), Finnair and Iberia between May 9 and July 31 will earn bonuses based on fare class. Registration for promo code NAS16 is required prior to travel, but tickets purchased prior to registration are eligible for earning the bonus.
British Airways is running a sale on premium cabin travel. Prices are even dropped further for Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years travel. The sale runs through May 12.
As usual, the sale is stackable with the $400 AARP premium cabin discount and with the 10% Chase discount.
American Airlines shares extensive information about their frequent flyer program in their SEC filings. So their 10-K always makes for an interesting read — especially when comparing data that can be found in prior year filings.
2015 had another jump in miles issued, and at the same time a decrease in the percentage of miles sold to partners. Doing the math, the number of miles sold to partners stayed about the same (actually increased by about 1.6 billion or one-third of one percent).
The increase, then, came from miles printed by the program for travel on American. This gives us a window into the increased miles stemming from American’s premium cabin bonus.
Over the weekend I wrote about an economist who was temporarily removed from an American Airlines flight for doing math. His seat opponent thought the math equations he was jotting down looked strange, so he might be a terrorist.
The Economist now offers a guide with top 10 ways to help future passengers know whether they’re sitting next to an economist.
Alaska Airlines partners with many of the airlines both in oneworld (like American, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, LAN) and Skyteam (like Delta, Air France, Korean) and also non-alliance airlines like Emirates. You cannot book first class awards on either Air France or Korean (business is the highest cabin offered).
I really like Alaska Airlines miles because they offer one-way awards on nearly all of their partners and most booking functionality is available on their website. One way awards allow an enroute stopover. So booking roundtrip allows two stopovers in addition to your destination.
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 »
