Monthly Archives for October 2017.
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.
Delta is updating mileage-earning on partners effective January 1. Some tickets flown on partners will earn more miles (and elite qualifying credit) and some tickets will earn fewer miles.
This week Barclaycard shared details of their new Uber Visa credit card.
Buried in the Uber coverage is a note about points potentially transferring to airline miles. Barclaycard confirms to me that “we are exploring other travel redemption options for 2018, like point transfers, that could be used for Uber and some of our other card products.”
The American Airlines crusade for the government to take away choices and money from consumers who would choose to buy travel from Middle Eastern airlines and put it in their shareholders’ pockets runs completely counter to their rhetoric on diversity.
Flight MU5762, the daily 11:45 a.m. departure, was delayed until 2:33 pm and flew with a replacement crew member while the injured flight attendant was transported to the hospital according to a statement from the airport. Hopefully the flight attendant recovers quickly.
Flights from Newark and New York JFK or from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur and back from Bangkok start at $287 right now. Travel is on United and Star Alliance member ANA via Tokyo.
Everyone partners with Uber, it’s integrated into the United app and American had a promo. Presumably they’re earning off rides. Three hotel chains — Starwood, Hilton, and IHG — partner with Uber. But only Starwood’s partnership has been worthwhile.
So naturally it’s ending.
My favorite hotel benefit is Hyatt’s confirmed suite upgrade. I can reserve a suite at time of booking a best-priced standard room for any stay up to 7 nights where standard suites are available.
Unfortunately the way Hyatt awards confirmed suite upgrades means I need to pretty much stop staying at Hyatts for the rest of the year. There are some simple changes Hyatt could make to fix this disincentive.
A year ago Lufthansa became the 19th airline set up with TSA PreCheck. They joined Air Canada, Etihad, Aeromexico and WestJet as the first non-US airlines set up with PreCheck. And with that the massive US data-sharing, surveillance and passenger-convenience program had gone global.
Now 5 more airlines have joined: ANA, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, Finnair and Contour Airlines.
In theory American believes they’ll sell out their flights the Sunday after Thanksgiving (though if that’s true, why are tickets just $133?) so they’re letting you redeem your miles at $0.0017 per mile.
That’s actually how much liability American has been accruing on its books for each mile they award for travel. The accounting changes January 1, and that may be why American is promising better award space.
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 »
