Monthly Archives for January 2019.
New variable Air France KLM Flying Blue points pricing is live and often makes no sense. Some awards are more expensive, some less expensive. Instead of a hidden award chart they have a calculator.
But they still offer various routes at 25% or 50% off each month and new ones are up for booking in February and travel in March and April.
Apparently American Express is sending out 1099s to people who referred customers to their credit cards.
Just because Aemrican Express tells the IRS that Hilton points are worth 1.25 cents apiece doesn’t mean that’s the revenue on which you owe tax. You can dispute the value and pay less tax as a result. Here’s the process to do it.
A video goes through the history of inflight meals and some of its challenges. And by the way, coffee is miserable on a plane and many wines don’t work either. For at least 9 years I’ve been recommending tomato juice as an onboard drink, with the added benefit that it’s an excellent source of vitamin C and vodka.
Bear in mind that not all airline food is bad…
What is the value of miles and points by airline, hotel and credit card program? Miles used to be thought to be worth 2 cents. I think that conventional wisdom developed out of the idea that a cross country flight cost about $500… or 25,000 miles. 25 years ago that was generally true, and award availability wasn’t really a problem either.
Today the CEO of Delta talks about their miles being worth a penny. When American Airlines awards a mile for travel they book one cent of liability on their books under new accounting rules adopted for 2018. Those rules required the airline to accrue the expected value of transportation to be provided in exchange for their miles.
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.
Iberia is offering 50% off award bookings if you ticket by February 10 and travel between February 1 and April 15. This works for all cabins including business class as long as you’re traveling on Iberia. That means business class between the US and Spain from just 17,000 miles each way.
Two years ago we learned that working at Customs is worse than TSA, at least at Newark, where new employees are hazed at a ‘rape table’. They’re also threatened with guns.
Hazing takes place to the theme of Jackass playing in the background.
Small Luxury Hotels of the World is a collection of independent properties, and it’s more of a booking relationship than a hotel chain. And Hyatt’s deal is something similar to what they have with MGM’s M life Rewards — let’s share customers, offering points-earning and redemption.
With over 500 hotels in 80 countries Small Luxury Hotels of the World held the potential to significantly grow the World of Hyatt footprint. In December they initially offered earning and redemption at 54 hotels. Now they’re adding 56 more properties.
I love the sentiment, but according to United’s announcement there’s not much to it behind service training for employees, free DirecTV on less than one third of mainline aircraft, and paying out lower bonuses.
Of course anything is better than the recent history at United of dragging and beating a passenger in the aisle, killing a dog in the overhead bin, and shoving a 71 year old man to the ground and threatening to take away his miles for complaining.
American Airlines domestic flights equipped with ViaSat satellite internet will offer free access to Apple Music starting Friday. Apparently American is really just acquiring customers for Apple Music, selling you a three month free trial. Always remember you’re the product, not the customer.
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 »
