Monthly Archives for April 2019.
Over the summer I reported a rumor that Etihad was in talks to join Star Alliance. That rumor heated up substantially in February.
Etihad is now joining Air Canada’s Aeroplan as an earning member
Over 11 months ago Delta announced that they would fly to India. They did not say when it would happen, or the route they’d fly. And then.. crickets.
Now, finally, Delta has announced that they will fly New York JFK – Mumbai starting December 22, over a year and a half after they announced they would fly to India again. The service will be operated by Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.
Earlier today British Airways declared that they are planning to devalue their partner award chart effective May 30 but declared that they wouldn’t tell us what the new prices would be.
Apparently, however, prices are actually loaded into BA systems.
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.
Some people have made truly gluttonous use of Priority Pass lounge access like bringing 19 guests into a lounge in Quito, Ecuador and bringing 35 guests into a single lounge with just one Priority Pass card in Kigali, Rwanda.
Now that you can use Priority Pass cards to get $28 credits at a variety of airport restaurants around the world you can do a lot of eating for free.
British Airways has a history of making changes to its award pricing without notice, and also of giving a few months’ notice. When they moved from an award region chart to distance-based pricing in 2011 they told us they were changing pricing but not what prices would be. When that happens you know they won’t be ‘changes you’re going to like’.
Now we’re once again learning of impending changes but not what the details of those changes will be.
Despite marketing claims by the big chains, you can often get a better price on a hotel booking through third party websites. That’s even more the case with independent hotels. The best savings are usually on more expensive hotels.
Here’s a deal on unpublished hotel rates where you’ll also earn a 10% rebate on top of the savings.
On Thursday night I had the pleasure to co-host the Freddie Awards, the major awards program in airline, hotel, and credit card loyalty. Over 7 million votes were cast by program members to determine which programs around the world are delivering value to members that they appreciate most.
It’s a night to celebrate what’s good in loyalty, and to honor what the members think.
After the Ethiopian Airlines disaster and before the FAA grounded the Boeing 737 MAX American Airlines pilots came out declaring the aircraft safe.
Now they suggest it’s not safe to bring back as-proposed. Those are two positions which are difficult, but not impossible, to reconcile.
Plastiq.com is a service that will charge your credit card and mail checks on your behalf. (With some vendors they also make electronic ACH payments.)
Their usual fee for this is 2.5%. It’s worth it to incur that fee if you’re earning a signup bonus with the credit card charges, or you’re meeting a spending threshold for a bonus.
Right now Mastercard payments are costing just 1.5%, and you can even pay a residential mortgage with a Mastercard.
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 »
