Comments

1. Why does AA lie? What can we do to force them to honor the contracts that they are legally bound to?

2. You’ve long supported AA’s no-complimentary-upgrade policy for lower elites. You’ve said this policy keeps the F cabin emptier for top elites. But on my last two AA flights the F cabin was completely full — and occupied largely by non-revs. I find it an insult to gold/plat passengers that AA would upgrade a non-rev instead of op-up’ing a lower elite and giving the non-rev a Y seat. What do you think?

3. Gary,

   We are 2 adults and a young toddler. What’s the easiest way to book Biz class flight seats to Asia or any international awards? We are looking for seats where we can see him and where at at least one of us can sit next to our child.I almost booked CX until I heared their herringbone seats and with that, at least one of us can’t sit next to our child or not even see him. Which airlines have the type of seats we are interested? I know I can go on seatguru.com but that’s not easiest way to know the type of airlines.

   What mile should I use that is cheaper on KTM-ORD ? or ORD-DEL? The number of miles required to India and Nepal from US is same? Is it cheaper with UA, AA or Alaska miles? I mostly have UA, AA miles.

   Thanks

4. Hi Gary,

   I ah e a question that you may or may not want to take on. IHG’s recent promos have been pretty bad for most elites. I have called them on it for the last few promos with hilarious responses. Would love to share them with you, get your opinion and maybe you can reach out to someone there who can explain the marketing tactic of ensuring frequent guests switch away from the program.

   Ping me privately and I can share the details of my emails with them.

   Mike

5. Hi Gary,

   Can you suggest the best airline or best method to redeem UA miles/Amex/Chase points to get on a Star carrier from Asia to Istanbul or Venice, looking ultimately to get into Croatia.

   Thanks!

6. Gary,

   AA couple of pent up questions:

   1. Have you found a good way to compare all in totak cost of travel (inckuding bag fees, extra seats etc) on a few different airlines? Dare I ask if any have elite considerations as well? It’s become almost as impossible to compare fares as mattresses.

7. What indications are there that Delta is aware it’s destroying the value of its frequent flyer program? Any glimmers of hope?

8. I recently saw AA offering miles and deals for booking cruises through them. How can I earn points, miles and get the best rates on an eastern Mediterranean cruise of Greece? I’d like to combine this cruise with a visit to Italy. What’s the best business or first travel product for this type of itinerary?

9. Is the struggle “real”?

10. Whenever I decide to get a new card for the signup bonus, I nearly always get a card for me and a separate card for my wife, so we can each get the signup bonus. My question is when I can start getting cards for my kids. 16 years old? How about 12 years old? I suppose it’s just a matter of the card-issuer’s rules, but it sure would be nice to triple up on extra juicy signup bonuses.

    Thanks again for all the free travel we have taken!

11. I’m a lifetime Premier Gold on UA. Is there a way I can get E+ and early boarding, but credit flights to a different program given the way UA now gives out miles?

12. I have a conundrum. I understand that many airlines release more award seats close to the dates. Well, I am ready to transfer up to 200k SPG points to make first class award seat dreams come true. But I heard SPG takes up to 2 weeks to transfer points. How would you know which airline program to transfer the miles to so they would get there in time?

13. I booked an AA award trip for a family of 5 to Europe over Christmas with a less than desirable return on 12/31. I booked outbound and inbound separately. I want to change our return to January 2, 3, or 4 and see availability on BA, but it would cost $1800 in fuel charges. How likely is it that I can find a better flight/date, and can you recommend where I can look? One ticket is booked on Alaska miles, so the clock is ticking to avoid a change fee. Thanks.

14. What is the best way to get to Australia with points and on which airlines? We have UR rewards, Delta points (no where near enough) and willing to get new card – I.e. AA if needed. Thanks for you help getting us to Paris next month on Delta One with points btw!!!!

15. Hi Gary,
    What is the best strategy to employ to find award availability on Cathay Pacific using Alaska miles to fly business class to Australia with a stopover in Hong Kong.
    Thank You

16. Which NFL teams are going to move to Los Angeles next year?

17. I had a question about the warranty protection that premium credit cards often give. Often they will double warranties of up to a year, so e.g. a Macbook’s default one year warranty would give you a second year of protection from the card.

    Do you know if I am still covered if I cancel the card I bought the macbook with? Or do I need to keep the credit card active in order to still be protected?

18. When a pilot is flying the plane at 35,000 feet, and looking at the horizon, how far does the naked eye see in the distance? 10 miles? 100 miles?

    Is the curvature of the earth limiting you or your own eyes on seeing the farthest in the distance?

19. How can we use points or miles for free cruises? Would Amex Membership Rewards be good to earn for cruises? Do any airlines allow miles to be applied to cruises?

20. heres a good one.

    What’s the best deal that you’ve taken advantage of where you said to yourself “nah can’t blog about this, it doesn’t scale and won’t last.”

    (Obviously I am talking about a deal that is now dead and not something you are actively using right now on the sly)

21. Why are you so desperate for clicks? Every other day I see a clickbait article from you and it just makes me shake my head.

22. Hi, have just started learning about miles and points and your blog has helped me tremendously. We are a large family. 4 kids, 2 adults, sometimes a babysitter or grandparent.
    I’m hoping to go to Hong Kong in about 6 months and have accumulated about 200k Chase UR points, 60k Alaska miles, and a smattering of SPG, Hyatt and IHG. I’m hoping to fly Cathay biz or first class (for me and hubby) and stay at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. We will need 2 rooms probably or a suite.
    What would be our best strategy going forward and how do you think we should spend these miles/points?
    Thank you!

23. What is the expiration policy for Lufthansa miles? How can an existing store of Lufthansa miles be kept from expiring using only credit card earning from the LH Mastercard?

24. Gary,

    what is your best analysis of Hyatt’s future Diamond Challenge Program ? what is your prediction of the Challenge if they decide to open the program again ?

25. I am curious to know why all the hotels use the cheapest toilet paper.I have stayed at many luxury brand hotels where rooms can go as high as $1000 / night but yet they don’t consider investing in better quality toilet paper which would barely cost the few cents more per roll.

26. Question here…I am going to do a 25,000 dollar remodel on a home. What is the best credit card strategy for maximizing earning potential for this type of spend. I have Platinum SPG and 1K United status. Thanks…Also, I am a frequent flyer (200,000 miles a year) based out of SNA. I fly out of LAX on PS flights and when it makes most sense but favor SNA. I am very curious about the AA program and am considering a status match. Do you think this would me a good move for me? If so, when is the best time to try?

27. Hi Gary,

    Let’s say I purchase, using cash, an economy class ticket which is eligible for biz class upgrade. My questions are:
    1. Can I use award miles to upgrade from economy to business later on.
    2. If yes to 1, would I still earn miles for the ticket.
    3. If yes to 2, would I earn miles for business or economy seat (let’s say biz class has 150% base miles credit rate and economy has 100%). Will I earn 150% base miles or just 100%.

28. What is the best way to use miles award to get to TLV from west coast?

29. China Southern recently introduced a new route SFO-CAN (Guangzhou, China). What is the best way to accrue and redeem for flights on this carrier (either business/first)? Their award redemption rates seem rather high (from their site, it looks like 110k for business, 155k for first — i think for one way?) Is there a partner that is more affordable?

    AFAIK, China Southern is a SkyTeam member, and a transfer partner of SPG. I don’t have the SPG card at this time (though considering), but do have the Chase Sapphire Pref.

30. What’s the best way to manufacture spend?

31. I’d really like to get to South Africa on one of the American Airlines carriers (preferably somewhere near the front of the plane) . What is your best strategy? Citi thank you points are my biggest bounty, and I have a smattering of spg and AA miles. I’m an AA plat, working toward EXP next year, but still new to the game… Seems like the rules to Africa get messy on AA. Thanks in advance!

32. Chris,

    If you have the cc, simply charge anything to it once a month, even a dollar will do to keep your Lufthansa miles safe.

33. The Internet in general has slowly evolved into a place where the reader can in many senses be understood as a product, whose attention, behaviors, and clicks are harvested and resold to an industry of advertisers and data-merchants. The points-blog space is among the most transparent instances of this, with in most cases , the existence of commercial relationships with credit-card issuers, and sales commission links clearly identified.

    However – it would be very interesting to know more about how these relationships work. While not asking that you reveal the particulars of any specific commercial relationship, it would be incredibly enlightening if you’d peel back the veil a bit more, and explain in concrete (if general terms) about how your readers’ actions [clicks, purchases, reading habits, credit-card applications (and/or approvals), their use (or not) of ad-blockers, etc) are monetized by points blogs like this one. How large (or small) are these referrals? Is it cents, or dollars, or hundreds of dollars? What other ways is readership data mobilized for analysis? Are those analyses monetized as well?

    I’ve become more and more curious about it because of the existence of Portals like TopCashBack, which offer significant rebates to consumers for their clicks. If they can regularly afford to pay 5-15% of retail purchases in CashBack, it suggests that the scale of the information-mining economy is mind-mindbogglingly huge. This also explains why there are now so many travel-bloggers vying for a piece of what must be a lucrative pie. As the grist in this mill, I’m honestly interested to know more about how it all works.

    Thanks for whatever frank light you can shine on this.

34. Amtrak and Chase UR: might it make sense to make some speculative bookings for next year NOW, expecting to be able to change the dates and even the cities (within the same zone) on award tickets? How long can Amtrak tickets remain open?

35. Why is flying to Nairobi (NBO) so expensive? And, more importantly, why couldn’t I book an award on Kenya Airlines through Delta for a BOM-NBO flight?

    It’s a really nice flight btw.. Kenya Air flies the 787 on it and the new international Mumbai airport is incredible.

36. Is it possible and if so, what are the tricks and traps to upgrading an airline ticket after purchase, with either miles or cash? My employer will only pay for coach on international travel. I also see international coach fare sales from time to time that I’d purchase if I could upgrade for a reasonable fee. But I’d be miserable for days after 10+ hours in a coach seat!

37. +1 Stvr’s question

38. Gary,

    It would be cool if you took all the questions and just made a long Q & A posting — so we don’t have to scroll up and back…

39. Will you transfer all your miles and points balances to me?

40. Which airline offers the best availability for a family of 5?

    Business seats that allow interaction between parents and children would be ideal.

    Thanks!

41. @MileStalker no.

42. Do you know if Citi HHhonors reserve had a $0 annual fee offer in July of this year. I got the card and now they say it’s a $95 fee card…. thanks thomas

43. I’m looking for the best first class experience I get flying NYC to Tokyo round trip. I have about 120k TY points, 150k Amex MR points. I also have 30k starpoints and around 120k Chase URs. The URs and Starpoints I was saving for hotels. I also have another 40k TY points from opening bank account that can’t be transferred to airline but can be used to buy an AA ticket at a better rate. I was considering buying an AA ticket NYC to LAX with my bank TY points (and using some of the few miles leftover in my AA account to upgrade to Y) and then flying SQ suites (since I’m really interested in trying their product) round trip to Tokyo. Is there a better option out there that I can use my points towards?

44. Wow, you’ve got a ton of question!
    I’m planning a trip to South America next April/May, I’ve book my R/T ticket using AMEX points with Aeroplan. My question is what’s the best way to book intra flights using AAdvantage miles or Avios? I hope to visit Peru, Argentina and Chile. Thanks for the great reads, I started following you a year ago.

45. What is your opinion of the open table website? I found a review you did back in 2012 but the terms and conditions have changed since then. i was very generously given a $250 gift card as a thank you but there are only two of us to use the gift. Thus, once I redeem the gift card, I can only use it at one restaurant until I use the entire amount. It would be much easier if the open table gift card was more like a credit card gift card in that you use the card until the full amount on the card has been used. And, that doesn’t even address the fact that so few restaurants even participate in the gift card program. I have real concerns that that $250 will go to waste and that’s a shame because that’s a lot of money.

46. 1. As a debater/debate coach, did you add your frequent flyer number to your reservations to earn miles for your flights/car rentals? I missed the boat on this, but with the popularity of miles/points blogs on the internet, I wonder how many college athletes/debaters etc are earning miles traveling on the school’s dime.

    2. Is the First Class “self-upgrade” common? I was in First on a flight to Los Angeles in July and the seat next to me was empty. Right before takeoff, a guy walked into the First Class cabin (from coach), put his bag in the overhead compartment and sat next to me in First. The flight seemed confused but did nothing about it.

    3. Is it legal under FAA regulations for a flight attendant to show a passenger a copy of the manifest?

    4. Why doesn’t Southwest Airlines have any red-eye flights?

47. Give me your full thoughts on worldventures. They have rovia, a ‘lowered’ booking 3rd party and ‘lowered’ cash trips abroad.

48. Grant,
    As a parent of a college athlete I can say not many do this. They book tickets through the college so don’t attach their ff#s. I havemy son text me a picture of his boarding pass and they I add it to his account. He is getting some miles at way – spread out through various programs. The Hawaii trips from the Midwest help!!!

49. I have 3 of 4 award tickets booked that I did 330 days out. AS hasn’t released space in over 200 days for my Nov flight to complete the family booking. I have no elite status. I booked the AS flight using BA a ios for distance based travel. What is the thought on booking a full refund ticket now, and then dumping it for an award seat IF it opens up, or just dumping it for a non-refundable ticket closer to flight date. Is that possible, or do the airlines prevent it in any way? I need to secure the fourth seat. Current seat map shows plenty of availability. AS flight from SJD to LAX on 11/30

50. @thomas t – i do not recall there ever being a $0 the first year offer for that card