Cathay Pacific now has ‘priority awards’ for business and first class. In other words, there’s no longer just one reward tier, but two different levels of pricing when using Cathay Pacific’s own AsiaMiles.
It will almost certainly – at least over time – mean less saver award availability, since members can spend more points for more seats. And saver awards are what’s available to partners like American AAdvantage and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.
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.
Last month American Airlines revamped the way they sell tickets online.
Then late last month I wrote that American would be changing the fare class of domestic 2-cabin first class from F to J as part of its move to free up fare buckets to sell the new premium economy cabin.
For a card with a $450 annual fee, something that makes it go down much easier is that it comes with a $300 airline fee credit. Here’s what you need to know about the airline fee credit – how it works, what you can claim, and how to claim it.
Jessica Leeds claimed that in the early 1980s she was on a flight to New York and was upgraded into an empty first class seat next to Donald Trump. She says Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her inappropriately (“He was like an octopus”).
Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson went on television and invoked ‘the aviation defense’ where she just starts naming older aircraft models. Bizarrely she suggests that L-1011s and DC-10s didn’t fly to New York, so we don’t have to look at those aircraft. And first class armrests don’t move. Except they did.
Bill payment service Plastiq lets you pay people by check and they charge your credit card.
Plastiq has a promotion where instead of their normal 2.5% fee for processing payments, they’ll charge you:
British Airways offers a pretty mediocre intra-European business class. But they haven’t lost the loyalty of the British royals.
Kate Middleton, the the Duchess of Cambridge, visited the Netherlands on her first solo international trip as a member of the British royal family. She returned home on British Airways.
ProPublica came out with a piece this week on the American-US Airways merger, airline consolidation in general, that suggests lobbying played an undue influence in the Justice Department’s decision to settle and stop blocking consolidation — the upshot being “you’re paying for it.”
I’ve gotten about two dozen emails and tweets about it, and I’ve responded with some thoughts, but given the volume of interest the piece and some concerns about make sense to share more broadly.
After Qatar Airways placed an order for up to 100 Boeing planes on Friday, Delta CEO Ed Bastian returned to his soap box crusading against having to compete against smaller and less successful airlines that he claims are as subsidized as Delta is.
But this time he seems to just be making stuff up.
The benefit is $100 off the total price for everyone on the itinerary. So if your fare is less than $100 per person, you’re still going to get $100 off. Take an $80 roundtrip, $160 for 2 passengers, your net cost is $60 for both.
Here’s how you book.
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 »
