American will give you a 20% bonus for transferring Starwood points into AAdvantage miles through September 14.
I consider Starwood Starpoints the most valuable rewards currency and American miles are worth less than they used to be. So while a nice bonus if you were going to transfer points anyway, I’m not tempted to move any over just for this offer.
With US airlines regularly offering less value for their points, I’m putting together this series with background, tips, and tricks for frequent flyer programs programs whose points can be very useful to you and that you can earn easily by transferring in from bank rewards currencies.
I love flexible points far more than earning points in a single airline frequent flyer program. That helps me to diversify so I don’t get hurt as badly when one airline program devalues and that gives me the points I need, when I need them with the airline that has availability for the award that I want.
Last month I wrote about buying Emirates first class at 89% off.
Airlines price discriminate selling premium cabin tickets based on market in which the tickets are sold. An airline may sell a ticket for a whole lot less originating in Asia or Africa than in Europe or the U.S.
The Grand Hyatt Santiago is offering suites as cash and points redemptions, for the price of a regular room. This is available throughout the year but this deal is unlikely to last long.
Since these rooms should be cancellable up until the day before arrival, it’s worth making speculative bookings if you might have a need for a room (suite) in Santiago, Chile at some point over the next year.
Just over two weeks ago there was a failed coup attempt in Turkey seeking to oust Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The U.S. backed the democratically elected very much non-democratic Erdoğan. The likely outcome, had the coup succeeded, is unclear.
Coup plotters claimed to support democracy and oppose the eroding secularism of the country. Either way, the people are likely worse off today with the government’s crackdowns and purges on institutions throughout the country. It’s not clear of course that the people would have been better off had the coup succeeded.
One of those institutions, of course, is Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines.
American’s new revenue-based miles earning started today.
Here’s what it means for you, what changes are still coming, and how it affects the future of miles and points — and also how you can still profit in unlikely places.
Uber was losing $1 billion a year in China, in an intense competition for growth and market share against deep-pocketed competitor Didi Chuxing. They decided to stop the bleeding and sold their large money-losing business to their local competitor.
The past several months have seen deep discount fares and fare wars like we haven’t seen in a long time.
Here are 4 deals found elsewhere today that are still live as of this writing.
The Department of Transprtation ruled about four years ago that airlines can only charge you a single checked baggage fee even when you’re traveling on multiple carriers. If they collect $35 from you and you’re traveling on more than one airline that $35 gets split — instead of letting each airline collect a separate $35.
The fully anticipated result (we cannot really call this an unintended consequence since it was predicted and predictable) was that US airlines no longer allow you to through-check luggage onto other airlines when traveling on separate tickets, at least when those airlines aren’t in the same global alliance.
Most programs promote that their miles never expire, and yet most airlines have some form of expiring miles.
Here are the rules for expiring miles in airline frequent flyer programs, and how to prevent your miles from expiring.
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 »
