I had been told by Barclaycard that my Aviator Red wasn’t scheduled to arrive until July. Yours may come sooner. But if Barclays needs to replace your current card for any reason, they’ll replace it with Aviator Red — not another US Airways MasterCard. I now have my Red card, and that positions me to upgrade to Silver.
Reader Karin asked, If you had to pick one type of miles to amass for specific trips, what would it be? For instance, what gets you to Asia easiest? Western Europe? South America? Thank you! Europe: Star Alliance has the most partners that will get you to Europe. United miles will get you flights on these airlines without fuel surcharges. Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to United. Air Canada’s Aeroplan has good award pricing to Europe and you can avoid fuel surcharges. American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to Aeroplan. (See also How to Book Award Tickets on Star Alliance Partners). If you want awards in first class though you probably want Lufthansa Miles & More miles for a combination of access to quality first class product and better availability than is offered to Star…
Restaurants are like airlines in that they have seats which – if unused at a given meal – can never be resold. It’s spoiling inventory.
And they want to earn as much per table as possible, a diner spending less than they might is money foregone that can’t even be made back.
So like airlines they should want to vary prices with sophisticated yield management… varying prices based on time of day, day of week, whether or not it’s a holiday, weather, and overall demand.
Mistake fares pose tough moral and ethical questions. Here’s why I think it’s perfectly acceptable to book them, but that airlines shouldn’t be required to honor them.
Nevertheless there need to be guidelines that airlines follow if they choose not to honor these tickets. The Department of Transportation hates the rule they adopted three years ago that pretty much says mistake fares have to be honored. They’ve found ways to ignore their own rules as a result. That’s not good.
Instead I propose a new approach to mistake fares that protects consumers, is fair to airlines, and allows for smooth functioning of the nation’s air transport system.
Iberia’s award chart is different than British Airways’ and you can transfer points between the two programs — plus save on fuel surcharges when you do.
What’s interesting is that BA.com is pricing award travel on Iberia using Iberia’s less expensive award chart. But you’re still going to want to move points from BA to Iberia when you redeem…
The LAX In ‘n Out is one of the hidden gems of any “in the know” frequent flyer. It’s on the edge of the tarmac, but tough to get to. You could always just ride the free Parking Spot shuttle to the garage right next door, though…
Starting Monday Parking Spot is going to limit use of its shuttle to its own customers, apparently catching on to the trick after all these years.
Here’s how you can still catch that free roundtrip ride to hamburger heaven where you can watch all the planes land while eating animal style fries.
Watch videos and take quizzes about American AAdvantage to earn up to 1000 free miles.
Club Carlson is doing some interesting things with elite qualification and could introduce an airline partner next year. Delta reveals something about the number of miles they’re awarding under the new revenue-based system. And do members even know when their programs go revenue-based?
A collection of interesting links (and a video) you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
In February it was revealed that federal prosecutors were investigating United Airlines operating twice-weekly service for the private benefit of the Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who referred to this as “the Chairman’s flight.” It was a money loser and was cancelled three days after he stepped down amidst BridgeGate.
Now documents apparently draw a ‘direct link’ between providing this flight and obtaining approval for projects. And the story apparently begins with a dinner between the Chairman and United CEO Jeff Smisek…
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 »
