British Airways reported that about a million of their accounts were hacked and they locked down those accounts. Mine was among them, and I had to reset my password to regain access to my account. Once back in, I learned that they had temporarily removed all of my points. Yesterday those points were restored. Then this morning I received another email, and I thought oh bloody @!#!@#, not again! We have now locked down your online account to protect it from further access. As part of the lock-down process we have also changed your password and you will need to reset it before you are able to use your account. Except… my account wasn’t locked and I have no problem accessing it. Perhaps their mass email database was hacked this time!
About Gary Leff
Park Hyatt New York Finally Making Reward Night Reservations Consistently Available
The Park Hyatt New York was one of the most anticipated hotel openings last year. A new luxury property in New York, you can expect to pay a minimum in the high $600s per night on prepaid rates when the hotel expects to be relatively empty. It’s a Hyatt Gold Passport category 7 hotel, meaning 30,000 points per night. The problem has been that getting reward nights at that hotel has been a challenge. The hotel opened before all of its rooms were fully online, and there’s a limited number of ‘standard’ rooms there eligible for points redemptions. In fact, only about 12% of the hotel’s rooms are considered ‘standard’ — a practice I consider to be quite dirty pool. Fortunately award availability appears to be thawing there. I’m finally finding free night awards available,…
How to Use Status From One Airline While Crediting Miles to Another (and Why You’d Want To)
Reader Joe asked, I am US Chairman, and I have a trip to Alaska this fall (EWR-SEA-ANC). I would like to somehow get into First. I’m thinking I could do an Elite Match with AS to qualify for an upgrade. But I need the AA EQM’s to re-qualify for top AA status. Can I change the FF #’s after securing an upgrade? This is an interesting challenge but one that has broader implications for members looking to use one airline status for benefits (perhaps they have status through a status match with a foreign airline and want waived checked bag fees and lounge access) while crediting miles to their main US program. Why Airlines Status Match Airlines will often give customers with elite status on one airline status on their carrier — or at least…
Strategy to Search for United Awards And Book Them for Less Using Amex Points
Reader Ryan asked, I’m interested in using Amex MR points on ANA to fly United, but I can’t seem to understand how that works, or if there is YQ on those flights. And everyone raves about using ANA’s website to search, but I can’t seem to make it work without putting miles in my account, but I don’t see an easy way to put a few miles in the account. Any ideas? Using the ANA Program to Book Star Alliance Award Tickets American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to ANA’s frequent flyer program. But the process is not instantaneous. That means if you find award space and then move the points, that space could disappear in the 36-48 hours or so it can take for the points to turn up in your account. ANA has…
How Do You Manage So Many Credit Cards?
Reader Craig asked, I would like to start opening up credit cards for my wife, but don’t want to need to have two separate user names to track for each of the banks. Any way to combine to make tracking easier? Managing myriad frequent flyer accounts, and credit card accounts, can get complicated. In general you’re going to need to create a separate online account for each person with each bank (and sometimes more, my Chase business cards have a separate login from personal and the same is true for Citi and Bank of America). One thing that can help though is adding your credit card accounts to Award Wallet so that your access is all in one place, single click login. More generally though is — how do you manage what cards to use…
How to Use Your Miles to Fly on Your Airline’s Partners
Reader Dee asked, I’d love to know more about how to transfer points from one airline to flying on a partner (example: AA to Cathay Pacific). Sites seem intentionally vague on how to do this and how many points it would cost. Am looking to fly ORD-PEK roundtrip as an example. THANK YOU This is actually a very simple point but one that’s often misunderstood. You do not transfer points from one airline to another when you redeem points to travel on an airline partner. When redeeming a partner award, the number of miles you need depends on where you’re going, and it depends on the frequent flyer program whose miles you are using. For instance, a frequent flyer program like United has a zone-based award chart. That means you look up the region of…
Review: Etihad’s New Business Class (and Temporary First Class) Lounge, Abu Dhabi
Here I review Etihad’s new business class lounge (with temporary first class section) in Abu Dhabi International Airport’s terminal 3. Previous installments: Introduction, overview, and costs Star Alliance first class and business class lounges, LAX Etihad First Class, Los Angles – Abu Dhabi.. the 3rd Longest Flight in the World! Premier Inn, Abu Dhabi International Airport In the morning, after leaving the Premier Inn across the street from the airport, we found our way to the terminal via the outside rather than underground walkway. It’s a bit quicker, you cross the street instead of winding around the underground passageways. I was pleased to be leaving from the newer terminal 3 today (there’s a departures board outside the hotel lobby). Not only that I’d be having an aircraft with lie flat business class for the four…
Will Chicago rename an airport for President Obama?
Rahm Emanuel now denies it. The topic came up as the mayor fielded a question on why he quickly proposed, then abandoned efforts to name a new North Side high school after Obama and the South Side’s Stony Island Parkway after the late Arthur Brazier, a revered African-American civic leader who founded the Woodlawn Organization and was pastor of the Apostolic Church of God for 48 years. …The mayor gave his answer in acknowledging he erred in seeking to name a North Side high school after the president, when Obama got his start in politics on the South Side. “Look, I made a mistake, and I was quick to change it. I’m not perfect. When I make a mistake, I hear it and change it,” Emanuel said. “And I don’t have a problem saying that.…
How to Make Money Booking Award Tickets for People
Reader J. Clifton asked, What is a good way for someone to get into award booking? After getting involved in this hobby, I’ve thought it might be a fun way to earn some extra money. I’m a big fan of developing multiple income streams, don’t quit your day job but trading idle time for a side business can really make a difference at the margin. And one way to know what skills you have that could be marketable is to ask what questions are people always asking you, or things they’re asking you for help with? If one of those things is how to use their miles and points, you may have a market. Do go in knowing though that: It’s actually harder than you’d think with all the possible problems you can encounter There’s…
How American’s Account Merging With US Airways Helps With Lifetime Elite Status
My US Airways miles have been combined into my American AAdvantage account. They started with Dividend Miles members who did not have an AAdvantage account Then transitioned members who had matched their AAdvantage and Dividend Miles accounts. They continue with those who may have had accounts in both programs but didn’t link their accounts. The data combination will continue for a few days, with sweeps to ensure completion and some upgrades still to post. With this progress made, bobbieddie asks, Gary – I just received my summary from AA re: the transfer and for the first time saw that I have 997,516 in my million mile balance account. I’ve never paid attention to this or even thought about it. Can you give me the highlights of attaining 1M miles status, benefits going forward, and where…
