Aug 12 2015

As a child I remember going to an unmemorable chain restaurant that had a promotion where kids were charged their weight for meals.

I’m used to some airlines weighing carry on bags at check-in. I made the mistake of not checking in online for an Air France flight and going to get my business class boarding pass at the counter — and being made to check my carry on as a result. And Virgin Australia weighed my carry on at LAX earlier in the year.

But weighing passengers is apparently becoming a thing.

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Aug 12 2015

I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Aug 12 2015

Earlier this week Pizza in Motion wrote about National Car Rental offering a pop up lounge at Washington Dulles in the B concourse. He liked the idea because there are only international airline lounges in that terminal.

This morning I walked past a National Car Rental pop up lounge across from gate C2 at Dallas Fort-Worth. So I asked the National rep where else they have lounges, and what their plans are.

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Aug 12 2015

The ability to transfer Starwood Starpoints at better than 1:1 to the most airline frequent flyer programs is what makes them the most valuable airline currency.

Here’s where you can move those points, the most valuable transfer partners to use, and the hidden pitfalls to avoid.

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Aug 12 2015

The more seats you need on the same planes, the harder it is to secure awards.

It’s easier to find business class awards for a family, generally, than it is to find first class awards. Sometimes you’ll need to split up (parents in first, kids in business, or taking two separate flights) or trade up (book business and change closer to departure).

But there are definitely airlines to focus on where there’s enough first class award availability for the whole family.

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Aug 12 2015

“Could you clear up a general question many newbies have about the credit card sign-up strategy. I love the idea of signing up for a card, getting the 50K miles or whatever… I’m always told that this will kill my credit score, i.e. opening and closing cards like this will negatively effect my credit. Any general sense of whether is is true or not, and if it is true, how big is the impact really?”

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Aug 11 2015

A court ruled that Chris Christie’s travel expenses — $1 million in Amex bills — can remain secret because… security.

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Aug 11 2015

I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Aug 11 2015

Yesterday Delta started offering discounted awards on a handful of routes, on certain dates, for elites members. Apparently that was a ‘pre-sale’ and co-brand credit card holders could book as well.

Now the sale is open to everyone. It’s available on many although not all Europe routes.

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Aug 11 2015

Republican Congressman John Mica (R-FL) is offering a phony law to cap checked bag fees as a stunt to push his real agenda, which is increasing the cap on facility fees that airports can charge as part of ticket prices.

Realizing that bashing the airlines is good politics, and not wanting to be left out, Senator Ben Nelson (D-FL) has a new report out of the Commerce Committee that bashes airline fees.

Not everything in the report is idiotic, even if most of the underlying premises are. In fact once we get through all the bad ideas, there’s a pretty good one in there.

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