Earlier this week I requalified for American’s 100,000 mile flyer status, Executive Platinum. As a top tier elite I usually get my first class upgrade, even on tough routes and flights. Although even as an Executive Platinum I know that there are still tough upgrades out there. For instance, I’ve been number 14 on the upgrade list when the door closed on American’s Washington National – Dallas flight at 5:30pm on Thursday. So if I care about a first class upgrade, I still have to be a little bit strategic. But once you start thinking strategically you realize you don’t have to be a 100,000 mile flyer to get a first class upgrade on domestic flights — even most of the time — provide you have a little bit of flexibility or are willing to…
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Transatlantic Business Class for Just 20,000 Miles
Both Head for Points and Loyalty Lobby are writing about the Iberia award redemption sale. You care about an Iberia sale because: Iberia is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner. If you have an Iberia account that’s been open three months and has earned even 1 point, you can transfer British Airways Avios into Iberia. In some ways it’s not surprising to see this sale, since British Airways is having one. And I rather dissed that one. But what’s more interesting about the Iberia sale is: Iberia adds lower fuel surcharges to Iberia flights than British Airways does. There are even some routes in business class available Book by November 15 for travel between December 1 and January 31. With this sale, Madrid-Chicago is just 20,000 miles one-way in business tax. Expect taxes and…
How to Find Award Space and 20% Off December Flights
News and notes from around the interweb: The ANA website has been indispensable as a place to search for award space on Star Alliance partners. It’s had partner space the longest, and has generally been the most accurate. Four and a half years ago they clamped down on folks without any ANA miles using it to search space to put together awards. But there’s a simple workaround. Here’s a walkthrough of the workaround with graphics and arrows. This weekend only: 20% off Virgin America flights between December 3 and December 16. The rebirth of Peoplexpress was a very bad idea, and the airline shut down. How many tax dollars went to subsidizing it? Hardly the biggest waste ever — Midway Airlines had shut down before 9-11, but all airlines got federal payouts based on their…
No More Online Trading to Generate Miles, Website Tells Us Who Killed the Deal
The Forward Cabin flags that Loyal3 will stop accepting credit cards for stock purchases on November 18. Loyal3, the brokerage that’s handling Virgin America elite frequent flyers’ purchase of IPO shares, is best known in the travel community as the online brokerage that let you buy stocks with a credit card. As I noted back in March, I wasn’t big on the approach. Loyal3 doesn’t execute orders in real-time, so you aren’t buying at market at the time you initiate your order. They batch orders instead. I prefer to be the one doing the gaming, and that creates even more opportunity to be gamed. There’s price fluctuation risk, you couldn’t just buy and sell in real-time at the same price. So while you could buy and sell the asset, there’s risk, not how I like…
Boeing 737 Hits a Stray Buffalo on Takeoff, Everyone Except the Buffalo is Safe
A SpiceJet Boeing 737-800 hit a buffalo on takeoff from Surat enroute to Delhi. All 146 passengers and crew were safe, although the 737’s engine sustained damage. SpiceJet went to Twitter to explain, It happens to the best of ’em, like in September 1973 when a National Airlines 727 hit an alligator on landing at Tampa. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Here’s the News You Missed.. But Wish You Hadn’t
News and notes from around the interweb: Robots Will Enable Pilots To Avoid Starting Engines Until Right Before Takeoff Berliners fly from metal shed while waiting for airport Reno airport is getting Guadalajara service and season London flights. The press release says that London service “is contingent upon US Customs and Border Protection approval of landing rights.” Of course, CBP doesn’t approve ‘landing rights’ – they have to agree to staff the arrivals facility. And you can’t make ’em do it. Air Armenia has suspended operations.. until December 20th. They blame the Russians, for cutting off air navigation service in Russia. Because the airline doesn’t pay its bills. Don’t like the idea of making an investment in the Virgin American IPO? Consider a strategic stake in Vietnam Airlines instead. The joint venture between Nok Air…
Should You Use a Credit Card to Earn Miles When You Pay Taxes?
Reader Gail asks, I have a lot of taxes to pay – which credit card do you recommend, if any? I pay taxes using my Suntrust Delta debit card… less than $3 for the payment, earns 1 Delta mile per dollar. Sadly that’s no longer available. You can still get an American debit card that earns 1 mile per 2 dollars and gets the low debit card fee. However they won’t process large charges the way Suntrust will with its $35,000 per day transaction limit. Credit cards, though, are too expensive to process to make paying with those worth it for the miles, but it can be worth it as a way to meet minimum spend for a big credit card signup bonus. You’ll pay at least 1.87% of your tax bill as a fee…
Pay Bills With a Credit Card and Earn Miles
At the beginning of the year Evolve Money evolved into a great way to pay bills using gift cards you purchased with a credit card to pay off bills with vendors who don’t accept credit cards (or charge fees too high for it to be worthwhile). In that way, you could earn miles for paying bills. Evolve Money was one of the easiest ways to earn lots of miles at very little cost. The usefulness of Evolve Money for liquidating gift cards crashed down when they limited you to paying each vendor one time per month. No more serial payments using a bunch of gift cards to cover your mortgage! They don’t have all or even that many vendors in their system, but many mortgage providers are. Their limits remain in place, so no more…
Claims About Flight Attendants I Wish Were True
A piece in the Daily Mail claimed that there’s only one hotel in Nairobi that they can put crew up in, and that the hotel has so many complaints about raucous flight attendants that they’re at risk of losing their contract. Thus BA is going to have to stop flying to Nairobi unless their flight attendants become less wild. It’s a three year old article that came across my Facebook feed this morning. British Airways bosses fear having to scrap lucrative flights because of mounting complaints about raucous cabin crew parties at luxury hotels. Topless air hostesses and champagne-fuelled pool parties have prompted a flood of protests about wild behaviour. Now BA has warned its captains to control their crews during overnight stops – or the airline may be forced to abandon at least one…
British Airways Offering 50% Off Award Tickets, and You Still Get Hosed!
British Airways is running an award redemption sale through November 17 for travel through January 31. The sale is for economy travel between London and specific destinations, though there are quite a lot of them, and travel dates vary for a handful. Here are the cities that are 50% off US East Coast and Chicago are normally 40,000 miles. With this promotion they’re 20,000 miles roundtrip. Dallas, Houston, Denver, and San Diego are normally 50,000 miles. With this promotion they’re 25,000 miles roundtrip. Abu Dhabi Austin Bahrain Baku Bangalore Beijing Beirut Buenos Aires Cairo Calgary Chengdu Chicago Dallas Denver Dubai Houston Jeddah Johannesburg Kuwait Mexico City Montreal New York (JFK or Newark) Philadelphia Phoenix Rio de Janeiro Riyadh San Diego Sao Paulo Shanghai Singapore Tel Aviv Tokyo (Haneda or Narita) Washington (Baltimore or Dulles) These…
