The new list of IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks redemptions — rooms that may cost as much as 40,000 points per night usually, for just 5000 points — goes up soon for bookings through July 31. Here’s a sample, and how to buy those for as little as $35 or get 14 nights for a single credit card signup.
Delta has been pulling its fares off of some websites.
I don’t worry so much from a consumer standpoint, the average consumer searches about 10 sites when booking a trip. This is about tug-o-war over data, how ancillary services will be sold in the future, and distribution costs. In other words, a business-to-business scuffle.
But the Department of Transportation is considering rules that would require a website to highlight airlines that are not shown in their searches. ..which will tip the scales to Delta in moves like this.
Luxury Link, the high end hotel booking site, has ceased operations.
People with bookings need to contact their credit card companies to dispute the charges. If it’s beyond the period where disputes can be filed, then folks may just be out of luck (and out of cash)… Here’s what to do.
At the Wolfe Research Global Transportation Conference, American Airlines President Scott Kirby shared the things he’s looking forward to once integration is complete. There are lots of projects that have been put off given the single-minded focus on combining American Airlines and US Airways.
Among those, “we would have loved to make some modifications to the frequent flyer program” and he talked about more ancillary revenue and ‘shamelessly copying’ come of their competitors…
Last night I dreamt I was in the American Airlines Admirals Club in Los Angeles (although the woman sitting at the desk was one of the gems from the Washington National club.
I watched as a passenger had the agent there run her credit card to fund a bank account. I was a little bit excited for a moment, thinking you could charge bank deposits at American Airlines lounges when I woke up.
Citi Prestige offers an airline credit, lounge access, a big signup bonus and then a variety of perks like free rounds of golf and 4th night free on hotel stays. How much is all this ‘stuff’ worth, anyway?
Singapore Airlines is offering 50% off economy redemptions through its KrisFlyer program for 28 destinations. Since Singapore is a transfer partner of so many programs (Amex, Starwood, Chase, Citi) you probably have access to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles.
Under United’s new mileage-earning program, miles are earned based on the price of the ticket not the distance you fly. And they seem to be stamping out, one by one, the places you can go to still earn full mileage — United airline partners, one by one, are reducing the miles earned on United discount fares. This is no accident. When will there be no options left?
Now it was really time to head home from my Maldives trip, having had my fill of Sri Lankan food for the day. We checked out of the Hilton and made what was nearly an hour’s drive in traffic to the Colombo airport.
Once there, though, things moved quickly. I had boarding passes from the day before, picked up in Male for both Colombo – Dubai and Dubai – Dallas. And there was pretty much no wait at all for immigration formalities or security to head to the Emirates lounge while waiting to fly Emirates first class to Dubai…
American is actually making premium cabin – business and first class – award space available on its own flights to Europe for the winter months. That means no fuel surcharges, even to London, where you can connect beyond using British Airways flights.
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 »
