The ability to hold an award is important. Instant ticketing makes life difficult for the frequent flyer, which is why I love American’s 5 day hold policy so much.
United took away the legit ability to do award holds three years ago. But now with the rollout of their new website, they’ve brought it back for folks who have some miles in their account but not enough to ticket their award. Here’s how to use that to your advantage!
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Avis is offering a tiered number of American miles for car rentals, depending on elite status or if you have their co-brand credit card. It will let me earn 1250 AAdvantage miles on even a one day rental.
Here’s finally I think a good and super quick and easy way to earn miles paying your rent or mortgage and anything else that you’re currently paying by check or online billpay — at a fee of only 1.5%.
September 1 we lost the ability to redeem American miles for travel between the mainland US and Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines. We could still book awards that include Hawaiian for travel with the islands, and to international destinations beyond Hawaii.
It turns out though — and not part of American’s announcement — including Hawaiian Airlines to destinations beyond Hawaii will require redeeming a separate award.
British Airways is putting a Boeing 777-300ER on their San Diego – London flight effective March 27. That means they’ll have a first class cabin, which they didn’t before. And first class award availability is really good on the route once that happens.
IHG Rewards Club launched a new top tier elite level with a silly name and a new membership card.
On the back of the card is a new phone number, dedicated to top tier elites. Only they printed the wrong number on the card. Not only that — of course it worked out this way — it was the number to a sex chat line.
Not as many airlines offer round the world awards as used to — but several do, including airlines you probably have access to miles with.
Generally you can fly on an airline and its alliance partners, making several stops, with the caveat that you have to fly literally around the world (crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans). It’s more expensive than a simple roundtrip award, but for the number of places you can visit it can be a strong value.
My best advice for the greatest frustrations with airlines.
This past weekend I wrote about the JetBlue passenger who urinated on fellow passengers as the aircraft prepared to land n Portland.
The New York Times features a Q&A with me that’s pretty much, what do you do if this happens to you? What recourse do you have?
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 »
