Yesterday I shared that Avianca’s LifeMiles is Planning Big Changes to its Award Chart. They shared a small amount of detail, and the link I had only dealt with a small amount of detail to, from, and within Europe. Since then I’ve received an email from LifeMiles with a link to a small amount of detail for North America itineraries. They’ve only given us specific pricing — that they tell us we cannot rely on — for Avianca’s own prices. For Star Alliance flights, we just get a range of point pricing changes. And it’s a big range.
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Loyalty Programs Can’t Figure Out Social. Free Points for Us!
Programs used to be generous giving out points or other rewards on Facebook. The idea is it was worth it to them, they’d get access to your Facebook feed and could advertise to you forever. But it’s almost always a mistake to invest in someone else’s plaform, they change the algorithm and your ads no longer appear as frequently. The investment you made in building ‘friends’ is no longer worth as much. If commercial pages want to advertise, and have the reach they used to, they need to pay Facebook. United used to give out points for follows on Twitter, other programs incentivized twitter follows as well. United also used to offer deep discount short-term twitter deals (“Twares”) but those ran afoul of agreements not to undercut pricing they loaded into computer reservation systems. The…
Internet MH17 Hall of Shame Award: Worst Tweet of the Day
Jason Biggs of American Pie and Orange is the New Black had the worst tweet of the day. (This is why.) 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!
Maximizing Car Rental Status and National’s Free Rental Days
Rental car companies don’t have nearly the fully developed loyalty programs that airlines and hotels do. I keep expecting Avis to re-launch their program, but that keeps not happening. Both Avis and Hertz have really good top status tiers, but you cannot earn those just based on rentals. Hertz sells theirs. Avis actually does too each year as part of the US Travel Associatoin/American Express Daily Getaways. Hertz will status match. The top tier they offer based on rentals is Presidents Club and that only gets you a guaranteed one car class upgrade. National status matches too, usually though only in conjunection with their annual “1-2-Free” promotion. But their top tier — Executive Elite — only lets you earn a free rental day marginally faster, and lets you pick most cars rather than just up…
Malaysia Airlines MH17 Crashed – Possibly Shot Down
Malaysia Airlines lost contact with Boeing 777 flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur shortly before 11am Eastern. Reports are of 295 people aboard, and that the plane went down along the Russia-Ukraine border. There are, apparently, no survivors. Footage of the scene can be found here. There is speculation that the plane may have been shot down. Downed over land, the plane’s data and voice recorders will almost certainly be found. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of everyone on board. And my hopes go to Malaysia Airlines. Although it is far from the most pressing thing for today, following the tragedy of flight MH370, this will obviously weigh heavily on the future of the company which is already facing financial struggles. I flew with them in May…
Avianca Lifemiles Planning BIG Changes to their Award Chart
No one sells miles as aggressively these days as Avianca’s Lifemiles, a member of Star Alliance and a program that has been strategically very useful. I’ve viewed the program as the most generous in the Star Alliance because: No fuel surcharges Reasonable award chart One-way awards at half the price of roundtrip Cash and points option The biggest drawbacks have been dealing with telephone customer service (they’re better by email), restrictive routing rules (like no mixed cabin awards, all flights must be in the same booking class), and that they’ve made changes to their program without notice. Let me say that again. They have a history of making changes without notice.
FARE WAR: $520 East Coast Hawaii Fares
The Flight Deal notices a fare war that Delta has intitiated out of two US Airways hubs. You can fly from Charlotte or Philadelphia on Delta to Kauai roundtrip for ~ $520. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday departures are eligible.
An Airport Hotel Needs to Be Able to Reliably Get You to the Airport
I’ve stayed at the Sheraton LAX countless times (and reviewed it here). LAX doesn’t have very many nice hotel properties, and the Sheraton has always been reasonably reliable. Plus there’s a Starbucks in the lobby that opens at 5am. I usually say that my criteria for choosing an airport hotel is: The one attached to the terminal, if price allows. If no property attached to the terminal, then whichever has been most recently renovated. Take New York JFK, a true pit for airport hotels, 7 years ago the choice was the Hilton Garden Inn – most up to date. That was replaced by the Sheraton. Now the go-to is the Hilton JFK. I recently stayed at the Sheraton LAX again. There’s nothing attached to the terminal. All hotel shuttles are generally slow because getting in…
American Will Pay You to Suggest Changes to the AAdvantage Program!
Suzanne Rubin, President of the American AAdvantage program, e-mails: I wanted to pass this info along in case some of your readers are interested in turning their passion for the AAdvantage program into a career. We are always looking for exceptional candidates that would also bring enthusiasm to their job. I’m guessing many of your readers fit the bill! Here’s the job: Analyst AAdvantage This position will be responsible for supporting a strategic assessment of all elements of the AAdvantage frequent flyer program. Position will identify and recommend opportunities for changes to AAdvantage to enhance customer loyalty and drive incremental value to American through the elite program and through mileage earning/redeeming. Position will be involved in innovative loyalty projects, including leveraging flight data, competitive data and customer data in order to design and implement AAdvantage…
Free Points Giveaway, 100% Transfer Bonus, and Double Miles for the Whole 4th Quarter!
News and notes from around the interweb: I’m giving away 75,000 Hyatt points! You can enter up to 4 times. I received an email from Avianca LifeMiles that their 100% bonus on transferred miles has been extended through July 21. A resort that hides bottles of rum in the water Up to 30% off Hyatts in Asia through July 20 Fly Copa airlines in August or September and then all of your Copa flights October through December earn double United MileagePlus miles. Registration required. Starwood is offering 35% off award redemptions at 6 of their most absurdly priced resorts. 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…
