News and notes from around the interweb: I’m giving away $400, it’s easy to enter with a comment. Scott Mayerowitz reports that just after the NTSB criticized the FAA for how it had overseen testing of the Boeing 787, the FAA has approved the 787 for 330 minutes “ETOPS” (traveling 5 1/2 hours away from the nearest emergency landing location). How to plan a family beach vacation that won’t break the bank What happens when a passenger dies inflight? (HT: @speakman) Uber is introducing an SUV option for their lower-cost UberX in the DC market 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…
About Gary Leff
How to Choose an Airport Hotel.. and How to Do it in Abu Dhabi (the Premier Inn)
Previous trip report installments Introduction: Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost Etihad Lounge and First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi My flight from Washington Dulles was scheduled to land at 7:45pm, and we were a few minutes late. I’d have to clear immigration (easy enough with no line at fast track), and I’d have to be back at the airport early for my 9:35am departure. Now, on this trip I had checked a bag. I almost didn’t need to, and a little more thoughtful packing I wouldn’t have. I was going to be gone for 12 nights. I didn’t need a large checked bag, and checking a bag I didn’t also take a rollaboard (just my laptop bag). But having done that I checked my bag…
Why You May Not Be Able to Book The Award That I Did…
I’m in the midst of writing about my trip to the Maldives and Malaysia. Just yesterday I shared details of my Etihad first class suite, complete with complimentary chauffeur and onboard chef. I even explained just how good availability on Etihad can be. Etihad first class is one of the most readily available first class awards there is. … You can search Etihad space on the Etihad website. With only one exception, an Abu Dhabi – London flight over a year ago, I’ve had a perfect match between the low level saver award space Etihad offers its own members and what American AAdvnatage can see. And yet right now you may not be able to book it. I wanted to flag this in case, reading the report, you were tempted to pick up the phone…
$54 Starbucks Drink, My $400 Giveaway Could Buy You 7, a Free Flight and 35% Off in Asia (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 28, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: I’m giving away $400, it’s easy to enter with a comment. The record gets set for a Starbucks free drink American will subleasing gates from United in LAX’s terminal 6. Here’s what it means for travelers. As American tries to grow in such a space-constrained airport, their operations wind up all over the place. CardWatchdog is giving away a roundtrip flight to Europe Club Carlson is running a 35% off sale for stays of 2 nights or longer booked by May 30 and consumed between June 1 and September 30. Of course, nothing beats second night free on award stays with their co-brand credit card…! You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just…
Etihad Lounge and First Class Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi
Previous installments Introduction: Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost Etihad will arrange car service pickup for business and first class passengers. Make your reservation online using your Etihad record locator (something I got from American, who issued my ticket, this confirmation number is different than American’s). You can also make the reservation over the phone with Etihad. The car service will ring you 1-2 days prior to the trip to confirm your pickup time. I had them come get us about 3 hours prior to departure. That way I figured I’d be at the airport about 2 hours 15 minutes out, know that I’d want to spend a little while in the lounge. It’s not a great lounge, but it is a great lounge for Dulles, it’s…
What Award Space Can You ASK American to Release That Doesn’t Show Available?
Over the weekend I explained that it’s possible to ask American Airlines to release seats as award space under certain circumstances. If you have built most of an award itinerary, but you need space on an American flight to complete it, you can ask for that seat to be released even if it isn’t showing award space (“to complete an itinerary”). If you have found space for part of your traveling party, but need one more seat than is showing as available, you can ask for that seat (“to complete a party”). Factors like how full the flight is and your perceived value as a customer affect whether American will approve these requests. They are responded to automatically and near-instantaneously by a system called “QMAX.” In recent times there have been fewer approved requests, and…
I’m sorry.
For the past several hours View from the Wing was unreachable. Many of you reached out by email, starting conversations with me at Milepoint.com, and otherwise. All is well (with me, thank you for your concern) We’re back (the site is live again) I haven’t been able to successfully approve dozens of comments in the pending (possible spam) queue yet, but expect to be able to soon. I apologize deeply for the outage. I appreciate deeply that being offline for a few hours causes concern and withdrawal! You have no idea how much that means to me. Meanwhile, it’s incredibly vexing for me as well. No comments! No ability to post and share thoughts on the day’s developments. Frankly, I’m addicted to my blog too. Apparently some system upgrades were being done over the weekend…
Free Money Opportunity, Bonus Miles for Young Flyers, and Walking Away from $10 Billion (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 27, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: I’m giving away $400, it’s easy to enter with a comment. Pilot calls 911.. on himself. Friday’s post on the IRS’ plans to impose a greater tax burden on loyalty programs got picked up by the Tax Foundation, at Reason.com and the New York Sun (Full disclosure: eighteen years ago the Tax Foundation published a study I wrote on the historical federal tax burden on small business.) Register by May 31 and fly Finnair by June 30 and earn 2000 bonus Finnair Plus points. Intercontinental Hotels Group (parent of Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and related brands) rejected a $10 billion takeover offer apparently made by Starwood. If you’re between 14 and 25, Alitalia will give you 2000 miles for joining, 2000 more miles for account activity within…
$35 Off and 10% Discount on a Hotel Booking Today Only
Update via Mommy Points you can no longer stack the new member signup bonus and the 10% off discount code. She emails a further explanation, Travel Pony doesn’t let you stack the 10% with the sign-up $35 on a $200 rez anymore. It’s a use one code situation – though it used to let you stack them both when I signed up, and does still let you stack using the referral credits you earn from others with codes like the 10% FLASHPONY. Thanks for the clarification! Hotel booking website TravelPony offers new members a $25 first-time booking credit, but ups that to $35 if you’re referred by an existing member. So here’s my referral link since you’re better off signing up with it than signing up on the site directly without it. (Feel free to…
I’m Giving Away $400 to My Blog Readers. Click Here to Enter. All You Have to Do Is Be Positive!
It’s been a tough 18 months in the frequent flyer world. It’s easier than ever to earn points, but the cost of awards has gone up, up, up. Miles and points have been very good to me, and I do my best to give back where I can. I don’t make a public show of my charity, but I do my best to give the best advice I can and to offer giveaways when things are offered to me. And when I have gift cards, I can either turn them into money orders or do various frequent flyer experiments, or I can give them away. So here, I thought I would give away $400. And what better way to give them away than to my readers who comment on this post?
