Whether the frequent flyer miles game seems to be historically rewarding, or in dire straits, depends on your perspective and – I think – your time horizon. If you got into the game any time in the last 6 years, the current state of affairs must frustrate indeed. You got in at one of the most generous times in history. As a result of the Great Recession, the worst economic times in 70 years, hotels leveraged their loyalty programs to put heads in beds. It’s hard to even fathom the generosity of Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights promotions (2 stays at any hotel yielded a free night at any hotel) stackable with thousands of United miles alongside. Airlines were printing miles and so were credit card companies, to lure customers and economic activity. Airlines that were…
About Gary Leff
Who Should Be More Transparent? Stoking Passions of Airfare Pricing.
Airline industry lobbyists are pushing the Transparent Airfares Act. They say that government rules requiring airlines to advertise full final prices, including taxes, makes it easier for government to raise taxes and puts air travel at a disadvantage relative to other industries that have no such requirement. Because of that ruling, the government today is able to hide the outsized, ever-increasing amount that airline customers pay in government-imposed levies. In fact, the government’s ability to conceal such extra costs actually increases the temptation of lawmakers to raise taxes on airlines and their passengers and further puts air travel at a competitive disadvantage to other modes of transportation that do not have to include taxes in their fares, which ultimately hurts our economy and jobs. Matthew from Live and Let’s Fly declares, Allowing an airline to…
20% Bonus on Purchased Hyatt Points is Not a Good Deal Except…
Hyatt Gold Passport is offering up to a 20% bonus on purchased points through June 1. It’s a bit ironic, I think, for the promotion’s tagline to be that free nights are closer than you think… when you’re paying for the points you use to redeem for the night. (“Discounted room nights are closer than you think” might be better perhaps.) Here’s the offer: Purchase 1,000 to 19,000 points and receive a 10% bonus Purchase 20,000 to 29,000 points and receive a 15% bonus Purchase 30,000 to 40,000 points and receive a 20% bonus With a 20% bonus Hyatt is selling you points at 2 cents apiece. I personally value them at not more than 1.5 cents apiece so this generally makes me not a buyer, although you can sometimes get more than 2 cents…
30,000 Bonus Miles, A New Onboard Suite to Trump the Etihad Residence, and a Coming Operational Crossroads for Southwest? (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 5, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Southwest, which doesn’t automatically generate all flight connecting options or publish its schedule out a full 11 months at a time currently, is going to go with a new reservation system for its domestic flying to match what they’re doing with international. This is desperately needed, but transitions are never smooth… Avis is offer 750 American miles on a 2-day rental and up to 2500 for a 5 day rental. It’s a good thing I have plans to visit Buenos Aires later this year! Etihad a revolutionary new premium product for their upcoming A380 aircraft including a 3-room ‘residence’. Now Emirates claims to be doing the same thing only there are no renderings or specs — just an announcement made the same day that Etihad made theirs. I’m…
What Not To Do In Paradise
You’ve traveled somewhere between 24 and 36 hours, taken three or four flights across a minimum of two airlines, and finally made it to your remote island destination by boat. You’re sitting by the beach at sunset. Do you breath a sigh while looking wistfully out at the ocean, sipping a cocktail? Or do you… The choice is yours. 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!
Buying Star Alliance Premium Cabin Fares On the Cheap
When Mileage Programs Sell Miles They’re Taking Over the Mantle of Old School ‘Consolidators’ Airfare discounters also used to be called bucket shops. But not the kind from Boiler Room or The Wolf of Wall Street. eponymous coward long ago dubbed US Airways “the official consolidator for Star Alliance premium cabin seats.” Back in the day consolidators bought blocks of seats cheap and resold them at a discount relative to going prices. This helped airlines fill their planes, and price discriminating consumers in search of a bargain travel. The idea was that those seats that would otherwise go empty get offered up as awards.. and US Airways sold access to those seats cheap by offering to sell miles most of the time with a 100% bonus. Of course, US Airways has since raised the price…
25,000 Mile Giveaway Plus 20 American Lounge Passes!
American Express Platinum cards lost access a month ago. Citibank is now the sole issuer of cards that offer lounge access with the new American Airlines. And they’ve got – by far – the biggest credit card offer in the market with a 100,000 mile signup bonus for their Executive Card which bundles American and US Airways lounge access. To help get the word out, they gave me miles and club passes to give away. I asked readers to enter by leaving a comment in this post answering what they like about an airline lounge. These are the prizes: Grand Prize: 25,000 American AAdvantage miles and 4 American Admirals Club passes Four Additional Prizes: 4 American Admirals Club passes (each) The offer, of course, was void where prohibited by law and redemption of Admirals Club…
Hilton Gold Through 2020, Woman Gives Birth on Plane, and American Eliminates Discount Codes (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 4, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Woman gives birth onboard a 777. Hilton is giving MBA graduates from many top schools free Gold status — valid as far out as 2020. And here I’ve lost Gold status for the first time in a decade.. and had to insist on retaining that downgrade. American has long offered group discount codes, and if you could find an applicable one online it would be good for 5% – 10% off of a ticket. There used to be good compilations of these codes online but American’s lawyers threatened several sites and they’ve been harder to find over the past year. Now those codes are being eliminated altogether. As of May 1 they’re not offering new group discount codes, although existing ones remain valid through their planned expiration.…
Etihad Introducing First Class 3-Room RESIDENCE Onboard the A380
I’ve flown Etihad several times. They have an outstanding first class — a stylish attractive first class suite with doors, and an onboard chef concept with plenty of food options that can be served on demand throughout the flight. Service can be mixed, but the hard product is very good (although I prefer the spaciousness of Cathay Pacific’s first class seat by far). Etihad has a new product entrant coming, though. They’ll be bringing an A380 online December 27 with London service (EY flights 11/12), and will serve the Australia market with the aircraft in 2015. And when they do they’re introducing a whole new onboard first class concept — with two different first class options. Each A380 will feature “The Residence” — a single or double occupancy 3 room cabin with double bed, 2…
This Game Is Not For You If…
I was reflecting on all of the good and increased offers recently from various banks for mileag-earning credit cards and I thought it would be important to offer some balance. I’ve been in this so long that it’s just second nature, but it bears repeating, and I don’t say it enough. A plurality of miles are earned via credit cards (signup bonuses, spend bonuses, everyday spend) and not from butt in seat flying. Credit cards, in the US market but not just the US, are an integral part of the miles and points hobby. I had an award booking client not long ago who had tons of miles but wasn’t paying off his credit card bills each month. With the interest charges he had to be paying he would have been better off buying the…
