Reader Joel asked, Hi, Gary. Other than reading the wiki and almost the entire [FlyerTalk] thread, could you help summarize, or simplify, the [fuel dump] tips and tricks? I think someone could monetize on creating an online course about this subject. Do any exist? There are mistake fares probably every day but only a small percentage know about them, as they are kept privy within inner circles. I would like to better understand how to find them, while keeping it to myself, as well. There’s really two different questions here, Mistake fares — the super cheap often “fat finger” (leaving off a number or hitting the wrong button) deals that aren’t always honored, but can provide top notch travel at 90% or even 99% off when they are. Fuel dumps — how to ‘trick’ an…
About Gary Leff
Changes in the Online Hotel Booking Space, and How They Allowed PointsHound to Bring United Back Into the Fold
PointsHound, the hotel booking site that lets you earn airline miles for your hotel bookings, now has United available as a partner — again. It used to, when it launched, but lost its United relationship early on. Competitor site Rocketmiles had obtained exclusivity in the space with United. The Rocketmiles founder had previously been an executive with MileagePlus. There were erroneous reports that United had taken a stake in Rocketmiles. Since then however much has changed. Rocketmiles announced its acquisition by Priceline. PointsHound was acquired by Points.com Kaligo launched with a United relationship. Whether it was merely the expiration of the Rocketmiles’ exclusivity, the Rocketmiles acquisition by Priceline, or relationships with United that Points.com relationship that PointsHound was able to leverage, United is back. The game change for me, of course, would be PointsHound bringing…
Alaska Airlines Employee Pays a Woman’s Airfare After Delta Strands Her
This is the story of one airline’s generous employee that many have used to try to draw a stark contrast between carriers — the hometown here in Seattle Alaska Airlines and the Darth Vader Death Star Evil Scary interloper Delta. And though it’s a heartwarming story, the larger life lesson about airlines doesn’t actually work. A Vancouver woman is publicly thanking an Alaska Airlines employee for an act of kindness. The employee paid out of pocket for Miriam Thomas to get home after being given the runaround by Delta Airlines. On the outbound the woman had a heck of a time making it to her destination, but that’s not really all that relevant to the story. She was flying Delta from Vancouver to Ontario, California via Seattle. There was a late arriving aircraft and a…
Changed Your Password for 1000 Hilton Points? You Could Have Taken Control Of Anyone’s HHonors Account.
United, American, and Hilton all suffered recent data breaches. Indeed, Hilton points have been among the most available for sale on the DarkNet. Hilton accounts used 4-digit PIN numbers. That’s not a lot of unique combinations, and Hilton decided that’s not secure enough. In February Hilton reached out to let me know that they’re moving to passwords.. At the time they offered 1000 points to get you to update your password. But their IT wasn’t ready for their announced changes. On March 12 they said they were ready. According to Krebs on Security their password change process actually created a huge security vulnerability. Once you logged into your account you could change the HTML code of the website to gain access to any account. After that, they could see and do everything available to the…
To Redeem Awards, You Must Find the Flights Yourself and Spoon Feed Them to an Agent
Reader Mike asked, I’ve booked myself a flight to Hawaii but having trouble finding a good one home in F. I’m looking at AS,AA & UA since I have points for all & UA seems to have the most options in general, just not to MSP. My idea is to do separate award searches to one of the hubs, then from the hub to MSP and see what I can find. If I do find something, can I call United to feed the agent segment by segment, even if the website does not list my proposed itinerary as an option when searching HNL to MSP? . Simple answer: Yes Mike is asking about a very important principle in award search. Airline computers are pretty limited in what they’ll search for you. They will come up…
I’m Using Miles: Why Do My Award Tickets Have Such High Fees?
Reader Carol asked, When I try to make a reservation using my American Airline miles, there’s always a fee of $500-$1200 included. Do you know why? Yes, I do know why! It’s because you’re looking at award tickets involving travel on British Airways. And because awards on British Airways incur fuel surcharges. The idea is that the miles pay for the base airfare of the ticket only and not taxes (which is normal) or fuel or other miscellaneous charges. American collects these fees on British Airways awards, and in a miniscule amount on Iberia awards. (Only oneworld carrier LAN will issue British Airways awards without fuel surcharges — all other British Airways partners, including Alaska Airlines, collect them.) The challenge here is that American usually offers little award availability in premium cabins on its own…
American and US Airways Expect to Merge Frequent Flyer Programs in Just 6 Days!
On March 13, American sent out word that the American and US Airways frequent flyer programs would be combined within 30 days. Or in American parlance, that’s when they’d move to ‘Single Frequent Flyer Program’ (SFFP). When the 2015 program and details of how the US Airways and American programs would be combined were released in October, we were told the combination would happen during the second quarter of 2015. At the time I wrote, They haven’t set a target date, and there’s lots of IT work to do, but they sounded optimistic to me about hitting their deadlines on the early, rather than late, side of the calendar. Throughout I’ve been predicting early in the second quarter rather than later. Unless they were certain of being able to hit the second quarter (meaning they…
You Can Still Book Free One-Way Awards When You Redeem Miles. These Mileage Programs Let You.
Reader fauxblogger asked, Which foreign airline mileage programs permit tag flight to/from [North American] gateway city to [North American] home city on a single award when redeeming its own program’s miles? I think I understand what fauxblogger is asking. This reader wants to know what mileage programs allow stopovers on award tickets. The reason they asked the question the way they did is that American Airlines — up until April 8 last year — permitting stopovers on international award tickets, but only in the North American gateway city. In other words, the city you arrived or departed North America in/from. You could fly back to the gateway city, say you lived in Dallas and landed in Dallas from abroad. And ‘stopover’ there. Instead of ending your itinerary you would add another domestic flight, say to…
How to Stretch Hyatt Points and Get Great Upgrades
Reader Christian asks, I have a lot of Hyatt award nights booked for this fall in Asia and planned for next summer in Europe. While building up my points, I’d intended to do a Diamond Challenge early this summer, to have the status for this year and next. Now, with the Challenge effectively dead, I can (and likely will) get the Hyatt card later this year, but it only comes with Gold status. I value breakfast and club access, but am a bit dubious as to whether Gold status will get me anywhere, especially in Europe. I don’t have the points to move up to a club room for more than a few nights. Any thoughts or ideas? Hyatt used to hand out temporary Diamond status — complete with confirmed suite upgrades — pretty much…
What is ‘Minimum Connection Time’..?
Reader Jon Parent asks, I am looking to fly [Boston – Fairbanks] on [American] in June. I found availability for [Boston-Anchorage] only at first saver. However, when I search [Anchorage-Fairbanks], I find business availability as well at the perfect time. I am wondering why [the award search website] doesn’t display all of the segments [to get me from Boston all the way to Fairbanks]. Could it be because the connection time [in Anchorage before connecting on to Fairbanks] would only be about a half hour? Thanks and keep up the good work. Assuming that your arriving flight and departing flight are on time, there’s a certain minimum amount of time you can expect to take to deplane your arriving aircraft and make it over to your connecting gate to board your next flight. Different airports…
