Airlines Try to Balance the Number of Elite Flyers With Airline Capacity Back in November I explained how frequent flyer programs manage their elite levels. “Too many elites” is a problem when a program can’t deliver benefits. On the other hand, when elite ranks shrink (usually during bad economic times although also when an airline is going through problems like bankruptcy or a strike) airlines want to goose those numbers — such as with double elite qualifying promotions. In recent times airlines have seen, overall, the problem of too many elites rather than too few. That’s because the economy has been good enough to support increasing air travel, while airlines have maintained capacity discipline — more people flying a whole lot more without a corresponding increase in available seats. This could change with an economic…
About Gary Leff
Kaligo Makes It Easier to Earn a 10,000 Mile Hotel Booking Bonus — for New And Existing Customers Alike
Last month I wrote about new hotel booking site Kaligo. They’re similar to Rocketmiles and PointsHound in that they kick you back airline miles when you book hotels through their system. At the time they offered readers 1000 extra bonus miles with first booking. Plenty of readers took them up on the bonus. (For avoidance of doubt, they gave me a special booking link to provide this thousand mile bonus — I did not receive anything if you used it.) That offer has ended. However, one of the frustrations that a few people expressed in the comments is that maxing out the standard new customer bonus of ‘up to 10,000 miles’ required making a hotel reservation worth $1000. Kaligo changed things up and for March and April they’re offering the full 10,000 bonus miles when…
What’s Grosser Than Gross? Airline Club Lounge Edition.
No, not the mouse in the United Club at Washington Dulles. Instead, this.
Everything You Want to Know About Miles, Points, and Travel: Request for Requests
Here’s your chance. I will my best to cover them. Please leave requests in the comments section. As my boss once wrote making a similar request on his blog, “The only promise is that of weak monotonicity, namely that your mention won’t lower the chance of the topic being covered.” In other words, I won’t promise to cover everything, though I’ll read and ponder everything that’s written here in the comments. It may take me awhile to work through, goodness knows there are things I’m behind on (I have an Emirates first class trip report I need to start…). But I’d love to hear from you! Thanks….
My Experience as an Expert Witness in a Federal Criminal Trial About Miles and Points
Back in the Fall I started to write about a legal case surrounding miles and points where I served as an expert witness. The case had concluded, and the attorney who engaged me gave me signoff to post about it, with my commitment not to include any names. At the time we both thought it would be a good idea for people to know the risks involving small business program accounts, because I know there are plenty of people who have opened accounts in the name of their company out there. Reader Jess asked me to come back to this, so I thought I’d lay out the story in broad strikes. Full disclosure: as an expert witness I was compensated for my time advising defense counsel and also for my time in court.
New Video Reviews of the Etihad A380 Residence and First Apartment
Etihad debuted the most over the top product offerings of any airline with the launch of their first Airbus A380. There’s the three room ‘Residence’, just one per flight that hosts two passengers (a living space, bedroom, and private bathroom) as well as the ‘First Apartment’ which is the most spacious first class seat in the sky. Put the First Apartment this way: Emirates has 4 suites across on the upper deck of their A380. Etihad has just 2 suites across, and a single aisle between them, on their upper deck of their A380. While you can book the Residence with Etihad’s own miles (and indeed, Etihad is a Citibank transfer partner), it’s not practical. But you can book the First Apartment with American miles. The first route was Abu Dhabi – London. Abu Dhabi…
San Diego Airport Lounge Access for (Almost) Everyone
The Airspace Lounge opened last summer. There are (4) ways to access the lounge, which encompasses pretty much everyone:
The Most Important Travel News and Advice From the Past Month
Whether it’s recapping the month’s news to get you caught up or passing along tips like “six tricks to get through to airline customer service when phone wait times are long” here’s the opportunity to learn what you missed in miles, points, and travel in February. Credit Card Rewards Advice Four rewards cards that deliver you the most value (and the card to get if you want just one) The card I don’t have… but would never give up if I did Data Shows What Credit Score You Need to Be Approved for the Best Rewards Card 50,000 Mile United Business Card Offer Now Publicly Available Your Miles and Points Just Got More Valuable and Your Travel Just Got Easier Flights to Asia you can pretty much always get business class award tickets on In…
Flying an American Airlines Inaugural: the Speeches Were Cancelled, But the Breakfast Tacos Free Flowing
My grandmother hasn’t been well. Her condition hasn’t been great since my grandfather passed about 18 months ago, but in recent weeks it’s taken a serious turn for the worse. I’ve been out to see her a few times. She’s been in a rehab center, and just over a week ago went into the hospital. She was released, and is living at home with 24 hour care. She’s been home for a few days, and I’ve been back in the country for a few days. I settled on Thursday for my visit because it meant I wouldn’t need to connect, thanks to American’s new Austin – Miami non-stop service. The flight leaves just after 6am, and the return from Miami departs just before 8pm. That makes it perfect for a same-day in and out trip…
Delta Backing Off its 3 Week Advance Purchase Requirement for Saver Awards
At the beginning of February Delta appeared to impose a three week advance purchase requirement in order to redeem awards at the saver level. Domestic economy class awards at 12,500 miles one-way simply didn’t exist on most routes for travel within 21 days. When you’d find space at this price, it was usually on partner Alaska Exceptions were for some very low load factor routes like subsidized ‘Essential Air Service’ routes And a handful of anomalies. It really does seem Delta is backing off of this (HT: Reader Marc L.).
