United’s big award chart devaluation which was scheduled to go into effect on February 1 was put off a few days but is now in effect. Lots of folks booked awards speculatively before the bloodshed. Transatlantic business class awards on United’s partners went up 40%. Some first class awards went up more than 80%. Of course, there were few changes to coach awards and to awards within the Americas. And a handful of awards actually get cheaper. But for Americans looking to travel to Europe, Asia, Africa, or elsewhere in premium cabins prices went up a whole lot. And for those who planned ahead and booked future travel under the old rates, there’s been lots of uncertainty about what kinds of changes to travel would be permitted without an increase in mileage cost to the…
About Gary Leff
New Groupon Restaurant Reservations Save Up to 40% Without Vouchers or Pre-Purchase
As Groupon struggles to find a new business model — they’ve learned there are no barriers to entry in marketing discounts, and that there’s limited appetite of businesses to pay to offer deep discounts to mooches (read: us) — one thing they’ve apparently hit on is restaurant reservations. (HT: S.) Groupon’s new service is Reserve. They offer reservations up to 30 days out, with limited availability at selected upscale restaurants in the following locations: Atlanta Boston Chicago Denver Long Island Los Angeles Miami New York City North Jersey Philadelphia San Francisco Washington DC Westchester There’s no vouchers or pre-purchase, just make a reservation and save up to 40% (though most savings in the 20% or 25% traunch). While it’s not as deep a restaurant pool as Opentable will offer, I’d definitely check here before making…
Here’s Why You Should Be Glad You’re Not in Sochi for the Olympics
Twitter is the new TripAdvisor, and in Sochi journalists are our hotel reviewers. And the hotel experiences there are very, very bad. (HT: rwoman on Milepoint) You can join the 30,000+ 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!
25,000 Bonus Miles for Booking at Etihad.com
I realize not everyone is going to be buying tickets on Middle East carrier Etihad. They fly from several US cities and are a pretty good way to get not just to the Middle East (they’re based in Abu Dhabi) but beyond to places like India and Pakistan. But some readers might be, and a surprising number are based in regions where this could be especially useful as well. Plus it’s a huge bonus: 25,000 bonus miles for online booking to any destination in any cabin as long as you book before February 15. That means a short hop, say, Abu Dhabi – Doha even earns the bonus. The only restriction seems to be that you have to enter your Etihad Guest number in the reservation at time of booking. There’s also double miles to…
The End of Newark, American Sells Miles Almost As Cheap As American Does, Or You Can Buy Them From Flower Companies and Get the Flowers Free (Bits ‘n Pieces for February 4, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: A few weeks ago I summed up the best mileage earning offers for flowers. United and American both have 30 miles per dollar offers with FTD plus 200 or 250 additional fixed miles. There’s also now a 35 Delta mile per dollar offer with FTD. Here’s where Southwest plans to fly non-stop from Dallas Love Field once the abominable Wright amendment limiting flights at that airport finally goes away. American has two stackable bonuses for purchasing miles that — through February 6 only — allow you to buy miles at 2 cents apiece. Of course US Airways and American are merging, and US Airways is currently selling miles for even less (and does so regularly). In another reminder that new management at American (i.e. old management at US…
The Family That Travels Together… (How to Leverage Your Elite Status Edition)
Paul offers this travel — and family — advice: My advice is to give your child the same first name as yours. In that way you can share status (albeit against the program rules) while still alive. For frequent family travelers, parent could go for high status in Star Alliance and SPG, child for One World and Hyatt. Only downside is that you can’t travel together 🙂 After death, the child can just pick up where their parent left off. And if they too named their child with the same name, we could have some 150 year old platinums out there 😉 See also: Tokyo’s “oldest man” may have been dead for decades (family collects a man’s pension for 30 years after he died). You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and…
1500 Mile American Airlines Shopping Portal Bonus
The American AAdvantage shopping portal has another bonus running, this time for up to 1500 miles based on spend through February 14. Thanks to Pizza in Motion for sharing this. You’ll earn as follows: $150 in collective spending on the AAdvantage eshopping portal earns a 500 mile bonus. $300 in collective spending on the AAdvantage eshopping portal earns a 1,000 mile bonus. $450 in collective spending on the AAdvantage eshopping portal earns a 1,500 mile bonus. No registration is required. Back in November they ran a 2500 point bonus. Those points posted for me earlier in the month: While the company that runs the shopping portal doesn’t always show the love with customer service, as long as points from transactions do post (and my luck has been good), the bonus itself should post as well.…
40% Bonus on Unlimited Purchase of Alaska Airlines Miles
Alaska Airlines is offering up to a 40% bonus on purchased miles through March 15. Here’s the breakdown of the bonus: Limited Time Offer: up to 40% Bonus Purchase miles between February 1 and March 15, 2014 and get up to 40% more miles! Buy 5,000 – 19,000 miles: get a 20% Bonus Buy 20,000 – 34,000 miles: get a 30% Bonus Buy 35,000 – 40,000 miles: get a 40% Bonus This isn’t all that uncommon an offer. For the majority of November and December they were offering up to a 35% bonus. This offer of 40% is, of course, better than that. A purchase of 40,000 points earns 56,000 miles at a total cost of $1182.50 or ~ 2.1 cents per mile. Key things to know: You can buy up to 40,000 miles per…
What Good Does it Do to Require Minimum Spending for Elite Status When Your Systems Can’t Properly Track the Spending?
This Year Delta and United Are Requiring Minimum Spending to Earn Elite Status for 2015 Delta made their announcement back in January and United followed with theirs in June. Both require spending on airline tickets, not just flown miles, in order to reach status. And they’ve tied that spending at 10 cents per status mile — 25,000 mile status level requires $2500 spend 50,000 mile status level requires $5000 spend 75,000 mile status level requires $7500 spend United’s 100,000 mile status level requires $10,000 spend Delta’s 125,000 mile status level requires $12,500 spend These requirements apply to frequent flyers whose accounts list addresses in the United States. Somewhat surprisingly I haven’t heard of accounts being shut down (yet?) for “moving abroad” to skirt these spending thresholds. It’s Not Just Total Revenue That Matters It’s a…
Attention Christopher Elliott: Frequent Flyer Programs are Ladders of Opportunity
Christopher Elliott, who likely deserves a patent on making unsupported — and unsupportable — claims in columns about travel, has a new one: “Have travelers lost the class war?” He pegs his piece on class warfare in the skies on the introduction of American’s new premium configuation Airbus A321 which will begin flying New York JFK – San Francisco next month. Oddly the class warfare didn’t begin when the plane started flying JFK – Los Angeles last month. Nor did lie flat seats on either route generate a class war when those were first offered by the incumbent competitors on the routes. Here’s the meat of Elliott’s class struggle argument: Meanwhile, ordinary passengers languish in crowded waiting areas and are wedged into airline seats that seem to shrink between flights. When they complain, they’re often…
