Citibank is offering two credit cards for Australian residents that come with big Qantas Frequent Flyer bnonuses. Only 1.4% of this blog’s visitors last month came from Australia. So what makes that relevant (at least to 98.6% of you)? Big credit card bonuses are no longer strictly a U.S. phenomenon. While bonuses outside the U.S. tend not to be as large, and vary tremendously by market, this is the first time I’ve seen a 100,000 mile offer outside the U.S. Bonuses are headed in the ‘right’ direction worldwide, rather than wondering whether world trends would shrink US bonuses. Australia has done the most to limit credit card interchange fees, so as credit card processors enter settlements that have similar effects in the U.S. the Australian market can be seen as one potential extreme direction that…
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American’s New 767 Business Class Seat Revealed
American released photos yesterday of its new Boeing 767 international business class seat. It’s not the same seat they’ve put onto their new 777-300ERs. The Boeing 767 isn’t a wide enough aircraft to put in that same seat and still have 4 across seating. But the new 767 seat retains all-aisle access — a seat at each window and two seats in the middle. I declared the 777-300ER the best business class seat across the Atlantic. But their 767-300 seat is competitive, it’s the same new seat that Delta chose for its 767s and several other carriers use. They’ve made the design scheme similar to their 777-300ER product. And I’m looking forward to seeing the seats in person — I am not sure whether it’s a function of the photos or real design differences but…
5000 Points for Joining, 15,000 Points for Flying, Bonus Points and $20 (Bits ‘n Pieces for March 7, 2014)
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: (Update: Targeted offer.) American’s new Airbus A321 debuted on the New York – San Francisco route yesterday, and through May 31 they’re offering bonus miles on nearly all fares to promote it. Registration is required, most coach fares qualify (all but O and Q class) for 2500 bonus miles each way, full fare economy is 5000 miles each way, and first and business class earn 7500 miles each way. JetBlue is offering new members 5000 points for joining and flying by April 30. It’s the first Friday of the month, so the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card earns triple points at restaurants today instead of the usual double points. Go out to dinner tonight if you have that card, or stock up on gift cards at your favorite restaurants…
Delta’s Partner Award Prices WILL NOT CHANGE With the 2015 Program.. But Partner Award AVAILABILITY Probably Will
Yesterday Delta announced its award charts for 2015. When they revealed their plans for revenue-based points earning (rewarding the price of your ticket, not the length of time in their seat), but not the other half of the equation, it led to a lot of speculation (including by me) that the changes were going to be awful. Why else wouldn’t they reveal what awards were going to cost? What they shared yesterday was the new five-tier award charts for economy and for business class (10 tiers in total!) for flights that originate or terminate in the US mainland 48 states, Alaska, and Canada. We don’t have the charts for the rest of the world yet. The charts looked pretty good — more decreases than increases at the lowest saver level and at the highest last…
Virgin Atlantic MasterCard: Up to 65,000 Bonus Miles Plus $100 Global Entry Fee Credit
In January I wrote that Bank of America was back with its 50,000 mile signup bonus for the Virgin Atlantic credit card. They promote it as ‘up to 65,000 miles’ but 15,000 of those are at your cardmember anniversary and are based on spend with the card — 7500 bonus miles for $15,000 spend in that year, and 7500 more for hitting $25,000 in spend. So I consider it to be a 50,000 mile bonus. 20,000 Flying Club bonus miles after your first retail purchase 25,000 additional Flying Club bonus miles after you spend at least $2,500 in qualifying purchases Earn up to 5,000 Flying Club bonus miles when you add additional authorized users to your card (2500 per cardholder up to 2) What’s new in this offer for the card is that they’re now…
What’s Really Wrong In Iraq: International Flights Cancelled for “Spite”
File this under a new reason for flight cancellation. Right next to weather, crew availability, and maintenance there is now “spite.” There’s still both political and sectarian violence ravaging Iraq, years after the U.S. occupied, surged its troops, and began to pull out. Sunni Arabs are marginalized by the Shia government. I’m no expert on geopolitical matters, but it seems clear that these huge macro issues aren’t likely to be solved soon. And this story offers a window into why — into the quality of governance, the culture of corruption, and into the extent to which political power is seen as a tool for personal and group enrichment rather than as a mechanism by strong impartial institutions can create the conditions for peace and commerce. Iraq’s Minister of Transport refused to let a plane land…
Zero to Top Elite Status in 17 Days and $8 Airfares, Last Call for Star Alliance Awards (Bits ‘n Pieces for March 6, 2014)
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Six things that every smart traveler should do this month. My contribution to Wendy Perrin’s Conde’ Nast list was to redeem US Airways miles for travel on Star Alliance airlines before they depart for oneworld at the end of the month. Inside the World of Mileage Runners from finance site Minyanville. They offer my case that mileage runners can be profitable for an airline, remembering the ‘Baht Run’ and giving props to wanaflyforless (whose name doesn’t appear in the piece) for making Executive Platinum on American in 17 days plus a shout out to The Flight Deal. American opened a new club in Philadelphia located in Terminal A-East between gates A4 and A6. That brings US Airways/American to 4 clubs in Philadelphia. British Airways has a club there…
SriLankan Airlines Set to Join the oneworld Alliance May 1
SriLankan now has an official joining date of May 1 for entry into oneworld, making them an alliance partner of American (and US Airways) as well as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and more. And they’re a great addition to oneworld for frequent flyers. With American you’ll be able to include them in AAdvantage distance-based oneworld awards, for instance flying over the Atlantic and connecting in Europe to Asia, or including them on trips to the Maldives or India and Pakistan. Bangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Tiruchirappalli in India as well as Male in the Maldives are short hops from Colombo, Sri Lanka that will only cost 4500 British Airways points each way. (Of course many of these short hops are also quite inexpensive to buy.) In Europe SriLankan flies to Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Paris, and…
Delta Releases Its New 5-Tier Award Charts: What They Mean For Travelers
Delta announced their new revenue-based points-earning scheme last week, and curiously absent was details of what changes were going to look like on the redemption side of the equation. Delta had told us there would be a five tier redemption chart, unlike two tiers that most programs have and three tiers that Delta has had since 2008. But that they wouldn’t reveal the specifics until the fourth quarter of the year. Delta Made the Right Decision to Come Clean on Their Award Chart Changes I’ve been highly critical of Delta for the decision to hold back details of changes to their award chart. You can’t evaluate a program knowing only how points are earned. Redemption is 50% of the equation. Members are earning points now that they will redeem next year, and Delta wouldn’t tell…
Delta’s Revenue-Based Points Earning Should Mean Fewer Points From Flying, But More Points Overall
We’re likely to see fewer (base) miles earned by flying at Delta with their new revenue-based points-earning scheme. But we’re also likely to see more miles earned overall in 2015 than we see in 2014 and than were earned in 2013. Net net I expect rewarding miles based on ticket price to mean fewer miles earned in total from butt-in-seat flying. With a ‘break-even’ average of 20 cents per mile in ticket price to earn the same number of miles in 2015 as in 2014, and with Delta earning less than 20 cents per seat mile on average, they should be printing fewer miles. In order to average 20 cents per seat mile across passengers, they’d need ‘passenger revenue per available seat mile’ to be 16 cents at a systemwide 80% load factor for the…
