United’s massive award chart changes created a new, separate pricing chart. There’s one price for awards on United and another price for awards on partners. I initially assumed that on flight on a partner as part of an award itinerary would cause the award to be priced at the higher partner price, even if the bulk of the ticket was on United. For instance, if you flew United transatlantic from Chicago to Frankfurt and then connected on Lufthansa to Berlin. Now, if award space is available on United one-way but only on partners in the other direction you can still of course use the United chart for a one-way award and the partner chart for the other direction. That way you aren’t paying the full partner roundtrip price. But what about the majority of Star…
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British Airways Visa 100,000 Point Signup Bonus is Back
Note that I do not receive referral credit for this offer at the time of this writing. British Airways and Chase are back with a 100,000 Avios signup bonus. You will get 50,000 bonus Avios after $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.2 25,000 bonus Avios after $10,000 in purchases within the first year of account opening.2 Plus an additional 25,000 bonus Avios after you make an additional $10,000 in purchases also within the first year of account opening.2 Together that’s 100,000 bonus Avios, which is enough for a round-trip business class award flight.3 Taxes, fees, and carrier charges are approximately $1,250 per adult in business class based on travel from Seattle to London.4 As with offers for this card over the past year and a half, you need to spend…
Why United Devalued its Award Chart: Three Competing Explanations
United announced big changes to their award chart which will go into effect February 1. But why did they do it? United’s Explanation United left the following on my Facebook page. Hi Gary. We are increasing the number of miles required to redeem some Saver and Standard awards – the first time we’ve made such changes in several years – to offset the increased cost of providing award travel, particularly premium-cabin award travel and award travel on MileagePlus partner carriers. In some markets, we have reduced the number of miles required for award travel. Customers who book MileagePlus awards, especially premium-cabin travel awards, will continue to get great value and options, with the most saver-award availability among U.S. global carriers and the greatest number of options for booking United and partner carriers online. ^Rob It’s…
What Should We Call United Miles Now?
Delta Skymiles are Skypesos, since they’re worth so much less than competitor currencies. But what about United miles now that they’ve announced an absolute bloodletting of their award chart? Frequent Miler suggests “Stardust.” After Continental took over at United, United’s million miler frequent flyers were promised that they would continue to get annual upgrades. Almost immediately, though, those were taken away. The ‘new’ United increased change fees on award tickets. They prioritized individual transactions over long-term loyalty by giving single trip full fare elites — even Silver elites — upgrade priority over 100,000 mile flyers. They started selling cheap upgrades to anyone at check-in rather than upgrading elites. And they prioritized ‘supported’ upgrades, such as mileage upgrades, over elite upgrades. So a general member with a co-branded Visa could upgrade ahead of an elite domestically.…
Packing Tips that are Actually Really Good
Holiday Inn Express brings you packing tips that are actually really, really good. Very few packing tip videos are. This guy is a whole lot better at folding a shirt than I am! He tells you how to use a television to charge electronics and how to turn a coffee mug into a speaker for your music, too. What are your best packing tips? (HT: Head for Points) 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!
United’s Frequent Flyer Award Prices are Going Up, Up, Up. Redeem Now (for Premium Cabin Partner Travel Outside the Americas).
United devaluation: I woke up this morning to an announcement of some really nasty changes to the United MileagePlus award chart. These changes don’t go into effect until February 1, so you will want to issue tickets you may be considering before then (and not make changes to tickets after that). What United has done is Announced an increase in the price of many of its awards Bifurcated its award chart so that partner awards will often cost a whole lot more than awards on United’s own flights There aren’t actually very many changes to awards in North and South America. There aren’t very many changes to awards in coach. The biggest bloodbath is to first class partner award pricing. Here are .pdfs of the current chart and the new chart. But to make it…
The End of the “No Electronics Below 10,000 Feet” Rule is Going Away is a Bigger Deal Than You Think
We’ll Soon Be Able to Use Personal Electronic Devices During Taxi, Takeoff, nd Landing Today’s big news was that the ban on using personal electronics onboard aircraft that are below 10,000 feet would be lifted. JetBlue hopes to be certified to lift the ban on its flights tomorrow. This change applies to both domestic and international flights on US airlines. Each airline has to submit a plan for how it will allow such use safely, and will be able to implement its own rules within FAA guidelines. But very soon we’ll be able to use electronics below 10,000 feet. We won’t be able to use broadcast signals, any such devices will need to be in ‘airplane mode’. And cell phone use will remain banned, since that’s an FCC rule and isn’t address here, because cell…
Hyatt Union Square’s Small Rooms and Super Comfortable Beds
Hotels in New York were pretty heavily booked, there weren’t any standard rooms for points even at the Andaz 5th Avenue where I love to stay. I wasn’t going to spend over $600 for a room there. I couldn’t get a standard room at the Andaz Wall Street, either. But I could burn points at the new Hyatt Union Square. It’s Hyatt Gold Passport category 5, or 18,000 points per night. With room rates a bit over $400 (an tax applying to paid rates but not awards) that seemed a reasonable redemption. And I’d get to try a new hotel in the city. The day before my arrival I received an email from the hotel asking my anticipated arrival time. It was going to be a bit after 3pm. I suspect they were pretty chock…
Saudia Business Class Trip Report: Riyadh – Washington Dulles
Pakistani Correspondent continues her guest post describing the experience flying Saudia business class, which she redeemed using American Express Membership Rewards points transferred to Delta. This is the final installment of her report. Here’s her previous installment: New York JFK – Jeddah Saudia Lounge, Jeddah and Jeddah-Lahore CIP Lounge in Lahore, Pakistan Lahore – Riyadh Saudia Lounge, Riyadh And now P.C. continues with her final installment, flying Saudia from Riyadh to Washington Dulles. A 777-300ER was awaiting and I was excited to have premium seats in what looked like a full flight. My seat was missing a blanket and a headset which I had to ask for. I was generally satisfied with new magazines, functional remote and a better entertainment guide. I discovered that I could pull a wall between the seats that came equipped…
The American Express Centurion Lounge Dallas: Complimentary Spa and Showers
American Express opened its second U.S. Centurion airport lounge this month. Dallas Fort Worth is the second location after Las Vegas. There are more lounges to come, including San Francisco. I visited the Dallas facility on a recent connection, and absolutely loved it. It’s the best U.S. airport lounge I have been to. Here’s my review of the facility. Here’s my review of the food and drink situation. And now here’s the scoop on their complimentary spa and their shower facilities. Exhale Spa The Exhale Spa is a small room in the lounge. Only one treatment specialist was working while I was there, he was doing 15 minute massages, facials and other treatments wouldn’t be an option that day. They have you fill out a consent form, it’s a clothes-on massage and I was the…
