Malaysia Airlines is struggling financially, with very low load factors (read: empty planes). They aren’t losing nearly as much money as Qantas, of course. I genuinely feel bad for them. Lots of employees affected, generally not at all their fault, the carrier getting restructured. I much like the airline. They have my favorite satay. Although there have been big cutbacks — a couple of years ago lobster in the first class lounge now the options are much more limited. Not surprising, they were struggling even before recent events. Overall though I consider theirs the 10th best first class product (Lucky disagrees). For the frequent flyer, though, it’s worth noting that first class award space on Malaysia Airlines is back. Generally only one seat for long haul Europe – Kuala Lumpur, but back nonetheless. Here’s a…
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Court Rules Bank Account Points Redemptions are Taxable
Taxation of frequent flyer miles: Via William T. and others, a Tax Court has ruled on the taxability of points programs under certain circumstances. The Tax Court yesterday required the taxpayer to include $668 in income as reported by Citibank on Form 1099-MISC as the value of an airline ticket received by the taxpayer upon redemption of 50,000 “Thank You Points” from opening a Citibank account. Shankar v. Commissioner, 143 T.C. No. 5 (Aug. 26, 2014).
Why Delta Miles Haven’t Suddenly Become ‘Great’ – But I Still Work Hard to Earn Them
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Offer Expired. Lucky asks Is the relative value of Delta Skymiles increasing? And technically the relative value might be — if they’re a 2 on a scale of 1-10, and United used to be an 8 but has dropped to a 6 then Delta miles are, relative to United, more valuable than they used to be. But that really doesn’t tell us much. Here’s why it matters: The…
Business Class Award Availability for the Whole Family to Australia!
Back in June I wrote about finding at least four business class seats non-stop between the US and Australia almost every day. That was using Delta miles on its partner Virgin Australia. Virgin Australia awards are even bookable on the Delta website and Delta no longer adds fuel surcharges to Virgin Australia awards. Then last month all of a sudden Virgin Australia’s business class inventory simply dried up. It was gone, pretty much across the board, with only a few stray dates available. At the time I said DON’T PANIC. Virgin Australia inventory goes in cycles. So there was reason to believe it would come back. And it has.
The End of Using Gift Cards to Pay Mortgages
Evolve Money has been one of the easiest ways to earn miles at little cost. It’s a bill pay service that at one time even took credit cards, but in general has been useful for using gift cards to pay big bills like mortgages. In June they began limiting payments to a single vendor to four per month. That was still useful, though not quite as leveragable. Now it seems they’re only allowing one payment per month per payee. Chandler W. tweeted me about this, Tom S. emailed. And I got the sad email as well. Dear Evolve Money Customer, Due to changes in our risk and regulatory compliance policies, Evolve Money will be implementing a limit of one payment per biller account per month. This change takes effect September 1, 2014. There are no…
What Happens When There’s an Impossible Schedule Change on an Award Ticket?
Ronald A. asks, I’ve got an Aeroplan award ticket for two booked for next Spring on Turkish Airlines and Brussels Airlines (Istanbul-Brussels-Washnigton Dulles). The Brussels Airlines flight has had a huge schedule change which causes a misconnect in Brussels, so I’ll need to rebook. It looks like there is nothing with saver availability in business class for my dates on Brussels Airlines for the transatlantic segment, so I’d imagine they’ll want to flip me over to Austrian, which has availability, but that has fuel surcharges on a normal booking. Will I be charged the fuel charges for an involuntary rebooking like this due to a schedule change? Also, given that it’s a huge schedule change, is there any chance they can contact revenue management at Star Alliance (or something to that effect) and request that…
British Airways New Business Class Seat Patent Revealed
Australian Business Traveler carries the details on a new business class seat that British Airways has patented. It offers clues into how BA is thinking about what comes next for business class. This may not be the actual or final seat they use, there could be more than one under consideration. Here’s BA’s patent application (.pdf). It was filed May 19 and published August 13. Here’s the ostensible seating configuration, gone would be the dorm-style 8 across seating. Currently I’d prefer flying joint venture partner American between the US and London for their 4-across seating on the 777-300ER. Here British Airways goes all-aisle access 4-across as well. The patent application describes the challenges of seat weight (because weight means fuel burn) and safety (such as the ability “to survive deceleration of 16g in a takeoff/landing…
Here’s Where You Should Care That American Airlines Flights Are No Longer Bookable on Orbitz
Half a dozen people have sent me articles about American’s flights no longer showing up on Orbitz. US Airways flights will be pulled from Orbitz on September 1. American sent out a press release on this yesterday, but I didn’t write about it. It’s a temporary phenomenon, basically a contract dispute. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this, about four years ago American pulled its inventory from Orbitz. It’s about pricing and about selling ancillary products through online travel agencies. Orbitz was started by a consortium of major airlines, but is no longer owned by them. The online travel agencies have considerable volume, Expedia is number one in the space. American can’t really afford to have their flights not appear as options in the major distribution sites where consumers buy tickets. But the agencies…
The True Ranking of the Very Best First Class Airlines — And Which Are Overrated!
Earlier this month FlightFox put out their rankings of the best first class products in the air and along with those the best prices they’ve found to actually buy each ticket. I expressed some disagreement with their rankings. For instance, I didn’t agree that Singapore Airlines has the best all-around first class. For instance, I don’t find their seat all that comfortable for lounging although it is good for sleeping, I don’t really find their ground services to be special (although they do a great job with food in The Private Room in Singapore), and they need to work on their snack menu. The folks at FlightFox underscored though that they were only talking about Singapore’s A380 Suites. Fair enough. I didn’t agree that Lufthansa has the 5th-best first class. I’d take Qantas’ A380 First…
Citi Improving Its Thank You Points Program With a New Transfer Partner!
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Citibank emailed yesterday to share that they’ve added Air France KLM’s Flying Blue as a points transfer partner in their Thank You program. Thank You Premier and Prestige cardmembers can now transfer points to: Air France-KLM Asia Miles Etihad Airways Guest EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles Hilton HHonorsTM Malaysia Airlines Enrich Qatar Airways Privilege Club Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus Of these, Singapore…
