Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program has posted details of its 50% off promo awards for travel in May and June which will be bookable starting April 29. You can book discounted awards for travel between specific cities in North America and all of Europe. (Promo awards also include travel between Europe and other regions of the world, but here I focus just on North America where most of my readers are — sorry folks reading in South America and Asia!) The only cities offering discounted business class are: Chicago to and from Europe via Amsterdam on KLM Montreal to and from Europe via Paris on Air France New York JFK to and from Europe via Madrid on Air Europa (twice-weekly service) These can be booked from the starting cities above to any destination in…
About Gary Leff
Great Deal on Noise Cancelling Headphones
Amazon’s Gold Box deal of the day has the SOUL by Ludacris SL300WB High Definition Noise Canceling Headphones for $99, marked down from $299. Gold Box Deal of the Day: Up to 65% Off Select SOUL Headphones These headphones deliver incredible sound with a stylish punch. The SL300WB features world class noise-canceling technology combined with advanced circuitry design for powerful sound quality. The SL150BW offers an advanced driver and circuitry design for clear bass, mids and highs. Offer good today only, April 11, 2013. These are well-regarded headphones that should offer similar performance to the much more expensive Bose QuietComforts which are the ‘frequent flyer standard’. And I imagine that at this price they’d also be re-sellable once the deal of the day ends, at a minimum for break-even but potentially even at a profit.…
Return to the Maldives: Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class
Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class The hotel needed us out of our room at 2pm to arrange for new arriving guests Last year we kept our room until the very last minute with a mid-afternoon departure, but with the hotel at 100% occupancy that wasn’t possible for this trip. So they offered to move us…
American and US Airways Make Their Merger Case: What Will Change in a Combined Airline?
Tom Horton (CEO of American) and Doug Parker (CEO of US Airways) visited the New York Times to talk up the pending merger between the two airlines. The ensuing piece by Stephanie Rosenbloom lays out many of the issues and concerns flyers have about a combination of the two airlines, and offers a fairly nuanced, balanced, and dare I say reasonable take on what’s likely to happen. I’ll begin with the ending, a quote from yours truly summarizing what consumers can expect from the merger. “We have no reason to believe right now that there’s anything dire or scary in this,” Mr. Leff said of the merger. I explained that I preferred American as a standalone carrier because as a consumer and an elite member of their program, I like the premium focus that American…
Alaska Airlines Introduces One-Way Partner Awards on British Airways
Alaska Airlines began to introduce long-anticipated one-way awards on partners on March 20th. This was a huge development, because while Alaska Airlines is a hugely flexible program — partnering with many of the airlines in both Skyteam and oneworld — and thus a good place especially for the infrequent flyer to credit flights they take on American and on Delta (since those miles get pooled towards earning rewards faster), the program was also really limited because if you wanted to redeem on partners you couldn’t mix and match them. You had to fly the same partner both ways, and that’s not always available. You could not do American one way and British Airways the other to make an award work. The initial roll out of one-way partner awards was pretty limited — just American Airlines…
Front Desk Agents Who Hate Us Because We’re Beautiful (or Our Elite Status Cards Are)
The hardest part of any hotel elite program is ensuring consistent delivery of benefits at the check-in counter. The greatest failure point comes from relying on thousands of front desk agents being well-trained, well-motivated, and even relies on their not having a bad day. While most airline benefits are computerized, most hotel benefits rely on a person to deliver. Starwood has removed some of the human element with its Suite Night Upgrades for Platinums who stay 50 or more nights — 10 room nights a year where members can have an upgrade confirmed up to 5 days in advance, this is assigned by computer based on published room inventory, removing much of the discretion from the process. And Hyatt goes even farther, though the upgrades are requested and confirmed by humans it’s done in advance…
Return to the Maldives: Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives
Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class I stayed at this hotel in 2012 and wrote a three part series on the property (here, here, and here). It’s the only resort I’ve been to that while I was leaving I was talking about wanting to return, and where I made plans to do so not long after…
Bits ‘n Pieces for April 9, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Best Western is offering a $50 Best Western Travel Card valid through November 1 after 3 stays between April 22 and June 9, plus 1000 bonus points if you pay for all three with their co-branded credit card. Registration required. (HT: NotiFlyer) My comment reported on whether major airlines will adopt the ‘pay by weight’ concept: Not. Going. To. Happen. Head for Points reports that Virgin Atlantic will offer intra-UK redemptions for just 7500 points roundtrip and £30 in taxes/fees. That trumps British Airways’ 9000 points roundtrip, and matches them on fees, though flight frequencies are more limited. Chase is temporarily waiving the fee for online gift card purchases, although they say you won’t be able to get a ‘PIN’ for the gift cards meaning it’ll be tough…
A New Method to Hold United Award (and Revenue) Tickets
United Has Been Making It Increasingly Hard to ‘Hold’ Reservations When I first got started in this game United allowed frequent flyer award tickets to be put on ‘hold’ without ticketing or mileage deductions for 30 days. And provided the awards were on United, rather than one of their partners, that hold could even be extended. That time period was reduced to 14 days and then 3 days and then — with the switchover to Continental’s reservation system March 3rd of last year — taken away. United still allowed award holds for accounts with insufficient miles to book an award (presumably to give yo time to transfer miles or buy miles to make up the difference). And so you could hold an award with an account without miles, and go back and ticket with a…
100% Bonus on Purchased AviancaTaca LifeMiles is Back
In December I explained Why You Want to Get Started With the AviancaTaca LifeMiles Program Right Now. LifeMiles is one of the best programs in the Star Alliance. There are some frustrations, like inability to book flights in more than one class of service on an award. But they sell miles cheap, their award chart is reasonable, they offer one-way awards, and the website is decent. Plus there are no fuel surcharges. I consider the better non-U.S. programs a great hedge and refuge against the risks of revenue-based frequent flyer redemption changes. And the AviancaTaca LifeMiles program regularly offers 100% bonuses on purchased miles and then lets you effectively buy miles even cheaper with their cash ad points awards (where you need just 40% of the miles required for a given award ticket). Through April 30, LifeMiles will give you…
