Reader C.W. emailed me, Yesterday, was flying DFW-DCA in F and overheard some discussion behind me. Individual doing the talking sounded like he knew a thing or two – we were on one of the new 738s with AVOD and he was discussing delivery of the aircraft, also discussing his ride on the inaugural flight of the new 773 to London. So this guy didn’t strike me as a Joe off the street. Anyhow, he was stating to his seatmate in no uncertain terms that AA was going revenue-based for the 2016 qualification year. He talked about the recent change at United, the comparison to Delta, and stated that AA would base qualification solely on points tied to fare price during 2015. He also mentioned that new tiers above EXP would be added. So… plausible?…
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Outstanding Availability for Four Business Class Seats to Australia on Your Choice of Dates!
Delta charges 160,000 miles roundtrip in business class between the US and Australia. In contrast, American AAdvantage charges 125,000 miles for roundtrip business class but does not permit routing via Asia. Qantas premium cabin awards are very tough to get. United MileagePlus charges 130,000 miles for roundtrip business class on United’s own flights, or 150,000 miles on partners. The biggest drawback for many of using Delta miles is that while Virgin Australia has fantastic award availability between the US and Australia, these awards can even be booked on the Delta website, and no longer adds fuel surcharges to them), finding domestic award availability on Delta flights to get to and from Los Angeles can be tough. If you live in a city serving Los Angeles on Alaska Airlines you may be in better shape. Many…
Hyatt Free Night in Hawaii, Hilton Member Get Member Up to 125,000 Points, and National Bringing Back 1-2-Free!
News and notes from around the interweb: Hyatt’s one free night plus breakfast with paid stay offer in Hawaii through December 30. Opentable is being acquired by Priceline. In their email to Opentable users, to highlight good news about the service, they note they’re rolling out their “new payment product that lets you easily pay with your OpenTable mobile app without asking for the check.” Hilton’s Member-Get-Member promotion lets you earn up to 125,000 HHonors points for referring your friends. National Car Rental e-mailed some participants from the last round of their big ‘One Two Free’ bonus to let them know they’ll be bringing it back this fall. (HT: Mark R.) I didn’t get the email, though I’m an ‘Executive Elite’ with National and earned and burned several free rental days with last fall’s promotion.…
Is This Whole Revenue-Based Thing Much Ado About Nothing?
MJ on Travel calls programs going revenue-based “a big ol’ bag of nadda.” He wants suggests it really doesn’t matter. He makes three points: “[T]ravelers that are buying last minute high (or highish) fares should rejoice at these changes” He says he will be better off next year with Delta’s new revenue-based earning. Revenue-based earning doesn’t change credit card rewards, and other opportunities. Southwest carries the most domestic passengers, because they don’t suck, even though their frequent flyer program has revenue-based earning and redemption. I’m glad MJ is happy, and thinks his frequent flyer future is so bright he’s gotta wear shades. I also think there are several arguments here that don’t take him as far as he wants them to go. Most importantly, downplaying the significance of the changes misses the opportunity to help…
Beating Southwest’s Points Expiration Policy, Smisek Thinks Delta Can’t Touch United, and Ultimate Starbucks Tip List
News and notes from around the interweb: Southwest Airlines will only let you book award flights up through the expiration of your points, but there are easy workarounds. United’s Jeff Smisek actually thinks Delta can’t compete against his airline to Asia. “Our friends in Atlanta lack a gateway to Asia… The best gateway is already taken — that’s San Francisco.” Of course Delta is performing better overall. And United is revamping its marketing muscle to be as much like Delta’s as possible. Which apparently makes them a market leader. Or something. Virgin America Elevate is offering up to a 30% bonus on points purchased through July 1. Ultimate Starbucks Tip List Speaking of Starbucks they’ve started rolling out wireless charging for your devices. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis…
Booking United Awards On Brussels Airlines and Waiving the Phone Booking Fee
Here’s a booking story that seemed interesting enough to pass along, there are a couple of tidbits here for folks looking to travel to Europe using their United miles. A couple of weeks ago Brussels Airlines was showing up in award searches on the United website. Today that wasn’t the case. Flights to Brussels are one of the go-to routes for award seats to Europe in summer, and also one of the business class award routes to Europe that United doesn’t want you to know about. I had found space on United to Brussels, and needed a Brussels Airlines connecting flight in Europe. One of their flights was available with the award space I needed, it wasn’t showing up on the website, so I called United…
Which Flyer Deserves More Miles? You Be the Judge!
Sometime in the early 1980s I came across an old paperback book in the basement of the house where I grew up. It was worn, and I have no idea how many decades old it was at the time. It was called You Be the Judge and contained interesting ethical dilemma stories that called on you to sort through right and wrong. I Googled for it but only found a series by the same name from the last decade. I thought we’d try something like that here. I’m going to describe two customers, and ask which one should United award more miles? You be the judge. Fast forward to the end of 2015, and let’s review the travel for the year of Mary and John. Customer 1: John John is an investment banker out of…
United Reducing the Miles from Flying, Will Sell Them To You Instead (With 40% Discount)
United is cutting back on the overall total miles they’re awarding for flying starting March 2015 with their new revenue-based earning structure. They don’t want to spend as much marketing their flights anymore, with the economy strong. (Plus, they really really want to be like Delta, Delta has announced they’re doing this, and Delta didn’t lose $600 million last quarter. It’s the Underpants Gnome theory of running an airline and a mileage program.) But it isn’t that they don’t want as many miles out there, as some commenters have suggested (‘this will make getting awards easier, so it’s responsible’). They just want you or their marketing partners to buy the miles. In fact, they’ll sell the miles to you at a 40% discount through Monday (June 16). I don’t know about you, but buying miles…
The Fantastic and Confusing Breakfast at Park Hyatt Maldives Untangled
Over the weekend I wrote about why I love the Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives enough that I’ve returned to the resort (on points) three times in three years. One thing that’s changed since I first stay there is that breakfast is no longer complimentary for all guests redeeming points. There’s been confusion over what this means, and questions since my trip report. So here’s clarification.
Why Skymiles and MileagePlus are Getting Out of the Airline Business and Why Partner Earning Matters More in 2015
One way to read the move towards revenue-based mileage earnings, as announced by United and Delta, is as a move away from frequent flyer programs as having anything to do with rewarding flying. It’s a move away from programs’ roots, rather than a return to them. MileagePlus and Skymiles are getting out of the airline business, even if they don’t admit it. Here’s why.
