News and notes from around the interweb: Here are the current snack baskets presumed replacements when first class meals go away from most American domestic flights under 1150 miles. Which over-the-top Middle Eastern airline will be the first to introduce $8 ice cubes in premium cabins? It’s been out for a couple of weeks, but I may have failed to mention it: Choice Hotels 2 stays pays you a $50 gift card. I had some fantastic Khao Yum at Elephant Jumps Thai in Northern Virginia yesterday. They expect to add this to the specials board in the coming days. A reader – a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa – asks for help by taking a survey on airline crises. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis…
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Is a $1700 First Class Seoul Roundtrip Ticket Even a Good Deal?
Matt at Saverocity penned an important post about whether or not a $1700 3-cabin first class roundtrip between Boston and Seoul is even a good deal. He points out that my tweet included #ScreaminDeal #Hurry and wrote, How about Hashtag #Bollocks #to #you? The deal, that is, not the tweeter, he is just sharing what his readers want. Let’s explore this, with a scenario. It assumes that you actually get off the plane, stay say 3 nights, and get out of your hotel room… of course you might just want to fly there and back which is just magical, and I wish you good speed…. And he goes on to posit that you’re going to spend ~ $2400 per person on the trip. That’s still a lot of money, and there are other things you…
Meals Will Disappear from American First Class on Many Flights Starting September 1
Back in February, American Airlines announced that US Airways would improve its meal services. Effective April 1 they changed the cutoff for meals from flights of 3.5 hours or longer to those of 1000 nautical miles or greater which they said equated to flights of ~ 2 hours 45 minutes. That meant about 40% more US Airways flights would be seeing meals in domestic first class — or an increase of 126 flights a day. But the news wasn’t all good. At the same time they announced that come September 1, US Airways and American would align domestic first class service — tray elements, food components, and meal cutoff times. Speaking to an American representative yesterday, he reiterated the September 1 timetable and the 1000 nautical mile standard. I find the use of ‘nautical miles’…
WOW Deal $1700 3-Cabin First Class Fare Boston and Other Cities – Seoul Roundtrip
United has a ~$1700 fare valid through the end of schedule between Boston and Seoul that allows travel across the Pacific in their 3-cabin United Global First product. The fare also appears to be available from Hartford, Connecticut and Burlington, Vermont. Perhaps there are other cities, please share if you find them. This deal is no longer available. Read on to see what you missed!
Free Ritz-Carlton Night, How to Avoid BA Fuel Surcharges, and 1 Night to Hotel Status
News and notes from around the interweb: Get a Ritz-Carlton Free Night or 2 other promotions. One of the best ways to avoid the highest fuel surcharges when booking award tickets with British Airways points is to transfer them to Iberia and redeem for Iberia flights. You need an ‘active’ Iberia account – open for 90 days and with some account activitiy – before you can make the transfer. The Free-quent Flyer offers advice on generating that activity. In addition to transferring 1000 American Express points into an Iberia account, the best suggestion is to redeem e-Rewards. Starwood points for referring your friends to an SPG American Express card are posting quickly. The glitch that has been preventing American from booking Etihad awards appears to be an ongoing issue. Frustrating. Omni Select Guest will upgrade…
How Many Points Should You Spend.. and For What? How to Decide?
There are a couple of comments from my discussion yesterday I’m Flying Economy More and More.. and Loving It! that were worth sharing, because they shed fantastic light on how I think about what to spend miles on and how much to pay. My thoughts are summed up in three words: at what margin? I wrote the post while onboard an American Airlines DC-Chicago flight I had spent 4500 British Airways points for. Gene writes, Why not shell out the 27,000 miles r/t for first class? (I would.) That is still a way better value than $650, especially if you have more miles than you can use in the foreseeable future (like me). Gene is right, 27,000 miles for domestic first class isn’t bad in and of itself. And if the choice was, 25,000 miles…
The Ultimate Guide to Constructing an International Award Ticket Using American Miles
Four months ago I wrote a detailed guide to booking awards using American AAdvantage miles. Since that time distance-based oneworld awards have been eliminated, and so have ‘domestic gateway city stopovers’ on international awards. So those need to be removed from the guide. In addition, American has very quirky routing rules. I noted earlier today that those have been changed a bit with the addition of Qatar Airways to oneworld. JonNYC provided the full detail on those changes. What I know about booking awards with American AAdvantage miles comes from more than a decade of personal experience, from more than four years booking awards for others, and some insights gleamed from unpublished rules shared over at TravelingBetter.com. But recent changes required an update to the guide. This will show you the rules, tips, and tricks…
Virgin Atlantic Introduces Business Class Pajamas.. “The Onesie”
Pajamas are usually only offered to international first class passengers. I have countless pairs, worn and unworn, the new ones I usually give away at Frequent Traveler University events. I love the old Cathay Pacific Shanghai Tang pajamas, they’re my favorite overall for combining comfort and attractive style. Their new PJs are fine, possible even more comfortable though a bit less attractive. Surprisingly enough I love American Airlines’ grey pin stripe pajamas, they wash well. They’re the ones I’ve brought with me most often on overnight flights where I wouldn’t receive a new pair (I’ve worn them for instance in Air France business class in American business class). Korean Air’s pajamas remind me of an outfit out of North Korea. Yesterday Lucky mentioned EVA Airways introducing pajamas — and they do not have a first…
A New Silver Car City, a New State Cracks Down on Uber, More Flexible Africa Awards, and Starwood’s Google Glass App
News and notes from around the interweb: About 3 months ago I shared the rumor that Silvercar would open in Phoenix, Seattle, and Denver by the end of the second quarter. And it turns out that Silvercar is now taking reservations for Phoenix. No word yet on additional cities. Virginia has issued a cease and desist order to UberX and Lyft. @NKaeding passes along contact information for the DMV Commissioner, who sent the letter to be, so you can express displeasure. When I wrote this extensive post detailing the arcane American AAdvantage mileage award rules I failed to note that when Qatar Airways joined oneworld a new exception was added — you can fly Qatar from North America to Africa via the Middle East (must both arrive and depart Doha on Qatar, and subject to…
Passengers Win Court Battle Against British Airways After Changing Airports in London to Fly to the Wrong Grenada
British Airways booked a husband and wife from Washington DC via London to Granada, West Indies instead of Granada, Spain. They claimed their confirmation didn’t give airport codes or countries, and just said ‘Grenada’. They discovered the mixup when they boarded the flight from London back to the Caribbean. They sued, representing themselves. British Airways successfully removed the case to federal court, where they sought a dismissal. The court ruled against British Airways, instead remanding the case back to Superior Court. BA had ruled that the Montreal Convention applied and claims under that Convention had to be heard in federal court. Instead, the DC Circuit Court ruled (.pdf) that the claim didn’t arise from actual transportation covered by the Convention but instead from the making of the booking itself which would not be covered.. and…
