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). Now, through…
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More Business Class Seats — and a Better Seat — Coming to Tahiti
Tahiti is one of the toughest frequent flyer awards, largely because there’s just not a lot of air service there. From the mainland U.S. the only two options are Air Tahiti Nui (which offers daily service) and Air France (which offers thrice-weekly service). Hawaiian Airlines also serves Papeete from Honolulu once a week on Saturdays. It turns out that the best miles for getting to Tahiti are Delta’s, because they partner with both Air France and Air Tahiti Nui. American miles can be used for Air Tahiti Nui. Folks wanting to use United or US Airways miles will wind up having to fly all the way to Auckland (not an easy award to get in its own right!) and then from there to Papeete using Air New Zealand’s twice a week service. I was fortunate…
Double Points on Southwest Through May 15
Southwest is offering double points on all travel book and flown between today and May 15. Registration required. Travel booked prior to today will not earn double points regardless of when it’s flown. You’ll receive 24 points (instead of the standard 12 points) per dollar spent on Business Select® Fares, 20 points (instead of ten points) per dollar spent on Anytime Fares, and 12 points (instead of six points) per dollar spent on Wanna Get Away?® Fares. During the same promotion period and with the same registration they’re offering double tier qualifying points on every flight in and out of Milwaukee. (HT: Dallas Morning News Aviation Blog)
15% Discount on Las Vegas – London Awards with BA Avios
British Airways offers three times a week service between Las Vegas and London’s Gatwick airport (they offer daily service to Heathrow). The Gatwick route must not be doing well, because are offering a 15% discount on the points required to book this Vegas-Gatwick flight. The 15% discount is for bookings made by February 28th and travel through March 31st. All cabins are included in this offer though the flight does not have a first class. And because of high fuel surcharges I don’t find Avios redemption for economy to be worthwhile. Business class is where I would focus. This can be booked online or by phone (though phone bookings incur a fee). The discount applies to awards and not to upgrades. You can discount the mileage cost of a miles and money award, but the…
Quickest Paths to Star Alliance Gold Status
Star Alliance has a new video promoting the benefits of Gold status within the alliance. Gold is top tier within Star (there are only two tiers offered). Each member program has their own rules about how to get there. Benefits of Star Alliance Gold The biggest benefits of most frequent flyer programs are held for their own elite members. But Star Alliance Gold status generally gets you lounge access (although United and US Airways qualifying elites only get access to those airlines lounges when flying internationally), priority check-in, priority boarding, priority waitlisting, and also a free checked baggage allowance. Getting Star Gold via Status Match Turkish Airlines is one of the few non-U.S. programs that offers status matches where they will give you status based on status you already hold with another airline. They will…
Traveling to the U.S. for the Superbowl? You Had Better Have Behaved Back in 1981!
As Washington struggles with legislation to let people already in the country stay here, there’s insistence on ‘beefing up the border first’. It may be ‘easy’ to sneak across unguarded portions of Arizona, but it’s not easy to enter the country through its airports. Plenty of countries’ citizens don’t have to get visas to come here. But they have to request permission in advance. And pay for the privilege (that ‘fee’ is supposed to, somehow, promote rather than discourage tourism). They call that visa a ‘visa waiver’. It’s even easier to come to the U.S. if you’re Canadian. Unless you were found with two ounces of marijuana in 1981. Myles Wilkinson a fantasy footbacl contest – besting 4 million people — and the prize was a trip to the Superbowl. Only he was denied entry…
When is the Best Time to Book Airline Tickets and Other Travel Myths
This past week Time featured a piece on ‘6 myths about travel spending that cost you money’. What I learned from the piece is that when Time links to your blog, lots of other mirror sites pull their content and link to your blog as well, sending you trackback pings which are essentially spam that you need to clean up. Hah. (This wasn’t my first time quoted in Time, for instance over the summer they included me on inflight reading styles explaining why I still travel with a physical book and not just an e-reader. But it was strangely the first time they linked to me that I can recall.) When to Book Airline Tickets The first myth they cover is when to book your ticket, and the correct time is not ‘as soon as…
Grand Hyatt San Francisco: A Large Modern Hotel With a Small Hotel Feel
This past Monday I reviewed the Hyatt Regency San Francisco down on the Embarcadero. It’s a large atrium-style hotel that feels busy though I quite liked it (even though they failed to honor my confirmed suite upgrade). If I wanted to be in that part of the city I’d gladly stay there again. During the past week I made another trip to San Francisco and stayed at the Grand Hyatt. The Hyatt Regency is about 800 rooms, the Grand Hyatt about 660 so still a very large property but it feels much smaller. That’s mostly, I think, because the Grand is a much taller building with smaller individual floors and also a smaller lobby area. So you don’t feel the size of the property, since you aren’t walking around a ton, and you also aren’t…
Competitours Dates Announced for Summer 2013
My award booking partner Steve Belkin puts together Amazing Race-style trips called Competitours. Are you one of those folks who watch ‘The Amazing Race’ and mutter to yourself- ‘I could do that’. You love the competitive travel and surprise destinations concept, but you don’t have 60 days to kill or you hate the drama queens teams or there are no auditions in your city. You can see past coverage from Jaunted, JohnnyJet, and Gadling. Competitours is a travel competition where up to 14 pairs of teams accomplish a series of challenges over a 9 day trip through 4 Western European countries. Winners pick up a prize of up to $9000. Great for parent/child bonding, best friends, and couples. The 2013 trip is scheduled for July 5-14 and costs $2950 for East Coast airfare, lodging, 3…
Instant Platinum Top Tier Status with Leclub Accor Hotels is Back
.. and right on the heels of yesterday’s instant hotel status offer, too. Instant Platinum (top tier) status in the Accor Hotels loyalty program comes around with some frequency, each time it does the signup link won’t stay active for long — sometimes a couple of days, sometimes just hours. Here’s the offer for instant Platinum status. Note that the signup page is just a signup page, no indication on that page that accounts will start at the Platinum level, but indeed it’s currently working as of this writing. You must open a new account, it cannot be applied to existing accounts. And when you do so you must use an email address that’s not currently on file with them. Even if you don’t frequently stay at Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, and other related properties…
