Emceeing the Freddie Awards last month I welcomed the crowd and shared a story of my travels to Seattle. Everyone in the audience was going to have to accept a downgrade — I was up on stage instead of Randy Petersen who has presented the awards in years past. But of course this crowd is used to cutbacks! I mean, for my flight to Seattle I was actually charged for my emotional baggage! ::rimshot:: Alaska’s running double elite qualifying miles to Delta’s Salt Lake and Detroit hubs reminds me of something else that I told the audience. We were in Seattle for the ceremony. Delta was in the room, including Skymiles head Jeff Robertson. And as everyone there knows, Delta has been growing like crazy. They’ve even opened a hub in Seattle. The awards ceremony…
About Gary Leff
Here’s Why Upgrades With Miles Aren’t a Good Deal… And They’re Getting Worse
Conventional wisdom used to be that the most lucrative way to use miles was for upgrading paid international coach tickets to business class. That’s because you would accrue miles for the paid travel, plus earn status. And because upgrades require fewer points than a free ticket, you stretch your miles further. Unfortunately that’s no longer true. Upgrade awards have become harder to get Airlines have introduced cash co-pays in addition to miles, or restricted the fare class you have to buy, making upgrades far more expensive Award tickets have gotten more flexible, allowing you to combine travel on different partners While upgrade awards haven’t gotten nearly as flexible for partner travel, generally requiring purchase of a full fare ticket if the option is offered at all. When you buy the cheapest ticket most U.S.…
How Will Thailand’s Military Coup Affect Your Travel?
Thailand has again seen a military coup. What does it mean for travelers? Thaksin Shinawatra served as Thai Prime Minister from 2001 until 2006 when he was ousted by a military coup. The country has seen a period of intense political turmoil over the past decade. Shinawatra is a populist who draws his political power from the North of the country, from the country’s poor. His rule threatened Thailand’s traditional elites based in Bangkok. Those traditional power structures, in control of the military at the time of Shinawatra’s ouster, struck back. Shinawatra was convicted on corruption charges and fled the country. When the military handed control of the government back to civilian hands, Shinawatra’s allies were placed back into office. There was a period of relative stability during military rule, but with Shinawatra’s allies back…
Forget First Class, Business Class Is What You Want, and It’s Available and Even Better Than You Think
My partner in booking frequent flyer awards for clients is Steve Belkin, known online as beaubo. He’s the legendary frequent flyer that became a labor broker and hired disabled rice farmers to travel in and out of the Golden Triangle region of Thailand, and hired New Zealand college students to travel to Europe — flying, earning top tier elite status, and assigning the benefits of that status to their ’employers’. He’s earned countless tens of millions of miles and flown all over the world for business and taken his family around the world as well. And he’s a strong advocate for business class as the best class of travel, with the best availability. That you want multiple seats for a family, and the most convenient schedule, rather than chasing better champagne and caviar inflight. Since…
Here’s a Solution to the Lack of Power Ports on US Airways
After US Airways and America West merged, the new leadership at US Airways (now in charge at American) removed power ports from the airline’s family of narrowbody Airbus aircraft (A319/A320/A321). US Airways used to offer inflight power on these domestic aircraft, but management decided that doing so was too costly (the systems are heavy and burn fuel). We find ourselves in a world where power on long flights is more important than ever – with inflight wireless internet, bringing your own entertainment, and Android smart phones that really need to manage longer battery life – and US Airways doesn’t offer it while competitors do. So what’s to be done? Look to science! It turns out we can now charge devices deep within living bodies, by wireless. From re/code: A Stanford researcher has discovered a way…
You Can Earn Lots of United Miles and a Club Pass If You Don’t Especially Care for Wine
Vinesse, purveyor of automatic shipping of really bad wine, wants you to join their wine club. The offer of ‘over 11,500’ United miles and a United Club pass breaks down as: 2,500 miles with your first shipment of 6 bottles of wine at a cost of $58.49 plus 1 cent shipping. 4,000 miles with your second shipment (costing $90 – $120 for 6 bottles of wine, plus shipping) A United Club pass with your third shipment 7 miles per dollar spent beginning with your third shipment. I figure this is actually a minimum of 12,800 miles after a year: 2500 + 4500 + ($90 x 7 miles/$ x 10 shipments for shipments 3-12). The total miles earned will be higher to the extent that some shipments charge more than the lowest $15 per bottle price…
Safety: Innovation or Unionization? Plus Free Alcohol and Double Elite Qualifying Miles (Bit’s ‘n Pieces for May 21, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Here primarily for your safety: Virgin America’s flight attendants will vote this summer on unionization Innovate or die? That scary near-collision between a United 737 and an ExpressJet ERJ-145 last month. In many ways it amazes me that the manual process we use for air traffic control doesn’t lead to more problems than it does, and also that we still centralize air traffic control with such a human process. Innovation carries risks, too: Credit card chip and PIN vulnerabilities. Some things in life are (almost) free: How to earn miles buying gift cards and get the money back into your bank account. But alcohol should be free: Uber in London is delivering free Cuba Libre cocktails on demand tomorrow. Get your elite status for nothing and your double…
The Saddest Tourist Destination in the United States Has Just Gotten Even Worse
I genuinely didn’t think my opinion of Atlantic City could get worse. But they are apparently trying to take the home of an ill senior citizen, son of a murdered holocaust survivor, in order to help a failing casino in some unspecified, Underpants Gnome way. Now, I grew up on Long Island but didn’t spend summer weekends in the Hamptons. My family went to the Jersey Shore. We used to take the North Jersey Coast Line to Point Pleasant. I have wonderful memories growing up of the beach in New Jersey, although I don’t remember the train as being especially reliable. I loved it when my train broke down on the way back to New York once, I think I was 7 and I was happy waiting for the next train to come by and…
Wyndham Changes its Hotel Award Categories Tomorrow, Better Act Fast and Book TODAY
A couple of months ago Wyndham devalued points transfers to miles without notice. Last year they devalued their hotel redemptions. So it’s with some trepidation that we await tomorrow when they will apparently be shifting around which hotels fall into the various redemption categories. No advance list of hotels changing categories has been shared. (In the past it’s taken member outrage to wrestle a list of changes in advance, so perhaps that explains why we got only about a day’s notice, buried in an email, that they’d be changing hotel category assignments again.) If you have designs on any Wyndham hotel redemptions, better make them today, just in case. You may not like what tomorrow brings. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive…
Huge 200% Bonus on Purchased Avianca LifeMiles Through Friday Only
Last December Avianca’s LifeMiles (one of the unknown frequent flyer programs you should pay attention to) offered triple miles on purchased miles for one day only. It was a targeted promotion, but many people who called were able to successfully take advantage of the offer that hadn’t been targeted for it.. GlobetrotterHQ reports that this offer is back through May 23. Again, it’s targeted, but some may find it worth calling to try to take advantage of even if they didn’t receive an email about the offer (and hang up, call back). It’s available over the phone (and in person) only and not online. Only one purchase can be made during this promotion Min 1000 miles; Max 20,000 miles purchased Must have received the email Cannot exceed 150,000 purchased miles in a year (includes bonuses…
