News and notes from around the interweb: Southwest, which doesn’t automatically generate all flight connecting options or publish its schedule out a full 11 months at a time currently, is going to go with a new reservation system for its domestic flying to match what they’re doing with international. This is desperately needed, but transitions are never smooth… Avis is offer 750 American miles on a 2-day rental and up to 2500 for a 5 day rental. It’s a good thing I have plans to visit Buenos Aires later this year! Etihad a revolutionary new premium product for their upcoming A380 aircraft including a 3-room ‘residence’. Now Emirates claims to be doing the same thing only there are no renderings or specs — just an announcement made the same day that Etihad made theirs. I’m…
About Gary Leff
What Not To Do In Paradise
You’ve traveled somewhere between 24 and 36 hours, taken three or four flights across a minimum of two airlines, and finally made it to your remote island destination by boat. You’re sitting by the beach at sunset. Do you breath a sigh while looking wistfully out at the ocean, sipping a cocktail? Or do you… The choice is yours. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Buying Star Alliance Premium Cabin Fares On the Cheap
When Mileage Programs Sell Miles They’re Taking Over the Mantle of Old School ‘Consolidators’ Airfare discounters also used to be called bucket shops. But not the kind from Boiler Room or The Wolf of Wall Street. eponymous coward long ago dubbed US Airways “the official consolidator for Star Alliance premium cabin seats.” Back in the day consolidators bought blocks of seats cheap and resold them at a discount relative to going prices. This helped airlines fill their planes, and price discriminating consumers in search of a bargain travel. The idea was that those seats that would otherwise go empty get offered up as awards.. and US Airways sold access to those seats cheap by offering to sell miles most of the time with a 100% bonus. Of course, US Airways has since raised the price…
25,000 Mile Giveaway Plus 20 American Lounge Passes!
American Express Platinum cards lost access a month ago. Citibank is now the sole issuer of cards that offer lounge access with the new American Airlines. And they’ve got – by far – the biggest credit card offer in the market with a 100,000 mile signup bonus for their Executive Card which bundles American and US Airways lounge access. To help get the word out, they gave me miles and club passes to give away. I asked readers to enter by leaving a comment in this post answering what they like about an airline lounge. These are the prizes: Grand Prize: 25,000 American AAdvantage miles and 4 American Admirals Club passes Four Additional Prizes: 4 American Admirals Club passes (each) The offer, of course, was void where prohibited by law and redemption of Admirals Club…
Hilton Gold Through 2020, Woman Gives Birth on Plane, and American Eliminates Discount Codes (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 4, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Woman gives birth onboard a 777. Hilton is giving MBA graduates from many top schools free Gold status — valid as far out as 2020. And here I’ve lost Gold status for the first time in a decade.. and had to insist on retaining that downgrade. American has long offered group discount codes, and if you could find an applicable one online it would be good for 5% – 10% off of a ticket. There used to be good compilations of these codes online but American’s lawyers threatened several sites and they’ve been harder to find over the past year. Now those codes are being eliminated altogether. As of May 1 they’re not offering new group discount codes, although existing ones remain valid through their planned expiration.…
Etihad Introducing First Class 3-Room RESIDENCE Onboard the A380
I’ve flown Etihad several times. They have an outstanding first class — a stylish attractive first class suite with doors, and an onboard chef concept with plenty of food options that can be served on demand throughout the flight. Service can be mixed, but the hard product is very good (although I prefer the spaciousness of Cathay Pacific’s first class seat by far). Etihad has a new product entrant coming, though. They’ll be bringing an A380 online December 27 with London service (EY flights 11/12), and will serve the Australia market with the aircraft in 2015. And when they do they’re introducing a whole new onboard first class concept — with two different first class options. Each A380 will feature “The Residence” — a single or double occupancy 3 room cabin with double bed, 2…
This Game Is Not For You If…
I was reflecting on all of the good and increased offers recently from various banks for mileag-earning credit cards and I thought it would be important to offer some balance. I’ve been in this so long that it’s just second nature, but it bears repeating, and I don’t say it enough. A plurality of miles are earned via credit cards (signup bonuses, spend bonuses, everyday spend) and not from butt in seat flying. Credit cards, in the US market but not just the US, are an integral part of the miles and points hobby. I had an award booking client not long ago who had tons of miles but wasn’t paying off his credit card bills each month. With the interest charges he had to be paying he would have been better off buying the…
35% Bonus on Purchased Alaska Airlines Miles
Alaska miles are one of the most valuable points currencies right now. The value of their points jumped substantially when they began allowing one-way awards on partners. (Previously to book an award on a partner you had to find availability both directions on the same airline. In addition to offering one-way awards, they allow a stopover on those one-ways. This means you can mix and match airlines in each directions and have a total of two stopovers in addition to your destination on a roundtrip. Alaska made big progress with their online bookings and has most of their partner airlines now bookable on their website. The only downside to these changes is that you used to be able to book partner awards as soon as the partner opened their schedule, even if it was farther…
Making Credit Card Companies Pay, 750 Fee Points, a New $500 Signup Bonus, and No Changes to Kimpton (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 3, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: 750 Free Southwest points: AirTran members are getting emails with bonus point offers for linking their accounts to a Southwest Rapid Rewards account. This is part of their preparation for the end of the AirTran A+ Rewards program. A bit of kvelling: I wrote about my award booking service partner Steve Belkin’s really cool project Competitours which is an ‘Amazing Race’-style adventure that anyone can sign up to do back in February. It’s now featured in the May issue of Singapore Airlines’ inflight magazine for June 14-25. Go Steve! And check out Competitours! No changes to Kimpton: Earlier in the week Loyalty Lobby speculated that Kimpton could be changing the ability to redeem for free nights at their hotels because they added “Rewards are subject to availability at…
New IHG Rewards Club Bonuses Up to 15,000 Points
Remember that you can often stack bonus upon bonus with IHG Rewards Club to earn tons of points at participating hotels in their chain like Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn brands. In addition they’re back with a summer promotion of bonus points based on the number of stays you make between May 15 and September 2. There are various ‘targeted’ offers but with the list of codes you can choose which you want to select based on your anticipated upcoming stays. Register with the promotion code of the bonus that gets you the most points for the fewest nights that you are confident you will hit. If it turns out that you aren’t going to reach the nights needed for the promotion you qualify for you may be able to register for a promotion…
