Yesterday I declared that the era of mileage running is over. Except in some very limited cases, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to buy tickets and fly just to earn miles. One case is “mistake fares” that are so low the benefits may outweigh the costs (although even there, the value of your time needs to be factored in, although when it’s an incremental ‘vacation’ rather than purely a trip for the miles that calculation changes). Another is a single trip at the margin to earn something substantial like top tier elite status — I would argue against mileage running from scratch to get to 100,000 mile flyer status, but if ypu’re going to end the year at 96,000 miles then an incremental trip probably makes sense, provided you expect to fly as…
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Congressional Budget Deal Will Double Airline Security Tax: Fair to Travelers?
The budget deal announced yesterday by Patty Murray and Paul Ryan, Democratic Senator and Republican Congressman, would (among other things!) double the airline security fee. Under the agreement, which still has to make it through Congress, passengers would pay $5 per segment instead of $2.50 for aviation security. This raises revenue, and by framing it as a user fee lets Paul Ryan claim that he’s agreeing to a budget deal without tax increases. But is that right? Money is fungible, and it’s more money for the federal government than before. Perhaps air travelers should pay the costs )the current fee covers only about 40% of the TSA budget), although and of course aviation is already one of the most heavily taxed industries but then it’s also one of the industries with the heaviest government involvement…
Alaska Airlines Visa 50,000 Mile Signup Offer
The Alaska Airlines Visa is currently available with a signup bonus of up to 50,000 miles. 25,000 Bonus Miles upon approval 25,000 Bonus Miles after $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of the account open date The offer says that it is ‘by invitation only’ although there are reports of approvals by folks who did not receive a targeted e-mail. The email that did go out apparently was specifically aimed at Washington state residents. It’s hard to imagine awarding a different bonus to anyone who applies under this link and is approved for the card product (as that would seem to raise potential issues with federal card marketing regulators), nonetheless I will be interested in reports from anyone who didn’t receive the email and who resides outside of Washington state. As far as…
Delta Dramatically Improves its Elite Program With Confirmed International Upgrades
Delta is making changes to their 2014 elite upgrade program, and overall the changes are positive. Confirmable Domestic and International Upgrades as a “Choice” Delta offers its Platinum and Diamond elite members ‘choice’ benefits — one upon reaching Platinum, and folks who reach Diamond get two more. New upgrade certificates are being added to the ‘choice’ offerings beginning March 1. That means that these certificates come at a cost or tradeoff. Platinums and Diamonds will have to choose these instead of choosing something else like miles, club passes, or gifting status. But overall these upgrade certificates are actually good and what most will choose. Regional Upgrades: a Platinum Choice Upon qualifying for Platinum, a new choice is 4 ‘regional upgrades’ which are confirmable upgrade certificates valid on any route where complimentary upgrades are offered. These…
Alaska Airlines Will Start Awarding Elite Qualifying Miles for Flights on All International Partners Starting January 15
Here’s the scoop: Starting Jan. 15, 2014, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members will be able to earn elite qualifying miles on all 12 of the carrier’s international partners, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Fiji Airways, Korean Air and Qantas. Mileage Plan members already earn elite qualifying miles on AeroMexico, Air France, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, KLM and LAN. Alaska has really been stepping up. A year ago I had them on a watch list to devalue their program in a big way, and of course they still could, but the huge competitive pressure that erstwhile partner Delta is putting on them by building up a significant Seattle presence seems to put off the possibility at least and light a fire under their competitive offerings. Not only has Alaska added Emirates as a partner,…
BREAKING: New Threat to Aviation Security Identified
Having declared victory in the War on Water, with no more liquids greater than 3 ounces allowed beyond the security checkpoint, the next front in the battle to keep the skies safe from Terrorism and Other Threats is going to have to be stopping the existential risks posed by two inch plastic toy guns that come with children’s toys. Or something. Thank goodness for the quick work of the TSA! Yesterday at approximately 17:00 hours, a one Mr. Rooster Monkburn was successfully disarmed when a TSA agent confiscated the monkey sock puppet’s two-inch, vaguely gun-shaped piece of plastic—and then threatened to call the police. …“She said ‘this is a gun,’” said May. “I said no, it’s not a gun it’s a prop for my monkey.” …”She took my monkey’s gun.” The TSA has issued a…
Why the Era of Mileage Running is Over
At the end of each year stories appear about mileage running, taking flights for the sole purpose of accumulating frequent flyer miles. I spoke to a writer yesterday interested in the phenomenon, and I told him his story was several years late. I first heard about the practice sitting on a short flight from Washington Dulles to Atlanta in 1998, my seat opponent was telling me about a friend of his enroute to Tokyo trying to requalify for his top tier elite status on United. I was flummoxed, it hadn’t ever occurred to me that someone would do that. Just three years later I found myself doing my very first mileage run – an end of the year trip to put myself over the top for status. I’ve rarely made true mileage runs, though I’ve…
Have You Flown Regularly to Tel Aviv? El Al Will Give You Up to Top Tier Status
David H points me to the following offer: Hi All, Superfly is giving its eligible members Gold, Plat and Top Plat status. Some members have already received the offer and posted it online so we decided to go ahead and post on FlyerTalk as well. To be eligible you must have: 1) A U.S. or Canadian address on your profile on elal.com 2) No current or past elite status (Gold or above) in the last 3 years 3) Multiple flights to TLV in the last 2 years This is not a status match. The scoring is based on number of flight to TLV (either direct or through Europe), class of ticket, and willingness to switch and commit to EL AL. To sign up please follow direction: 1) Update your EL AL profile with your US or…
Will US Airways Really Stay in Star Alliance to the Bitter End?
This morning US Airways and American Airlines closed their merger. The oneworld alliance sent out a press release that US Airways would move over to oneworld on March 31. I speculated that they would stay in Star until March 30th. Some readers noted that this date was actually included in the airlines’ press releases. I had previously suggested that US Airways would leave Star and shortly thereafter join oneworld. There’s been some speculation about a gap between leaving one alliance and joining another — a gap that would: Make it much more difficult to use US Airways miles Make it much more difficult to fly US Airways while crediting to a non-US frequent flyer program You could credit any oneworld airline travel to American, even as a US Airways elite, and eventually they’ll let you…
As a Way of Saying Thank You: My Million Reader Giveaway!
I’m putting together a giveaway of items,, both big and small, that I’d like my readers to have as a personal way of saying THANK YOU this holiday season. I don’t really track my blog traffic all that closely. I know that of the hundreds of thousands of visits this blog receives each month, each person comes an average of about four times. But that’s as far as my tracking of these things goes. I remember way back, after I had been blogging for a year, that my traffic was about 500 visits per day. That was 10 1/2 years ago. Back then I did have an email list of a little more than 1000 people who had signed up to get my posts each day. That sort of encouragement made me feel like what…
