A rumor originated this past weekend on Airliners.net about potential major changes in Delta Skymiles: moving from a mileage-based program to a revenue-based program. The Southwests and JetBlues of the world offer fixed earning based on revenue, with points spent as money to redeem for flights. They’re less generous than the mileage programs, and aspirational awards to the extent they’re offered under these sorts of schemes — premium cabin international offerings — become exorbitantly expensive. (Of course in many cases Skymiles awards are indeed exorbitantly expensive, although there are strategies to successfully make Delta’s Skypesos work for you.) Not a single person seems to like the idea in the discussion over at Milepoint. Goodness knows such a change would make my upcoming debate with The Points Guy on the value of Delta’s miles a slam…
About Gary Leff
Virgin America Introduces Points Redemption on Virgin Partners
Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic announced a frequent flyer tie-in in August 2010. Which I viewed as a great thing because it meant if I ever flew Virgin America I wouldn’t be ‘throwing away the miles’ since I could credit them to Virgin Atlantic. Currently I rack up a decent chunk of Virgin miles via one-day Avis rentals which earn 1000 miles. I don’t love the program by any stretch, but that’s still a value. Virgin America Elevate points, though, can now be redeemed on Virgin Atlantic and on Virgin Australia. Brett Snyder explains that it took so long to introduce redemptions across partners because of the custom reservation systems involved, they just couldn’t talk to each other in order to make the bookings. It’s a long time coming, there are some pluses and minuses,…
US Airways Rolling Out Inflight Wireless for Much of Their Domestic Fleet
US Airways has a plan to equip all their Airbus single-aisle planes and their Embraer jets larger than 50 seats with inflight wireless internet from GoGo by the end of 2013. Currently they only offer inflight connectivity on their Airbus A321s, a limited subset of the fleet indeed. They’re not going internationally with the widebody aircraft, and not announcing plans to upgrade the aging 737s (which are sadly what I’m on most!). But it’s a big step forward. When I started flying American Airlines with some regularity back in December, inflight wireless changed my life. Now, they don’t offer it on every flight, but often enough that I can feel the difference in my productivity. No longer do I get off the plane after flying cross country to a barrage of unanswered emails and frantic…
Everything You Read in the Media About Upgrades is Wrong
In the summer of 2004 I reviewed Joel Widzer’s Penny Pincher’s Guide to Luxury Travel and enjoyed it but found some of the advice a bit off and some of the stories to be impossible, due to factual errors — Widzer claimed that Hawaiian Airlines offered no first class on intra-Island flights, that he was regularly upgraded from business class to first class on Delta, and that it was worth paying Avis for their Preferred service (they don’t charge for it). He was an occasional columnist and every so often I’d link to his pieces, agree or disagree. And then in 2007 a notice went up on his website that he had died. Then the notice was taken down. But I haven’t seen anything written by Joel since then. So imagine my surprise to see…
View From the Wing Gets Excited for Buy Onboard Food!
AAdvantageGeek offers a rundown of the comings and goings in the new American Airlines Buy Onboard menu. Apparently the Boston Market carver sandwiches, the turkey, and the snack box are gone, along with the chocolate covered waffle. In there place you’ll find a California Cobb Salad and a Briscuit, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich, both of which sound quite good in their descriptions. There’s also an oatmeal, cranberry, and chocolate cookie that I’m guessing I could do without. I’m interested because I have a flight later in the week where I don’t expect my upgrade to clear (the flight was showing “F2” — only 2 first class seats for sale — even before the Executive Platinum upgrade window opened and now shows only “F1″…) and because Executive Platinum members are entitled to a complimentary buy onboard…
Miles and More Earning, Redemption, and Status Changes Coming
Miles and More is making a bunch of changes, some of which are positive but on the whole will not please elite members. Effective September 1, top tier HON Circle status credits can only be earned from premium cabin fares. HON Circle Members are guaranteed the ability to book business class travel, even if business is sold out, but that will now require the highest (most expensive) booking class. I didn’t realize that wasn’t the case already and do understand that if they’re going to oversell the cabin it needs to be for full revenue. Discounted business class (Z) bookings will earn fewer miles — 1,000 award on domestic flights (down from 1500), 1250 within Europe (down from 2000), and 150% of flown miles for intercontinental flights (down from 200%). And Z is no longer…
Hilton’s Second Quarter Double Points or Double Miles
Via Deals We Like, Hilton HHonors’ second quarter promotion is double points or double miles April 1 through June 30. Not an exciting promotion, nothing that’s going to convince me to make stays I wouldn’t otherwise make. At the margin whether this induces me to stay at a Hilton versus some other chain, it probably won’t and will especially depend on the full gamut of what other chains are doing during the same period for their promotions. Nonetheless, it’s certainly worth registering for, better to take double points or miles than to leave them on the table. And I always suggest registering even if you don’t think you’re likely to make a stay during the promotion period, I find I often surprise myself with such things and I’d otherwise forget to register later. Sadly there’s…
La Quinta: Cheap, or Value?
Yesterday I noted that I had never stayed in a La Quinta, but was willing to participate in their points program (for free points). Eli emails to take issue with my giving the chain short shrift: Actually, you’re missing out. When we had to cut costs last year, we decided to stick with La Quinta for almost all..travel for my center. And I don’t regret it. For business travel, in some ways, it’s BETTER than more upscale. For example, most rooms have six outlets right by the desk rather than the 1 or 2 you typically get at full service hotels. (I had to plug in my cell phone in the bathroom at the Waldorf Astoria.) In room standard amenities are almost an exact match for mid-priced business oriented hotels..plus a minifridge. Breakfast is also…
Tons of Priority Club Bonuses
As always the source for Priority Club bonuses is Priority Club Insider. And there are a bunch of new ones out there… Priority Club isn’t my favorite program because there isn’t much of an elite level, generally benefits aren’t required to be honored on award stays, and there’s no way to use points for a better than base-level room. But it can be lucrative for earning lots of bonuses, turning a few stays into plenty of points. Largely because they run targeted promotions that will often post for whomever registers for them. The key to Priority Club is to know the bonuses and register for most of them. They won’t all post, you never know which ones will and which won’t, and sometimes your luck is better than other times. But occasionally you hit the…
Weekend Travel Tips from the Radisson Blu Chicago
The Radisson Blu Chicago recently asked me to contribute some ‘expert travel tips’ for their “Tips for Weekend Getaways” — I wasn’t compensated for them, but I usually respond helpfully when asked for this sort of thing, sometimes travel providers offer something in return which is when I try to share those things as contests on the blog. There was no such contest here, but since I did pocket 55,000 bonus points from the end of year Club Carlson promotion celebrating the hotel brand coming to the US I had a bit of a soft spot for them. The tips are a bit basic for the median reader here, perhaps, but mine or tips from Rachel or Jessie will be useful. Just Another Points Traveler recently toured the hotel and provided an extensive report. I’m…
