Singapore Airlines used to restrict their ‘best’ premium cabin flights, not allowing saver level award redemption even by their own members. For instance, if you wanted to book first class awards on their Boeing 77W aircraft you would have to pay double miles. That changed at the end of February. Other than for a brief period at the beginning of July, it’s still been near-impossible to get saver seats for Singapore Airlines premium long haul flights using partner airline miles like those of United or US Airways. But it’s been quite doable to get seats using Singapore’s own miles. And of course Singapore Airlines Krisflyer is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. So the points are quite easy to get for many — making it quite possible to get…
About Gary Leff
Award Wallet Supports Delta Skymiles Again
Delta forced AwardWallet to stop helping customers track their Skymiles balances back in September. Delta sent a nastygram that read to me like it was prepared by a Middle Schooler with a degree from Google Law School. AwardWallet quickly complied, no longer allowing their systems to access member accounts, eliminating the alleged “computer trespass.” AwardWallet has introduced a new workaround. They won’t let you update your account balances in real-time. But they will keep your account balances updated. And all without ever having to access Delta’s servers. The ingenious idea was announced earlier this month. If you have an Award Wallet account, you have a ‘personal mailbox’ which is your_awardwallet_username@awardwallet.com Log into your Delta account, go to your profile, and give that email address as the one to send your mileage statements to. AwardWallet will…
She Should Have Taken Public Transit? Most Expensive Airport Parking. Ever.
$105,000 in parking fines for a car left at O’Hare for three years. Chicago’s Department of Finance states Jennifer Fitzgerald owes the money for 678 parking fines after a 1999 Chevrolet Monte Carlo registered in her name was left at the city’s O’Hara Airport… Yet Ms Fitzgerald claims she has never owned or driven the car and that her ex-boyfriend Brandon Preveau, a United Airlines employee, registered it in her name without her knowledge. She said he parked the car at the airport in Parking Lot E, which is reserved for United employees, in November 2009 Apparently the car should have been towed after 30 days. But it was three years before it was impounded, and just kept racking up fines in the interim. Since the registered owner of the vehicle is unemployed, it’s unlikely…
Free Customized Luggage Tag from Accor Hotels
Accor Hotels will send you a free customized luggage tag. You have to ‘like’ their Facebook page, then upload a photo (I uploaded a recent picture from the lobby of the Grand Hyatt in Kuala Lumpur – hah!), and give them your mailing address. This seems very similar to an offer that KLM has occasionally made in the past.
Suites, Treats, and Eats, a Malaysian Mileage Thanksgiving: Constructing — and Re-constructing — the Award Trip
I’m just back from Malaysia where I added a few days to the front end of the Thanksgiving holiday. Outbound was in Cathay Pacific first class, return in Korean Airlines first class. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt and at the Intercontinental in Kuala Lumpur, suites in each, and at Starwood’s The Andaman in Langkawi in a seaview suite. The bulk of the room nights were on points, the transpacific flights were on points, and I thought I’d share my observations from booking to enjoyment of the trip. I write occasional trip reports for several reasons. They’re a great opportunity to share how I put my mileage hobby into practice. Plenty of readers have told me that one of the most useful things that I do is write about my thinking processes — how I…
35% Bonus on American Express Points Transfers to Virgin Atlantic Starts Tomorrow
Starting tomorrow and through December 29, the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program is offering a 35% bonus on transfers to Virgin Atlantic. The bonus offer should show up at membershiprewards.com/virginatlantic by sometime mid-morning on November 27th. While it’s a good opportunity to top off an existing Virgin Atlantic account that already has a decent mileage stash (I have a bunch of points from signing up for Bank of America’s Virgin Atlantic American Express about six months ago, and I usually credit my one-day Avis rentals to Virgin for the 1000 miles per rental), it’s not necessarily a great deal otherwise. Not only does Virgin Atlantic add fuel surcharges onto its award tickets, e.g. a San Francisco – London business class roundtrip will currently add $896 in fuel surcharges in addition to already hefty taxes…
Are Business Travelers Stupid?
Christopher Elliott hit bottom last week with his article suggesting that advocates of frequent flyer programs should be arrested. And now he keeps digging even further with an article provocatively titled, “Are Business Travelers Stupid?” Mr. Elliott is an intelligent man, and he isn’t wrong about everything. So I have to imagine that in even writing this post, I’m getting played. Because he can’t actually believe the things he’s been writing over at LinkedIn since becoming one of their ‘thought leaders’, can he? He begins his post, Don’t lean back your airline seat. Opt out of the TSA scanners. Cut up your frequent flier card. I actually agree with the first two of his three propositions. It’s just that he spends the most amount of time — and the greatest hyperbole — on the last…
We Should Allow Singapore Airlines to Operate Flights to Sarasota!
Clifford Winston, who knows as much about the US air transport system as anyone in the country, had an op-ed last week in the New York Times arguing that foreign airlines should be allowed to operate routes in the U.S. They should. But the benefits Winston claims are far exaggerated. If there are underserved routes that could be operated profitably by new airlines, why does he think that incumbent airlines aren’t flying them? In fact he focuses on routes that have been losing service, cutbacks that have been made precisely because existing airlines found it unprofitable to operate those routes. It may well be that when the US market gets opened up to competition, that a lot of foreign investment floods the market in spite of the likelihood of losing money. US consumers would benefit…
Bits ‘n Pieces for November 26, 2012
News and notes from around the interweb: The Flight Deal Blog has great coverage of super-cheap South America airfares on TAM such as San Francisco – Santiago for $474 and Miami-Buenos Aires for $350. Head for Points outlines changes to the Air Berlin transatlantic schedule. One of the very best uses of British Airways Avios points are redemptions on oneworld partner Air Berlin, since those flights don’t incur fuel surcharges (thus saving hundreds of dollars on transatlantic award tickets). Very Good Points offers good advice for dealing with medications while traveling. @jamucsb points to a story of extreme couponing turning violent.
Reflections on Starting a Small Business in Miles and Points
Back in July I spoke at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit on a panel about Chris’ new book the $100 Startup. What I didn’t realize is that the panel was taped and the session is available on Vimeo. This isn’t a miles and points talk, rather I spoke along with several other folks who were case studies in the book about starting up a business on your own without capital, about the challenges of making it work. In my own case I was a bit different than the others on the panel, since my startup award booking service is a part-time endeavor, I didn’t quit my job — a great approach for the more conservative types out there, pursue your passions on top of your employment rather than taking the risks of plunging into it…
