I’ve only ever flown Singapore’s old style first class, such as on the since-retired 747s, as in this trip report. I’m looking forward to upcoming mileage redemptions in Singapore’s new first class seat, and I’m hoping that the route I’m on goes Airbus A380 (for suites with doors!). I still haven’t been in the ‘new’ first class. But along comes news that that won’t even be ‘new’ first for much longer, since Singapore is working on introducing new new seats starting in the second half of 2013. Revamped seats and cabin interiors as well as the latest generation of in-flight entertainment offerings will be introduced progressively, starting on new Boeing 777-300ERs that will enter service from the latter half of next year. This will be followed by Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s, in addition to…
About Gary Leff
Bonus for Transferring Points to Aeroplan
Aeroplan is offering bonus points for transfers from hotel programs, car rental programs, and points.com through September 9. Registration required. The total points you transfer in during the promotion period determines your bonus: 5000 Aeroplan miles = 1000 bonus miles 10,000 Aeroplan miles = 2000 bonus miles 20,000 Aeroplan miles = 4000 bonus miles 50,000 Aeroplan miles = 10,000 bonus miles Bonus miles post 7-10 days after reaching the required threshold. They offered a similar bonus in late spring, but with options to earn up to 40,000 bonus miles for transfers in of 150,000 miles. Under this promotion 40,000 Starwood points yield 60,000 Aeroplan miles. Good, but not quite good enough in most cases since Aeroplan gutted their reward chart and began adding fuel surcharges to most partner awards.
Priority Club Shopping Toolbar: a Glitch I Decided Not to Write About
Priority Club offered 300 points for downloading their shopping toolbar. That’s the software that helps you automatically earn Priority Club purchases when you visit a merchant you can earn points with. (I don’t recommend earning through the Priority Club portal most of the time as it isn’t as rewarding as other alternatives.) Friday evening I realized that they didn’t actually make you complete the download and install the toolbar to earn the points, and the only way they kept you from earning the points over and over was cookies or a similar technology. Unsurprisingly, since I realized it, others did too. Folks were clicking through the download offer over and over using Google Chrome’s incognito mode, earning 300 points each time. Some just hit the back button and then re-submitted over and over, others wrote…
Avis Introduces Pick Your Own Car and Upgrade Yourself
Since June Avis has been rolling out new features branded as “Select&GO” which I experienced for the first time at their Miami airport location. Normally they generate a rental contract for Preferred members their flights land, that’s what they do with the flight information you add to your reservation. Arrivals generate contracts auto-printing. Now they send an email with car information and space number, there’s no contract in the car, you show your drivers license at the checkout booth and they print a contract to hand to you. Now, I assume because I have status with Avis they actually assigned my car early and that generated an email to me. I was about to leave for the airport, I hadn’t even taken off yet. I don’t actually like the Chrysler 300 so I rang up…
A Personal Flying First — a Missed Approach Last Night
Surprising that it took this long, but as I tweeted last night I had my first-ever missed approach on arrival at Washington National airport, flying American AA1136 in from Miami the pilot pulled up just before landing. Then he came on the PA and announced that air traffic control had cleared a takeoff too close to our arrival, that it hadn’t yet cleared the runway, so we’d have to go around. Without access to air traffic control information myself I don’t know more details than that, it’s one of those times that I especially miss United’s “Channel 9” audio which allows you to listen to air traffic conversations (when the pilot is willing to turn it on). But interesting that it happened at National, less than a couple of weeks after July 31’s near-miss of…
American AAdvantage Fuel Surcharge and Oneworld Addition Speculation
JonNYC is speculating (and such speculations usually pan out) that American AAdvantage will begin adding fuel surcharges to awards on another partner imminently. Currently they add fuel surcharges onto awards booked on British Airways. A London roundtrip might add $850 cash cost in addition to taxes. A South Africa roundtrip from the US might add $1450. American began adding these fuel surcharges with the advent of their joint business venture. Previously AAdvantage members could not book awards between the US and London on British Airways (but could between Canada and the Caribbean and London, as well as between London and the rest of the world) but with no fuel surcharges. The US transatlantic restriction was lifted, but these cash surcharges were added to all BA awards. And they began adding much more modest surcharges to…
The Future of Trip Reports is Video, and an Outstanding Review of the W Koh Samui
More than Mary reviews the W Koh Samui and what I’m most impressed by is the quality of the video review. I stayed at the Conrad Koh Samui this past November and certainly detailed my two-bedroom ocean pool villa and also the resort itself along with the food there. But clearly the future in trip reports is going to be video, and really well-produced video at that. Seeing Mary Rambin’s report on the W I really do get a feel for the property and the sense that while I very much enjoyed the Conrad — I think it represents one of the absolute best values as a points redemption that there is — that the W is probably the resort property that I would enjoy more. And it tells me that I need to improve…
500 US Airways Miles for Downloading ‘StoreFront Assistant’
Back when FreeCause ran the Dividend Miles mall there was a ‘toolbar’ you could download which would automatically cause you to earn US Airways miles when shopping at a participating merchant, and they also gave you a handful of miles for internet searches. US Airways changed companies administering their mall, they now use Cartera Commerce which runs the American and Delta malls for instance. Cartera has introduced a similar tool and they will give you 500 miles for downloading it and using it once (such as doing just one internet search with it). You can of course uninstall it afterward. Here’s the FAQ for the StoreFront Assistant.
$50 Off Alaska Airlines Flight for New Mileage Plan Members
Registering for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan with a California address using this link will provide you with a $50 discount on an Alaska Airlines flight. Register for Mileage Plan as a California resident by October 26 (though it’s conceivable that Alaska could pull the offer earlier). You’ll receive an email with the $50 discount within 48 hours of registration. Discount must be used for the Mileage Plan member’s travel only. Valid for travel between September 5 and November 10 for travel departing from California, and excludes travel to Prudhoe Bay. It’s the requirement that travel must originate in California that presumably helps them limit non-California residents from registering with a California address. Though I wonder how well that will work, since Alaska generally prices roundtrips simply as two one-ways and the terms and conditions don’t…
Alaska Visa 40,000 Mile Signup Bonus
Bank of America is offering a 40,000 mile signup bonus on the Alaska Airlines Visa: 25,000 miles on approval and then 15,000 more after $7500 in spend within 6 months of account open. $75 annual fee not waived the first year. I’ve only seen a 40,000 mile signup bonus on this card once before (albeit that was with no spend requirement). The standard bonus is 25,000 miles on account opening. Alaska partners with several members of Skyteam and of oneworld, and has a new partnership with Emirates and Icelandair. Their award chart is generally reasonable and fuel surcharges apply only on British Airways awards. The only real drawbacks are that there are no one-way awards on partners, that you cannot mix and match different partners on a single award either so you have to fly…
