Probably the most frequent misconception I run across (although perhaps tied with the idea that you can productively use Capital One points for premium cabin international travel) in my award consulting practice is that upgrading with miles either opens up a world of options beyond what booking award tickets gets you, or that mileage upgrades are a better value. So I wrote a column fpr Conde’ Nast Daily Traveler on why award tickets are a better use of miles than upgrades. Here’s the lead-in: Conventional wisdom has always said that the most lucrative way to use miles was to confirm upgrades from coach to business class on paid international tickets. That’s because you would accrue miles for the paid travel, plus earn status. And because upgrades require fewer points than a free ticket, you stretch…
About Gary Leff
Buying Flowers As a Way to Purchase Miles at a Discount
The spectacular margins on online flower purchases mean that FTD, 1-800-Flowers, Teleflora, and similar outfits are willing to offer significant kickbacks to savvy consumers on their purchases. I once earned 100 Delta miles per dollar at 1-800-Flowers. Even the standard ‘better’ offers represent a less expensive way to buy miles than making a mileage purchase from an airline website much of the time. Mommy Points illustrates that the current AAdvantage offer of 1500 American miles for any order at FTD lets you buy miles at two and a quarter cents apiece (if you make the least expensive purchase FTD offers), which is less than American’s buy miles price — and you get a free teddy bear. She thinks you should then donate the bears to “Homeless shelters, Child Advocacy Centers, Child Protective Services offices, family…
Only 3 Days Left to Get the 100,000 Point Signup Bonus British Airways Visa
British Airways Visa: up to 100,000 point signup bonus The most lucrative current credit card signup bonus is scheduled to be pulled June 7. The offer is: 50,000 points after first purchase 25,000 points after spending $10,000 on the card within a year 25,000 additional points after spending the next $10,000 on the card within that year There’s a $95 annual fee, spending earns 1.25 points per dollar, and the card has no foreign currency transaction fees. After $30,000, they award a free companion award ticket – the second passenger travels on an award booked on British Airways flights for no additional points (though both passengers are charged taxes and fuel surcharges). And of course there are plenty of ways to goose your spending to get there. (Some folks have luck making a mock booking…
Bits ‘n Pieces for June 4, 2012
Calculated Risk reports on declining fuel prices, futures suggest further price declines. Any bet on whether fuel surcharges will fall alongside? (To pre-empt, no I am not willing to cover the other side of that bet!) Online Travel Review thinks the Etihad Guest award chart has some real values in it, especially useful as the program has become a Starwood Preferred Guest transfer partner. Frequent Miler has a convoluted scheme to buy Chase Ultimate Rewards points for under a penny a point. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to buy physical gift cards from Barnes and Noble. Purchase the cards using an American Express business card with OPEN savings. Then go through TopCashBack to sell your gift cards to PlasticJungle. If each stage of the process…
MegaDO is a Popular Blog Topic for Sure!
I covered the launch party over the weekend, including dates, trip details, and pricing. Mommy Points was there and offers her own take on the evening as well. Heels First Travel attended and won an advance booking opportunity, plus United 1K status. And shrieked. Pizza in Motion seems excited. Are you?
The End of United’s Qatar Partnership Announced, and the Effect on Ultimate Rewards Transfer Options
United is ending its partnership with Qatar. Here’s the key line about mileage earning and redemption: Customers will be able to accrue mileage on Qatar Airways codeshare and interline flights until September 14, 2012. Award travel ticketed on or before September 14, 2012, will be honored as ticketed and valid for one year. It’s a terrible shame, United just added the functionality to book awards on Qatar to its website, and they allow combining Qatar and Star Alliance partners on the same award. Qatar has fabulous award space to many destinations, and transiting the Middle East is a really efficient way to get to many destinations in Central Asia and Northern Africa. While awards will be bookable through September 14, it presumably won’t be possible to make changes to those awards (except in ways that…
MegaDO Launch Party Blogging
Last night was the launch party for Star MegaDO — the ultimate frequent flyer adventure, where 150-200 enthusiastic folks get together, charter an aircraft, and go on behind-the-scenes tours of airlines and aircraft, while picking up swag and tons of miles and elite status along the way. To get a feel for what a MegaDO is all about, you can read a sample of some of the past media coverage. January’s oneworld MegaDO was featured on the front page of the business section of USA Today and also in an Associated Press story that hit about 70 papers. Scott McCartney‘s Wall Street Journal piece on Star MegaDO 3 focused on Tommy Class – a blocked middle seat, like intra-European business class. And the first Star MegaDO was featured in a big Conde’ Nast Traveler spread.…
Oneworld Treats Passengers Better During Irregular Operations When Connecting on Separate Tickets
Often when booking an award ticket I need to buy positioning flights. Not everything may be available on points, whether from my starting city or for the last segment. I’d hate to give up a beautiful Cathay Pacific award ticket in first class, Chicago or New York JFK to Hong Kong, just because I couldn’t get the flight from DC to Chicago or New York. So I’m willing to come out of pocket to buy that segment. Similarly with British Airways Avios, they charge you separately for each and every flight segment you book using points. So you might have enough for the flight from New York to Europe but not the flight to reach New York. So you have to pay for the with cash. You’re still saving a lot of money by just…
Just Added Pages to My 2 Year Old Passport
My current passport is a couple of years old and it was down to three blank pages. After I got back from Brazil I realized that I didn’t have much upcoming international travel, it was a great time to get pages added to my passport. The State Department lists processing times and says that if you don’t pay for expedited service it will take 4-6 weeks. There’s no way I can be without my passport for six weeks, so I opted into the extra cost processing, which they still say will take 2-3 weeks. In fact, I had my passport back in about 9 days, including mailing the passport both directions. So that was better than expected. The cost to do this was exorbitant: $82 to have pages added $60 expedite fee $12.72 to have…
All Kiva Loans Through the Milepoint.com Lending Team Being Matched
The Milepoint.com community gets pretty involved in charity, at the same time we see the world and leverage loyalty programs to do so inexpensively and comfortably, there’s an effort to help the world as well. An anonymous Milepoint member is matching all Kiva loans made as part of the Milepoint team up to $75,000. So if you’ve ever considered making Kiva loans, picking an entrepreneur that you’d like to help with a microloan (repayment rates are really high), now is a really good time to get involved since you can double your impact.
