“Status matches” — a loyalty program offering an existing elite member with a competitor status in their own program as a means of attracting high value business — is predominantly a U.S. phenomenon. Very few international airlines offer status matches. Briitsh Midland was known to status match in its day, and plenty of elite members of U.S. frequent flyer programs took advantage of that — as an elite member of a non-U.S. Star Alliance frequent flyer program, they would have access to United, Continental, and US Airways lounges when flying domestically. What many folks who often grabbed bmi status found was that it was also an excellent frequent flyer program. Their award chart was reasonable, leveraged by cash and points, making their miles some of the most valuable out there. Calls routed over a poor…
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100% Bonus on Purchased US Airways Miles in June
US Airways is offering a 100% bonus again on purchased miles during the month of June. The maximum number of bonus miles awarded is 50,000 with this promotion, and accounts have to be at least 12 days old in order to purchase miles. Back in October US Airways raised the price of miles from 2.75 cents to 3.5 cents apiece. That had been an increase over the previous 2.5 cent price. Buying US Airways miles used to be an amazing deal, not just because miles were 2.5 cents apiece three years ago but also because award chart prices were lower. US to Europe at 80,000 miles roundtrip in business class, with a 100% purchase bonus (which seems to be going on more often than it isn’t), and a 2.5 cent per mile price plus tax…
Live Online Chat June 19 with the President of American AAdvantage
Milepoint.com will be hosting a live online chat with Suzanne Rubin, the President of the American AAdvantage frequent flyer program, on June 19th. The chat will be held at: 6pm Pacific 7pm Mountain 8pm Central 9pm Eastern You can pre-submit questions in this Milepoint thread or ask them live during the chat. Past Milepoint chats have included: A Conversation with Kip Hawley A Conversation with Hyatt Gold Passport A Conversation with Southwest Rapid Rewards A Conversation with American Airlines AAdvantage
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 30, 2012
More news from the world of miles, points, and travel. Via NotiFlyer, British Airways is offering a 25% bonus on hotel points transferred into Avios through June 20. Participating partners are Hilton, Marriott, Priority Club, Club Carlson, Starwood, Hyatt, Shangri-La and Accor. You have to be logged into your Executive Club account to see the offer. MJ on Travel says that US Airways is increasing the frequency of its complimentary elite upgrade ‘sweeps’, checking more often whether upgrade seats are available and processing the waitlist, which should reduce occurrences of lower level elites calling in at the right time when upgrade seats are available and grabbing those away from higher-level elites whose upgrades hadn’t been processed automatically yet. Oh, and they’re going to try to assign seats that match profile preferences, too. I’m curious, though…
Weekend at the Falls: American Business Class, Gol Domestic, and the Sheraton Iguazú Resort: American’s Business Class to Miami and on to DC
American to Miami in First, then Business Class to Sao Paulo Gol Smiles VIP Lounge and Domestic Service to Foz de Iguassu Sheraton Iguazú Falls Resort & Spa The Wonder of the Falls Gol Domestic Back to Sao Paulo and the Admiral’s Club Sao Paulo American’s Business Class to Miami and on to DC After about 5 hours in the lounge it was finally time to leave Brazil. We headed downstairs and on to our gate at the end of Wing D, and it simply reinforced the notion that there’s not much to do, see, or eat in the terminal. One of the interesting things about the walk is that the international and domestic gates are separated by a glass wall most of the walk to the end of the pier. We arrived at the…
Will US Airways Be Next to Offer a Revenue-Based Frequent Flyer Program?
Delta has been rumored to be on the verge of converting to a revenue-based frequent flyer program. I heard quite a bit after the story broke that Delta folks were apoplectic at the leak, that there was a lockdown, but like many such things the hordes subsided and the rumor mill has been mostly quiet. My hunch has been that after the leak their executives took better care of their documents and were more careful holding their tongues, rather than that the airline had abandoned its plans. While any move towards a revenue-based program might cause some to immediately think of United’s CFO commenting that some of their members are over-entitled, this airline after all seriously considered minimum revenue thresholds for its elite tiers, my thoughts went elsewhere: the summer 2002 move by US Airways…
May 31 is Last Day for 50% Transfer Bonus from American Express to British Airways
The 50% bonus on transfers from American Express Membership Rewards that I detailed in March expires May 31. If there’s a specific award you’re considering, and you’re wondering how many points it will cost you, Wandering Aramean has a useful tool to estimate the cost. (It’s sad that such a tool is needed to help decipher the new Avios scheme.) In general the Avios program is great for short-haul non-stop redemptions, and extortionate for long-haul connecting awards. Though of course a 50% bonus on transfers helps dull the pain. British Airways Avios fuel surcharges can be painful, they charge the same costs that would be billed on a paid ticket, and that can often be close to the price of an economy ticket. Though there are some routes (like US domestic, US-South America) that don’t…
Best Western and Marriott Free Night Summer Promotions
LoyaltyLobby says that Best Western is bringing a free night offer for their summer promotion — stay 3 times between June 17th and August 19th and earn a free night certificate valid through January 31st, 2013. You’ll have to register for the promotion prior to the stays, and registration isn’t live yet. The offer is limited to one free night per member, and while ‘use by January 31’ is a reasonably long period compared to some similar offers, it’s still less than six months from the end of the promotion period. But at least it’s valid for any Best Western, worldwide which is valuable. Marriott’s summer bonus is a version of their usual ‘MegaBonus’ this time offering a free night every two stays, up to 3 free nights (though some members have slightly different offers).…
Could Free Hilton HHonors Gold STILL Be Working??
Here’s the offer, targeted at Visa Infinite cardholders, and it’s been around in one form or another since December. They keep tweaking the website, from no longer accepting the first four digits of Russian Visa Infinite cards to later requiring a full sixteen digits of the card number in order to unlock the form (and validating that the numbers entered could be an actual card, though not verifying the account entered itself). Each time they’ve tweaked the form, enterprising commenters have shared their experiences here. Matt in the comments of my March post writes: Hello all. Just wanted to confirm that as of 9:52PM ET on 05/28/12 this is still working. Here’s what I did. First logged into my Hilton Honors account and changed my country to Australia and my Province/State to AP. I then…
300 Free La Quinta Returns Points
Just Another Points Traveler says that the La Quinta Returns free 300 points offer from March (filling out a form as a thank you for reading their newsletter) is back and you can earn it again even if you got the 300 points a couple months ago. And if you actually want to stay at La Quinta, Visa offers 10% off through June 30.
