I noted back on November 22 that US Airways had announced they were bringing back the 100% bonus on purchased miles in December. At the time I said I thought it was odd that they would post on the purchase miles website that a big bonus would be forthcoming, since it seemed like that would discourage miles sales at full price through the end of November and I tried to come up with a rationalization for it. Turns out it probably didn’t make sense to announce it, because shortly afterward they pulled the announcement! But the plan was indeed in the works, as I just received an email from US Airways announcing the 100% bonus. through December 31, 2011. Of course, last month US Airways raised the price of purchased miles for the second time…
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The First Class Terminal Rubber Ducky
Lufthansa Flyer offers a retrospective on Lufthansa’s first class rubber duckies. I admit, I’ve never taken a bath at the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt (I much prefer a shower) but on more than one occasion I’ve asked the shower attendant for a rubber ducky. She opens the closet, full of plastic ducks, and hands me one. And I let her know I’d appreciate one for my wife as well, and she obliges.. I had no idea there were so many variations on the classic rubber duck, so check out the whole post. For more on the Lufthansa First Class Terminal, including photos and menus, see here, here, and here. For detail on using the First Class Terminal as a connecting passenger, see here.
Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home I had pre-arranged a car through Image Limo for our return trip to the airport, much earlier than necessary I had arranged it for 12:30pm and my flight didn’t depart until 2:45pm. But I wasn’t doing much around Bangkok in the morning, I…
1500 Bonus Gold Passport Points at Avia, Hotel Sierra, and Summerfield Suites
Via Loyalty Traveler, Hyatt is offering 1500 bonus points per stay at AVIA, Hotel Sierra and Summerfield Suites through January 8 with offer code 1500GP. The code doesn’t generate a higher rate and Ric reports that it works with AAA and AARP rates as well. Avia Napa is on my list, now that Hyatt has acquired the chain, I’m just not sure I’ll make it out there by January 8 (though I do need to do a few American mileage runs in the coming weeks).
30,000 Point Signup Bonus for Starwood American Express
There’s a new short-term offer for the Starwood American Express card, 10,000 points after first purchase and 20,000 more points after spending $5000 on the card within six months, no fee the first year. The offer is expected to be available through December 12, both for the personal card and for the small business card. (These links do not provide any referral credit to me.) 30,000 point offers have been around a couple of times in the past, these are better than the otherwise-best offer of 25,000 points. I don’t view this as your one shot at a 30,000 point bonus, and I’m not excited about the card for the bonus alone, but these are very good solid cards and if you’re going to apply for them best to do so when there’s a strong…
A US Airways Takeover of American Would Make No Sense
CrankyFlier reviews the American Airlines bankruptcy and says that the dream result would be US Airways taking over the airline. That makes no sense. Now, the only argument in favor I can imagine is that it would mean a new management team, and the theory that they can’t make worse decisions than American has over the past decade — beginning with acquiring TWA out of a prepackaged bankruptcy. TWA failed because (1) they paid lower than average wages but still had higher than average labor costs due to crazy onerous work rules, like maintaining a 747 maintenance base when they no longer operated 747s, and (2) being hubbed in St. Louis they had virtually no high revenue origination/destination traffic. American has had above average costs, in part because they didn’t go through bankruptcy while other…
25,000 Delta Miles for $500 Skymall Spend Offer Expected First Week of December
DeltaPoints describes how he used the last Skymall offer of 25,000 Delta miles for a purchase of $500 or more in order to generate 250,000 miles for a net cost of $700 by buying items and then reselling them on eBay. I found that they sold SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 10.1′s for $499.99. I also got a 9v battery for 99 cents. I then resold all 10 of the TAB’s on eBay in one day. My cost to sell them including my eBay, Paypal and s&h fee’s to get them out the door was a loss of $70 per order. Thus, for $700 I earned 250,000 skymiles plus 10,000 Capital One points for the $5000 purchase cost (10×500). Now, the price of tablets is coming down and I don’t see recapturing $430+shipping per Samsung tablet in…
American Three Million Miler!
A couple of weeks ago I reminded that American’s lifetime elite status recognition program was changing — going from counting all miles earned in the program to counting only flight miles (except that folks who get the pricey Citi Executive Mastercard before December 1 would have spend from that card count towards lifetime status for at least a year). I said at the time that I expected to end the month with 2,998,000 lifetime miles in the AAdvantage program. I had earned lifetime Gold at one million miles in 2006, lifetime Platinum at two million miles in 2010, and a bit over a year and a half later was on the cusp of 3 million lifetime miles which only means 4 additional confirmed systemwide upgrades valid from any fare… plus the distinction of course of…
Top Off Your Elite Qualifying Miles Without Flying
It’s getting close to the end of the year and it’s time to take a hard look at your status miles year-to-date, add up the miles from all remaining travel through the end of the year, and figure out if you’re going to be a few miles short of that next elite level. The traditional way to make up the difference in miles is to book a mileage run (flying just for the sake of the miles). And while that’s incremental revenue for the airline, it’s also crowding the front cabin (from domestic upgrades) by folks who don’t need to be in the air, it’s usually done at the cheapest prices, and flying is no longer the primary income stream for the mileage programs themselves — other revenue sources like selling miles to credit cards…
Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home We pulled up to the Conrad and were immediately assisted with our bags and directed to the front desk. Upon identifying myself, the woman at the desk went for assistance. I had a momentary panic — I had booked the room on a…
