CNN.com covers my favorite airport lounges, and in order of preference even. I admit I haven’t done the Qantas first class lounges in Sydney and Melbourne since they’ve been remodeled, it’s been about five years since I’ve been in them actually, so they aren’t included. But certainly they’d compete. Readers of this blog will find no real surprises. I do like the Thai first class ground experience in Bangkok better than any other, from the personal service to the spa. Theirs is unlike any other airport spa offering, with private treatment bungalows and hour-long Thai massage, plus excellent bath amenities to shower up afterwards (you’re choosing your oils, after all, and probably don’t want to leave those on during the long flight). And Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt remains a special experience, though the…
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Hipmunk Adds Killer App Functionality, Has Potential to Become Booking Service of Choice
When people ask where to search for airfares I usually just tell them to check out Kayak.com. It’s not where I search for flights and fares, but it offers reasonably powerful functionality and a pretty easy-to-use interface. My first stop has long been ITA Software. Specifically, Matrix1.itasoftware.com, I know that the ITA Software folks don’t like that but the ‘old school’ interface is much more to my liking. They’re not going to support it forever, and the newer one has gotten better to work with over time, but the simply entry format and cleaner page just works well for me. ITA Software is a software company, recently acquired by Google, which provides back-end functionality to several airfare booking engines. But on their website they offer more functionality than the public booking websites offer, no doubt…
Aeroplan Begins Adding Fuel Surcharges to Star Alliance Partner Awards
Aeroplan is a strange program, at least it has been, in that it has long been advantageous to book award travel on airlines other than Air Canada. Aeroplan has added fuel surcharges to Air Canada flights but not to flights on partner airlines. That practice has apparently changed, effective today. Aeroplan awards on Lufthansa, All Nippon, Asiana, and Thai are all now showing up with fuel surcharges. Fuel surcharges vary by airline and by route. A domestic coach award from New York to Frankfurt has a fuel surcharge over $400, so with tax and during low season it can be the same price to book an award ticket as to buy a paid, mileage-earning ticket. So far it appears as though awards on United, Swiss, and Singapore are not. Of course there are no guarantees…
Expert Flyer Introduces Free Account with Seat Alerts
Expert Flyer is a web-based service that lets you see availability of flights, look up fare rules, search for award space (on a limited set of airlines) and even have their system automate searches and email you when space opens up. That’s the most useful and unique offering they have in my opinion. The system also has ‘seat alerts’ — you book a flight but can’t get the seat you want, maybe only middle seats are available or perhaps you’re flying United and you want an economy plus aisle but no economy plus aisle seats are available. Or maybe you’re looking for an exit row, but all the exit row seats are full. Expert Flyer will keep searching for the seats you specify to open up and email you when they do, which frequently they…
Live Chat with Hyatt Gold Passport’s Jeff Zidell Tonight at 9pm Eastern
As previously announced, there is a live online chat this evening with Jeff Zidell at 9pm Eastern time. Here’s the official announcement. Questions will be getting asked live, and answers will be live of course, but pre-submitted questions will be interspersed especially for folks who might not be able to attend the live chat. You can review pre-submitted questions or add your own. The chat site is here. Look forward to seeing you there! And thanks to Jeff and the good folks at Hyatt Gold Passport for agreeing to come online to interact directly with their members. Previous chats with Maya Leibman of American AAdvantage and Jonathan Clarkson of Southwest Rapid Rewards were interesting and worthwhile, I have no doubt this one will be as well.
Well That Was Fast! Less Than 8 Months and Expedia Already Guts its New Rewards Program
It was only the end of March when Expedia introduced full details on its Expedia Rewards program. (The program itself launched end of January, they just didn’t tell you anything about it…) Now at the beginning of November they’re already announcing changes to the program. There are two major changes. First is that flight bookings will only earn one point per two dollars spent (instead of one point per dollar). That’s a 50% cut in earning. Second, they’re also making changes to the redemption chart on November 22nd. And as far as I’ve been able to tell, we do not yet know what those changes are. Since Expedia highlights the ability to use the old chart through November 22nd, it’s a safe bet that the redemption chart will become less favorable. I’d love to use…
6000 Virgin Atlantic Miles for Intra-Hawaii Roundtrip Awards
On the whole I’m very much not a fan of the Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer program. Their award chart isn’t cheap for most destinations (though pricing isn’t crazy for US-London), but on top what generally kills it for me is the high fuel surcharges. I don’t really want to spend $700+ in taxes/fees for a transatlantic redemption. Still, I dutifully collect 1000 Virgin Atlantic miles each time I have a one-day Avis rental. On a three-day rental I’m still crediting to US Airways for the 3000 mile bonus with Avis. But those short one-dayers go to Virgin, the 1000 miles is just too tempting for me even though I’m not a fan of the program. And over time I tend to rack up a lot of one-day rentals. I figure that if my car rentals…
Delta 100% Bonus on Purchased Miles for Co-Branded Amex Cardholders
Through December 31, Delta is offering members with a Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express a 100% bonus on purchased miles when they use that card to buy the miles. It’s described as “an extra 2,000 miles for every 2,000 miles purchased“ so presumably has to be taken advantage of in 2000 mile increments (in fact, I think that Delta only sells miles in 2000 mile increments). There’s no reference in the terms and conditions to a cap on the number of miles that can be purchased while receiving the 100% bonus, it appears that you can take full advantage of the maximum per-year miles purchase of 60,000 while earning a 60,000 mile bonus. Delta made a similar offer to everyone back in August and September, and of course through the end of November…
How to Make Delta’s SkyPesos Work for You
After my talk on award booking at the Chicago frequent flyer seminar last month, I committed to putting together much of the advice that I shared in the form of blog posts. That takes a good long time, the reason I haven’t shared my talks here on the blog in the past is because I’ve never written them down, I tend to sketch out an outline and just talk. In order to keep things sufficiently interesting (for me, in the writing!), I won’t be writing up the different sections in order. But I’ll piece it all together in the end. Delta Skymiles are often referred to as “SkyPesos” because they are less valuable and more difficult to use than miles in major competitor programs. I’ve found this to be true for several reasons. Their pricing…
40% Off Purchase of SAS EuroBonus Points
Here’s one for some of my European readers mostly, SAS EuroBonus is offering points purchase at 40% off through December 5. THe points aren’t cheap even with bonus (but then to me almost anything priced in Euros is expensive, maybe I should wait until Greece, Italy, and Spain default?), but if you need to top off towards an award this would seem to be a good time. Plus SAS EuroBonus has the distinction amongst European frequent flyer programs of not pushing their members with fuel surcharges on award redemptions. (HT: Milepoint)
