Randy Petersen offers US Airways a face-saving way to bring back elite bonus miles — something pretty much every other carrier still features: return the bonus miles for those elite members who carry a Barclays bank co-branded Mastercard (and, ahem, provide retro credit of the missing bonuses back to August 6th). Given the importance of the co-branded credit card relationship (funding for the America West – US Airways merger was greased by the new credit card partner), this is certainly a plausible idea… made more so by the fact that no other carrier has followed US Airways’ lead on this one. Certainly a constructive suggestion from the guy who brought you Save Dividend Miles. Meanwhile, I recently suggested getting the Northwest Visa Signature card before the US Bank relationship disappears with the Northwest-Delta merger (the…
About Gary Leff
Checking Swiss Award Availability Online
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of the All Nippon Airways Mileage Club. Not that I fly ANA frequently (though I’ve flown them in first class before, have an upcoming reservation to do so again, and it’s truly lovely). First, because for some specific redemptions such as US East Coast to Europe in business class their award chart is quite favorable, e.g. New York to London in Virgin Upper Class for 63,000 miles or Washington-Dulles to Frankfurt on Lufthansa for 68,000 miles. (And of course you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to ANA, but when actually booking your ticket do be aware that they charge much higher taxes and fees than US-based programs.) Second, and most useful for most, is that their website lets you check award availability across…
8,000 Cathay Pacific Asiamiles Bonus for US-Hong Kong Roundtrip in October and November
Cathay Pacific is offering a bonus of 8,000 Asiamiles (for most coach booking classes; 10,000 miles for business or first) for flying roundtrip San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York to and from Hong Kong. Registration required by November 15 for travel between October 1 and November 30, and the bonus can be earned as many times as you can fly roundtrip during the promotion period.
Hyatt Faster Free Nights is Back with a Bonus Points Kicker
Hyatt is back with Faster Free Nights, among the best hotel bonus promotions ever. And this time they’re topping off with bonus points as well, which is great because Hyatt points are among the harder points to earn (few partners). Earn a free night after every two eligible Hyatt stays at any Hyatt worldwide between September 1 and December 30, 2008. Plus, earn 2,000 bonus points after every two eligible Hyatt stays paid with your MasterCard card. Registration is required. Now, once upon a time a cheap Priceline stay counted as a stay for this promotion, and you could charge something minimal like a phone call to your room on your free stay and have it count as one of your two stays towards your next free stay. Ah, memories. But many Gold Passport members…
Award Price Increases and Ticketing Fees at Frontier
Frontier is increasing the number of miles for an award ticket and imposing ticketing fees, citing rising fuel cost even as oil has fallen substantially from its highs. Cutting frequent flyer program benefits usually doesn’t happen while a carrier is in bankruptcy. In general we’ve seen the opposite — print funny money (miles are a currency) while in bankruptcy and reduce the value of those miles once exited from Chapter 11. So this turns the usual expected practice on its head. The upshot of the changes is that Frontier will charge customers $25 per award ticket, and $75 per award ticket for flights booked within 14 days of travel. Redeemable tickets will jump from 15,000 miles to 20,000 for a domestic round trip ticket. More details in this Flyertalk thread.
Two 1000 Mile Surveys from Flying Blue
Via Free Frequent Flyer miles, two surveys each offer 1000 Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles: here and here.
United Onboard Service and Meal Cutbacks
One Mile at a Time points to United service cutbacks. Those changes appear to be as follows: Effective Sept. 2: 2-3 hour flights, killing biscoffs and pretzels in coach and replacing with buy on board. Effective Oct. 1: Increasing Buy on Board Prices Shelf-stable items increase from $5 to $6. Fresh items increase from $7 to $9. Other meal changes: Eliminate free meals in coach, Dulles Departures to Europe (except Kuwait). Will offer Buy on Board. Three-class planes, business class gets free Buy on Board rather than separate meals (!!) Eliminate Second meal service on p.s. flights — replace with beverage service. Other changes: Reduce flight attendant staffing to FAA minimums These will be a real ouch to some, I can live with them (but won’t like it!), as long as the cuts don’t come…
The award itinerary I have on hold
Haven’t decided whether to keep it, whether to change it, or whether to scrap it altogether and do something else later. But it’s an example of hwat you can do with 120,000 United miles (times two — the award is for two seats, which means two award seats were available on all flights). It features international 3-cabin first class on 5 different carriers, and 11 total flights. Washington, DC to Tokyo — All Nippon Airways first class Tokyo to Hong Kong — Air Japan regional 2-cabin business class Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City — United first class Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok — Lufthansa first class Bangkok to Chiang Rai — Thai Airways 2-cabin business class Chiang Rai to Bangkok — Thai Airways 2-cabin business class Bangkok to Hong Kong — Thai…
Whose Miles are the Most Valuable?
Frugal Travel Guy outlines how he values the mileage in the various airline programs in which he participates. He’s dead-on that British Midland”s points are worth the most: Cash and points awards stretch the value of miles. Reasonable premiums for premium class awards. Business class is 50% more expensive than coach, first class is double. One-way awards at only half the price of roundtrip provide for amazing flexibility. Star Alliance membership means that the above features are leveraged across an amazing network of carriers, and unlike United they don’t filter out otherwise-available award seats. And the program is rewarding for it’s elites as well, with low qualification thresholds for top tier (Gold), heavy bonuses for paid premium class fares (a Gold who has already requalified earns 625% on paid first class fares!), and top tier elites…
Diving Headlong into the Nitty Gritty Details of Managing Credit Cards for Fun and Profit
In a continuing series diving into the details of managing credit cards and securing their frequent flyer signup bonuses, Frugal Travel Guy offers suggestions on reallocating credit limits. This can help you get more cards than you’d otherwise be eligible for, and also be a useful tool to preserve available credit while cancelling cards that would incur a fee. He also makes some suggestions on how to handle no preset limit cards and avoid complications of those cards for your credit report and score.
