Category Archives for Airlines.
KLM was an Alaska Airlines partner. Then it wasn’t. Now it is again, along with Air France. And Alaska is giving out double miles for KLM and Air France flights credited to an Alaska Mileage Plan account through April 30. Best part is that this seems to apply to all fares. So fares where the Flying Blue program would only award 25% of miles, through April 30 Alaska will be awarding 200%! Naturally, registration is required.
The Charlotte Observer reports that USAirways is planning to delete accounts that have had no activity for 36 months or more unless something posts to the account by February 15. According to the piece USAirways has not enforced its 36 month rule for several years, but plans to as part of the database cleanup involved in merging the America West FlightFund and USAirways Dividend Miles programs together. Any activity is enough to keep an account active, but the activity needs to post by February 15. You could always buy miles, book an award and redeposit it, redeem miles for magazines, or transfer points into or out of your account via Points.com (you could even transfer your points to America West and then transfer them back with no cost or devaluation). (Hat tip to Today in…
The February issue of Inside Flyer predicts (subscription required) that the combination of USAirways and America West will allow you to combine your miles in the two programs in “late March or early April.” Readers of this blog know better. As I mentioned last month, you can combine the miles in your accounts now on a self-service basis using Points.com. Points transfer between USAirways and America West on a 1:1 basis at no cost. Transfers from America West to USAirways appear to complete in real-time. Having tested it the other way as well, it looks like transfers from USAirways to America West take somewhat longer.This method will let you combine points to top off for an award, or even move all your miles from one account to the other to take advantage of current partnerships…
Continental is hosting a gathering for its frequent flyers this weekend and one Flyertalker has posted some news. international rewad and upgrade travel will see significant mileage increases for the 2006 program year. It sounds like Y upgrades to BF to Hawaii will jump to 15,000 miles while discount economy upgrades will cost 35,000 miles in addition to any required fees. Upgrades to Asia will jump to 50,000 miles for discount economy tickets (plus fees) and 25,000 for full Y. Europe will jump to 40,000 and 20,000 respectively. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like offered inventory will change much …nor will the fee for the mileage option on discount economy tickets. Mark Bergsrud mentioned at a Q&A at the ‘Do today that they don’t expect any changes with the system and inventories. An upgrade award to…
It’s part of their broadside against Southwest, they’ve titled their press release American Airlines Gets Serious About Competing at Love Field Starting March 2 through May 26, customers who fly three roundtrips between Dallas Love Field or DFW International Airport and Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin and San Antonio can earn 30,000 AAdvantage bonus miles …Fly six roundtrips in the same time period and earn an additional 30,000 bonus miles Registration is required with promo code FLY3.
I just got an email from United titled United award seats to exciting destinations. The idea is that it’s possible to get awards with United miles, there are seats available, and they’re going to help me think of places I can successfully go with my miles. You’ve earned your miles and we’d like to help you to use them for award travel. So now we have a dedicated page that will be updated every month with destinations where there are ample seats available on United®, United Express® and TedSM. Visit a favorite city, take a break to a sunnier destination or try somewhere new and exotic. Your seats are waiting. So what routes are they highlighting in the e-mail? 1. Chicago (ORD) – Washington, DC (IAD) 2. Denver (DEN) – Las Vegas (LAS) 3. Los…
Northwest Vacations is offering airfare and two nights in Hawaii from $94. Choose one person. I’ve found travel between March 1 and March 31. You’re using promo code WVRQ400 and for the cheapest prices will want to pick Monday through Thursday travel. Cities other than Los Angeles for departures are slightly higher. And yes this deal earns Northwest miles. Thanks to Flyertalk. Update Jan 20: The cheapest deals are now gone and the promotion has been revised. No more $94 vacations. Here’s the new promotion in case anyone finds it useful.
Continental posted several changes to their frequent flyer program today: You can now receive your BusinessFirst upgrade rewards until 24 hours prior to your scheduled departure. Previously, 72 hours were required. Effective February 1, 2006, you may redeem reward travel within the 48 contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada on round-trip flights of 1,500 miles or less for only 20,000 miles. Effective April 1, 2006, some Easy Pass BusinessFirst reward mileage requirements will change: Routes between: Miles requiredbefore 4/1/06 Miles required4/1/06 and after N. America and Asia 240,000 250,000 N. America and Europe 200,000 250,000 N.Amer & India/Africa/Mideast 240,000 250,000 N. America and Tel Aviv 200,000 250,000 Hawaii and Europe 220,000 270,000 Hawaii and Tel Aviv 220,000 270,000 Asia or Europe & S. Amer. 240,000 280,000 The introduction of 20,000 miles for flights under 1500…
Virgin Atlantic is ‘refreshing’ its program earning and redemption. The upshot is that some awards are getting more expensive, for example Upper Class awards from the U.K. to the U.S. are currently 80,000 points and will be going up to 90,000 points (Boston/New York/Washington DC) or 100,000 points (Miami/Orlando/Vegas/Los Angeles/San Francisco). The old award chart is here.
Some Flyertalkers are reporting that United’s buy-on-board snack boxes are frequently expired. Bought a minimeal yesterday DEN-BWI and noticed the salami (or whatever it is) was dated use by 1/4 – 4 days past due. I ate it anyway Its 24 hours later and so far so good So I looked on the box itself and faintly impressed on the bottom is a date which said 12/16! …which I presume is the packing date… Im not one to complain so I didn’t but you may want to check those dates before you pop it open. Surprising for coming out of a hub… they must have quite a backlog of those meals! A flight attendant suggests exchanging expired meat for fresh meat: We’ve had quite a few snackboxes with outdated items lately. We are happy to…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
