Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Miles for Cheese

by Gary Leff on November 12, 2006

Nov 12 2006

Specially marked packages of Swiss Knights Fondue and Cheese are offering 500 American Airlines miles. You can pick the stuff up at Costco, Traders Joes, and some supermarkets. Some folks looking to top off their American Airlines accounts may find buying long shelf-life, no need to refrigerate cheese worthwhile just for the miles. The economics aren’t quite as good as buying pudding once was but I suppose you, too, can reduce your cost basis by donating the fondue to charity and taking a tax writeoff. Product website is short on details, such as how long the promotion will run or whether there’s a maximum number of codes a single individual can redeem for their account.

20,000 Miles for Alaska Visa

by Gary Leff on October 25, 2006

Oct 25 2006

This is the best offer I’ve seen yet for an Alaska Airlines Signature Visa from Bank of America: 20,000 miles plus two board room passes on approval, 1000 additional miles for applying online, plus the standard annual $50 companion ticket. The $75 fee isn’t waived, but the benefits strike me as worth it — enough miles to upgrade two transcon flights, for instance. The best bonus I’ve seen previously for this card was 10,000 miles. So a big thanks to reader David for the heads up. Update: I understand this is a promotion intended to ‘come out’ November 1, but they apparently made it live a bit early. I’ve put in my application..

Reasons to Avoid Northwest DC-9s

by Gary Leff on October 21, 2006

Oct 21 2006

The Upgrade Travel Blog says you should avoid Northwest DC-9s because these aging planes are increasingly responsible for delays, with a single plane causing 2564 minutes of delays so far year to date. I say you should avoid Northwest DC-9s because their first class cabins offer a tighter pitch (34 – 35 inches) than United’s economy plus on an Airbus A320 (36 inches). And the United Airbus offers channel 9 air traffic control, rather than no inflight entertainment at all. Who needs unlimited domestic upgrades when that just means first class on a Northwest DC-9?

Northwests Daily Offers Celebrating 20 Years of Worldperks

by Gary Leff on October 6, 2006

Oct 06 2006

Northwest is finally promoting the 20th anniversary of its frequent flyer program. There’s a not-all-that-right instant win game from October 4-23, and much like American’s effort several months back they have an ‘offer of the day’. Today’s is quite nice — double iDine miles for your next 12 dines through November 30 (up to 20 miles per dollar spent if you’re already an ‘elite’ member of the dining program).Worth continuing to check out…

Another Annoying Minor Devaluation at United

by Gary Leff on September 16, 2006

Sep 16 2006

As revealed on Flyertalk, United Mileage Plus members booking business class transatlantic or transpacific award flights can only be booked in coach on Singapore connecting segments. S*MPI/STAR-AWARD RULES.R:**NOTE: X/I/O IS NOT OFFERED ON ALL ROUTES. FOR SQ BUSINESS CLASS AWARDS WITH CONNECTIONS/STOPOVERS TO/FROM A TRANSOCEANIC FLIGHT BOOK *I* CLASS FOR TRANSOCEANIC FLIGHT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC/PACIFIC AND *X* FOR ONWARD FLT EXAMPLE – SQ BUSINESS CLASS AWARD LAXDPS BOOK *I* LAX-SIN AND *X* SIN-DPS SQ AWARDS THAT DO NOT INVOLVE A TRANSOCEANIC SECTOR USE *I* FOR ALL SECTORS INCLUDING 2 CABIN AIRCRAFT Lesson is that if you fly Singapore on a business award you’ll want your onward connection on another Star carrier in order to remain in business.

United Restricts Access to Economy Plus

by Gary Leff on September 16, 2006

Sep 16 2006

I’ve been meaning to blog this but Upgrade Travel beats me to the punch: United is no longer allowing its partner Star Alliance Gold members to access economy plus seating (they’re not allowing full fare passengers access to these seats either, which is bizarre). Now economy plus is available only to United elites and those who ‘buy up’ at the airport. Economy plus is the same seat as coach with no additional services, just a few extra inches of legroom. It isn’t “premium economy” as the rest of the world understands it. But United sees the ability, presumably, to upcharge. Doesn’t make me happy one bit, even though it’s a seemingly small change.

Alaska (Mostly) Ends 1000 Mile Online Booking Bonus

by Gary Leff on August 9, 2006

Aug 09 2006

Alaska Airlines is ending its 1000 mile online booking bonus September 5th. Beginning September 6th, though, you’ll be able to earn the bonus only by paying with an Alaska Airlines Visa. And somehow the article introduces this as an exciting new improvement, titling as New 1,000 Mile Online Booking Bonus. Heh.

USAirways Club Passes on Sale

by Gary Leff on August 7, 2006

Aug 07 2006

Via the Upgrade Travel Blog, USAirways is selling day passes to its lounges for $25 through August 31 — rather than their usual $40 — by mentioning promo code ES25. Details here. Most US carriers sell day passes for $50, though $25 is the usual price for access to the Alaska Airlines Boardroom without a membership. (Boardroom members can buy day passes as gifts for only $15, and a year and a half back Alaska was selling these around Christmastime for only $12.50.)

United Introduces Star Alliance Upgrades

by Gary Leff on July 19, 2006

Jul 19 2006

United has introduced Star Alliance upgrade awards — upgrades on most of their Star Alliance partners confirmed by redeeming miles. These has been available on other Star Alliance carriers for several months, United has just introduced them, but it’s notable that only Star Alliance offers this quite so broadly.United miles can be used for upgrades on ANA, Asiana, Austrian, LOT, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal and Thai Airways. (United miles could previously be used for upgrades on Lufthansa, but those were space available rather than confirmed.) Currently there are no upgrade options for other Star carriers such as Singapore, Air Canada, bmi, Swiss, Spanair, SAS, South African Airways, etc. Hopefully they’ll come in the future. Unfortunately you need to be buying nearly a full fare ticket in order to use this option. Y and B coach fares…