Category Archives for Airlines.
Last month Singapore Airlines announced new fare types going into effect January 20.
‘Economy lite’ fares — Singapore’s Basic Economy fare buckets Q, N, V, and K — aren’t just going to mean paid advance seat selection. While this wasn’t announced at the time, Singapore will also be imposing a 1.3% credit card surcharge to Economy Lite reservations originating in Singapore.
Southwest is giving every employee $1000, giving an additional $5 million to charity and exercising options for 40 Boeing 737 MAX 8 (“15 firm orders in 2019 and 25 firm orders in 2020”). They’re crediting the tax reform bill for the moves.
American Airlines is also giving each employee $1000. It’ll cost American Airlines about $130 million or almost twice what it will cost Southwest because of American’s size. American also credits the tax reform bill.
British Airways cuts have effectively destroyed its brand. What was once viewed as a quality international carrier is largely to be avoided when possible.
Here’s a leak of just how British Airways will cram more seats into short haul planes flying in and out of London Heathrow.
Delta will no longer allow Skymiles members (at least those members in the U.S.) to hold awards over the phone. If you book by phone, you have to ticket immediately. And booking over the phone just became more limited, as non-elites can only make telephone award reservations between 8am and 10pm Eastern. Holding awards for 48 hours is still possible online. Awards on Delta as well as parter airlines Hawaiian, Alaska, Continental, and Northwest are bookable online.. sort of, sometimes, when the website works and prices out awards correctly. Of course, that means that awards on other partners like Air France, Aeroflot, and Korean cannot be held at all. This is a really annoying change. Finding awards can be challenging at times. Sometimes it takes humans because the online technology is lacking. You find flights…
One Mile at a Time points to a Wall Street Journal piece on the coming three-tiered structure of the Delta Skymiles redemption program. Earlier in the month I wrote that the coming three-tiered structure would be bringing back ‘last seat availability’ to the Skymiles program; that the highest third tier would mean more miles but at least true redemption for any seat, as offered by most other frequent flyer programs. Delta’s earlier removal of this option was a real affront, but the hope was that this was temporary. The Wall Street Journal piece, though, either misrepresents the coming change or suggests that Delta won’t be bringing back last seat availability. Delta also plans to increase the number of “tiers” in its SkyMiles plan this spring. Instead of offering domestic tickets for either 25,000 or 50,000…
Tim Winship makes a point about Delta’s new miles as money option for award tickets that I neglected to mention: that the tickets you ‘buy’ at one cent per point are treated as award, rather than paid, tickets. In other words, they don’t earn miles and they can’t be upgraded. Still, Winship concludes [T]he increased flexibility, transparency, and convenience provided by Pay with Miles will be welcomed by many SkyMiles members and sets a new industry standard for award availability. Now, as I mentioned previously, United already offers Choices — a similar program for Mileage Plus members with a co-branded Visa credit card. So it’s hardly a new industry standard being pioneered by Delta. Of course, holders of the Delta American Express card can use all their miles in this program, rather than just the…
Following yesterday’s 15% off on American flights to the Los Angeles area, American is also offering 15% off on flights from California to everywhere they fly with promotion code CALIGO. Flights must be booked before January 23, 2008 for travel through March 13, 2008, and cannot include flights on February 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24.
Promo code DFHOLLYWDGO is valid for 15% off American Airlines one-way or roundtrip flights to Los Angeles, Burbank, Orange County, and Ontario. Book by January 22 for travel between February 26, 2008 and April 30, 2008 (excluding March 14-16, March 21-25, or March 28-31). Valid for coach only, up to six passengers on one reservation.
American is offering progressive bonuses for London flights — each successive roundtrip of the same fare type earns more bonus miles than the last. Registration required. First/Business Class (booked in F, P, J, A, D, or I) Economy Class (booked in Y, B, H, or K) Discounted Economy Class (booked in L, M, N, S, or V) First Round Trip 10,000 miles 5,000 miles 2,500 miles Second Round Trip 20,000 more miles 10,000 more miles 5,000 more miles Third Round Trip 30,000 more miles 15,000 more miles 7,500 more miles Three business class roundtrips earn 60,000 bonus miles. Three lowest coach fare roundtrips earn 7500 bonus miles. One business class roundtrip and one discount coach roundtrip earns 12,500 miles (10,000 + 2500). Tickets must be purchased and flown between January 11, 2008, and May 15, 2008.
For travel between January 1 and March 12, American AAdvantage is offering discounted redemption on Iberia, the best deals being business class from either Boston or Washington, DC to Madrid for 60,000 miles instead of the usual 90,000. If only my plans were taking me to Spain in March instead of April!
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 »
