News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Six things that every smart traveler should do this month. My contribution to Wendy Perrin’s Conde’ Nast list was to redeem US Airways miles for travel on Star Alliance airlines before they depart for oneworld at the end of the month. Inside the World of Mileage Runners from finance site Minyanville. They offer my case that mileage runners can be profitable for an airline, remembering the ‘Baht Run’ and giving props to wanaflyforless (whose name doesn’t appear in the piece) for making Executive Platinum on American in 17 days plus a shout out to The Flight Deal. American opened a new club in Philadelphia located in Terminal A-East between gates A4 and A6. That brings US Airways/American to 4 clubs in Philadelphia. British Airways has a club there…
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Category Archives for General.
SriLankan Airlines Set to Join the oneworld Alliance May 1
SriLankan now has an official joining date of May 1 for entry into oneworld, making them an alliance partner of American (and US Airways) as well as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and more. And they’re a great addition to oneworld for frequent flyers. With American you’ll be able to include them in AAdvantage distance-based oneworld awards, for instance flying over the Atlantic and connecting in Europe to Asia, or including them on trips to the Maldives or India and Pakistan. Bangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Tiruchirappalli in India as well as Male in the Maldives are short hops from Colombo, Sri Lanka that will only cost 4500 British Airways points each way. (Of course many of these short hops are also quite inexpensive to buy.) In Europe SriLankan flies to Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Paris, and…
Delta Releases Its New 5-Tier Award Charts: What They Mean For Travelers
Delta announced their new revenue-based points-earning scheme last week, and curiously absent was details of what changes were going to look like on the redemption side of the equation. Delta had told us there would be a five tier redemption chart, unlike two tiers that most programs have and three tiers that Delta has had since 2008. But that they wouldn’t reveal the specifics until the fourth quarter of the year. Delta Made the Right Decision to Come Clean on Their Award Chart Changes I’ve been highly critical of Delta for the decision to hold back details of changes to their award chart. You can’t evaluate a program knowing only how points are earned. Redemption is 50% of the equation. Members are earning points now that they will redeem next year, and Delta wouldn’t tell…
Delta’s Revenue-Based Points Earning Should Mean Fewer Points From Flying, But More Points Overall
We’re likely to see fewer (base) miles earned by flying at Delta with their new revenue-based points-earning scheme. But we’re also likely to see more miles earned overall in 2015 than we see in 2014 and than were earned in 2013. Net net I expect rewarding miles based on ticket price to mean fewer miles earned in total from butt-in-seat flying. With a ‘break-even’ average of 20 cents per mile in ticket price to earn the same number of miles in 2015 as in 2014, and with Delta earning less than 20 cents per seat mile on average, they should be printing fewer miles. In order to average 20 cents per seat mile across passengers, they’d need ‘passenger revenue per available seat mile’ to be 16 cents at a systemwide 80% load factor for the…
W Hotel Store 60% Off (Including Mattresses), Best Prices I’ve Ever Seen
The W Hotel Store is offering 60% off of everything with promo code W6EM9. In December and in October they ran 50% off, and that caused prices to be about the same as when I purchased my bed from them in March 2007 prior to a price increase. 60% is better, of course. I’ve found my queen bed plush top with feather bed to have been a good purchase. I chose the ‘plush top’ rather than pillow top mattress and it’s lasted wonderfully, though I’ve since changed out the feather bed. (There are reports that the pillow top version won’t last as long, that it has a ‘memory’ or rather it wears out more quickly.) In my experience W Hotel Store purchases post as double points earning when paying with a Starwood Preferred Guest American…
3000 Bonus Miles for a Hotel Booking With Rocketmiles
Rocketmiles is a hotel booking site with a limited number of hotels and in a limited – but growing – number of cities. It rebates you a potentially large number of miles for your reservations. (You generally won’t earn hotel points for your stays booked through the site.) You get to choose whose miles you want to earn for your stays. In addition to the standard bonus they are now offering a 3000 mile bonus in your choice of mileage program for completing your first booking by April 11. I had thought that the 3000 mile bonus in your choice of program offer for making a first-time booking with Rocketmiles had expired at the end of 2013, but Tim R. pointed out to me that it’s still available. Key terms: Qualifying Activity: To qualify for…
Delta Is Releasing Their 2015 Award Redemption Chart Early!
A frequent flyer program is equal parts earning and redemption. Delta’s new revenue-based frequent flyer program has only shared details of how miles will be earned — based on the money you spend, rather than the miles you fly (time spent with an airline on their planes) — and not how miles will be spent. As a result we really don’t know the impact of the changes. Delta had said they would release the award redemption half of the program during the last quarter. They’ve had their new redemption chart, but they had planned to keep it a secret. Their members would fly all year, saving points to redeem next year, but not knowing how much those points are worth. Word today — three different people had shared with me by the end of the…
Delta’s New Mileage-Earning System Will Cap the Number of Miles Earned On Expensive Tickets – Won’t Reward High Value Customers After All
Delta’s mileage-earning details page for the new Skymiles program going into effect January 1 detail how miles will be earned based on fare paid, instead of miles flown. And it has some interesting details about why customers buying the most expensive tickets won’t do so well, after all. I outlined Delta’s changes last week. The talking point from Delta is that their most valuable customers will be rewarded, while people paying the lowest fares will get reliable transportation (and, cough, very few miles). They’re changing the redemption side of things too. They haven’t told us how yet. That makes many flyers even more nervous than the changes in mileage-earning from flying. But I’ve already shown that many business travelers flying expensive tickets won’t earn more miles than they currently do — it’s flyers only on…
The Feds Flying First, Fuel Dumps Explained, Plinking Office Supply Stores After March 11, and Lufthansa’s New Premium Economy (Bits ‘n Pieces for March 5, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: The US federal government spent at least $8.7 million on 1,903 premium cabin trips over 2 years. Though the report is meant to spark outrage, I’m surprised the amounts are so low. Regular readers won’t see me as a defender of the US federal government — but if you believe the government functions involved are appropriate, then premium cabin travel may sometimes be appropriate as well. I certainly don’t begrudge business class to South Africa and Kuwait. (HT: @esoskin) Lufthansa is adding premium economy to its long haul fleet. Seats will have 38 inch pitch (think domestic first class) and a bit over an extra inch of width. Conversions are expected to be complete by early 2015. Passengers will receive plated meals, an extra checked bag, and an…
100% Bonus on Transferred Miles is Back!
No, not from US Airways. Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 100% bonus on miles transferred between accounts through March 17. They charge 1.5 cents per mile to transfer points from your account to another member, and with this bonus every mile transferred will be matched by an additional mile. That means you can combine miles between accounts and effectively buy additional miles at 1.5 cents apiece. To take advantage of this offer you need to already have miles in a LifeMiles account, and you can transfer up to 50,000 miles per year between accounts. Avianca is taking over the mantle from US Airways as the official consolidator of premium cabin Star Alliance award seats, offering their miles for sale at a discount on a regular basis and at an even…
