News and notes from around the interweb: On Thursday I wrote that upgrades are no longer a good use of miles but noted a handful of exceptions — one of the biggest being British Airways upgrades from premium economy to business class. Here’s a great discussion of the exceptional value these upgrades offer, and how to get them. Macaulay Culkin Snaps, Then Checks Into an Ibis Hotel. If he picked Ibis because of free Le Club Accorhotels Platinum status, he was sorely disappointed, the program doesn’t offer upgrade benefits with Ibis… Virgin Australia frequent flyer cards will become mileage-earning prepaid Visa cards. Loyalty Lobby has the scoop on the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles 25% discount on award redemptions for travel through end of May. Vanity Fair takes on the New York Times‘ ’36 Hours In…” features…
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Category Archives for General.
Is Starwood About to Reduce the Points to Miles Transfer Ratio with LAN?
Chinese-language blogger Troy gives me the heads up that Starwood points appear to be transferring to LAN at 1 to 1.5, instead of the usual 1 to 2. The Starwood page listing transfers still shows that 1 Starpoint yields 2 LAN points (20,000 Starpoints transfer to 50,000 LAN kilometers with bonuses). Here’s the confirmation e-mail he received, though, showing the reduced rate when he made a transfer. I tried to make a transfer earlier today to test things and the website wasn’t working properly for me, instead of bringing me to the confirmation page it would dump me into my account summary. But things seem to be working again, and the confirmation screen shows the usual 1:2 ratio for LAN. So I don’t know if Troy’s experience is a glitch, or if Starwood is in…
Instant Top Tier Platinum Status for new Le Club Accorhotels Signups
Instant Platinum (top tier) status in the Accor Hotels loyalty program comes around with some frequency, each time it does the signup link won’t stay active for long — sometimes a couple of days, sometimes just hours. Here’s a current offer for instant Platinum status. (HT: Loyalty Lobby) Note that the signup page is just a signup page, no indication on that page that accounts will start at the Platinum level, but indeed it’s currently working as of this writing. You must open a new account, it cannot be applied to existing accounts. And when you do so you must use an email address that’s not currently on file with them. Even if you don’t frequently stay at Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, and other related properties frequently, you never know when you might find yourself…
Looking at the Future of Frequent Flyer Programs By Watching Experiments in Europe and the Middle East
Etihad Guest is one of the most innovative programs in terms of monetizing their product and their frequent flyer program. They offer a bidding system for flight upgrades. They also offer LoyLogic’s PointsPay system where you essentially carry your points with you in you wallet and use them to buy whatever you wish — though never as good a value as using miles for flights. When points are redeemed for flights they are both a rebate and leveraging deep discounts the program makes on the bulk purchase of inventory which would otherwise spoil. When points are used as cash to buy other things, they’re just the rebate without the leverage. It’s useful to look at the experimentation that programs around the world are engaged in. While the US has historically been the leader in frequent…
$100 Statement Credit and 25,000 for Alaska Airlines Visa
Here’s the application link. It can’t hurt to take a screen shot of the offer when signing up for the card, since it isn’t intended to be marketed broadly, though I’d be surprised if there’s any difficulty in having the offer automatically honored — it’s clearly stated on the application page what you’re supposed to get. Ben describes how he got the offer to come up (hat tipping one of his commenters): going through a purchase of an Alaska Airlines ticket either not logged in or at a minimum if logged in, without already earning points through a card, and then finding the link on the confirmation screen after you’ve purchased a ticket. 25,000 bonus miles on approval, no minimum spend A $75 annual fee but a $100 statement credit after $1,000 in purchases within…
Are International Upgrades Still the Best Use of Frequent Flyer Miles?
I wrote a short piece last year for Conde’ Nast on why the conventional wisdom for getting the best value out of your miles has changed over the past several years. It used to be that the best use of miles was for international upgrades (buying a coach ticket and using miles to upgrade to business class). And for the most part that’s no longer true at all because upgrades have gotten much more expensive, and international award tickets have gotten much easier to book. Those two developments, in most cases, flip the value proposition between upgrades and award tickets. It’s easier to book alliance and partner award tickets. Upgrades have gotten more difficult to snag, but the growth of airline alliances has made it simpler to mix and match partner airlines on a single…
Bits ‘n Pieces for April 18, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Virgin American is offering up to a 40% bonus on purchased points through May 7. Last month’s 80% offer piqued my interest but I still wasn’t quite a buyer. 40% only makes sense to top off an account with close to enough points for a high value award. Australian Frequent Flyer has the scoop on two stackable 15% discounts for flights to and from certain markets. Nearly 30% off of paid business class would be a huge discount (on a still expensive ticket!). American is proactively handing out lots of miles to customers who may have been affected by Tuesdays travel disruptions. A non-status colleague traveling on a domestic award ticket was offered 1500 points, reports of Executive Platinums with 7500 point offers, which seems reasonable for their…
Only in New York (Since it’s Illegal to Just Start a Taxi for People)
Since the number of cabs is strictly limited, no new licenses to operate one are granted, if you want to drive you can either become a licensed black car or… I doubt very many of their customers, though, can successfully flag this cab down, or dial them to pre-arrange a ride.
TSA PreCheck Becomes Actually Useful, and Not Merely Awesome
Computer doesn’t have to come out of the case (mine doesn’t normally, since I use a bag the TSA permits through the screener as-is anyway). Liquids don’t have to come out (I rarely take mine out anywway). Shoes stay on (hallelujah!) And most significantly, perhaps, there’s usually no line and even if there was the lack of a security theatre drill, let alone nude-o-scope to opt out of, means things move very quickly. TSA’s PreCheck is like going through airport security before airport security was federalized. It’s a humane process. Not quite as civilized as going through security screening in Lufthansa’s first class terminal, perhaps (the screeners there assist me with my jacket). But it’s still… civilized, almost. But even though PreCheck makes airport security so much faster to go through, I’ve argued that it’s…
Strategies for Responding to Today’s American Airlines System Problems
Scott Mayerowitz wrote a piece for the Associated Press on what to do if you were stranded by American Airlines today. I’m fortunate that I wasn’t flying today and I’m grateful not to be caught up in the mess, so far about 20% of the schedule cancelled — and even though systems are back up no doubt the final total will be much higher due to out of position aircraft and crew who ultimately time out. Certainly my thoughts go out to everyone affected by the delays and other inconveniences that in many ways mimic the effects of a big snowstorm — not what you expect in April. And of course I felt like I had a bit of egg on my face after writing about how important it is that a merged American-US Airways…
