Category Archives for General.
British Airways is launching a new route, San Jose – London Heathrow, on May 4. It will be operated by a new Boeing 787-9. And business class award space is out of this world good for 2 passengers.
Ken F. emails me about a roundtrip first class fare on British Airways between Prague and Cancun that’s running ~ $800.
Two weeks ago it was revealed that Amtrak would introduce a revenue-based program. The new program goes into effect January 24. Initial details are now available.
It’s a revenue-based program so there are going to be no more outsize values for redemptions. You’re going to be getting a fairly consistent redemption rate per point, which will make some awards (where ticket cost is low) cheaper and other awards (where ticket cost is high) more expensive. The best value redemptions in the program therefore go away.
Ultimately this isn’t as bad as I feared, but also removes much of the excitement and leverage from the program. It will still be strategically useful for some.
Alaska Airlines is offering up to a 40% bonus when you purchase or gift miles.
That’s actually a pretty good deal compared to other airlines with similar bonuses, because the starting price on their points is lower.
Mitch shared a story of how he lost his iPhone right in front of his own eyes this week while flying first class on American Airlines from Los Angeles to New York JFK right behind Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones.
Southwest Airlines has a long history with alcohol, and not simply because their long-time Chairman Herb Kelleher had a thing for Wild Turkey.
Prior to deregulation in 1978, the Civil Aeronautics Board was ‘experimenting with price competition’ and airlines were allowed to cut their Dallas – Houston fare to $13 and undercut Southwest (which as an intra-state airline wasn’t subject to the CAB’s price regulation). Southwest responded by offering two fares: a $13 matching fare, and their previous $26 fare with which they threw in a fifth of liquor (customer’s choice). Folks expensing their tickets bought the higher fare, and Southwest Airlines became the biggest liquor distributor in the state of Texas.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Korea Herald carried a piece, “Asiana to remove nearly all its first-class seats” the upshot of which is that Asiana is losing money and plans to keep first class only on its Airbus A380 aircraft.
Back in November the ability to transfer Chase points to Korean was suspended. Chase let us know that this would come back. Korean Air said transfers would return in January and indeed they came back on January 25.
Unfortunately Korean Air now lists as ‘temporarily unavailable’ again on the Chase Ultimate Rewards website.
I read someone’s story yesterday about their American AAdvantage mileage account being compromised. Someone changed the address and email address on their account, and proceeded to book Cathay Pacific first class awards for someone else using their miles. They managed to catch it before any of the flights were taken.
This can happen to anyone, in this case the person who did it clearly obtained the account password. Changing the email address meant the accountholder wouldn’t get a copy of the tickets being issued, or mileage statements showing lower account balances.
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 »
