News and notes from around the interweb: The frequent flyer program with the single best award chart. High-end all-Audi rental car company Silvercar (see $9 Audi Car Rentals from Silvercar and How I Made $12 On My Audi Rental Car and How You Can Too) has increased their referral offer to $100. Here’s my referral code. You’re welcome to leave yours in the comments. Virgin Australia and Alaska Airlines award space appears to be back on the Delta.com website. So rather than a plot to prevent members from booking seats (either to keep Skymiles members off frenemy Alaska, and save money on Australia awards) it does look to have been a temporary glitch. There is so far a single report that Aeroplan may not be honoring it’s amazing award sale, where you could book travel…
General
Category Archives for General.
The Second Worst Miles Just Became Even Worse
I tend to think that Spirit Airlines has the worse miles. Spirit’s miles expire after 90 days of inactivity unless you have their co-branded credit card and charge to it every month (although presumably charging somewhat less frequently can meet the 90 day requirement). Some airlines have close-in redemption fees. Spirit’s fees start within 180 days of travel. They do not have redemption partners. The reward for traveling on Spirit is… more travel on Spirit. Although – at least – you can redeem miles for magazines. I think of Virgin Atlantic as having the second-worst miles. We can debate this, of course. Icelandair miles, post-elimination of their Alaska Airlines partnership, are pretty useless (but not completely useless). And there are few programs I dislike dealing with more than Aeromexico’s. But among mainstream programs that US…
Introductions to Miles, to Credit, and to Buying and Selling Merchandise for Miles
News and notes from around the interweb: Great guide for beginners in the hobby: My friend Mommy Points has launched an introductory series of e-books. I previewed Hawaii for Nearly Free in the draft stage and think it’s a really good place for beginners to start — it’s a clear explanation of many of the concepts of miles and points, and shows you how to think about putting together a trip to a real world destination, how to earn the miles and how to use them. If you’re new to miles and points, check them out. How average age of accounts is calculated and affects your credit score. I also offer a fairly in-depth discussion of how your credit score works when you apply for credit cards (and why applying for cards can sometimes even…
Free 8000 Spirit Airlines Miles Still Available, and What You Hate Most About Airlines Revealed
Back in July Spirit Airlines launched a promotion that only they could pull off. You could tell them what you hate about an airline, and they’d give you 8000 free points for it. Of course, 8000 miles in the Spirit program isn’t 8000 miles as you usually think of them. Spirit’s miles expire after 90 days of inactivity unless you have their co-branded credit card and charge to it every month (although presumably charging somewhat less frequently can meet the 90 day requirement). Some airlines have close-in redemption fees. Spirit’s fees start within 180 days of travel. They do not have redemption partners. The reward for traveling on Spirit is… more travel on Spirit. About the most valuable thing you can get for them is magazines. Of course, Spirit Airlines credit card holders can use…
More Details Revealed About American AAdvantage Program 2015
I asked American for clarification on a few things that readers wanted to know about the new AAdvantage program, when Dividend Miles gets integrated into AAdvantage during the second quarter of 2015. The new program will keep American’s “stickers” or e-upgrades for domestic travel. Top tier elite members get unlimited complimentary upgrades, while Gold and Platinum elites get unlimited complimentary upgrades on flights up to 500 miles and will earn free upgrades based on their flying for use on longer flights. Historically there’s been a ‘grace period’ so that flyers wouldn’t have to use an extra certificate for ‘going over’. It’s been discussed that the grace period goes away, and American confirms this. I asked Whether 500 mile e-upgrades will no longer have a “buffer” (a 508 mile flight will require 2 certificates) and whether…
A Totally New Award Chart Coming to a Star Alliance Amex Membership Rewards Partner: The Good and the Bad
Yesterday commenter TJ flagged that ANA is introducing a new zone-based award chart effective April 12. The only problem is that I haven’t found an English-version of the announcement, and have been on travel and time-constrained. We care because ANA: Is a Star Alliance member, so their miles can be used on a variety of partner flights Their website is in general the best for booking Star Alliance awards, showing award space on on all Star partners. They are an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, so lots of US folks have access to their miles. The current distance-based award chart has some fantastic values. Fortunately both Travel is Free and Points with a Crew are unpacking what the changes mean. Bottom-line is that at the margin there will be some great values that disappear,…
Turns Out Hyatt’s Elite Status Challenge is NOT Gone For Good…
On Monday it was being reported that the Hyatt Diamond challenge had ended. Hyatt was exceptionally generous in that they were willing to give elite members of other hotel chains temporary top tier status, while offering an expedited way to keep that status. And they even gave these temporary Diamond full confirmed suite upgrades as though they had earned the status for a year. This was exceptionally game-able. Plenty of folks signed up for a credit card that gave them Hilton Gold status and leveraged that into Hyatt Diamond — maybe transferred some points into Hyatt from Chase Ultimate Rewards, booked cash and points award stays, upgraded them to suites at booking and enjoyed free breakfasts during their stays. Hyatt confirmed yesterday that the Diamond challenge offer was discontinued on October 31. With the confirmation,…
Snap! That Won’t Work… The War On Water Has Been Won, But We Still Keep Fighting…
I’ve written that the flight I fear the most are United’s Hong Kong routes in economy. I wouldn’t much love American’s Hong Kong – Dallas in back either. Hong Kong airport isn’t an ally in the War on Water. Since you can take water through their checkpoints, there’s an additional security check at the gate or on the jetway for all US-bound flights and all US airline flights (regardless of destination, for instance I’ve experienced it Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City on United). The same applies to Australia flights. You can buy water in the airport, but it will be confiscated from you upon boarding. So you’re reliant upon the airline’s flight attendants to stay hydrated flying super long haul. I always wanted to freeze water and take it through a TSA checkppint…
A Website Everyone Should Know About to Keep Programs Honest
Hilton is the hotel program that devalued the most in 2013. Now, instead of showing members a list of all of the hotels changing categories in a single shot, they make changes as they go. And in the name of transparency, they just post hotel redemption category changes to a web page throughout the year. They don’t give notice to members of changes on that page. So I always try to keep a keen eye on it. Today I got notice that the Hilton Garden Inn New York-Times Square Central drops from Hilton HHonors category 9 to category 8 effective this coming Monday, November 11. Not a big change, and the only one just posted as I write this. But supposedly posting to this page was meant to increase transparency. How, exactly? Are members supposed…
Priceline Isn’t the Company You Think it Is
Marketplace interviewed me for this morning’s coverage of Priceline’s earnings report. “It’s not just William Shatner, but the whole company has to boldly go where no travel company has gone before,” says Gary Leff, who writes the viewfromthewing.com blog. “They haven’t quite figured out how to teleport themselves into the future of online travel.” Leff says Priceline’s third quarter earnings report will give a glimpse of the success of the company’s strategy of growth through the acquisition of other companies. Priceline as a company bears almost no relation to the brand that you think of — William Shatner, bidding for hotels and airfare. At one point years ago they were going to revolutionize travel — and everything else. They were going to be the platform to liquidate excess unsold inventory well beyond room nights and…
