French Polynesia is one of the toughest awards in the world to book. In part that’s because there are only four flights between the U.S. mainland and Tahiti, and because three of those aren’t even operated more than 3 times a week.
It’s a desirable destination, perhaps one of the most naturally beautiful in the world. And right now you can book 2 business class award seats on about half the dates between now and end of the airline schedules.
The Sheraton Taipei is offering a coupon worth about $3.28 at CVS in exchange for your returning unused single use personal amenities. They pitch this as a green initiative much like declining housekeeping for points.
Airbus now is poised for a big win because United is poised to order 50 Airbus A321XLR long range narrowbodies. Since the order is being reported at $7.1 billion we can assume it’s roughly half that. Deliveries would be slated to begin in 2024.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The Premium Flights site flags that all three alliances – airlines with Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and oneworld – are running great fares from New York to Europe. I’m seeing $1943 roundtrip in business class, though Premium Fares suggests some fares as low as “starting at 1635$.”
These are available to Brussels; Amsterdam; Barcelona; Madrid; Milan; Rome; Lisbon; and Vienna.
HNA Group has been under pressure from China to divest itself of assets and pay down debt. It had racked up over $100 billion in borrowing as it went on a worldwide acquisitions spree. However it has lacked cash to invest in its businesses. And some businesses have found it difficult to make interest payments or even – like Hong Kong Airlines – to pay employees and for fuel.
Hong Kong regulators have been inspecting Hong Kong Airlines for safety every couple of days, given its financial struggles, and finally gave them mere days to come up with cash or risk having the government shut them down. The deadline is Saturday.
The Department of Homeland Security, along with several airlines, have been testing ‘biometric boarding’ at airports around the country. Error rates are significant as are system outages.
A year ago we learned DHS planned to require all citizens to have their photos taken in order to leave the country. Now it’s become officially part of the agency’s regulatory agenda.
United’s new PointsPlus upgrade program – which replaces regional and global confirmed upgrade certificates – is scheduled to launch on Wednesday.
Overnight on Tuesday nights the ability to confirm upgrades with existing regional and global certificates will be frozen in preparation for this launch. Then upgrades should re-open on Wednesday with a bank of points replacing existing upgrade certificates, and the ability to use those points in a more granular manner.
On Friday American Airlines flight 3508 from Pensacola to Miami returned to the Pensacola airport when a passenger on board said she had a medical emergency. Only there was no medical emergency. She just wanted an upgrade.
I’ve been a BankDirect checking account customer since July 2003 and I’ve earned hundreds of thousands of American Airlines miles from the account as a result. While some people have used the account to earn miles as an investment return in a low interest environment, I’ve just used it as a… checking account.
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 »
