I first wrote about Tom Stuker in 2009, and then again in 2011 when he crossed 10 million miles flown on United.
In 2009 he was flying 700,000 miles per year. By 2016 he had doubled that pace. And he’s only sped up.
I often say that you do not want to board first. You want to board ‘not last’ so that the plane hasn’t run out of overhead bin space by the time you get on. Boarding early is about one thing only: not having to gate check your carry on bag.
That’s why I absolutely love a quick overnight, and on a two night trip sometimes stretch myself to travel with just my laptop bag, so that I don’t need overhead bin space. I can show up at the airpprt later. I can work productively in the lounge. And I don’t have to rush boarding. As someone that values every 5 minutes in my day (I really do keep myself that busy), this matters to me.
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.
American AAdvantage has launched a promotion through end of year with the opportunity to earn 50,000 AAdvantage miles. And frankly it’s complicated.
I’ll probably earn 2000 miles but anyone buying miles with the current offer at under 2 cents a mile can earn a lot more.
I’ve created a table with the current active American Airlines mainline fleet, which consists of 945 aircraft. You can see how many seats are in each aircraft type, and how many of each type they have in service. The table is accurate as of today.
American’s mainline fleet currently consists of 330 first class seats; 16,562 business class or domestic first seats; 2283 premium economy seats; and 146,063 coach seats.
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.
A year ago Citibank added Avianca’s LifeMiles as a points transfer partner. Now American Express Membership Rewards has done so as well.
LifeMiles is a fantastic Star Alliance program. I have a few hundred thousand of their miles, and I’ve never used them to travel on Avianca. Instead I use them for premium cabin awards on airlines like Lufthansa, Asiana, and Thai Airways. And I use their cash and points awards to book United’s domestic first class.
If you’re flying American Airlines on a basic economy fare take note: starting December 12 customers with peanut allergies can board early so they have a chance to wipe down their seats. Delta allows this too.
By the way I don’t actually recommend misrepresenting your needs. I do think these loopholes speak to the absurdity of the restrictions themselves.
In yesterday’s earnings call Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson addressed how he thinks they’ve done integrating the Marriott and Starwood loyalty programs.
Just last week he referred to member frustrations as ‘noise around the edges’. He got into much greater detail with financial analysts.
SkyTeam member airline KLM, based in Amsterdam and acquired by Air France in 2004, sees Germany as its most important market but discovered that 46% of Germans don’t know what a KLM is.
The airline created a German ad campaign: We are an airline. But since their research showed that people assumed KLM was either a bank, radio station or restaurant, they opened those things.
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 »
