If you have Singapore Airlines miles first class awards turn out to be easy to book — on their old 777 product from Los Angeles, and flying Airbus A380s all over the world. Provided of course that the A380 doesn’t touch the U.S. (New York JFK – Frankfurt) and isn’t their newest product.
And Singapore Airlines business class awards are frequently very available too and that’s true even on U.S. routes, especially from Houston and Los Angeles.
United Airlines President Scott Kirby is probably the most interesting airline executive to listen to in the country because he lays out his thinking clearly in public. I think most everything he does is bad for his customers. But he has a model for how the world works and he defends it. He spoke today at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference.
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I’m just back from flying ANA roundtrip first class Houston – Tokyo which I booked for 120,000 Virgin Atlantic miles per person.
Since I’m writing now about my ANA first class experience and overall trip to Tokyo and Shanghai it seemed to make sense to write about just how easy it is to book the seats currently.
Under American’s rules they make you give up your AAdvantage elite benefits if you fly American using miles from a partner frequent flyer program. A 100,000 mile AAdvantage Executive Platinum using British Airways points to fly on American isn’t supposed to get any of the benefits of their status — from priority boarding, to checked bags, to seat assignments.
There are two important and often-overlooked items in American’s frequent flyer rules,
Singapore Airlines used to fly the world’s longest flight, Newark – Singapore, along with what at the time was the second longest flight Los Angeles – Singapore. They held the title from June 2004 through November 2013, operating these services with flying gas cans Airbus A340-500s. It’s hard to make ultra long haul flying work. A flight scheduled at over 18 hours is going to require a dedicated aircraft in each direction, and fares are going to have to cover that plane’s full costs. With fuel prices up that’s even more difficult since they burned over 58,000 gallons of fuel in each direction. The flight used 14 cabin crew and six pilots to make the journey. Singapore initially offered 64 business class and 117 extra legroom coach seats but moved to an all business class…
A couple of years ago I wrote that the Department of Homeland Security wants hotel desk clerks to snitch on guests as possible sex traffickers based on a set of behavior that could match that of plenty of guests.
Airline flight attendants are being asked to do the same thing.
I don’t like to see these increases. I’m saddened by them. But I still see the Mileage Bank as a strategically useful program. Their first class award prices remain better than many competitors, and that doesn’t even get into short haul business awards which are less than US airlines generally charge for coach.
Just a few days ago I asked if Centurion lounges have gotten so crowded no one goes there anymore. The lounges are nice, an improvement on their US airline lounge alternatives. They’re stylish spaces with decent food and beverage programs.
Ultimately there are too many people who have been eligible to use the lounges, who have wanted to use the lounges, relative to the size of the lounges. There’s only so much they can do to expand capacity in the airports they work in (and larger lounges are going to attract more people who still stay longer, since currently some people – like me – often stay away precisely due to the crowding).
Three years ago I described Cuba flights as a new opportunity for airlines to lose money.
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 »
