Wow: Southwest’s Companion Pass is Now a Targeted Signup Bonus

by Gary Leff

plane-rewards-card
Oct 09 2017

Alaska’s acquisition of Virgin America catapults the West Coast into a hot contest. Alaska and Southwest are bulking up on routes. Alaska has said that the economics of the deal will work out because of the strength of their credit card deal with Bank of America. Southwest wants California cardmembers as well.

And they’re doing something interesting about it. Southwest is emailing a targeted offer to at least some California-registered Rapid Rewards members with a Companion Pass as part of the signup bonus.

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Turkey Has Stopped Issuing Visas as President Erdoğan Declares “I Know You Are But What Am I?”

by Gary Leff

escalator with turkish airlines logo on side
Oct 08 2017

A US diplomatic employee was detained in Turkey last week claiming links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen whom it claims was responsible for the July 2016 coup attempt against Turkish strongman President Erdoğan.

That set off a chain reaction that now has Turkey refusing to provide non-immigration visa services inside the U.S. and, it seems, refusing to provide e-Visas to US passport holders.

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Reminder: TSA Admitted No Attempts to Hijack Planes and No Active Threats in the U.S.

by Gary Leff

security line
Oct 08 2017

“As of mid-2011, terrorist threat groups present in the Homeland are not known to be actively plotting against civil aviation targets or airports; instead, their focus is on fundraising, recruiting, and propagandizing,

…the government concedes that it would be difficult to have a repeat of 9/11 due to hardened cockpit doors and the willingness of passengers to challenge hijackers rather than assume a hijacking merely means a diversion to Cuba.”

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Fare Alert: Business Class to Australia Wide Open, West Coast – Sydney $2602 Roundtrip

by Gary Leff

Oct 07 2017

There’s been a rush of Chinese airlines squatting on routes to the U.S., because historically China has only allowed one of the country’s airlines to fly a given international route. That may change, but in the meantime we have service like Xiamen Airlines Los Angeles – Xiamen.

And as you can imagine these flights don’t sell out. So there are occasionally fantastic fares, to see China or to connect beyond China. In this case you can fly most any time between the US and Australia for $2600 roundtrip in business class. Or $1300 to China!

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