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.
Barclaycard has upped the signup bonus on their AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard to 60,000 miles after first purchase (annual fee is not waived first year).
They’re also experimenting with a new program that lets you earn miles faster. I logged into my account today — I have an Aviator Silver card that lets you earn elite qualifying miles for spend, you can’t apply directly for it but have to upgrade an Aviator Red — and found an offer for a new program they’re testing.
Canadian discounter Air Transat is offering roundtrip business class flights from Canada to Europe starting at $722. Fly coach for as little as $141.
The Hirsch Airline Miles Settlement is open for registration. File by November 27th and get up to $245.
Calls are recorded for quality assurance. Of course airlines can pull up calls when it suits them, they don’t do it on demand for customers, and when we push those calls often can’t be found or recordings are corrupted.
A subpeona could change that.
Singapore Airlines will take delivery of a new Airbus A380 later this year with its new first class product.
That was expected to happen in October, but it’s been delayed. However they’re going to reveal all new products for their four cabins on November 2.
Last year a drunk passenger caused a diversion to Denver after bringing his own booze onboard and shouting “we’re all gonna die.” After inconveniencing a plane full of passengers and costing the airline significant amounts in crew time and fuel you’d think there might be consequences… but you’d be wrong. Alaska Airlines described the matter simply as “a customer service issue.” Earlier in the year A United flight from San Francisco to Sydney diverted to Auckland and passengers had to spend a day there because of a passenger who went off on a racist rant and threatened crew when he didn’t want to sit next to two Southeast Asians. He wasn’t charged. Flight diversions happen all the time, sometimes for weather or mechanical issues and occasionally for passenger health reasons. But when a plane load…
The Trump administration has agreed to settle the first lawsuit filed “against the so-called “Muslim ban,” according to a release from the ACLU.
It’s always worth registering, in this case if only to find out what your offer is. I value Starpoints at 2.3 cents apiece so 7500 points is worth $172.50 to me. That’s not a bad rebate on top of usual points earning and any other quarterly promotion Starwood announces for, say, two 2 night stays (in Lucky’s case).
You want to be registered in any case because it’s easiest to do it when the offer is in front of you, you’ll never remember to go back and register later if it turns out you had more Starwood says coming up than you expected.
A man took his Hunter Thompson a little too seriously to heart at the Sonesta Resort in Hilton Head recently. He wasn’t feeling well “after taking a cocktail of drugs including hallucinogenic mushrooms” so he decided to crash on property.
He proceeded to stay for three days going about his business “pretending he was with the previous guests who had already checked out, and enjoyed room service and spa treatments.”
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 »
