In late September American accidentally published new, reduced mileage-earning rates for discounted British Airways and Iberia tickets on their foreign websites. The changes were supposedly going into effect October 1.
The changes disappeared and then re-appeared on the American website in early November, with an effective date of February 1. So we were given three months’ notice of changes.
Except there are more changes for the month of January only..!
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 Airlines doesn’t fly to Africa. American Airlines doesn’t have a lot of partners flying to Africa. As a general matter, American and their partners aren’t ideal for most Africa flying although their Qatar Airways partnership does help here.
Fortunately there’s a new way to use American miles to Africa… and surprising availability for an old way.
United did a tie-in a year ago with Hertz, and now even gives Hertz status to United elites and premium co-brand credit card holders.
Currently though they’re offering a 2000 mile rebate when you redeem miles for Hertz car rentals completed by April 30.
Friday night’s American Airlines Dallas – Buenos Aires hit severe turbulence. I heard that flight attendants hit the ceiling and that they were even hospitalized. I asked American about the flight.
Most of the time severe turbulence comes with warning, either from other aircraft or because it isn’t completely sudden. That means the pilot has the opportunity to turn on the seat belt sign and warn passengers. However severe turbulence does happen without warning. And while it isn’t usually a danger to the aircraft, it’s certainly a danger to passengers.
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.
Road warriors and frequent travelers carry noise cancelling headphones. The noise of the aircraft makes it tough to hear sound from the movies on your device, or music, at any reasonable volume without a good pair of headphones. And they help to tune out the world.
The gold standard Bose QC25 headphones are expensive. Amazon though now has them for the lowest price I’ve seen.
Apparently they have a significant problem with pilots leaving the airline. 98 pilots quit to join other airlines between April 2014 and October 2015. Pilots get their training, and then leave to go work for another airline because who wants to fly for Air India?
So Air India has taken the bold step of firing 3 co-pilots who have already left the airline, in a move that they say will somehow deter pilots from quitting.
Lufthansa has added several new long haul leisure destinations include Mauritius, the Maldives, and Cancun — on top of recent new flights to Tampa and Nairobi.
Flights to the Maldives generally, and with Star Alliance miles in particular, used to be really tough to get as recently as four years ago. There was once-weekly Austrian service from Vienna (that’s now been upgauged to a Boeing 777 and flies twice weekly). Otherwise you’d fly Singapore Airlines or you’d Thai Airways to Colombo, Sri Lanka and buy the short flight to Malé.
Earlier in the week I wrote about 3 Boeing 747-200 cargo planes that had seemingly been abandoned at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The airport had taken out an ad seeking the owner of the planes, indicating that if the owner wasn’t found the aircraft could be sold off to cover the costs incurred to the airport for having stored them there.
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 »
