Aug 25 2016

There used to be an American Airlines Admirals Club on the “E” concourse of the Miami airport. Nearly all of American’s flights out of Miami depart from D these days, so the Admirals Club closed in E. There are still some American flights out of E, and some oneworld partner flights, so the lounge was re-opened several years ago as a shared oneworld lounge though officially it’s designated the “premium lounge.”

However, the American Airlines club newsletter reminded of a recent change to this policy. Admirals Club members can now access this premium lounge which has ample seating as well as better food and liquor.

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Aug 25 2016

There’s truly fantastic Virgin Atlantic business class award space between Seattle and London.

Virgin Atlantic takes over the route from Delta on March 26, and will operate it with a Boeing 787-9. Flights are timed wonderfully for connecting from other West Coast cities to Seattle; for spending the full day in Seattle before departure; for connecting beyond London; as well as connecting down the West Coast on arrival back in the States.

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Aug 24 2016

A couple of weeks ago rent paying service Radpad announced they would facilitate paying your rent for free with a credit card through end of year using AndroidPay.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that Chase cards didn’t support AndroidPay. So it was great for some other issuers (although Amex cards seem not to be working), but not Chase products.

And just as Chase is about to start working… RadPad pulls the plug.

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Aug 24 2016

Marriott announced today that they have a new partnership to allow mileage earning with and points transfers to Korean Air SKYPASS.

This is fantastic on many levels. Hopefully adding partners and features of Starwood Preferred Guest into Marriott Rewards will continue because the merger remains likely to close.

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Aug 24 2016

Even pre-Snowden we knew that the government was collecting and storing our cell phone geolocation data. And data mining grocery store discount cards. And using license plate readers on traffic cameras to track our movements.

How would you feel about giving that information to corporations, too, for marketing purposes?

What if they threw you a few miles to do it?

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Aug 24 2016

Fares across the Atlantic have been low for a variety of reasons: too much capacity from the major airlines, low fuel prices that support this, and increased competition from low cost airlines like Norwegian and Wow Air.

AirfareSpot highlights fares to Europe starting at $281 but there’s a trick to get the pricing even lower.

Norwegian has their flights from New York JFK to Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm on sale during low season of January through mid-March at a super deep discount. You can visit these cities when it’s cheap, or use these flights as a jumping off point to travel elsewhere in Europe. (I’m seeing Paris from $347, still a great deal and I actually like visiting Paris in winter.)

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Aug 24 2016

It’s almost impossible to sue an airline except for violations of federal law and explicit breaches of contracts (and they write the contracts). State contract claims like duties of good faith and fair dealing are pre-empted by the Airline Deregulation Act. This was ruled explicitly on with regard to frequent flyer programs two years ago in Northwest v. Ginsburg.

But consumers can complain to the Department of Transportation (even if DOT has been improperly ignoring legitimate loyalty program complaints). They can also sue in small claims court, where pre-emption issues are unlikely to carry as much weight and where the cost of an appeal is likely greater than whatever relief is obtained.

In the UK, though, airlines will soon be able to charge consumers for certain kinds of complaints.

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Aug 23 2016

Etihad’s August e-mail account statement highlighted an offer of up to 130,000 Etihad Guest miles when you join a nightclub VIP program.

Let’s face it. I’m not really a velvet rope kind of guy. My Hyatt Diamond stats entitles me to MGM Mlife Rewards Platinum status which offers VIP Line Access to Nightclubs. MGM Mlife Gold gets this too and of course even Hyatt Platinums who get their status via credit card.

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Aug 23 2016

Between january 1 and August 31 Hilton ran promotions offering Double Points. Now they’ve announced that September 1 through December 31 they will be offering… double points. And the new promotion will have the same name as the last one.

There is no truth to the rumor that all of the creative marketing people have been let go in McLean, Virginia and replaced with a “copy / paste function.”

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Aug 23 2016

Southeast Asia is on deep discount sale from the US, using China Eastern and for a little more Air China.

The cheapest fare is to Manila in the Philippines. You can fly New York to Phuket, Thailand for ~ $561. And you can fly to Bali for $601. Most fares are available right away through November, and again in February and March.

And when they’re available, it’s plenty of flights and dates.

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