United just announced changes that will go into effect on October 6.
They are introducing a new, better online award booking engine; imposing new restrictions on free stopovers on roundtrip awards; eliminating round the world awards; and revamping award change fees (to be mostly higher and more restrictive). But the changes actually could have been a lot worse.
A typhoon caused significant flight cancellations and delays out of Hong Kong and passengers got so frustrated they tried to storm a security barrier Tuesday morning.
With over 500 flights disrupted, passenger queues became unmanageable.
Emirates flight EK521 from Thiruvananthapuram, India to Dubai was involved in an accident. The Boeing 777-300, registration number A6-EMW, caught fire on the ground in Dubai.
Thankfully the Dubai government reports that all 275 passengers and crew onboard were evacuated safely though again early reports are subject to change.
Air France’s miles are best used for Air France and KLM business class awards when partners like Delta and Alaska aren’t offering space. And the program is strategically useful for its oddball airline partners, promo awards (especially to Israel), and oddball discounted routes that match your travel needs.
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SkyTeam member and Delta partner China Eastern has roundtrips from $386 between San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in September and October.
China Eastern has actually filed fares that are $54.50 each way plus taxes and surcharges. That’s pretty incredible.
A month ago American was offering to sell miles at the lowest price I’ve ever seen from the AAdvantage program. At 1.72 cents apiece it was even less than US Airways Dividend Miles had been selling for during their promotions for the past couple of years of that program.
Clearly with US Airways management in charge of the merged airline, their view of monetizing miles has taken hold — and there are mileage sales at least as often as there aren’t sales now. (And non-sale periods must only be to retain the illusion that there’s a higher price and make it seem like lower prices are limited-time offers.)
Each of the past 5 years I’ve gone to the Maldives on holiday. The distance makes it a non-start for some but I prefer to vacation on the other side of the world with the time distance and to feel like I’m a world away.
My go-to has been the Park Hyatt Hadahaa each time. But this offer may be good enough to change that.
American will give you a 20% bonus for transferring Starwood points into AAdvantage miles through September 14.
I consider Starwood Starpoints the most valuable rewards currency and American miles are worth less than they used to be. So while a nice bonus if you were going to transfer points anyway, I’m not tempted to move any over just for this offer.
With US airlines regularly offering less value for their points, I’m putting together this series with background, tips, and tricks for frequent flyer programs programs whose points can be very useful to you and that you can earn easily by transferring in from bank rewards currencies.
I love flexible points far more than earning points in a single airline frequent flyer program. That helps me to diversify so I don’t get hurt as badly when one airline program devalues and that gives me the points I need, when I need them with the airline that has availability for the award that I want.
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 »
