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.
Back in November American announced that they would mimic Delta and United with mileage-earning for flights based on cost of your ticket instead of miles flown in “late 2016.” That was subsequently revised in future communications to be ‘the second half’ of 2016.
Those changes actually go into effect with travel (not tickets purchased) August 1. And yesterday American AAdvantage updated its terms and conditions to reflect this.
Yesterday American Airlines announced a new credit card deal where both Citibank and Barclaycard would continue offering AAdvantage credit cards — and signing up new accounts.
In April American Airlines President Scott Kirby said he expected a big credit card renewal along the lines of deals by Delta and United over the last year and a half. He got it. But he may not have gotten everything he’d hoped.
All U.S.-bound flights departing Abu Dhabi require check-in at least 2 hours in advance. I already had my boarding pass, but I still wound up heading over a couple hours before our rescheduled departure.
An hour and 15 minutes before departure I made my way down to the US preclearance facility. You have to go through security screening again, and then clear U.S. immigration. And you’re required to present yourself at the Customs and Immigration facility no less than 60 minutes prior to flight.
Through July 26th Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 100% bonus on transferred miles. For each 1000 miles you transfer into someone’s account, they receive 2000 miles. The cost to transfer is $15 per 1000 miles (or 1.5 cents apiece). As a result you’re effectively buying miles at 1.5 cents each.
There’s reporting that the Citi Prestige Card is about to reduce its signup bonus next Tuesday. Now is the time to get the card if you’ve even been on the fence about it.
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.
Most often we’ve seen space open up to Paris and to London. Sometimes it’s it’s other cities in Europe. Six weeks ago we saw wide open space on most routes to those two cities.
That ‘wave’ is gone, however there’s one flight in particular that has really really good award availability right now.
Both Citibank and Barclaycard will be issuing new American AAdvantage cards as part of a new deal announced today. Back in April I couldn’t predict one bank to win exclusivity over the other and it turns out that was a better prediction than I had realized.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the man who was charged with “abusive sexual contact” after inappropriate touching of an unaccompanied minor on an American Airlines Dallas – Portland flight. Apparently the flight wasn’t full but he chose the middle seat next to the young girl rather than the empty aisle in his own row. Creepy.
I concluded that there are awful passengers in the sky, because there are awful people in the world. Flying is increasingly democratic. A broad cross section of people travel side-by-side across the country every day, and that includes — and necessarily will include — a small minority of awful people, and a small minority of people who do awful things.
That’s not satisfying, but the truth is incidents are rare on planes just as they’re relatively rare in society (though when they happen they make news).
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 »
