Qantas Frequent Flyer will top off transfers from Citibank this month with a bonus of up to 30%.
Qantas award seats in premium cabins between the US and Australia are sparse and the program adds fuel surcharges to awards. The program is strategically useful, though, for instance:
There have been several amazing airfare deals in the past few weeks. Fares are down from a year ago, with fuel prices low and profitable airlines competing more vigorously against each other — at least on specific routes or for specific periods of time.
Now United and American are both offering coach roundtrips between several cities in the US and several cities in Europe for a little over $400. That’s amazing, considering a not insignificant portion of that cost winds up being taxes.
With changes to the AAdvantage program that make it so much more like United MileagePlus and Delta SkyMiles, elite frequent flyers at American especially are re-considering their loyalty.
Some members will do better with the changes (higher spending; those flying 75,000 – 99,999 miles a year with average or better spend) and many will do worse (especially lifetime elites).
American thinks these changes are going to be good for revenue, but American has been performing better than United financially already and Delta doesn’t think its frequent flyer program changes are a driver of their revenue premium.
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.
We’ve known that revenue-based mileage earning has been coming for some time. American announced that they were going to follow Delta’s and United’s model for earning miles from flight activity back in November. Now we know it starts August 1.
On average it’s bad for flyers, you need to spend more to break even mileage earning than you do under mileage-earning based on distance. American conceded to me in November that fewer miles would be earned under the new system than are earned today.
A passenger tweets his experience in first class on American Airlines yesterday flying from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic to Miami.
It’s a 2-hour, 900 mile flight with meal service up front. The customer didn’t get his first choice of meal, didn’t understand why, and apparently took it personally.
Then the flight attendant melts down, telling the customer to ‘shut up’, putting his finger in the customer’s face, and threatening the customer with arrest.
American is announcing several changes to their elite program today that go into effect next year. And they’ve announced the date on which American will start awarding miles based on the cost of a ticket rather than distance flown.
There will be minimum spend required for elite status, a new 75,000 mile elite tier, a new upgrade priority order, and upgrades on domestic award tickets for Executive Platinums. I spoke with AAdvantage’s Bridget Blaise-Shamai this morning about the changes they’re making.
Just like Orbitz was launched by the major airlines as their own comptitive response to online travel agency sites like Expedia, several hotel chains got together to start an online booking site of their own.
Room Key is a metasearch site that displays hotel rates for their founding hotel chains and commercial partners. When you select a hotel, you’re directed to the hotel’s website to complete the booking. As a result you still earn points and status credit for your stay and you don’t get treated as an online travel agency customer.
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.
The Solicitor General of the United States is often referred to as the 10th Justice (the Supreme Court is made up of 9 justices — 8 associates and a Chief Justice) because the federal government’s representative before the Court argues before the court more than any other, uniquely does not have to ask the Court’s permission to file an amicus brief, and is often even asked to do so by the Court so that they may benefit from the S.G.’s perspective on a case.
Donald Verrilli, Jr. replaced Elena Kagan as Solicitor General after she was elevated to the Court itself. And he’s been paying interest on credit card debt for years — despite assets which would easily allow him to pay off his cards.
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 »
