The Points Guy blog runs advice on American and US Airways upgrades in a piece written by Nick Ewen. Since that blog is widely read I thought it would be important to highlight some mistakes in the piece that – understanding them – double as tricks to better understand how to maximize your chances of an upgrade when flying American and US Airways. (I left my caveats and concerns in the comments there but a day later they remain unapproved.)
New View From The Wing Site Goes Live Saturday Morning: Here’s What it Means for You
Tomorrow morning (around 10am Eastern) we’re going to start to transition the blog over to a refreshed site. There’s not going to be a lot that’s substantively different, at least at first. The biggest changes are to the ‘guts’ (yes, that’s the, um, technical term) of the site. It will let me: Better organize information and allow it to be searched Be more responsive for mobile devices, only about 55% of you are reading this on a desktop of laptop and the site hasn’t been redesigned since around 2009. Build more features in the future. For now thought all you’ll see is a bit of a fresher and more modern face. I’m sure there will be a few hiccups as I learn how to work with it.
United Plans to Introduce Revenue-Based Redemptions This Year
Wandering Aramean notes that United plans to “begin introducing dynamic award pricing”. He quotes a United spokesperson as describing this as part of their strategy of “giving customers a broad set of redemption options” and the spokesperson also notes United’s “focus on ensuring saver-award availability in general” which seems to suggest that this would be an add-on offering rather than a replacement for award charts, at least in the near-term. Delta is clearly preparing to move towards more revenue-based redemptions so it should come as no surprise that United is trying to do the same, since United’s modus operandi is to ‘manage by doing what Delta does.’ I’ve heard several airline executives say that revenue-based is clearly the way to go “since Delta is doing it, and Delta is profitable.” (Nevermind that the history of…
How to Upgrade Your US Airways MasterCard to Aviator Silver
The US Airways Dividend Miles program has been folded into American AAdvantage. And technically now only Citibank has the right to issue new American AAdvantage personal (and small business) co-brand credit cards. Barclays used to issue the US Airways card. There’s still a working link to apply, don’t wait although my best guess is it will work through around April 25. Existing Barclays US Airways MasterCard cardholders become Barclays American AAdvantage cardholders. Barclaycard can’t issue new accounts, but they can continue to service existing customers. And they have a suite of (4) personal cards to offer existing customers: Here’s a description of all four. Roughly speaking the two bottom tier cards are legacy offerings geared towards US Airways cardholders whose cards had been issued by Bank of America (a portfolio Barclays recently acquired). They’re meant…
The Cheapest I’ve Seen American Sell Miles
American will let you buy miles with up to a 60% bonus though April 30. Here’s the offer: Buying 100,000 miles gets you 160,000 for $3201.25 or 2 cents per mile. On average I value American miles at 1.7 cents. So I’m not really a buyer at 2 cents apiece. However, miles are worth more or less based on: how you redeem them (premium cabin awards can be worth more, especially if you’d pay a premium in cash for those) when you’re going to redeem there (immediate redemptions entail less devaluation risk) how many you already have (miles that put you over the top for an award are worth a lot more than your first miles, or when you have millions) Two cents is cheaper than I’ve seen American sell miles. In fairness, by only…
Andaz Maui’s New Egregious Resort Fees and Declining Value
Apr
03
2015
I absolutely loved my stay at the Andaz Maui last summer. Since that time they’ve made several changes that make the property a whole let less attractive of a value proposition. They cut back almost entirely on offering cash and points awards. They created a new category of breakfast in order to offer less to Diamond members And now they’ve introduced a $40 per night resort fee. The Hotel Has Gotten Much More Expensive The hotel doesn’t have a self parking option so if you drive, as nearly everyone will to take advantage of all that Maui has to offer, there’s a $30 per night valet parking fee. Now with a $40 resort fee there’s a nearly-mandatory $70 per night on top of the room rate. Here’s What the Resort Fee Gets You The list…
Club Carlson Visa Eliminating 2nd Night Free on Award Benefit
Frequent Miler reports that the Club Carlson Visa is eliminating the one thing that makes it — and the Club Carlson program — such a hugely valuable offering. This should come as 100% expected since Gary’s Law of frequent flyer programs is that anything which is several standard deviations better than what other programs offer will not last. Club Carlson offered the last night on an award redemption for free for their co-brand credit card holders, first introduced in December 2012. This was effectively a 50% discount on two night award stays. Plenty of people would get a card for themselves and spouse or partner, stay 2 nights in their own name and 2 nights in their partner’s (and then even flip back to themselves on a 6 night stay). Effective June 1 the ‘Bonus…
Delta Adds Two Middle East Partners to Online Award Booking, Makes Their CEO’s Head Explode?
Apr
03
2015
Delta, whose CEO publicly called for the US government to crack down on flights to the US by Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar, because 9/11 has brought two more of its partners onto Delta.com for online award booking: Saudia which flies from Washington Dulles, New York JFK, and Los Angeles to Riyadh and Jeddah (and beyond). Each flight is non-daily, award space is pretty good though not as amazing as it once was, and represents a way to use SkyMiles to get from the US to India, Pakistan, and surrounding areas in business class on points. Middle East Airlines which is the Beirut-based carrier flying mostly regional routes. (HT: Delta Points) Back in November Delta finally created a functional award calendar. Delta has since added a ton of their partners to the website for online booking…
Blog Readers Can Join the Amazing Race for Regular People
Several of you entered my competitours giveaway to participate in my award booking partner Steve’s ‘Amazing Race’ for regular folks. The winner was to receive one free entry for the Europe trip including roundtrip air. (The winner would still need a partner, who would have to cover their trip and travel.) There were more folks willing to commit to participate on specific dates than expected, so instead of one winner we drew two using random.org. We’re trying something new, too – I reached out by email to each person that entered to see if we might be able to coordinate a trip for blog readers that entered, only, at a subsidized cost. We’ll see if we can make that work. It’ll be fascinating. If you’d like to learn more about competitours, you can reach out…
EXCLUSIVE: American Improving Meal Service Starting May 1
On April 1 American reintroduced linens in domestic first class for short and medium haul flights. That’s been reported elsewhere. The good news is that American isn’t done making changes to their meal service, and addressing the areas that have gotten significant customer feedback (like the cookies…). I think we have three things coming together: Strong airline financial performance in light of lower fuel costs Competitive pressure (e.g. United improving its meal service, with a report from the frontlines.) American responding to customer and flight attendant feedback Fortunately, there are several changes coming to American’s domestic first class inflight catering effective May 1.
