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.
Star Alliance frequent flyer program Copa Airlines ConnectMiles has introduced online award booking across the Star Alliance.
You can use their search tool without logging in (or even having a Copa account). There’s the ability to search all Star Alliance airlines, or just a single specified airline.
United tweeted that they have Hawaii awards on sale to celebrate MileagePlus’ 35th anniversary.
It appears that economy awards are pricing at 17,500 each way instead of 22,500 miles but only when searching for roundtrips. Premium cabin awards aren’t discounting.
This morning I wrote that Alaska Airlines award charts were showing higher prices for Cathay Pacific awards intra-Asia — with business class up over 120% and first class up over 150%.
Intra-Asia awards appeared to be the same price as US-Asia awards. As I wrote, when readers first reported this several days ago I assumed it “was a mistake related to Alaska updating the way they displayed award charts.” However Alaska was confirming the new pricing as correct.
A little over a month ago Alaska Airlines made no-notice changes to their Emirates award charts for business and first class travel, raising prices by as much as 100%.
Alaska Airlines sought to reassure members, that this incident aside, they’d provide advance notice of changes in the future. Except, it seems, that they made no-notice changes again.
There’s currently availability to fly New York – Hong Kong roundtrip for an incredible $354.
Most of the flying is on Air Canada, and it’s an Air Canada fare (fare basis KLXUNV) available for outbound travel August 21 through December 11.
You have to fly the transpacific segment using Air Canada on a Monday through Thursday in each direction. Minimum stay is 3 days from departure of your last flight, and maximum stay is 6 months. Tickets are non-refundable.
American AAdvantage is giving away free miles to celebrate its 35th anniversary.
They’re also selling miles at a discount for their anniversary as well. How good a deal is it, and should you take advantage of it?
PNC Bank has launched the Premier Traveler Visa Signature.
The card earns 2 miles per dollar spent which is effectively a 2% rebate when used for travel. It has a 30,000 point signup bonus after $3000 in spend within 3 billing cycles of account opening, worth $300 towards travel. It’s a no foreign transaction fee card with a $0 fee the first year then $85.
Avis is aggressively going after customers unhappy with Hertz on Twitter. They’ve started offering upgrades, discounts, and status matches to anyone tweeting displeasure at Hertz. That’s something I haven’t seen them do before, and could be useful.
United Airlines sent a memo to airport employees telling them to be on the lookout for ‘hidden city’ tickets. The memo tells agents “[w]hen fraud is suspected, the Customer Service Representatives should send an email to Corporate Security for follow up..”
So what are these tickets, how much can you save, and what are the risks?
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 »
