Alaska Airlines is offering up to a 40% bonus when you purchase or gift miles.
That’s actually a pretty good deal compared to other airlines with similar bonuses, because the starting price on their points is lower.
American is introducing new sit-down dining options for their premium Flagship lounges, adding new lounges and renovating others, and making their first class lounges available to more customers. Currently American has two primary types of lounges: Flagship lounges. These are American’s first class lounges, for those flying international first class (and 3-cabin first class transcon) and that American’s top tier elite members can use when flying internationally. Admirals Clubs. These are most of American’s clubs. Members buy access, use a premium Citibank credit card to gain access, or have access based on the class of service of their ticket. The “Flagship” name has an interesting history. American opened the very first airport club lounge in 1939. New York’s Mayor LaGuardia was criticized for having too big an office at New York LaGuardia airport so he…
Delta e-mailed elite frequent flyers and co-brand credit card holders about an award sale yesterday. It’s advertising a pre-sale on award travel. In the past Delta has opened up award sales in advance to elites and cardholders before rolling the sale out to everyone. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the sale is bookable by all SkyMiles members shortly.
The advertised sale is for 30% off saver awards between the mainland US and many cities in Europe — 42,000 miles roundtrip in economy. However there are reports of business class also pricing 30% off for some routes (so 87,500 roundtrip).
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.
American has some really old inflight internet installations on their planes, when my internet experience is slow I have to remind myself that they haven’t invested retrofitting planes with the latest-generation ‘air-to-ground’ (ATG4) service with Gogo and they haven’t placed any orders for 2Ku satellite internet (2Ku is faster and more expensive than air to ground).
As Delta transitions to 2Ku hopefully that will also relieve pressure on the air-to-ground network and improve speeds on American. It won’t increase the bandwidth that any plane has, but it might reduce some of Gogo’s network congestion. Improved internet was one of the five priorities I outlined for the airline now that they completed customer-facing integration of US Airways and American.
Andrea Ahles writes that American is now suing Gogo over its internet speed.
Gossip site TMZ has a mole at Delta who shares itinerary information of famous passengers.
“It’s not an accident the guy with a camera is waiting at the Delta check-in counter at 8 A.M.,” a former TMZ employee wrote…
There’s speculation that it was a Delta Elite Services Porsche driver selling the information.
A Western Global Airlines MD-11 has been impounded in Harare, Zimbabwe after a dead body and millions of dollars worth of South African Rand were found onboard. The plane had stopped enroute between Germany and South Africa.
The Florida-based cargo operator’s jet had landed in Zimbabwe for refueling. The aircraft had been refused a refueling stop in Mozambique.
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.
Korean Air has the absolute best first class award availability. Most Korean flights will feature at least 2 first class award seats, but 3 and 4 is common on some routes. They offer great value Europe business class awards on partners and Hawaii awards on partners.
They also have one of the most generous policies that lets you put an award on hold without the points yet in your account. That gives you time to transfer points in from a credit card partner after you’ve already secured the award.
Last night’s Virgin Atlantic flight VS25 from London Heathrow to New York JFK departed and was enroute to 36,000 feet 170 miles north-northwest of Shannon, Ireland when the crew declared a medical issue with the pilot.
They had experienced a laser pointed at the aircraft, and the pilot was feeling unwell. The aircraft was an hour into its journey when they turned back and landed at Heathrow an hour and 15 minutes later.
Shining a light at an aircraft in a manner to distract or harm the crew is already illegal. However,
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 »
