Feb 10 2016

American has been making award space especially in premium cabins much more available and this is a new intentional approach on their part.

I’ve covered American loosening up availability on the Sydney route. And I covered the floodgates opening for award space on London routes. And how they opened up China flying. That was just the start.

American Airlines Boeing 787 Business Class

Improved availability hasn’t spread to domestic routes in the same way, although there are some predictable patterns such as with American’s New York JFK – Los Angeles and New York JFK – San Francisco routes. American has the most premium product on that route, with the only three-cabin service on all flights between those cities.

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Feb 10 2016

This doesn’t appear to be advertised on the Virgin Atlantic website yet but they appear to have their award semi-regular award sale pricing for economy and premium economy redemptions loaded.

In fact, the pricing seems to be up to 30% off, which is better than their usual sales (back in the fall they offered 20% off).

Awards are pricing with a discount originating in the US or the UK, even on one-way awards, and even for premium economy.

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Feb 10 2016

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.

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Feb 09 2016

Airbnb and other homesharing sites are apparently how prostitutes are now renting out space.

And here I thought people only rented their places out on Airbnb to themselves, for the Virgin America miles.

You’d sort of expect the world’s oldest profession to be everywhere, so why not the sharing economy I suppose?

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Feb 09 2016

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.

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Feb 09 2016

Using miles for things other than travel has been an increasing trend, the loyalty programs have been offering several new options over the past few years — whether it’s redeeming miles for other travel like hotels and rental cars, or for LCD toasters.

Miles are almost always best spent for travel. That’s because earning miles isn’t just a rebate on your travel or credit card spend.

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Feb 09 2016

Star Alliance program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 100% bonus on transferred miles through February 23. With this offer you can effectively buy miles with this promotion for 1.5 cents apiece.

Star Alliance member Avianca has really useful miles (that have gotten more useful over the past few months!) through the LifeMiles program.

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Feb 08 2016

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.

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Feb 08 2016

United and American are starting service to New Zealand. Air New Zealand has a new Houston flight. More capacity should drive down prices, mean unsold seats, and likely award space available. Award space on American’s flights was wide open Friday morning.

Historically though awards between the US and New Zealand has been one of the toughest things to book. Years ago Air New Zealand used to open up business class awards 60 days prior to flight. Then they stopped. There really hasn’t been meaningful Air New Zealand business class award space in years.

However this morning it appears there are several dates in the coming months where 2 business class awards are available from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Auckland.

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Feb 08 2016

A year ago Delta, American, and United started beating the drum that the US government ought to shut down our markets to Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar because of subsidies. US Airlines Believe Emirates Showers in the Sky are Unfair The US airlines weren’t concerned with free markets and don’t hate subsidies, they hate competition. And their lobbyists are concerned only with their interests, and not those of travelers or consumers. While I’m no fan of state-backed airlines, I’ve been a consistent critic of the US airlines for 3 main reasons. This is really a call for protectionism that hurts US consumers. It limits their choices and would raise fares. Delta’s CEO was actually explicit that the goal was fewer flights and higher fares. Open Skies agreements don’t obviously preclude the financial assistance that some of…

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