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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
A couple of weeks ago I pointed out outstanding Japan Airlines first class award space between the US and Tokyo.
Now award availability is wide open from March through December in first class between Tokyo and Sydney. Here’s award availability for four passengers which is half the cabin (some dates may have more space than that).
Turkish Airlines is paying for a big marketing tie-in with Batman v. Superman. It’s no ANA-Star Wars, but they’ve got a special livery on a Boeing 777 that’s been flying Miami – Istanbul – Mumbai.
Apparently business class menus and amenity kits on Turkish will have Batman vs. Superman tie-ins. And a key movie plot point takes place in Turkish business class.
Amazon had some amazing gift card deals in the runup to the holidays. Now with Valentine’s Day around the corner, they’ve got discounted gift cards again.
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 »
