Booking Europe awards with American miles can be tough. American releases very little space on its own flights, and their primary transatlantic partner is British Airways — and British Airways fuel surcharges can be truly choke-worthy.
Fortunately Iberia business class award space for two passengers is fantastic in July and August of next year.
Yesterday I wrote about a new feature on American’s website to track checked bags in real time.
A couple of things seem missing though. American lets you request your meal ahead of time (up to 24 hours prior to flight) if you’re confirmed in first class on a meal flight. However the option to do so does not appear on reservations at this time.
Perhaps it will appear closer to departure, but there’s no button for a same day flight change.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
There have been a flurry of stories over the past couple of days about how TSA was no longer going to send random people into the PreCheck security lines.
In reality they’re ending the ‘Managed Inclusion II’ program and replacing it with… ‘Managed Inclusion III’. So they’re still going to be sending unexpecting passengers through PreCheck, just using dogs to pick people and not just people to pick people.
Virgin America is offering up to a 70% bonus on purchased miles. This is valuable for certain partner airline redemptions.
One of the best things about Starwood Preferred Guest is that they have many participating properties that are really nice, aspirational places where I really want to spend my points.
One of the frustrating things about Starwood Preferred Guest is that some of their nicest properties cost so many points. At 7 of the most expensive redemption properties, though, they’re offering 35% off the points price of awards.
While American and US Airways are moving onto the American Airlines reservations system October 17, they’ve kept the US Airways baggage tracking system which was actually quite good.
As a result they now offer online baggage tracking.
American Airlines flights came to a halt today due to computer issues. After talking to a few people at American, here’s my understanding of what happened.
The ability to hold an award is important. Instant ticketing makes life difficult for the frequent flyer, which is why I love American’s 5 day hold policy so much.
United took away the legit ability to do award holds three years ago. But now with the rollout of their new website, they’ve brought it back for folks who have some miles in their account but not enough to ticket their award. Here’s how to use that to your advantage!
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
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 »
