Dec 05 2015

Hyatt Gold Passport has my absolute favorite hotel benefit: Diamond members get to confirm a suite at booking 4 times per year (up to 7 nights at a time). Instead of hoping for an upgrade close to arrival or at the check-in counter, you throw down one of your trump cards and your base-level room reservation confirms into a suite, provided that the hotel has base-level suites for sale.

There was a rumor about Hyatt changing the expiration rules on the upgrades given to Diamonds. The denial they issued elsewhere wasn’t especially convincing. So I got a more definitive statement.

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Dec 04 2015

Back in April British Airways was offering some phenomenal business class fares to Paris.

Fares that are almost as good are back! The new British Airways OpenSkies sale for New York – Paris stacks with the AARP discount and 10% co-brand Visa discount to get the price down to $1347 roundtrip… and even earn a 25,000 bonus mile transatlantic bonus if you travel by January!

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Dec 04 2015

The Alaska Airlines Visa is my favorite Bank of America credit card. And an offer that many thought was dead is still around if you know where to look.

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Dec 04 2015

Promotions giving out bonus miles for earning with a frequent flyer program’s partners used to be all the rage. Now, while most programs love the miles purchased by partners (more so than the miles earned by flying in many cases) they no longer bonus the activity as frequently — other than the occasional shopping portal bonus. And Delta in particular used to give out big bonuses but no longer seems to.

So it’s nice to see a partner earning bonus, and from Delta in particular, even if it’s a small one.

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Dec 04 2015

I explained ten years ago why points programs devalue. They’re private currencies without any binding constraints. The Supreme Court even limited your right to sue this year. Programs can do as they wish with impunity.

There’s tremendous value in frequent flyer programs but you should not save points now for some future day in which you might spend them.

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Dec 03 2015

Air India has started operating San Francisco – Delhi, and it’s almost one of the world’s longest flights.

The flight operates 3 days a week in each direction, on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. And award availability is very good for 2 passengers. It’s wide open for two passengers in business class, and even in first class which is surprising because Air India usually only opens award space for 1 passenger in first.

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Dec 03 2015

Alaska Airlines announced their version of ‘economy-plus’ seating which is an extra 3-4 inches of legroom in part of coach.

They’re locked in a battle with Delta over their Seattle hub (and doing shockingly well) and this product brings them closer in line with Delta, United, and American… and possibly brings their first class farther ahead.

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Dec 03 2015

The Wall Street Journal ran an interview with Maya Leibman, American’s Chief Information Officer who was promoted to Executive Vice President this week.

Maya’s discussion of ‘scenario planning’ (mostly for problems that didn’t materialize) was interesting. As well that the process was managed off of a massive shared spreadsheet. And the most important takeaway of all: feed your IT staff.

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Dec 03 2015

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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Dec 03 2015

United currently has the most generous lifetime elite program of any major airline: You can even earn revenue-based Global Services status based on lifetime flight miles.

The best deals, those orders of magnitude better than the competition, don’t last. United’s million miler program is generous, so it’s reasonable to expect it will change. And there’s now a rumor that it’s about to change.

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