News and notes from around the interweb: Woman gives birth onboard a 777. Hilton is giving MBA graduates from many top schools free Gold status — valid as far out as 2020. And here I’ve lost Gold status for the first time in a decade.. and had to insist on retaining that downgrade. American has long offered group discount codes, and if you could find an applicable one online it would be good for 5% – 10% off of a ticket. There used to be good compilations of these codes online but American’s lawyers threatened several sites and they’ve been harder to find over the past year. Now those codes are being eliminated altogether. As of May 1 they’re not offering new group discount codes, although existing ones remain valid through their planned expiration.…
Etihad Introducing First Class 3-Room RESIDENCE Onboard the A380
I’ve flown Etihad several times. They have an outstanding first class — a stylish attractive first class suite with doors, and an onboard chef concept with plenty of food options that can be served on demand throughout the flight. Service can be mixed, but the hard product is very good (although I prefer the spaciousness of Cathay Pacific’s first class seat by far). Etihad has a new product entrant coming, though. They’ll be bringing an A380 online December 27 with London service (EY flights 11/12), and will serve the Australia market with the aircraft in 2015. And when they do they’re introducing a whole new onboard first class concept — with two different first class options. Each A380 will feature “The Residence” — a single or double occupancy 3 room cabin with double bed, 2…
This Game Is Not For You If…
I was reflecting on all of the good and increased offers recently from various banks for mileag-earning credit cards and I thought it would be important to offer some balance. I’ve been in this so long that it’s just second nature, but it bears repeating, and I don’t say it enough. A plurality of miles are earned via credit cards (signup bonuses, spend bonuses, everyday spend) and not from butt in seat flying. Credit cards, in the US market but not just the US, are an integral part of the miles and points hobby. I had an award booking client not long ago who had tons of miles but wasn’t paying off his credit card bills each month. With the interest charges he had to be paying he would have been better off buying the…
35% Bonus on Purchased Alaska Airlines Miles
Alaska miles are one of the most valuable points currencies right now. The value of their points jumped substantially when they began allowing one-way awards on partners. (Previously to book an award on a partner you had to find availability both directions on the same airline. In addition to offering one-way awards, they allow a stopover on those one-ways. This means you can mix and match airlines in each directions and have a total of two stopovers in addition to your destination on a roundtrip. Alaska made big progress with their online bookings and has most of their partner airlines now bookable on their website. The only downside to these changes is that you used to be able to book partner awards as soon as the partner opened their schedule, even if it was farther…
Making Credit Card Companies Pay, 750 Fee Points, a New $500 Signup Bonus, and No Changes to Kimpton (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 3, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: 750 Free Southwest points: AirTran members are getting emails with bonus point offers for linking their accounts to a Southwest Rapid Rewards account. This is part of their preparation for the end of the AirTran A+ Rewards program. A bit of kvelling: I wrote about my award booking service partner Steve Belkin’s really cool project Competitours which is an ‘Amazing Race’-style adventure that anyone can sign up to do back in February. It’s now featured in the May issue of Singapore Airlines’ inflight magazine for June 14-25. Go Steve! And check out Competitours! No changes to Kimpton: Earlier in the week Loyalty Lobby speculated that Kimpton could be changing the ability to redeem for free nights at their hotels because they added “Rewards are subject to availability at…
New IHG Rewards Club Bonuses Up to 15,000 Points
Remember that you can often stack bonus upon bonus with IHG Rewards Club to earn tons of points at participating hotels in their chain like Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn brands. In addition they’re back with a summer promotion of bonus points based on the number of stays you make between May 15 and September 2. There are various ‘targeted’ offers but with the list of codes you can choose which you want to select based on your anticipated upcoming stays. Register with the promotion code of the bonus that gets you the most points for the fewest nights that you are confident you will hit. If it turns out that you aren’t going to reach the nights needed for the promotion you qualify for you may be able to register for a promotion…
First Class Going Away November 1, 50% Off Award Tickets, and a Transfer Bonus (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 2, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Uber referral credits are now worth only $10 for new members (and for the person referring them) but new users can still get $25 with their first use (HT: Delta Points) Back in February South American airline (and then-Star Alliance member, now member of oneworld) TAM started releasing most of their first class seats as awards. Those seats were still available, and I booked some myself. Though TAM had pretty much never released first class awards before in any meaningful way, the availability remained even after TAM joined oneworld a month ago. The seats certainly weren’t selling, and now we learn that TAM is eliminating first class altogether after November 1. Flying Blue 50% off Promo Awards for July/August travel are out. Book in May, travel in July…
Compact Power Strip: Something I Can’t Do Without
“This room has just way too many power outlets” – said no hotel guest, ever. For past four and a half years I’ve traveled with a power strip in my laptop bag. You can get one for under $10 with Amazon Prime shipping too. It’s the first thing I take out of my bag whenever I get into a hotel room, since almost no hotel room has enough outlets. And it’s also useful in crowded club lounges and by gates where I need to share outlet space with other travelers or need to plug in more than one device (especially before boarding a flight that won’t have seat power, and after draining devices on a previous flight without power). You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign…
A Simple Theory of the US Airways and American Merger – and How to Use it to Predict What’s Next
The single biggest focus at American is on integration of two airlines The ‘to do’ list is enormously long, they’re moving quickly and trying to cross as many things off as they can. They’re spending a lot of time talking to each other and not as much time talking to customers which takes longer and can complicate the process. Many people are worried about losing their jobs still. There are two departments doing the same thing across two airlines, and more or less they only now need one. They don’t need two communications shops, they won’t need two cargo operations, or two revenue management departments, or two sets of teams doing promotions for frequent flyer programs. There’s only going to be one database, one IT platform, one catering manager, and so on down the line.…
The Price of Marriott Platinum Status Just Went Down
I’ve shared full details on the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa before. It’s a surprisingly good card for a certain subset of folks, and it turns out it’s just gotten better. The key benefit of the card, I think, is Ritz-Carlton Gold status (which is Marriott Gold status) the first year, and then after $10,000 in spend in each subsequent year. It’s a pricey card at $395 annual fee, but used to have a $200 airline fee credit to offset. The fee credit has been increased to $300. It’s pretty easy to use the credit, so think of it as a $95 fee card with a few hoops to jump through. For $95 and $10,000 spend you get Marriott Gold on an ongoing basis — a mid-tier level to be sure but it requires 50 nights (or…
