Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
3000 Bonus Miles for a Hotel Booking With Rocketmiles
Rocketmiles is a hotel booking site with a limited number of hotels and in a limited – but growing – number of cities. It rebates you a potentially large number of miles for your reservations. (You generally won’t earn hotel points for your stays booked through the site.) You get to choose whose miles you want to earn for your stays. In addition to the standard bonus they are now offering a 3000 mile bonus in your choice of mileage program for completing your first booking by April 11. I had thought that the 3000 mile bonus in your choice of program offer for making a first-time booking with Rocketmiles had expired at the end of 2013, but Tim R. pointed out to me that it’s still available. Key terms: Qualifying Activity: To qualify for…
Delta Is Releasing Their 2015 Award Redemption Chart Early!
A frequent flyer program is equal parts earning and redemption. Delta’s new revenue-based frequent flyer program has only shared details of how miles will be earned — based on the money you spend, rather than the miles you fly (time spent with an airline on their planes) — and not how miles will be spent. As a result we really don’t know the impact of the changes. Delta had said they would release the award redemption half of the program during the last quarter. They’ve had their new redemption chart, but they had planned to keep it a secret. Their members would fly all year, saving points to redeem next year, but not knowing how much those points are worth. Word today — three different people had shared with me by the end of the…
Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report: Introduction, Positioning and the Hilton New York JFK
Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
Barbecue Throwdown: Black’s is the Absolute Best
On the subject of Austin barbecue, having written about the world-famous Franklin (“Is Austin’s Franklin Barbecue the Best in the World?“) and Lamberts (“The Best Barbecue Restaurant With Sit-down Service and Online Reservations“), it seems worth giving coverage to what I consider to be my favorite, most flavorful brisket… Black’s in Lockhart. Black’s is probably the restaurant I’ve written about the most, more even than Elephant Jumps Thai in Merrifield, Virginia (if you find yourself anywhere near Northern Virginia… go!) or Lam Zhou Homemade Noodle in Manhattan’s Chinatown. (See here, here, and here.) Now I should start by saying that Franklin is considered almost universally to be the best brisket around. And the best barbecue should be judged by the best brisket. I would hazard a guess that if you asked the folks from Black’s,…
Delta’s New Mileage-Earning System Will Cap the Number of Miles Earned On Expensive Tickets – Won’t Reward High Value Customers After All
Delta’s mileage-earning details page for the new Skymiles program going into effect January 1 detail how miles will be earned based on fare paid, instead of miles flown. And it has some interesting details about why customers buying the most expensive tickets won’t do so well, after all. I outlined Delta’s changes last week. The talking point from Delta is that their most valuable customers will be rewarded, while people paying the lowest fares will get reliable transportation (and, cough, very few miles). They’re changing the redemption side of things too. They haven’t told us how yet. That makes many flyers even more nervous than the changes in mileage-earning from flying. But I’ve already shown that many business travelers flying expensive tickets won’t earn more miles than they currently do — it’s flyers only on…
The Feds Flying First, Fuel Dumps Explained, Plinking Office Supply Stores After March 11, and Lufthansa’s New Premium Economy (Bits ‘n Pieces for March 5, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: The US federal government spent at least $8.7 million on 1,903 premium cabin trips over 2 years. Though the report is meant to spark outrage, I’m surprised the amounts are so low. Regular readers won’t see me as a defender of the US federal government — but if you believe the government functions involved are appropriate, then premium cabin travel may sometimes be appropriate as well. I certainly don’t begrudge business class to South Africa and Kuwait. (HT: @esoskin) Lufthansa is adding premium economy to its long haul fleet. Seats will have 38 inch pitch (think domestic first class) and a bit over an extra inch of width. Conversions are expected to be complete by early 2015. Passengers will receive plated meals, an extra checked bag, and an…
100% Bonus on Transferred Miles is Back!
No, not from US Airways. Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 100% bonus on miles transferred between accounts through March 17. They charge 1.5 cents per mile to transfer points from your account to another member, and with this bonus every mile transferred will be matched by an additional mile. That means you can combine miles between accounts and effectively buy additional miles at 1.5 cents apiece. To take advantage of this offer you need to already have miles in a LifeMiles account, and you can transfer up to 50,000 miles per year between accounts. Avianca is taking over the mantle from US Airways as the official consolidator of premium cabin Star Alliance award seats, offering their miles for sale at a discount on a regular basis and at an even…
Defending the SkyPeso: Why a SkyMiles Devaluation Won’t Change Its Unit of Measure
Reader David B emails, “Skypesos” has become an insult to the peso. Work with me on this. I think David isn’t thinking globally enough. It used to be the Mexican peso. Now it’s the Philippine peso. Besides, SkyUgandanSchillings doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. (And, for that matter, the ‘more accurate’ unit of measure probably would have been centavo rather than peso because a peso is actually worth more than a single airline mile. But sometimes elegance trumps precision.) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Who’s Behind the Delta’s Move to a Revenue-Based Program, and What’s His Next Target?
The people who were selling airlines on the revenue-based moves that Delta is in the process of making are now beating the drum for others to follow. Talking to Delta about their changes, they talk about Jay Sorensen’s IdeaWorks study on award availability, how they scored so badly. Sorensen is apparently one of the people they talked to as they developed their new program. Never mind that Delta’s award inventory is as much a revenue management problem, and subsidiarily a website/technology and a training problem, as it is a frequent flyer program problem. And never mind that the annual IdeaWorks study is so fatally flawed as to be useless. They take it seriously because the exposure hurt them. And Sorensen is one of the people they talk to about improving their program. And now Sorensen…
