Several of you entered my competitours giveaway to participate in my award booking partner Steve’s ‘Amazing Race’ for regular folks. The winner was to receive one free entry for the Europe trip including roundtrip air. (The winner would still need a partner, who would have to cover their trip and travel.) There were more folks willing to commit to participate on specific dates than expected, so instead of one winner we drew two using random.org. We’re trying something new, too – I reached out by email to each person that entered to see if we might be able to coordinate a trip for blog readers that entered, only, at a subsidized cost. We’ll see if we can make that work. It’ll be fascinating. If you’d like to learn more about competitours, you can reach out…
EXCLUSIVE: American Improving Meal Service Starting May 1
On April 1 American reintroduced linens in domestic first class for short and medium haul flights. That’s been reported elsewhere. The good news is that American isn’t done making changes to their meal service, and addressing the areas that have gotten significant customer feedback (like the cookies…). I think we have three things coming together: Strong airline financial performance in light of lower fuel costs Competitive pressure (e.g. United improving its meal service, with a report from the frontlines.) American responding to customer and flight attendant feedback Fortunately, there are several changes coming to American’s domestic first class inflight catering effective May 1.
It’s Back! Alaska Airlines Miles Are Great for Emirates First Class Awards
Apr
02
2015
Since the fall, first class award space on Emirates A380 flights out of the US have been wide open. The programs that folks look to when redeeming on Emirates are: Emirates Skywards: an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, first class awards are exceptionally pricey and one-way awards require the higher tier chart. Alaska Airlines: the most common way for US members to book these awards. Japan Airlines: they have the best award chart, which is distance-based. Most members would get these by transferring Starwood points. Korean Air: Chase Ultimate Rewards is a transfer partner, although awards are pricey. Qantas: their award chart is out of this world insane, and while they print points like water in Australia most US members would be forced to transfer Starpoints to get these awards. Virgin America: does not…
Bob Crandall Speaks, Useless Credit Card Marketing, and What Flying Used to Be Like…
News and notes from around the interweb: Here’s what various airlines did for April Fools Former American Airlines Chairman Bob Crandall doesn’t like privacy rights very much. KLM providing customer service via WhatsApp For the ‘they shouldn’t even bother to send the email’ marketing file. Apparently those surgical masks some passengers wear (especially common in Asia) really do work. How Atlanta is competing with O’Hare to stay the world’s busiest airport. United Continental really did used to offer this:
Senator Being Prosecuted for Poor Use of Amex Points (No, Really..)
Apr
02
2015
New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez has been indicted on corruption charges, which I read as his being charged with being a politician from New Jersey. At issue is the trading of official acts in exchange for gifts from a donor. The Hill details some of the allegations in the indictment. Senator Menendez helped 3 girlfriends of the donor to get US visas. Menendez also intervened with the Department of Health and Human Services to help overturn an $8.9 million fine for the donor’s overbilling of medicare. In exchange the Senator is said to have received private charter flights and more. One of the gifts that is the basis of the prosecution is the donor’s use of American Express Membership Rewards points to book the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris on behalf of Senator Menendez.
American’s Flight Attendants Union Wants Nicole Kidman to Stop Endorsing Etihad
American’s flight attendants union put out a statement calling out Nicole Kidman because somehow restricting flights by Middle East airlines, which will make air travel more expensive (including for women trying to fly from the UAE, Pakistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere to the US) but will pad the bottom lines of US airlines is somehow good for women. The 25,000 members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants greatly admire and appreciate your efforts to advance women’s rights around the world as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Using your profile and stature for such a noble endeavor is commendable. However, we believe those efforts are at odds with your prominent role in an advertising campaign for Etihad Airways. The United Arab Emirates and their airlines are well-known in our industry for their discriminatory labor practices and…
1000 Free Hilton HHonors Points
United, American, and Hilton all suffered recent data breaches. Indeed, Hilton points have been among the most available for sale on the DarkNet. Hilton accounts used 4-digit PIN numbers. That’s not a lot of unique combinations, and Hilton decided that’s not secure enough. In February Hilton reached out to let me know that they’re moving to passwords.. At the time they offered 1000 points to get you to update your password. But their IT wasn’t ready for their announced changes. On March 12 they said they were ready. Unfortunately it turned out that ‘ready’ meant ‘ready to get hacked’. You were supposed to change your password by March 25 in order to get 1000 points. Well, the whole thing was a bit of a mess so you still can get the 1000 point to change…
Delta Adds Award Blackout Dates to Its Terms and Conditions
Delta has updated its terms and conditions to add specific blackout dates for using SkyMiles to book awards on two of its partner airlines. What Are Blackout Dates? Let’s be clear about terms: Blackout dates are specific days where you cannot use your miles. Capacity controls are where there are a limited number of seats on any given flight that can be redeemed as an award. The capacity might be set to zero. So even where there are no formal dates with no awards permitted (blackout dates) there may still be dates where there are no awards available (capacity controls). Blackout dates are wholly unnecessary in a world with capacity controls. Delta Has Blackout Dates on Partners Not Included in the Program Terms Some programs like Korean Air’s Skypass have ‘high demand’ dates where awards…
Elite Status I Did Not Earn.. And Would Rather Not Have
I didn’t notice my account get its status upgraded, though it appears on Award Wallet (and now that I log in) as though it already has been. I received a direct mail piece from Marriott Rewards giving me Gold elite status: I was already a Marriott Rewards silver elite member, the lowest status I hold with any of the major chains. I’m currently: Hyatt Diamond. This was earned on both stays and nights. Starwood Platinum. This was earned based on 50 nights. Hilton HHonors Diamond. This was given as a targeted offer to American AAdvantage Executive Platinum members IHG Rewards Club Platinum. This is complimentary based on my non-renewing Intercontinental Ambassador status (which was itself complimentary based on my non-renewing Royal Ambassador status). Don’t get me wrong, Marriott Gold means lounge access or breakfast (but…
American AAdvantage Just Made One Shocking Change to Its Terms and Conditions
Apr
01
2015
The American AAdvantage program recently updated its terms and conditions. They added this sentence: To the full extent allowed by law, these Terms and Conditions disclaim any duty of good faith and fair dealing as well as any implied contractual terms or obligations. That’s pretty striking language — they have no “duty of good faith and fair dealing” — and my conclusion is that this means either nothing at all or at most only one thing: American doesn’t have very good lawyers.
