With a reader bringing an improved website experience for the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program, it’s worth taking a look at that program and how it compares to the offerings from Visa, MasterCard, Chase, and others — all towards savings and added benefits on hotel stays compared to booking direct.
Just to show you how complicated the world is, Delta is lobbying against expansion by Gulf carrier Etihad but has received clearance from the EU for its joint venture and profit sharing with Etihad-owned Alitalia.
Alitalia flying across the Atlantic is apparently deemed good, while Etihad flying across the Atlantic is an existential threat. Right….
“We’ve worked really hard in trying to keep our commitment to opening up more seats on the lowest level,” said Karen Zachary, Delta’s SkyMiles managing director of global programs. “We used to be really bad.”
…“The 25,000 mile round-trip award fare that historically has been a standard for the airlines, I think you’re going to see that completely change,” Zachary said.
The fireworks fly as British Airways submits a filing to the government attacking partner American’s claim that the Gulf carriers unfairly compete, and Etihad produces a report detailing subsidies that US airlines receive which are greater than those the US carriers claim are received by Etihad, Emirates, and Qatar. Things are getting *interesting*.
The page that describes changes for the 2015 Delta SkyMiles program used to promise more seats for fewer miles. It no longer does.
I’ve only had a couple of contributors to the blog over the years, otherwise everything has been written by me. I featured a work colleague (P.C.)’s trip report in Saudia business class to Pakistan, because there were limited reports on the Saudia product and it’s something that seemed useful to Delta members. I added was grateful for an outside legal perspective on the issues raised in the Supreme Court’s frequent flyer miles case as well. Now I’m fortunate to share a trip report that simply was different than most others that have been offered on blogs before… one that’s all in good fun. Constance Peters shared Pippi Peters’ report of her recent Los Angeles – New York JFK flight in American’s first class. What’s different is that Pippi is Constance’s traveling companion, who only sometimes…
Each year IdeaWorks publishes a ‘study’ of reward availability, and it gets repeated as though it had value across the media. It doesn’t. The methodology is so fatally flawed that it draws almost the exact opposite conclusions as it should. Don’t be fooled.
The 2015 American AAdvantage program is providing hefty bonuses to premium cabin flyers while not taking away anything from members flying on discount fares (in other words, 1 mile continues to earn 1 mile — while business and first class tickets earn bonuses like most international programs provide). Already the AAdvantage program provided: Miles based on distance flown Bonus miles for elite frequent flyers Bonus miles for more expensive tickets This is a new bonus added on top. Here’s how it was announced for the year. Here’s what AAdvantage President Suzanne Rubin said at the time the bonus was launched (bolding mine): As the largest airline in the world, with a global network that spans 54 countries, our frequent flyer program must also be the best in the business. A mile flown continues to be…
Visa Infinite is a prestige card in countries around the world, but for the most part hasn’t been available in the U.S. Now a bank is issuing one — and it has no fee the first year, plus a whole lot of benefits like lounge access and an airline fee credit. Should you jump on this opportunity?
An American AAdvantage Executive Platinum member gets caught making fictitious premium cabin reservations to boost own upgrade changes. American kicks them out of the program.
He argues he should be able to keep the miles and status he had earned from US Airways, since he ‘only’ defrauded American (or only got caught defrauding American)…
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 »
