News and notes from around the interweb: American is eliminating elite-only Dynamic Air Awards that let you book non-changeable economy travel in the Continental U.S. for a variable points price based on the cost of the ticket. I never found these to be how I’d want to use my miles anyway.. Southwest Airlines expects loyalty members to be loyal to them. And they’re coming to collect. It’s an Onion piece, but apparently done in conjunction with Southwest. And pretty funny, because it’s the Onion. But a bit ironic considering their points devalue this month. Mark your calendar for Noon eastern on Friday, I’ll be participating on twitter in a chat about miles and points (hash tag “#TravelSkills“) hosted by Johnny Jet and Chris McGinnis. It runs for an hour. Should be a lot of fun.…
Bottom-tier Elite Members Will Lose Complimentary American Airlines Extra Legroom Seating March 17
American was an early pioneer of extra legroom coach seating with their ‘More Room Throughout Coach’ product. This blog took its original name from that product, with an overly lofty goal of helping people achieve more space and freedom in their travels and lives. I changed the name to View from the Wing in early 2003 and American started adding seats back into their coach cabins in 2004. It was a product before its time, but since then extra legroom coach seats have become standard. Far from eliminating United’s “economy plus” seating with its Continental merger, Continental executives learned that they could make money upselling it. And Delta has added extra legroom seating as well. So American launched its own Main Cabin Extra product two years ago. United removed the ability for their ‘Premier Silver’…
How Delta’s New Revenue-Based Points Earning Destroys the Romance of Miles
The problem with Delta’s new revenue-based mileage earning (rewarding you points based on the price of your ticket instead of the miles you fly) isn’t actually that it: Doesn’t actually reward high spenders, since the “break-even point” for earning the same number of points in 2015 as in 2014 is a ticket price of 20 cents per mile flown, which is twice as high as the revenue required by Delta to earn elite status in that element of its revenue-based reforms, and Gold elite members and higher will have to spend more per ticket than general members just to remain even. And Delta actually limits the miles that can be earned by top spenders. Misses the point on how to incentivize incremental business at the margin and contribute to the airline’s bottom line. Business travelers…
Spirit Air Introduces Its Anti-Revenue Based Frequent Flyer Program
Delta recently announced that in 2015 they will award points based on the price of your ticket instead of time (distance flown) in their seats. There are many things wrong with the changes, and the new program will actually place limits on how much expensive tickets can get rewarded. Spirit Air, on the other hand, is offering more miles to customers who spend less. Tickets purchased through April 15 will earn bonus miles — but the more your tickets cost the fewer miles you’ll earn. Flights under $36 earn 1000 bonus miles Flights which cost $36 – $65 earn 500 bonus miles Flights which cost $66 – $99 earn 250 bonus miles None of which would be enough to actually get me to fly Spirit. And while Delta’s miles may not be the most lucrative,…
Is Alien Technology a Threat to Modern Aviation?
Like everyone else, I continue to watch with trepidation as the investigation proceeds into what happened to Malaysia Airlines flight 370. I’ve aleady said that I’m not an expert on airline crashes, so I’ve withheld speculation. I do know that it is going to take months, and probably a year or more, to definitely know just what happened in this tragedy. And I also know that whatever happened, it wasn’t this. The inescapable conclusion is that Flight 370 simply vanished in some way that we do not yet understand. This is what is currently giving rise to all sorts of bizarre-sounding theories across the ‘net, including discussions of possible secret military weapons tests, Bermuda Triangle-like ripples in the fabric of spacetime, and even conjecture that non-terrestrial (alien) technology may have teleported the plane away. …The…
Booking Infant Awards, the End of Cheap Upgrades, How to Scam Your Taxi Driver, and an UberX Tell-All (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 10, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Pizza in Motion follows my advice when a taxi in Paris tries to scam him: wait until you’ve reached your hotel and your luggage is out of the vehicle, then get the hotel’s assistance. You – not the driver – are the hotel’s customer, and they know what a taxi should be charging you. Indispensable if you travel internationally with a child under age 2: Guide to booking award travel with lap infants In the fall when Emirates Skywards became an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, I noted that one of the best features of that program is international upgrades from any fare without cash co-pay (although some fares are upgradable only at the airport). Unfortunately that is apparently changing, effective May 1 some Emirates economy tickets…
Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report: Cathay Pacific First Class New York JFK – Hong Kong
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…
Chase Comes Out With a New IHG Rewards… MasterCard?
There has long been an 80,000 point signup bonus for the IHG Rewards co-brand card. Points and Pixie Dust points out that the new card on offer appears to be an IHG Rewards MasterCard. IHG Rewards promotes it here. Here’s the offer: This is one of those cards that is ‘good to have but not very good for spending money on’ and never hits the top of my list because IHG Rewads points – while very easy to earn through stays – frustrate me to actually use .. not because of availability but because there’s no option to use points for better than a base room, and because while some hotels may go above and beyond the terms and conditions of the program do not require most elite benefits to be honored when using points…
Just Issue The Darned Tickets!
There are two ways to issue tickets — instantly, or queuing them for someone else to do later. I like when tickets I’m buying or changing are issued immediately. I like the transaction to be done. I don’t want to have to think about it again, worry that it hasn’t been done at all, or that something may muck up my reservation along the way. When I book an award ticket with US Airways, they issue tickets immediately. United used to issue tickets immediately, before they combined operations with Continental Airlines and adopted Continental’s vastly inferior computer system. United no longer does instant ticketing. Book an award ticket, though, and usually your ticketing is done after just several minutes. First, United sends you an email: We are processing your reservation and will send you an…
American-JetBlue Frequent Flyer Partnership Ending March 31
JetBlue and American have had a reciprocal mileage-earning partnerships. This ends March 31. Since November 18, 2010, it has been possible to earn miles in each airline’s program by flying the other carrier on specific routes out of New York JFK and Boston. Earning in American AAdvantage for flying JetBlue was permitted on: Earning in JetBlue TrueBlue for flying American was permitted on: (Of course the Boston transatlantic flights and New York JFK – Tokyo Haneda do not exist any longer.) But this comes to an end. American and JetBlue were the subject of merger rumors when American was seeking to chart its own path out of bankruptcy rather than getting acquired by merging with US Airways. The explanation offered by American for the termination of this partnership is US Airways’ strength in the Northeast,…
