News and notes from around the interweb: Julie Johnsson summarizes just how bad United’s computer systems have been. Poor performance, combined with extreme arrogance, help explain why the airline has been losing a couple hundred thousand customers a month. (HT: @mattyglesias) PointsHound now offers Bitcoin as an alternative to earning miles for your your hotel bookings. 10% off Virgin America flights if you book today for travel through February 13. John F. Kennedy phone call discussing retribution against Pan Am for its order of Concorde aircraft. He talks about the Boeing SST program (“our program”) — meanwhile the history of the Concorde program and the Tupolev TU-144 shows how bad an investment that would have been to push forward with. (HT: @HackMyTrip) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every…
One Benefit of the US Airways-American Merger: My Gogo Wireless Goes Farther
I had a short 45 minute flight on US Airways yesterday. I had been offline most of the day, so I figured I could at least download some email via inflight wireless and begin to get a handle on how much I had missed. So I fired up Gogo inflight wireless internet, to at least see what it was going to cost me. I have a monthly subscription for American Airlines, but I assumed I would have to pay on US Airways. I logged in and it didn’t make me pay for the session (the screen before logging in said 30 minutes would be $3, I figured I would do that). Worried for a moment that I had somehow been charged, I checked my account and saw that my monthly plan was now being billed…
Fun Fact: Airplanes Are Non-Smoking But They’re Required By the FAA to Have Ashtrays in the Lavatory
Someone on a closed Facebook group that I subscribe to noticed that the lavatory of a new plane they were on had ash trays. That made no sense, all US aircraft are non-smoking! And they asked what was up. This was a domestic flight, and the US banned smoking on domestic flights in the 90s. You don’t even see no smoking signs lighting up on aircraft anymore (in which case it’s printed), there isn’t a smoking time and a no smoking time, there are announcements about no smoking — including in the lavatory. Very few airlines around the world permit onboard smoking any longer. And yet ashtrays are mandated in the lavatory — part of the minimum equipment list, that a plane is not permitted to fly more than a few days without. I never…
What Smart Parents Can Do When Their Children Misbehave Inflight
I lamented earlier in the week about a short flight where a child behind me wouldn’t stop kicking my seat, he and his sibling were shrieking most of the flight, and the parents were arguably even less well-behaved. There’s no question that the comments were polarized over how to handle this. Lots of suggestions, some more practical than others, but ultimately it was a tough spot because it’s awkward to confront other peoples’ children, the parents were already fighting with each other, and you don’t want to make combustible situations even worse (I could imagine a flight attendant confrontation that led to a diversion — which would have left me far worse off, farther from hom). What I found most interesting — and ultimately most constructive — were the suggestions for parents, by parents. The…
I Gave Some Bad Advice Yesterday, and I’d Like a Chance to Fix It!
Registration has opened for Hyatt’s new promotion. You pick whether you want to earn free nights or points. Staying fewer nights during the promotion period, free nights are the better deal (even though they expire). Staying more nights, I consider pints the better deal. I recommended thinking through how many nights you’re likely to stay during the promotion period, and making your selection accordingly. In general, I think the advice to register for promotions right away is sound: Basic principle: sign up for promotions whenever you know about them, even if you do not think you’re going to take advantage of them. Plans change. You get rebooked or have to book a room elsewhere. A trip comes up. Odds of remembering that there’s a promotion to take advantage of at the time you’re changing your…
Fuel Dumps on an Aeroplan Award, Bonus Miles in the Tropics, and Great Delta Award Availability (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 10, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Lucky points out that you can avoid fuel surcharges on award tickets issued by Air Canada’s Aeroplan by issuing the award for travel on an airline like United, for which they don’t add those fees, and then changing the ticket after departure to an airline like Lufthansa. Lufthansa travel would have incurred fuel surcharges, but changing to Lufthansa flights after travel has commenced will incur only change fees — not the surcharges. American is offering up to a 30% bonus on purchased miles, which is still nearly 2.3 cents per mile and more than I’m willing to pay. Rocketmiles is offering a 50% bonus on miles earned from hotels “between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn” that are booked by February 12. The Hustle Blog…
How to Transfer American Express Points to American AAdvantage – Or Book Star Alliance Awards Without Fuel Surcharges
A trick we used to use sometimes with our award booking service to help a client top off a US Airways frequent flyer account if hey had American Express Memnbership Rewards points was to transfer the Amex points to Air Canada’s Aeroplan and from Aeroplan to US Airways via Points.com. Those transfers were offered at 1 Aeroplan point to 0.84 US Airways points. Sometimes the client would have enough Aeroplan points for their ticket, but didn’t want to pay the fuel surcharges that Aeroplan imposes on about half of their partners. This worked out best for awards where US Airways charged fewer points than Aeroplan did, but sometimes even the loss in points with the transfer was worth it for the cash savings. The option went away from the Points.com website several months ago, but…
The Best Aspirational Hotel Redemption Value in the World? An Overwater Bungalow on Bora Bora!
I spent part of my honeymoon on Bora Bora and loved it. I stayed at Bora Bora Nui, which was then a Starwood property, in an overwater bungalow facing Mt. Otemanu for 5 nights at a cost of 186,000 Starpoints. That was before SPG had ‘category 7’. The hotel became a fantastic value for a standard villa when it transitioned to Hilton, just 50,000 points per night (and eligible for elite multi-night discounts). Now the property can be about 90% more points. Not a bad value, by any means. But also still just for a basic room .. .not an overwater bungalow. The Intercontinental Thalasso Bora Bora used to put guests staying on points in a ‘Garden Villa’. You could pay cash to upgrade, starting at ~ $200 per night for the lowest overwater bungalow.…
40,000 Mile Signup Bonus Back for US Airways MasterCard
On Monday I wrote that we don’t know when the US Airways MasterCard product will go away. American and US Airways are merging, there will eventually just be an American Airlines co-brand card. My guess is that the two airlines combine into a single entity at the end of February or beginning of March 2015, but even that doesn’t tell us with certainty when it becomes no longer possible to apply for the current US Airways card issued by Barclays. MileValue and I debated this on Twitter, since he had contended on his blog that the card would disappear in ‘a few weeks’ and I disagree. In my post I pointed out that there’s a 35,000 mile signup bonus (after first purchase) with a $0 fee the first year. Now it appears there is also…
Registration for Hyatt’s New Free NIghts or Points Promotion Starts Today
Basic principle: sign up for promotions whenever you know about them, even if you do not think you’re going to take advantage of them. Plans change. You get rebooked or have to book a room elsewhere. A trip comes up. Odds of remembering that there’s a promotion to take advantage of at the time you’re changing your plans? Very slim. Registration is quick and easy, so just do it. With that in mind, registration for Hyatt’s new promotion starts today. Stays between January 15 through April 30th offer you a choice between bonus points and free nights. In both cases you will earn rewards for every 5 nights you stay during the promotion period, for each 5 night increment up to 20 nights. Here’s the bonus earning table if you choose to earn points: At…
