Earlier in the month I featured my Million Reader Giveaway where I promised 15 prizes in exchange for your travel tips. I’ve been remiss in awarding those prizes, because over 1300 entries is a lot especially when some of the prizes are being awarded based on subjective evaluation (that’s 1300 travel tips that I have to think about!). But since I want to be able to give you all elite status and points, plus I have these gift cards sitting on my coffee table that I’m going to have to start resisting the temptation to turn them into money orders and deposit them back into my bank account, I went ahead and put together some winners. And I decided to give away more than the 15 prizes promised. Since I’m a co-founder of the Milepoint…
How Car Rentals and Credit Cards Advance Human Civilization
It struck me, looking at the requirements to sign up for an Air China co-branded credit card, just how important miles, points, and travel are to the advancement of civilization. It’s hard to imagine a more important question in public policy, and in the history of human society, than economic growth. It makes most other questions possible. We can talk about eradicating poverty only once we have resources with which to address such problems. Indeed, we can’t even conceive of ‘poverty’ until at least some have risen out of it. Without economic growth what we think of as poverty is just ‘the human condition’. And what we now think of as poverty would once have been incredible riches — indoor plumbing, satellite TV (many of the slums in Mumbai even have satellite tv), there’s even…
United’s Award Routing Rules Can Be Confusing Because They Don’t Actually Exist – And Why I Like It That Way
Travel Is Free summarized United’s ‘award routing rules’. Award tickets have basically two components — the number of miles that they cost (and that can be based on the region you are flying from and to — most US programs price awards based on regions — or the number of miles you fly, some international programs offer ‘distance-based’ award charts) and the ‘routing rules’ or the way you’re able to fly. Distance-based awards don’t usually have very many routing rules, for the most part you can fly however you want between your cities. After all, the more miles you fly, the more out of the way you travel, you’ll simply pay more miles for the award. You may not be able to transit the same city more than twice, you may only be allowed a…
A Very Special Frequent Flyer New Year’s Opportunity: Down Krug and Say Farewell to Cathay’s 747
Tom Allen makes a really great suggestion for New Year’s Eve. Cathay Pacific makes its final 747 passenger flight from London on December 31. And you can be on it! It’s a fully catered party in the sky, with all the champagne you can drink! And as of this writing there are (5) first class award seats available, and (4) business class awards. It’s a great business product of course, but redeeming for business would mean giving up glass after glass of Krug to ring in the New Year. This flight should cost 90,000 British Airways Avios in First or 70,000 American miles. With American miles you pay taxes including the UK’s air passenger duty (aka ‘luxury tax’ or ‘premium cabin departure tax’) but not the fuel surcharges. With BA Avios you pay taxes and…
A Quick Jaunt to Southern India: Etihad Lounge, Washington Dulles
Previous Installments: Introduction and Trip Planning The Empire CLS car dropped me off at Dulles airport and I went to check-in with Etihad. Etihad’s counters are on the backside of the main terminal, and signage isn’t great, so it’s worth knowing this in advance. There was a big posterboard advertising onboard internet, but the poster was turned to the side which was my first indication that this flight wouldn’t have internet. I was flying out on a Sunday night, so wouldn’t be missing much work by not being online, and it’s no longer free for first class passengers. Not a huge loss, but Etihad has internet now on a large chunk of their long haul fleet (I had it flying Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf back at the end of February). There was one person in…
Here’s How to Redeem Miles for Qantas A380 First Class Between the US and Australia
Australia is One of the Very Toughest Awards to Get Award travel between the US and Australia is one of the very toughest frequent flyer bookings there is. It’s doubly tough during peak periods of November through March. Getting two first class seats non-stop is pretty much impossible. Getting two business class seats is very, very hard (although Delta partner Virgin Australia does often have space). Here’s a month-long calendar from the American Airlines website, showing not a single day with 2 first class seats and just one day with two business class seats. Most of the time it’s necessary to route via Asia in order to make an award happen, which several programs permit. It’s a lot of extra flying, but at least in one direction you can generally break up the trip with…
A Quick Jaunt to Southern India: Etihad First Class and a Park Hyatt Chennai Suite (Introduction)
Dec
28
2013
I recently spent four nights in Chennai, India flying Eithad first class (business for the regional flight) and staying in a suite at the Park Hyatt there. On the surface it may seem strange to fly to India for just four nights on leisure, as well as to choose to travel to Chennai as a tourist. But it made sense to me for several reasons. I have way too many miles. With large balances in both US Airways Dividend Miles and American AAdvantage, my points stash will become even more concentrated. Despite three international first class award trips in 2013, I end the year with more points than I began. So my willingness – and even eagerness – to spend points is high. Though I’ve been to India, I’ve never visited Southern India. Chennai is…
The Best Lounges in the United States and Opening Date News for the Next Centurion Lounge
Update: Great news on a date for the San Francisco Centurion lounge opening. And a clarification that the ranking of best US lounges that I call out is meant to highlight best lounge that anyone can access for a fee (rather than making the broader claim about best). Wendy Perrin lists her top domestic U.S. lounges. And in the process she breaks some news. The American Express Centurion lounges are certainly the best lounges in the United States. Currently there are Centurion lounges in Las Vegas and in Dallas (see my review of the spa and showers, as well as the food and drink). The Dallas lounge is the best in the United States in my view, but pales in comparison to the best international lounges. They’re planning to open many more, with both San…
Cute Promotion: Turn Unwanted Holiday Gifts Into Miles
So you shouldn’t turn your gift cards into miles. But is there anything miles-related that you can do with unwanted Christmas gifts? Hotel booking site Rocketmiles, which rebates airline miles in the program of your choice for the reservations you make, is offering 1000 miles for your unwanted Christmas Gifts. Only… it’s not a straightforward exchange of gifts for miles, you get bonus miles with your next hotel booking. And the bonus is limited to the first 200 people who send in their gifts. Here are the key terms: Participants MUST include their Rocketmiles user name (email address). Limited to the first 200 participants. Limit one bonus per person. Item must be unopened and non-perishable. Items must be properly packaged and shipped to Rocket Travel, Inc. 560 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago IL 60661 and received…
DON’T Turn Your Holiday Gift Cards Into Miles
PlasticJungle.com, a website that allows people to sell gift cards, has a co-branded offering with United that allows you to turn your gift cards into miles. Basically you’re (a) selling your gift cards and (b) using the proceeds to buy miles. And this ‘bundled transaction’ turns out to be a bad deal, because they’re selling miles at way too high a price. Now they’re offering a 30% bonus on the miles you’ll receive when trading in gift cards. And it’s still a bad deal. Here’s the website’s example of what you’ll get trading in gift cards: This example has you paying 2.9 cents per mile. Even accounting for gift cards being worth less than cash, that’s a bad price for miles. United’s coming devaluation on February 1 makes this an even worse deal. You’re generally…
