Many people think of Singapore as just a stopover, but it’s one of my favorite places with a very special food culture. There are certainly reasonable complaints about the city state, especially if you’re a resident rather than a visitor. For both better and worse they have a truly unique governance system. They are both restrictive and experimental at the same time. Populist concerns don’t necessarily stand in the way of testing innovation. testing the use of driverless cars in one neighborhood next year, Uber-style it seems. And either ironically or predictability it’s all a part of Singapore’s social engineering desires: Lam Wee Shann, director of the futures division for Singapore’s Ministry of Transport, said during a panel held at MIT last month that the government wants to explore whether autonomous vehicles could reduce congestion…
500 Free and Easy Miles, Marriott Asks Permission to Block Your Internet, and a Letter to a 5 Year Old Elite Flyer
News and notes from around the interweb: 500 free Virgin America points just for entering name and account information. And Virgin America points are roughly like 1000 miles in other programs. Really heartwarming. My Fox News Happening Now appearance yesterday with tips for holiday travel: be aware, be nice, and be persistent. Know where your aircraft is coming and weather along to way to assist in planning, be kind to agents and they’ll be more helpful, and there are plenty of different touch points where you can ask for help if you aren’t getting what you need. American and Alaska are increasing codesharing across 16 additional routes, and it strikes me interesting that American will be helping to sell seats on 4 routes Alaska is operating out of Salt Lake City. Marriott adopts only the…
Free and Discounted Lounge Access
Last week the LoungeBuddy iPhone App offered readers a chance for free credit towards lounge day passes. And anyone that didn’t win? Still start off with a free $10 credit towards your first pur purchase with code viewftwing (you get all the credit, no referral benefit to me). I’m not a part of the Apple ecosystem, which is a bummer because I’d personally use the app to make advance (and sometimes discounted) purchase of a pass for the Minute Suites location at DFW. I pass by it in Terminal D all the time and haven’t ever gone in. A Private Minute Suites Room in Philadelphia) I asked folks what their favorite airport lounge is. The winners of the contest are entry #s 263 and 165: Bob likes the San Francisco Centurion lounge: Johnny likes first…
How Can You Use Chase Points to Travel to Alaska?
Reader l.C asks, I need to fly 3 people to Alaska using those Chase points. What is the best and most efficient way to do this. I have Alaska, but not Korean airlines, account. Certainly Alaska Airlines has the most flights. And Korean’s award chart for travel on Alasks is very reasonable. To say whether or not Alaska is best option I’d need to know this readers starting city and of course travel dates to know if award space is available. Unfortunately Korean Airlines is offline as a Chase transfer partner (though should come back, although I do not know exactly when) which means to ticket right away the partner to use would be British Airways which charges for awards based on distance and charges separately for each flight segment. You need to find seats…
The West Coast Flight That Has Plenty of First Class Award Space to Europe Using American or British Airways Miles
British Airways dropped first class from a handful of routes, but they’ve changed their mind and first is coming back. And that creates an opportunity for award travel. Here’s what prompted my realizing it: MileCards wrote that British Airways award availability was wide open in first class for next summer between Los Angeles and London and Seattle and London. That seemed strange to me, it certainly hadn’t been my experience. And I search for a lot of awards. West Coast – Europe non-stop premium cabin awards are tough to get, even on British Airways which has a ton of premium cabin seats and which adds fuel surcharges onto awards. Perhaps it just happened and there was a huge short term opportunity to grab a couple of first class awards? So I went about searching myself…
Chase Points Transfers to Korean Air To Return in January!
Korean Air has been one of my favorite uses of Chase points. First class awards have been so darned easy to get. There are real sweet spots in their Skyteam award chart They offer cheap awards to Hawaii Although they are of course very Korean and their processes for redeeming awards are unique. Korean went offline as a Chase transfer partner last month, though I wrote that it was expected to come back. Korean Air’s Skypass website lists Chase Ultimate Rewards as a partner and the page says transfers will be back next month. ※ Chase Ultimate Rewards point transfer is temporarily unavailable. It is planned to re-open during Jan, 2015. I don’t take the date as definitive and there isn’t yet a specific date, but it’s good to be hearing from both side that…
Double Miles on all Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental and Related Brand Stays
IHG’s big promo for the beginning of the year is ‘Set Your Sights’ where lots of different kinds of activity earn big bonus points (though it isn’t as lucrative as the fall’s free nights promotion. But if you’re not going to do all of the activities, it’s worth having a look eat earning double airline miles instead. Registration is required and setting your earning preference in your account to airline miles. And then you can earn up to 10,000 bonus airline miles for stays between January 7 and April 30 starting with your first stay. (HT: Frequent Flyer Bonuses) You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You…
Court Says MileagePlus is Fraudulent, LOT Installs Mistletoe in Planes, and Other Things You Need to Know
News and notes from around the interweb: 100,000 Hyatt Gold Passport point giveaway Delta is running an award sale that requires booking by today for travel between January 7 and March 25 if you want to save miles for economy travel between North America and Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Court calls United MileagePlus deceptive, fraudulent, and dishonorable. This is all over changes to the million miler program. Is American eliminating full cans of soda for first class passengers? LOT Polish Airlines is hanging mistletoe in their planes Reasons not to be optimistic for Cuba, even though economic liberalization should certainly boost tourism. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe…
Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok
Must-read Earlier Installments: Singapore, Cathay, and Qantas First Class.. Some of the Best Meals of My Life, and a Tour of Hyatts in Bangkok, Singapore, and Sydney Inside the New Oneworld Lounge at LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal Cathay Pacific First Class, Los Angeles – Hong Kong Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge, Hong Kong For more than two years I’ve been looking forward to flying Cathay Pacific’s new regional business class product but I’ve been foiled every time — I keep getting their long haul business product on my short intra-Asia flights. That streak, lucky in most ways, continued. And I was sort of banging my head against the wall over it. What better way than a short hop between Hong Kong and Bangkok would there be to try out lesser seats? Our…
3 Key Rewards Program Tools for Staying in Good Hotels at Very Little Cost
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). I’ve never gone and spent $450 on a hotel room, but I’m not a budget traveler either. There are a lot of travel bloggers who travel year round and do their best to keep costs super low. I travel for work, and pleasure, but I don’t travel full time or live in hotels. I also never really put myself into a box like travel blogger, this is just…
