The Singapore Airlines check-in procedure provides a better experience than their San Francisco lounge does. Walking up to the first class check-in counter, a Singapore Airlines agent approached me to walk me the rest of the way to the counter. Unnecessary, but certainly first class service. It’s the only touch of first class on the ground that’s offered, as you’re sent off on your way to the lounge which is upstairs and down a long barren corridor. It’s not a tiny lounge but it really isn’t big enough to host Star Alliance elites and premium cabin passengers headed to Singapore, there are just too many eligible passengers for the size of the lounge and the place gets busy. There’s seating, but it’s not spacious or peaceful. I imagine it’s really packed when San Francisco –…
Here’s Why Today’s American AAdvantage Fuel Surcharge Award Glitch Shouldn’t Scare You
This morning American appeared to be starting to collect fuel surcharges on international award tickets (and not just on British Airways and Iberia award travel). This was sounding as though they were going to spread this out across all of their airline partners, and would have meant new out of pocket cash costs of several hundred dollars per ticket. Within a few hours, American explained that this was all a mistake, that there were some changes which were supposed to apply to revenue tickets only but that accidentally affected some award travel as well — it was unintentional and would be fixed. Specifically, American said: Last night, in a routine effort to better align American to industry standards with other global carriers, American begin collecting carrier-imposed surcharges on tickets for travel on other carrier’s metal.…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 28, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: How can I avoid extra fees on award tickets? “The entire frequent flyer universe breathes a collective sigh of relief.” @gster78 tweeted that he successfully used this advice to get out of a non-refundable advance purchase booking. Sometimes the shelf life on blog posts is longer than I think! Hyatt is buying the Peabody Orlando attached to the Orlando convention center. When the transaction closes (expected October 1) it will be rebranded a Hyatt Regency. Unless I am mistaken this 1,641 room hotel will have the most guest rooms of any Hyatt. (Update: As pointed out by many of you emailing me, the Hyatt Regency on Wacker Street in Chicago remains the largest.) I frequently have bunches of web browser windows open throughout the day, things I intend…
No New Fuel Surcharges on American AAdvantage Awards!
There are no new fuel surcharges on American AAdvantage awards. American issued the following statement: Last night, in a routine effort to better align American to industry standards with other global carriers, American begin collecting carrier-imposed surcharges on tickets for travel on other carrier’s metal. This change was intended for revenue tickets only, but the surcharge was erroneously added to AAdvantage award redemptions on other airlines as well. Except in the cases of British Airways and Iberia (where American currently collects these surcharges), no carrier-imposed surcharges will be applied when redeeming AAdvantage miles for award travel on other carriers. Any customers who encountered this fee in error will be fully refunded. This morning I posted that American was beginning to collect fuel surcharges on award tickets on more of their airline partners. I priced out…
Singapore Airlines Long Haul First Class Offers Great Service, Great Meals, Poor Snacks and Uncomfortable Seats
Singapore Airlines first class is perhaps the most aspirational airline product in existence. It’s rarely available to Singapore’s mileage partners like United and Air Canada, but availability is quite good for Singapore’s own Krisflyer members. That’s lucky because Singapore Airlines Krisflyer is a transfer partner of both the US American Express Membership Rewards program and of Starwood Preferred Guest. As are result many people have access to Singapore miles and don’t even realize it. (At the beginning of July 2012 Singapore award availability was opened up briefly to all of their partners, and I made several bookings at that time.) Singapore’s award chart isn’t cheap, and they do add fuel surcharges on awards. But you get a 15% mileage discount when booking on their (only semi-functional) website, and you get.. Singapore Airlines first class. Sure,…
Is American AAdvantage Adding Fuel Surcharges to All International Awards?
Lucky wrote a disturbing post this morning suggesting that American was going to start collecting fuel surcharges on all international awards. If correct, this is a very big deal. What are fuel surcharges? First of all, understand what “fuel surcharges” are. They’re generally a fixed amount of money added to a fare. The amount will usually be the same across all fares for a given city pair. In other words, all “New York – London” fares that an airline publishes will add the same amount for fuel surcharge. There are some exceptions to this. An airline may file a different fuel surcharge amount for premium cabins (so a business class ticket might have a higher fuel surcharge than a coach one). And it is possible to file discounted fares that do not incur fuel surcharges…
Claiming My Second American Airlines Elite Reward – And Why I Chose 20,000 Miles After Flying 75,000
Back in April American AAdvantage announced an exceptionally generous 2013 ‘elite rewards’ program offering choices of additional rewards for reaching milestones between the various elite qualifying levels. Unlike in past years, the offerings are based on miles flown and not just the more revenue-based ‘points’ system and in addition all members are eligible to earn rewards at each milestone rather than just earning rewards for exceeding re-qualification for their current status level. Put another way, an Executive Platinum (100,000 mile flyer) like me can earn rewards after 40,000 and 75,000 miles — not just after 125,000 and 150,000 miles flown. Back at the end of May I explained why I was choosing the miles as my first ‘elite rewards’ choice for flying more than 40,000 miles on American. This afternoon I received an email prompting…
PointsHound Double Miles Promotion for Bookings Made By August 31
I mentioned yesterday that hotel booking website PointsHound would be offering a double points promotion starting today. The promotion is now live on their website. With PointsHound you can choose to earn points in the following programs when you book hotels through their site: I reviewed PointsHound extensively back in May. Key things to know: It pays to compare rates — in the past I have noticed occasional outliers where the site winds up more expensive than booking directly, but that hasn’t been frequent in the searches I’ve done. Always check prices against other sources. They offer some prepaid rates, usually giving you more miles, but those likely will not earn elite stay credit or points in the hotel program of the property you’re staying at. They also offer “Double Up” rates which do earn…
National Car Rental’s 1-2-Free Promotion Returns Next Month
National Car Rental is bringing back its One-Two-Free promotion with registration opening September 9. Assuming this promotion is run similarly to last year (which ran August 20 through January), it will offer a free rental day on every two paid midsize or larger rentals of 2 days or more through the end of January. Last year there was also a referral component to the offer which allowed you to earn up to 10 free rental days as well (the 1-2-Free earning from eligible rentals was uncapped). We’ll see if that component of the offer is being repeated. While the requirement for a mid-size two day rental to earn a free day limits the ability to come out ahead just by renting for the free days (although as a National Executive Elite member, my free days…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 26, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Don’t make a booking with PointsHound… until tomorrow. A little birdie tells me that Tuesday mid-day PointsHound will be launching a “double earning promotion” such that a reservation that would normally earn 3000 miles will instead earn 6000 miles. The promotion will run for bookings made through August 31. I mentioned on Friday that the list of IHG Rewards hotels participating in PointBreaks was out, so you could see which hotels would be bookable for just 5000 points per night. Booking is now available online for stays through October 31. Star Alliance member EVA Airways is bringing a Hello Kitty 777-300ER to its Taipei – Los Angeles route. With 3 daily Los Angeles roundtrips, we do not yet know which flight will get this aircraft. But the very…
