In a comment on my post about the card that earns 2 Delta miles per dollar on all spend, Tokyo Hyatt Fan points out that there’s also a card that gives you Delta Gold Medallion status. It’s an American Express card. And it’s issued in Japan. US carriers in foreign markets have unique challenges. Generally speaking their benefits are geared towards US consumers, but with a substantial presence elsewhere they may try to tailor their offerings. Delta in particular inherited a big Japan presence from Northwest Airlines (formerly Northwest Orient) in their merger. Delta, through their Seattle hub and with longer range aircraft, are now overflying their Tokyo operation to a much greater degree than in the past. But there’s a large historic tie to Japan. Several US carriers used to offer non-US members complimentary…
Don’t Mileage Run!
Win asked whether or not he should mileage run. I’ve not flown since before September 11, 2001 and am tired of driving around in the car. Time to get in the air! An American Airlines/US Air mileage run (using weekends only) to earn elite status might be fun – any thoughts on an optimal strategy? (I’ve got the US Airways Premier World MasterCard but not earned any preferred qualifying miles). Thanks for a great blog! If you’re flying for leisure purposes, and you’re not flying constantly, you do not need and probably shouldn’t, mileage run. See also: the Final Death of the Mileage Run Now, if you’re flying just for the fun of flying, then by all means. Fly a lot and focus on a single airline. Earn status, and the flying will become more…
Getting an Extra Free One-Way Ticket Each Time You Book an Award: The Programs That Still Let You Do It
Peter asked about “free one-way tickets on awards.” If you can summarize which airlines allow for free one-ways on international award tickets, that would be helpful. I know there’s been some changes in the past few months. The idea of the “free one-way” is that when you redeem a roundtrip award ticket, with an airline that allows stopovers, you can ‘throw in’ an extra flight at the end of your award without spending an additional miles. For instance, if you need to fly Newark – London – Newark, why not fly Newark – London (destination), and then fly back London – Newark (your allowable stopover) – Los Angeles (destination). You fly Newark – Los Angeles at some later date, basically you get a free cross country flight to use later. And changing dates on award…
This Never Gets Old
Even the comments on the video, many from hotel employees, are priceless. 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 can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Alaska Airlines Will No Longer Be Our “Delta Hack” for Full Mileage Earning on Cheap Tickets
Starting January 1, discounted Delta airlines fares will no longer earn full mileage when crediting to Alaska Airlines. We knew this had to be coming — with Delta moving to a revenue-based frequent flyer earning structure, with miles earned based on ticket price, it was too big of a leak to just let customers credit their flights to Alaska Airlines and earn full flown miles instead. Here’s the new earning rates: F and P first class fares increase from 150% mileage earned to 200% A first class fares increase from 150% mileage earned to 175% G first class fares decrease from 150% mileage earned to 125% J and C business class fares increase from 125% mileage earned to 175% D and I business class fares increase from 125% mileage earned to 150% Z business class…
United Has Started Requiring Proof of Address Changes to Places Outside the U.S.
Delta requires minimum spending in order to earn elite status in addition to the required miles you have to fly. And since Delta does, United does also. Both airlines allow you to avoid the requirement if you spend $25,000 or more in a year on their co-brand credit cards (United won’t let you avoid the requirement for 100,000 mile flyer status — only up to their Platinum 75,000 mile level). And both airlines allow you to avoid the requirement entirely if you have a primary account address outside the United States. Naturally the first thought many members had was to simply change the address on their frequent flyer account. When Delta first announced that U.S.-based members had to meet minimum revenue requirements, they also instituted a requirement that you had to prove your new address…
30,000 Miles for a Checking Account is Back, So is Buying Status from US Airways
News and notes from around the interweb: Up to 30,000 American miles for a Citibank checking account Apparently selfie sticks cause radiation concerns. And yet – somehow – nude-o-scopes do not..? Six things I learned about Singapore Taxis Earlier in the month American announced their program to let you buy your way to elite status. At the time they said that the US Airways version of the offer was a few weeks away. Now it’s live. New York’s JFK airport finally has some decent restaurants, including steakhouses. So the Port Authority has implemented a new ban on steak knives. Because a customer might take the knife onboard an aircraft (for all the steak they serve in domestic first class these days?). Nevermind that it’s not tough to get things past the nude-o-scopes if you wish..…
British Airways Increases Top Elite Status Qualification Threshold
British Airways’ top elite tier is Gold. But because theirs is an airline frequent flyer program, it’s more complicated than that. There’s an upper tier within the tier called Gold Guest List (and an invitation only Premier level as well). BA is making it harder to earn ‘Gold Guest List’ status for the first time and for non-UK Europeans to requalify. Presently, the requirement is to earn 5000 tier points in one year or 3000 tier points each of two consecutive years. This second method of two years of 3000 tier points each is going away. It will still take the same 3000 tier points for UK members to re-qualify for this status. European members – who needed 2500 points in the past to requalify – will have to earn 3000 points going forward. Now,…
Amazing Time Lapse Video of an Airbus A380 Heavy Maintenance Check
Every couple of years an aircraft undergoes a “C check” which entails a majority of the plane’s components to be inspected. Emirates posted a time-lapse video of one of their Airbus A380s undergoing such a check. It’s amazing to watch. (HT: Johnny Jet) 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 can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
American Airlines Award Space Coming Back Online!
Over the weekend international award space on American Airlines flights for next year dried up almost completely. Lack of award availability on American isn’t a new issue. Premium cabin transatlantic awards more or less went away two years ago. It was still possible to get plenty of transpacific first class space, but first class has become much harder in advance especially as American reconfigures 777-200 aircraft with new business class and no first class (and introduces new first class on their 777-300s). But coach space has been pretty easy to get much of the time. Until a few days ago. For sure, a major schedule change rolled out. We’ve seen those accidentally open the flood gates with way too much award space in the past. This time we saw the broad disappearance of space. There…
