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…
The Airport Lounge Is 75 Years Old
Airline lounges are 75 years old. The first one was an American Airlines lounge in New York. American has a great online history of its lounges. The original club opened in 1939. New York’s Mayor LaGuardia was criticized for having too big an office at New York LaGuardia airport so he rented out some of the space to American. They couldn’t name it “Admirals Club” because a judge determined people might think it was for Navy Admirals only, so it was named “Flagship Club” (American’s current lounges are Admirals Clubs while their first class lounges are Flagship Lounges). The second club was at Washington National airport. They weren’t allowed to serve alcohol, so they stored bottles for members. This practice continued until liquor laws were changed in 1970. American’s sales department gave out memberships, with…
Free Miles and the Cheapest Awards, Anywhere – Plus a New Points-Earning App
News and notes from around the interweb: 1000 free miles from the program with the cheapest award tickets in the world. JAL’s new 767-300ER debuts December 8 The new list of IHG Rewards Club discounted PointBreaks hotels for just 5000 points per night is up. These are available for stays through February 28, 2015 although bear in mind that the best hotels get pulled quickly so book right away if any are useful to you. United released a mileage-earning mobile shopping app Air France’s low cost subsidiary. Yeah, ’cause that always works… (Cf. Delta Express, Song!, Shuttle by United, US Airways MetroJet) 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.…
Here’s How Rewards Credit Card Deals Between Banks and Loyalty Programs Work Behind the Scenes
Reader George asked about the economics of rewards credit cards. I was just mulling over the economics of credit card bonusing last night- are all of the costs absorbed by the credit card companies? 2x travel and dining are broad credits that capture a big chunk of credit card spend, so that’s a subsidy that makes sense. But 5x at office supply houses, or 5x on the Freedom categories? The bonuses drive a lot of incremental traffic into those stores (albeit low margin gift cards, etc)- do the stores pay advertising fees or a higher credit card fee on these transactions to offset the cost? What about the privileges on premium cards, like IHG Rewards Club Platinum status and free nights on card renewal – does Chase pay the cost, or does IHG comp it…
Should I Book an Award Ticket, or Buy a Ticket and Upgrade With Miles?
Reader Megan asked, What’s the best way to travel first class to Asia? Buy a ticket and upgrade, or go with miles? Great question, because it gets at understanding several key issues about international airline travel, and about miles and points. First of all — although once upon a time American Airlines used to allow double upgrades — no airline is going to permit upgrading from coach to first class. Business class is a different story, although many people use the terms interchangeably. If you want first class you need to buy a business class ticket (say, $3000 to $8000) and upgrade. So for the rest of this post I’m going to read the question as, “should I book an award ticket, or buy a coach ticket and upgrade to business class?” If you’re an…
What You Can – and Can’t – Take from a Hotel Room. And a Naked Man Falls Through the Ceiling at Boston Airport…
News and notes from around the interweb: Woman dies after airport scanner interferes with her pacemaker Naked man falls through ceiling of Bostom airport’s terminal C and attacks 84 year old man AirAsia launching $148 all you can fly air pass Choice Hotels double points for booking through their mobile app. Promotion runs through December 17 and registration is required. Larry Ellison’s Island Air wants pilots to return their Christmas bonuses. Presumably they’ll get the bonuses paid out again next month. What you can and cannot take from hotel rooms (HT: Alan H.). 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…
What Points Should You Earn, and How Many Points Are Too Many?
Reader Rob P asked for, [a] post on your “earn and burn” philosophy would be helpful. How do I know if I’m hoarding too many UR points and not spending them enough? I explained ten years ago why points programs devalue. They’re private currencies without any binding constraints. The Supreme Court even limited your right to sue this year. Programs can do as they wish with impunity. There’s tremendous value in frequent flyer programs but you should not save points now for some future day in which you might spend them. In general your points will never be worth more tomorrow than they are today. The only real exception to that has been the introduction of alliances. The ability to redeem across partners, even on the same award ticket, made existing points more valuable not…
Here’s My Elite Status Program and Plan
Reader Denis asks about my elite status, and since I write about what I think people ought to do what I actually do is fair game. How are you planning status (airlines) for year end? Do you need to MR? Lifetime status? I’ve re-qualified for American’s Executive Platinum (100,000 mile) status already. I should end the year with about 120,000 qualifying miles, and 10,000 on US Airways from spend on their credit card, that will ultimately get combine when the two programs are joined next year — although there will be no benefit to me for being over 100,000 since I won’t hit 125,000 points (which would likely get me – upon request of AAdvantage Customer Service – 2 additional confirmed international upgrades). I’m also a lifetime American AAdvantage Platinum member — American gives lifetime…
Why Don’t Airlines Make Empty Seats Available as Award Space?
Reader Jered asked, Why don’t airlines open all remaining international premium cabin seats for awards for day-of travel? Surely getting something for them is better than having them go empty? Here’s Jered’s question — if a seat is going to go empty, an airline is getting literally nothing in exchange for that seat. They get something, whether reduction in liability (and thus recognition in revenue) for their frequent flyer program and a transfer of funds from the program to the airline… or cash for the seat from an airline partner. So why would an airline let a seat take off empty, rather than reaping an incremental revenue gain for it? Now, many airlines do follow this strategy. They make seats they expect to go unsold available as awards. Some seats may be opened early on…
How Do Airlines Compensate Each Other For Taking Passengers During Irregular Operations?
Reader Jered wants to know: How do airline awards work when redeeming points for travel on a partners? How much if anything do they compensate each other for award seats? More broadly, “when I am accommodated on another airline, how does that work behind the scenes?” e.g. “[D]istressed United passengers on the BOS-ICN mistake fare having boarding passes for re-accommodation on Singapore Airlines being torn up by the Singapore gate agent because the passengers weren’t ‘worth enough’ so clearly some money is changing hands…” Accounting for award tickets varies when you’re using an airline’s miles to fly on their own flights. Generallhy speaking the actualy cost of that ticket to the mileage program may be close to the marginal cost of carrying an additional passenger, such as $50 for a domestic flight. It’s a little…
