@realandylutern tweets, Dirt cheap one-ways to AKL in late August, as cheap as $339 from SFO/LAX, book on ua dot com And in fact, the deal isn’t as limited as just being from San Francisco as Los Angeles, though the cheapest fares are from there, and though it does appear to be limited to August travel. It’s bookable at United.com. The Flight Deal is now covering this as well. These are one-way fares, and not roundtrip, so book paid tickets to New Zealand and award flights one-way back. TFD finds prices for these one-way as: Sample Prices: Newark – $458 Dallas – $458 DC – $523 Los Angeles – $389 San Francisco – $389 Note also that while domestic segments will earn miles, the fare on Air New Zealand will not earn miles when crediting…
Bits ‘n Pieces for July 19, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: A coffee pot at the Johannesburg airport that dispenses free coffee when you yawn 5% off Priceline bookings Inside the Mansion at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Impressive place. And a write-up of the Hyatt-MGM partnership launch party which was held there last night. United.com is displaying award space on EVA Airways again. Qantas is introducing car service on departure in arrival for Los Angeles and Dallas – Australia flights. Other international destinations over 12 hours will be rolled out next year. You can join the 30,000+ 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. Don’t miss out!
Good News: American’s Suzanne Rubin to Remain at the Helm of AAdvantage After US Airways Merger
Per Traveling Better, Suzanne Rubin will remain the President of the AAdvantage frequent flyer program after the airline’s merger with US Airways. The combined American-US Airways loyalty program will remain on the AAdvantage platform, and it’s a much bigger program than US Airways Dividend Miles — a true multi-billion dollar business in its own right — so it certainly makes sense to keep leadership in place. It’s also been profitable even as American itself struggled over the past few years. Former AAdvantage head Maya Leibman (Senior Vice President, Technology and Chief Information Officer) was already announced to be staying on — logical as they’ll be using the American IT plaform. Former AAdvantage head Derek DeCross remains VP of sales. American’s Vice President of Marketing, Rob Friedman (another former head of AAdvantage!) will be leaving however.…
The End of Airline Alliances: Is Skyteam Crumbling, and Will it Just Be the First to Fall?
Several readers pointed me to an Economist piece on Skyteam’s crackup and the future of airline alliances. SUMMER has not been kind to SkyTeam, one of the three big airline alliances, which has suffered two very public snubs by incumbent and prospective members. In late June Craig Kreeger, the CEO of Virgin Atlantic, said that his carrier’s much-mooted membership of SkyTeam was unlikely to materialise any time soon. “For now, Virgin Atlantic remains very happy with the partners we have,” he said, in reference to Virgin’s recent transatlantic tie-up with US-based Delta Air Lines. Less than a week later Reuters quoted a “source close to [Aeroflot’s] board” as saying that the Russian carrier would leave SkyTeam if its management could do so without political interference. In fact, Skyteam has even more issues than that. Flying…
Frequent Traveler University (Tampa, September 27-29) Agenda Now Live
The program for Frequent Traveler University in Tampa is now available. Tickets are available here, and includes the Friday evening cocktail reception and lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. This event will be held at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. A hotel booking link is now available. The group room rate is $119 per night (and we’ve arranged double Hyatt Gold Passsport points as well). Summer and Ed offering an introductory session on miles and points You can find Milepoint.com discussion of the event here. Speakers include: Summer Hull, Mommy Points Ben Schlappig, One Mile at a Time Steve Belkin, aka beaubo, famous for going big on frequent flyer schemes to turn 100,000 mile opportunities into 40 million mile opportunities Daraius Dubash, Million Mile Secrets Hans Mast, of shopping portal fame, travel photographer and expert on generating miles at…
35% Discount on Starwood Award Redemptions at 7 Top Resorts
Starwood is offering a 35% discount on award nights booked at 7 resorts which otherwise (and still!) cost a ton of points. Bookings must be made by March 1, 2014 and can be made for stays as far out as inventory is loaded (you have to book but not travel by that date). Pine Cliffs Residence, Portugal costs 26,000 points per night instead of 40,000 W Retreat Koh Samui, Thailand costs 26,000 points per night instead of 40,000 W Retreat and Spa Maldives costs 58,500 points per night instead of 90,000 Le Meridien Bora Bora costs 39,000 points per night instead of 60,000 Mystique, Santorini costs 39,000 points per night instead of 60,000 Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa, Dubai costs 39,000 points per night instead of 60,000 Vana Belle, Koh Samui, Thailand costs 26,000…
Bits ‘n Pieces for July 18, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Singapore Airlines introduces the option to spend their Krisflyer miles as cash towards a ticket. But at meaningfully less than a penny a point in value, the only reason ever to do this is if the miles are going to expire. While in some sense ‘more options are better,’ it represents a poor value, and underscores why I dislike “revenue-based” redemptions so much. From the ‘I wish they’d planned to remain a standalone airline’ file: American Airlines made money during the 2nd quarter of 2013 — $220 million even including bankruptcy expenses – the first second quarter profit for the airline since 2007. Chapter 11 cost cutting made a big difference for the airline. NBC covers United’s new Mercedes tarmac transfer test. The piece included a photo of…
The Toughest Travel Question I’ve Ever Been Asked to Answer
At first I thought the toughest questions came from Erich in my request for requests post. 1. Write a post in praise of Tyler Cowen (or another non-points inspiration who made you see things differently) 2. Give a Hansonian take on why Travel is not about vacation 3. How has your hobby modified your job or vice versa? 4. Write a post about how you think a smart but not involved person sees the points game (status chasing all the way down? Coupon clipping dressed in beach vacation dreams?) 5. Write a post on what the credit card game looks like 3 years from now. Don’t post it, but send it to a third party for a scheduled release 3 years hence 6. What are your best travel tips for introverts? 7. Invent a cynical…
Bits ‘n Pieces for July 16, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Back in March Alitalia was offering up to 6000 miles for joining. That offer is offer, but Jim N. points out that there’s still 2000 miles on offer just for signing up. Your tips about Fresno, California as an “underrate, overtraveled” destination could win you a prize pack from National Car Rental. This has likely the fewest entries of any contest I’ve run in the past years. Gee, I wonder why…? But it also means there isn’t as much competition to win! I’m honored to again be included in Conde’ Nast Traveler’s World’s Top Travel Specialists for my award booking service. They even have a page detailing the recommendation. My partner Steve and I have booked hundreds of millions of miles worth of premium cabin international awards at…
United Introduces Mercedes Tarmac Transfers in Houston
United has launched a pilot program to offer VIP tarmac transportation to some Global Services and international first class passengers via Mercedes. This new service started yesterday. So far this test program is limited to Houston only, and they have only two vehicles so it won’t be available to many customers at this point. Passengers will not know until they arrive at Houston whether they will receive the benefit. The airline says passengers will not know in advance whether they’ll be selected until they arrive in Houston. A Global First customer service representative will meet the passenger on the jet bridge and then escort them to a waiting Mercedes Benz sedan or SUV below. Then a chauffeur will drive them to their next gate. This follows a Delta playbook, they began tarmac transfers via Porsche…
