As I wrote that I expected yesterday, American is back with their offer to let you buy the difference in miles or segments you need for the elite status you’re after. US Airways will have something that should be identical coming within a few weeks. You don’t have to take an end of year mileage run. You don’t have to spend time in planes, away from family at the holidays. And you don’t have to take seats and upgrades when planes are already full. It’s not inexpensive. In fact it’s quite pricey. But for some, especially those who highly value their time, it could be just the trick. But you’ll need to play it strategically.
This Video of a Pilot’s View from a Swiss Airbus A330 Taught Me Something About The Hobby, and Myself
I’ve always said that this frequent flyer hobby attracted a varying mix of: Frequent flyers Luxury travelers Deal seekers Aviation enthusiasts ..and that these are very much different people. We often don’t understand, when we criticize a deal or interest in a particular subject, that we’re really talking past each other. Why would you spend more miles for first class? Why would you every spend money for an airline ticket? Why would you spend a weekend just looking at planes….? And yet sometimes there’s a real commonality across the hobby, something cool enough in one space to be of interest to folks starting with a different perspective. In an odd way, this Swiss video offered me reflections on the demographics, interests, and communications challenges within the frequent flyer community. Or maybe I’m just reading too…
Airline Service is Bad Because They Can’t Fire flight attendants, Another Massive Devaluation, and 500 Free Starpoints
News and notes from around the interweb: Airline service is bad because they can’t fire flight attendants. I think it’s deeper than that, here’s why flight attendants offer poor service and why airlines aren’t nice. Massive devaluation of the El Al Matmid program coming in February. That’s one I didn’t see coming. A germaphobe’s strategies for a clean hotel room (HT: Alan H.) New York JFK air traffic controllers lied for $170,000 in extra compensation EU Flyer says you can get 500 free Starwood Starpoints for updating your preferences Join the flight crew of a 737 and enjoy the ride! 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.…
British Airways Pre-Order Meals, Copying American and Rolling Out Next Week
First discussed over the summer, British Airways pre order meals are rolling out. According to Flyertalk the British Airways pre order meals program begins November 18, taking meals for flights December 1 onward, and the offering will be available in premium economy and not just business and first class. Customers can simply select their meal from 30 days before their flight departs, right up to 24 hours prior to take-off through the ‘manage my booking’ tool on ba.com. The pre-order service will initially be available on flights between Heathrow and Las Vegas, Phoenix, Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver, Dallas and Seattle, with more routes to be added in early 2015. This Works Just Like American Airlines Pre-Order We may not usually think of American Airlines as a global leader, but they remain the only U.S. airline…
American Bringing Back Year-End Purchase of Qualifying Miles Tomorrow
Over the weekend American’s “status buy back / buy up” page went from ‘offer expired’ to ‘coming soon.’ That made it a pretty good bet that American would be re-introducing a way to either buy back status you had in the previous year but didn’t requalify for, or buy elite qualifying miles to put you over the top towards elite status without taking an end of year mileage run, or extra trip just for the flown miles. Their offer will go online tomorrow. Unlike in years’ past, it will be open for purchase right away (you won’t have to wait until the year ends to take advantage of it). The American offer will be live right away. The US Airways Dividend Miles version of the offer may take a couple of weeks to go online,…
Hyatt Doesn’t Like Monetizing Their Points But Will Sell Them To You With a Bonus
Hyatt Gold Passport is offering a 30% bonus on purchased points of 5000 or more through December 10. With a 30% bonus Hyatt is selling you points at 1.85 cents apiece. I personally value them at not more than 1.5 cents apiece so this doesn’t make me a buyer (points would have to be priced at less than 1.5 cents for that). You can sometimes get more than 2 cents apiece out of your points so if you were going to pay cash for a room anyway buying points can be used to get a room discount. This is a very limiting case. And topping off an account could make sense if you were close to an award (in my experience though Hyatt will allow Diamonds to make award bookings without sufficient points in their…
Starwood: Soon You’ll Have More Upgrade Transparency, and Suite Night Award Update
Starwood Preferred Guest has been on a tear over the past three years. First they introduced a whole new suite of elite status benefits including suite night awards and free breakfast along with 24 hour check-in for top elites. Then a year later — in early 2013 — they introduced additional points-earning and elite recognition in conjunction with Delta (and then added upgradeson Delta for Starwood Platinums). And they’ve launched several initiatives in just the past two months: Starwood launched its new Emirates partnership, Your World Rewards They became the first major chain to offer keyless room entry, using your mobile phone for room access SPG Preferences — customizing room assignments — was introduced SPG Pro bringing their meetings and executive assistant programs under the same umbrella with SPG. I had a great conversation with…
Up to 35% Bonus on Purchased Miles.. One of the Few Buy Miles Offers to Consider
Alaska Airlines is offering up to a 35% bonus on purchased miles. Limited Time Offer: up to 35% Bonus Give the gift of miles to yourself and earn up to 35% more in Bonus Miles. For a very limited time, you can earn up to 14,000 extra Bonus Miles when you buy miles by December 20, 2014. Here’s the bonus earning chart: This isn’t all that uncommon an offer. Sometimes it’s 30%, sometimes 35%, and sometimes 40% — as often as not Alaska offers some sort of bonus on purchased miles. In fact, up through mid- last month the offer was up to a 40% bonus. A purchase of 40,000 points earns 54,000 miles at a total cost of $1182.50 or ~ 2.2 cents per mile. Key things to know:
The World’s Best Hotel Restaurants
Supposedly these are the Best Hotel Restaurants, although with these lists I often wonder how many the writer has actually been to. My personal favorite fine dining in Washington DC (certainly the most beautiful restaurant space) belongs to Blue Duck Tavern at the Park Hyatt, not on this list. And it’s hard to imagine leaving off Amber at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. The ceiling fixture in the dining room at Amber is made of 4320 bronze rods. Hokkaido sea urchin in a lobster jell-o with cauliflower, caviar, crispy seaweed waffles Meanwhile, though I’m not a fan, Iggy’s at the Hilton Singapore warrants consideration. And surely Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore ought to be on such a list? Fresh-shaved wasabi with wagyu beef and a citrus dipping sauce and…
The Insider Scoop on Starwood’s New “Your World Rewards”
The new Starwood Emirates partnership has just gone live: Your World Rewards Details on the Starwood Emirates Partnership A week ago part of the story leaked early when a Starwood website went up with the information unintentionally. What they’re doing with Emirates is very similar to Starwood’s partnership with Delta, Crossover Rewards (minus the upgrades; complimentary domestic or short haul ugprades are very much an American concept). Here are the specifics:. Starwood Gold and Platinum members receive 1 Starpoint per US dollar spent when flying Emirates in (in addition to miles earned for the flight itself). Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold, and Platinum members earn 1 bonus Skywards point per US dollar spent when staying with Starwood (in addition to the SPG points earned for the stay). Starwood Platinums receive elite priority check-in and boarding with…
