News and notes from around the interweb: Southwest Airlines will only let you book award flights up through the expiration of your points, but there are easy workarounds. United’s Jeff Smisek actually thinks Delta can’t compete against his airline to Asia. “Our friends in Atlanta lack a gateway to Asia… The best gateway is already taken — that’s San Francisco.” Of course Delta is performing better overall. And United is revamping its marketing muscle to be as much like Delta’s as possible. Which apparently makes them a market leader. Or something. Virgin America Elevate is offering up to a 30% bonus on points purchased through July 1. Ultimate Starbucks Tip List Speaking of Starbucks they’ve started rolling out wireless charging for your devices. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis…
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A Frequent Flyer Program You Should Learn About With Some of the Cheapest Premium Awards Out There
As US frequent flyer programs devalue, I’ve consistently written that we should consider looking abroad. There are tons of programs in the world, and not only do many of them provide great value some of them are getting even better rather than worse. Many of those are viable options, although usually not perfect substitutes, for US programs. Yesterday I wrote about several options for crediting United flights to continue to earn full miles (for people not chasing United’s status) even after they make mileage-earning for flights credited to MileagePlus revenue-based. Today I’m going to take a closer look at Turkish Miles&Smiles, which: Gives you 100% of miles flown on United on all paid fares when crediting to their program, regardless of fare class. Offers status matches, even to United elites. So showing your Turkish Gold…
Here’s the New Game Plan for Non-Elite Flyers That Travel on United
With United’s big announcement that they’re going to revenue-based mileage accrual effective March 2015, there will be some customers who benefit: Short haul flyers who pay high fares. These folks might average more than the 20 cents a mile that’s break-even for year-over-year earning. International premium cabin flyers. Buying very expensive business and first class tickets you can come out ahead — just be sure your ticket isn’t too expensive because mileage-earning is capped at 75,000 miles per ticket (buy two one ways if you’re a full fare long haul business passenger, instead of a roundtrip). But for folks that aren’t elite frequent flyers with United, who don’t need to credit their miles to United but will still fly the occasional revenue ticket with them, here’s what you might consider. Other than – of course…
From the Maldives to Malaysia: A Boat, Domestic Flight, and Malaysia Airlines Business Class
In this post I’ll take the Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives’ boat to the Kooddoo airport, Maldivian Airlines from there to Male, and then Malaysia Airlines business class Male – Kuala Lumpur. And I get the best part was the inflight satay. Previous trip report installments Introduction: Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost Etihad Lounge and First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi Premier Inn Abu Dhabi International Airport Etihad’s Abu Dhabi first class lounge, and business class Abu Dhabi – Male Maldivian Domestic Lounge, Flight, and Boat Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives When it was finally time to leave , I made my way … not to the jetty but to the bar, for one final complimentary Sundowner cocktail. We then bid the…
The Latest on Earning Miles for Mortgages and Liquidating Gift Cards at Walmart Plus 19% Off Marriott Stays
News and notes from around the interweb: Evolve Money (earn miles for paying your mortgage..) begins tightening its policies. The latest on OneVanilla, Bluebird, and Walmart. Today’s “Daily Getaways” deal is 19% off Marriott gift cards. 1000 bonus Asiamiles for two partner transactions, including just “crediting a Cathay or Dragonair flights and then booking something on Ctrip.” Singapore Airlines Krisflyer joins the mileage-earning shopping portal game, but the payouts strike me as ungenerous. 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!
WOW Deal $1700 3-Cabin First Class Fare Boston and Other Cities – Seoul Roundtrip
United has a ~$1700 fare valid through the end of schedule between Boston and Seoul that allows travel across the Pacific in their 3-cabin United Global First product. The fare also appears to be available from Hartford, Connecticut and Burlington, Vermont. Perhaps there are other cities, please share if you find them. This deal is no longer available. Read on to see what you missed!
The Ultimate Guide to Constructing an International Award Ticket Using American Miles
Four months ago I wrote a detailed guide to booking awards using American AAdvantage miles. Since that time distance-based oneworld awards have been eliminated, and so have ‘domestic gateway city stopovers’ on international awards. So those need to be removed from the guide. In addition, American has very quirky routing rules. I noted earlier today that those have been changed a bit with the addition of Qatar Airways to oneworld. JonNYC provided the full detail on those changes. What I know about booking awards with American AAdvantage miles comes from more than a decade of personal experience, from more than four years booking awards for others, and some insights gleamed from unpublished rules shared over at TravelingBetter.com. But recent changes required an update to the guide. This will show you the rules, tips, and tricks…
A Glitch to Avoid Fuel Surchages on American Express Transfer Partner Aeroplan
Yesterday I showed how to reduce fuel surcharges on British Airways awards when redeeming American miles. Today, a new opportunity (that is likely a glitch and so will be short-lived) to redeem Aeroplan points without fuel surcharges. There’s a glitch right now that will help you avoid paying fuel surcharges when redeeming awards with Air Canada’s Aeroplan, an especially useful program because it is an instant transfer partner of American Express. Last year I called Aeroplan the most devalued program in North America. First there was the gutting of their award chart on July 15, 2011. For instance, my favorite award — first class to most of Asia — went from 120,000 miles to 175,000 miles (a 46% increase in one shot). Australia awards went from 75,000 to 80,000 in coach; 100,000 to 135,000 in…
What Part of Suite Upgrade Don’t You Understand?
I’m need to buy Lucky who writes the One Mile at a Time blog, this t-shirt. He shared his experience checking into the St. Regis Abu Dhabi, a Starwood hotel. First he was (incorrectly) told that his American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts booking wasn’t entitled to a Platinum upgrade. Then he was told that even though the hotel was selling more than 9 St. Regis suites, that none were available. He tweeted the hotel and Starwood Preferred Guest, and he was given one of those suites. Here’s how to ask for – and get – a hotel upgrade. Burj al Arab
I’m Giving Away $400 to My Blog Readers. Click Here to Enter. All You Have to Do Is Be Positive!
It’s been a tough 18 months in the frequent flyer world. It’s easier than ever to earn points, but the cost of awards has gone up, up, up. Miles and points have been very good to me, and I do my best to give back where I can. I don’t make a public show of my charity, but I do my best to give the best advice I can and to offer giveaways when things are offered to me. And when I have gift cards, I can either turn them into money orders or do various frequent flyer experiments, or I can give them away. So here, I thought I would give away $400. And what better way to give them away than to my readers who comment on this post?
