American Express Membership Rewards is running a 35% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through November 30. They ran a 30% bonus back in May, and a 30% bonus exactly a year ago. They’ve done 35% before as well. One of the popular uses for Virgin miles in the past was converting to Hilton at one-to-two, 50,000 Virgin miles would yield 100,000 Hilton points. But the ratio has been devalued to 1-to-1.5. And Hilton devalued. Still, Virgin miles are fairly easy to acquire. Points transfer also transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards. I’m not a fan of Virgin Atlantic miles, although I have a ton. I’ve never redeeemed the points. I wanted to on their partners Singapore Airlines and on Virgin America, but both times I wanted one-way awards and Virgin Atlantic only offers roundtrips with both.…
$500 Hyatt Gift Cards Giveaway. Did You Win? Click Here to Find Out.
Frequent Traveler University: December 5-7, Hyatt Regency Crystal City The next Frequent Traveler University, in partnership with USA Today, promises to be the biggest gathering of frequent flyers ever — topping even last April’s sold out event in Northern Virginia. The event will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City minutes from Washington’s National airport. It’s a fantastic venue to support us all, and Hyatt made available (2) $250 Hyatt gift cards for me to give away here. Gift cards that could be used on your stay during Frequent Traveler University! Entries were taken in a post I put up on Saturday. Two winners were drawn with the assistance of Random.org.
Why Is International First Class Disappearing?
The Inside Flyer blog pegs the demise of international first class flights on corporate travel policies, noting that American’s refurbished 777-200 aircraft get a new business class and remove first class. The thing is, though, while first class has been on the wane overall, it hasn’t happened evenly or across the board. Indeed, some airlines are even growing their first class offerings and improving their products. Middle East mega-carriers Emirates and Etihad are expanding their fleets, routes, and first class offerings. Etihad is even introducing the most over the top first class in history. While some European carriers have been pulling back but still offer significant first class products. First class remains prevalent among certain carriers in Asia. Delta, Continental, and US Airways stopped offering international first class long ago. United and American continued to…
7000 Miles in Emirates First Class for $920
Loyal reader Jerry F. sends me an interesting Emirates fare. Emirates flies several ‘fifth freedom’ routes, flights between two countries other than the one in which they’re based. This sort of flight is typically short, the airline flies to one destination and continues on to another nearby destination to pick up and drop off passengers. They might not be able to support that third destination directly. Or they might want to overnight the aircraft at a nearby less expensive city. Sometimes those short-distance flights can be cheap. It’s often quite reasonable to buy first class onboard an Emirates A380 between Hong Kong and Bangkok, for instance. The fare between Harare, Zimbabwe and Lusaka, Zambia allows a connection in Dubai. So for the same price you can fly 6800 miles in Emirates first class instead of…
Diving Into the Lesser-Known Gems: Here are the 5 Best Rewards Cards from Bank of America
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Earlier in the month I laid out my argument for the 5 best all-around rewards credit cards. But there are different cards which meet each of the (3) main reasons to carry a card: Those you get just for the signup bonus, but you may not want to keep spending on the card after you’ve earned the bonus. Those you get for the benefit of having the card,…
Check Out This Concert in the Sky! And This Filing Calling Out Delta…
News and notes from around the interweb: Not new, but @gschaer shares this Avianca concert in the sky that’s worth a view. You think that I give Delta a hard time? American’s filing seeking Delta’s near-dormant Tokyo-Haneda slot does me one better. A flight attendants union wants to force the federal government to reinstate the electronics ban during takeoff and landing. They say people don’t pay attention to the safety video, becuase you know, they always used to. (Well, maybe they did for Safety in Paradise.) United is offering 30% off purchased miles through October 20. Not nearly a good enough deal to make me a buyer. You can also get 1 Marriott point for every 3 United miles you buy at full price. This is an even worse deal. Credit card fraud alert gets…
Is Hilton HHonors Ripe for Another Devaluation?
Several years ago Hilton told us that they thought their program was too valuable, that it didn’t get them anything to be that way, and it’s far better to keep customers on a treadmill having to earn more points. This by the way was still during the Great Recession. So it should come as no surprise that Hilton is the hotel program that devalued the most in 2013 — and that was after a fall 2009 that a competitor called the most drastic program devaluation in 17 years. Now, in the name of transparency, they just post hotel redemption category changes to a web page throughout the year instead of actually informing members of changes. With that in mind, Barbara DeLollis interviews Mark Weinstein of Hilton HiHonors, he’s the Vice President who reports up to…
$500 Gift Card Giveaway on This Blog, Easy and Quick to Enter
Frequent Traveler University: December 5-7, Hyatt Regency Crystal City The next Frequent Traveler University, in partnership with USA Today, promises to be the biggest gathering of frequent flyers ever — topping even last April’s sold out event in Northern Virginia. The event will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City minutes from Washington’s National airport. And with Hyatt’s help I’m giving away (2) $500 Hyatt gift cards for me to give away here. Gift cards that could be used on your stay during Frequent Traveler University! Click on the official entry post. That’s where you need to leave a comment to be entered to win. The contest runs through midday tomorrow, so enter right away. And I hope to see you at the upcoming Frequent Traveler University! You can join the 40,000+ people who…
TSA Questions Scientist Trying to Bring His Nobel Prize Through Security
Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt brought his Nobel Prize to Fargo, North Dakota to show it to his grandmother. That was suspicious. When Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt was asked at airport security if anyone had given him an item to carry on board, he had confess that someone had: the King of Sweden. The astrophysicist, who won the Nobel in 2011, was stopped when his Prize medal made from $10,000 (£6,200) of gold caught the attention of staff from the US Transport Security Administration, whose agents are not known for their sense of humour. …he described what happened next: “They’re like, ‘Sir, there’s something in your bag.’ I said, ‘Yes, I think it’s this box.’ “They said, ‘What’s in the box?’ I said, ‘a large gold medal,’ as one does. “So they opened it up and…
Earn Triple Amex Membership Rewards Points at Restaurants
American Express is offering triple points at US restaurants through the end of the year to select (targeted) customers. Registration required, and if you haven’t received anything from American Express it seems worth it to me to click the link and log into your account to see if you’re eligible. I don’t know the targeting criteria, and I wasn’t eligible, but I have to imagine that they’re testing member engagement to see how popular a benefit this is and what it does to spend so that they can game plan the effects to see if it is a benefit that could make sense for one of their products. You can receive 3X Membership Rewards points when you use your enrolled Card to make a purchase at qualifying U.S. Restaurants between 10/1/2014 and 12/31/2014. You can…
