News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Alaska Airlines is installing Recaro slimline seats in and adding seat power to its 737 fleet, and plans to introduce inflight entertainment that can be streamed inflight to wireless devices. Wendy Perrin publishes the story of a reader who funded their recent trip to Europe on points from credit card signups. What humbles me is that they pass along the story of having contacted me to do their award booking and I told them they could probably get what they were looking for pretty easily on their own, without paying me. And they did. Rick adds that before booking any travel he had contacted Gary Leff,Condé Nast Traveler‘s frequent-flier mileage-award specialist, who often helps readers with mileage conundrums and the intricacies of travel rewards programs. “In view of my…
The Hyatt Regency Austin’s View of the River from a Confirmed Suite
One of my favorite things is a great hotel suite. I recognize that’s not everyone’s preference, many of my readers will say “I don’t need a suite, I don’t spend time in the room anyway, get out and see a great city!” And I don’t disagree with that. But I also enjoy a resort that I can spend time at and relax, a vacation where I’m not running around the whole time. My normal life is at warp speed so being able to take time where I’m sedentary means a lot. Even in a city, and when not on vacation, I love a sanctuary. By my nature I’m an introvert. So if I’m attending a conference, or a bunch of meetings, or even just doing sightseeing it’s nice to have a great space to return…
Up to 100% Bonus for US Airways Shopping Portal Purchases
I believe that Pizza in Motion was the first to highlight that US Airways is offering a bonus on shopping portal transactions of up to 100% through June 23rd. The more transactions the bigger the bonus, up to a 100%, bonusing up to 12 transactions. Registration required. Here’s the earning chart: And here are the partners for which transactions are eligible to earn a bonus: Teleflora: Earn 15 miles per $1 spent 1800Flowers: Earn 25 miles per $1 spent FedEx: 250 miles for first shipment & earn 1 mile per $1 spent Dividend MilesDining Vinesse: 5,000 miles when you sign up (first shipment is 6 wines @ $6.99 per bottle) Wine Insiders: 1,000 bonus miles for $7.99 wines & 1 cent shipping FTD: Earn 15 miles per $1 spent Skymall: 10 miles per $1 spent…
Prepare for Air Traffic Delays as the Traveling Public Becomes a Pawn in Budget Battles
The FAA has instituted work furloughs of air traffic controllers, which they claim is necessary to comply with sequestration budget cuts. These went into effect yesterday, and inbound delays of over an hour could be seen at New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports. The FAA has predicted much longer delays to come at major airports. We’ll see what actually develops, it’s not obvious that even lower staffing levels should cause the degree of delays have been predicted (although they could certainly make it so). As I wrote to Tyler Cowen, the FAA budget is up substantially over the past decade while air traffic control handles fewer flights. It’s hardly necessary to cut this deep into air traffic control to comply with the Budget Control Act’s sequestration provisions. And the notion that they can’t make modest…
New Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Benefit: Triple Points on Dining the First Friday of Each Month
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card, the card to get if you’re only going to get one rewards card, normally earns double points on travel and dining spend. But double points on dining becomes triple points the first Friday of each month through the rest of 2013. Here’s the news on their Facebook page. They’re apparently co-sponsoring the promotion with OpenTable but there’s no need to book reservations at OpenTable to get the 3x points. Note that the card in this post offers credit to me if you’re approved using my links. I try to offer only the best available cards, and most lucrative deals available for those cards. The opinions, analyses, and evaluations here are mine. The content is not provided or commissioned by American Express, by Chase, by Citibank, US Bank, Bank of America,…
35% Bonus on American Express Transfers to British Airways Through June 7
Ameican Express Membership Rewards is offering a 35% bonus on transfers to British Airways Avios through June 7. Avios are most useful for short-haul non-stop flights (longer flights cost more points). And where there’s a fuel surcharge on a paid ticket British Airways adds that to the fees on a paid ticket. For transatlantic travel there’s savings in flying Air Berlin (no fuel surcharges) or Aer Lingus (very low charges) rather than flying British Airways or American. There are no fuel surcharges on domestic US travel or flights to and from South America on American or LAN. (HT: Rob on Milepoint)
Bits ‘n Pieces for April 21, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Head for Points says that you can avoid KLM’s new intra-Europe checked baggage fee just by joining the Flying Blue program — which is useful to do anyway so that you can use their website to search for award availability on lots of the Delta frequent flyer partners that the Delta website doesn’t support. Miles from Blighty walks through the changes to Hyatt’s website. The biggest one is that you can now see points cost and availability next to paid room rates — you don’t need to search for awards separately, and don’t need to have enough points in an account to see award availability online (you used to have to call if you didn’t have enough points in your account to search). Upgraded rooms on points aren’t…
Boeing’s 787 Returning to the Skies!
The Boeing 787 could be flying again within a week! The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it would send airlines instructions and publish a notice next week lifting the 3-month-old grounding order that day. Boeing will then have the go-ahead to begin retrofitting planes with an enhanced lithium ion battery system. Dreamliner flights could resume within a week, the agency told members of Congress. Boeing said it has stationed teams around the world to begin installing the fix. November’s Star MegaDO was a frequent flyer trip which chartered United’s first 787. Frequent flyers got to experience it in a fantastic party atmosphere, and it was covered by the Economist, by the New York Times, by the Wall Street Journal and by… the Wall Street Journal. My own personal interest is that ABC’s Nightline came along…
United Airlines Increases Change Fees to $200 for Domestic and $300 for International Tickets
United has upped their standard domestic change fee on a non-refundable ticket from $150 to $200 (and has also gone from $250 to $300 as the standard on their international tickets). This applies to tickets purchased from April 18 onward, purchases before then would incur the change fee in effect at time of purchase if making a change. Other airlines have not yet matched this change that I have seen. When my business travel life started in earnest domestic change fees were generally $50. Sometime in the late 90s they moved to $75, and in 2001 the standard became $100. When JetBlue started flying their change fee was $25 and flight credits were cancellable — if you weren’t going to take the trip you would cancel your reservation and for that $25 fee the balance…
Preparing for Lufthansa’s Monday Strike Which Starts on Sunday
Lufthansa is facing a one-day ‘warning’ strike by one of its unions on Monday. As a result they have cancelled the bulk of their schedule for Monday, including all intra-European flying. They’ve also cancelled the bulk of their US departures for Europe tomorrow as well. And there are a handful of Tuesday flights affected. Lufthansa’s list of cancelled flights is online. Usually when strikes occur they’ll be scrambling for replacement staff, and those aren’t always fully up to speed on their roles. As a result even limited schedules can be a struggle to operate let alone operate on time, so expect delays even if your flight remains on the schedule. Fortunately, which the exception of Europe-bound flights departing the US, most flights are affected only for a day (most but not all US flights will…
