My favorite free source of flight availability data was FlightStats.com, a site I explained how to use to find flights that have award availability, or even just seats available like when your flight gets cancelled and you want to find other plans to suggest to an airline instead of just relying on them to figure out how to get you home. Flightstats is mostly used for checking on how a given flight is doing, or showing how an entire airline or airport is doing on a specific day. I suspect the flight availability feature was one used by a small number of customers, but those who used it tended to be experts (the kind of people who knew they wanted seats in “O” or “A” inventory buckets) and really relied on it. Sometime today they…
Uber’s New Plus Option Helps Explain Their Business Model and Where the Company is Going
Ever since I wrote Why Taxis Suck and What You Can Do About It I’ve been fascinated by Uber’s business model. You pull up an app on your phone, hit a couple of buttons and a car will come to your location to pick you up and take you pretty much anywhere you wish. You can watch the car’s progress as it approaches you on a map on your phone. When you arrive at your destination you get out of the vehicle and go, there’s no payment transaction — that’s all handled electronically with your card on file, and a receipt is emailed to you. Tip is included. That’s revolutionized transportation for me. The traditional Uber black car model is great as far as it goes, but UberX — calling on someone with a car…
Cadillac Test Drive Rewards Live: 7500 American Miles for a Test Drive!
Just over a week ago I shared that American’s new patnership with Cadillac would provide tarmac transfers for top customers at some airports, and a big mileage opportunity for everyone. Cadillac display just past the security checkpoint of American’s Terminal 8 at New York JFK The test drive offer is now live and online!
There Are Only Two Things You Should Do With Your Airline Miles. Here’s One of Them.
Back in April I wrote about the only two things you should do with miles. You want to use a travel provider’s points for travel. You’ll always get the best value that way (although you still need to look for bargains and not overpay, key here is the saver award and international premium cabin travel for the most part — unless you’re using British Airways points). This is because a travel provider can get you access to their distressed inventory sold at a discount. Thus your points have leverage. On the other hand, if they have to buy you products and merchandise, they aren’t getting a much better deal than you can get yourself. They have to spend real cash, expensive for them, without the leverage of buying their own products at a deep discount.…
How Reliable is the ‘Trick’ to Get Qantas First Class Award Availability?
Searching for Qantas first class award availability between the US and Australia is about the only time where it really is the case that you need to grab the space as soon as a flight is loaded into the reservation system. The problem is that Qantas loads their inventory ~ 3 weeks before American AAdvantage lets you have access to it. (American won’t access schedules more than 331 days out.) So Qantas members — and indeed British Airways and Cathay Pacific members, for instance — can book these award seats that are made available, while American’s members just have to wait and hope. It used to be the case that Alaska Airlines miles could be used when a partner loaded seats, even if Alaska’s own schedules hadn’t been loaded yet. So say 350 days out…
American Express Transfer Bonus: 35% More Virgin Atlantic Points
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,…
