According to Loyalty Lobby, US Airways will be back with a purchase miles bonus of up to 100% between May 3 and May 25. Over the past few years they’ve run buy miles bonuses — sometimes targeted — about 75% of the year. Which means that the 100% bonus is more or less ‘regular price’. Nonetheless, that means they sell miles less expensively than most airlines including less expensively than American Airlines — and these miles will become American miles when the two programs merge. As a long-term play it’s cheaper to buy miles from US Airways and have them become American miles than to buy those miles from American. (One imagines that when the programs do merge, that the higher price of American miles will prevail.) Good Deal? At a 100% bonus, priced at…
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Which Airline and Hotel Program is the Best?
The Freddie Awards were held in Seattle on Thursday night. They’re the awards for the best airline, hotel and credit card loyalty programs voted on by millions of frequent travelers around the world. They’re one way to answer which program is best. Not for everyone and at all times (not everyone casts their vote for the same program!) but they’re a real people’s choice award (although the voting is structured so that it’s not a ‘popularity contest’ – voters rank programs and small programs with a passionate and satisfied member base can do well). I had the honor of emceeing the awards, and presenting trophies on behalf of members tot he programs that earned them. Here’s USA Today coverage and Skift coverage of the event. And here are full results. I was interviewed by KOMO…
2000 Bonus Miles for Each of Your Kids, Last Call for $20, and Award Shenanigans With United and Air China (Bits ‘n Pieces for April 24, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Enter my giveaway for lounge passes and miles Possible new routing rules for United awards between the US and North Asia Tomorrow is the last day for Uber referral links to offer a $20 first-time user credit. After that the first time incentive drops to $10 (but look out for better offers). (“Why Taxis Suck and What You Can Do About It“) Turkish Miles&Smiles will give your kids 1000 bonus miles for signup and 1000 more with first flight within 90 days (including partner flights on United). You can sign up each of your kids, and then combine the points. Are Air China employees cancelling United award tickets on their airline, to help other travelers clear upgrades for a fee? You can join the 40,000+ people who see…
Thai Airways Discovers the Security Theatre Time Machine
Inane security procedures aren’t exclusive to the U.S. And it’s just so 2002. The Winter Olympics were in Salt Lake City. The ceasefire began in Sri Lanka. Queen Elizabeth passed away. Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison for selling secrets to the Soviets. Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas died. And the Department of Homeland Security was created. Thai Airways is trialing going with all plastic flatware on its Bangkok – Los Angeles route. Chatree Pongsak, director of THAI’s flight operations safety department, said the change had been made out of concern for passenger safety. He said the stainless steel cutlery could be used as a weapon in a terrorist attack or to commit a crime on board. The airline’s Company Safety Committee (CSC) is considering phasing out the metallic cutlery on all of the…
Elephant Jumps Thai is Cooking at a Whole Different Level, You Should Go Now
Friday night my boss emailed me, “You must go and get his sour bamboo shoot curry, and the fermented fish curry, possibly the best dishes yet…! (not available every day, though)” He didn’t have a subject line, didn’t mention the restaurant, he didn’t have to because it was obvious. I was planning to go to Elephant Jumps for lunch on Saturday anyway. Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide has an updated review: This place has improved so much I feel it deserves another review. It was already one of the best places on this list, nowadays it is probably the very best place. It has consistently original and authentic Thai food which is refined and improved on a regular basis. …If you are ever upset that I am not writing more restaurant reviews, the answer is…
What Additional Changes Can You Expect from American and US Airways?
With the changes American announced to its frequent flyer program last week many members are wondering what shoe is next to drop. There are going to be many more changes for sure — for the frequent flyer program, and for the airline — simply as a matter of going down the list of differences between American and US Airways. And there are going to be members who don’t like the changes no matter which version of a policy, American’s or US Airways’, they decide to go with in any given instance. But here are some of the changes I expect to see as US Airways and American harmonize their programs and their airline operations. This list is by no means exhaustive, but several readers have asked me for some of the changes I expect and…
Free Hotel Night Just for Joining a Loyalty Program
MeliáRewards is a hotel loyalty program with most of its properties in Europe, and the largest number in Spain. The next biggest region for them is South America. There are 3 hotels in the U.S. as well, in New York, Atlanta, and Orlando. They have a current joining offer of 12,000 points, enough for a free night with many of their hotels. Here’s the detail: 2000 points is the normal signup bonus, and it’s enough to get a discount on a hotel booking (cash and points). The current promotion gives you an additional 10,000 points — for a total of 12,000 points as a signup bonus. The catch is that the extra 10,000 points expire at the end of April if unused. So you need to book an award night right away (within the next…
US Airways Targeted Buy Miles Bonus is Back for the Rest of April
Now that the US Airways 100% bonus on shared miles (the best offer for purchased miles generally made by any airline loyalty program) is over, they’re apparently back with a version of their usual bonuses for purchased miles (which isn’t nearly as good a deal). (HT: Loyalty Lobby) The buy miles offer page is again asking you to verify your name and account number at the outset, which means it’s checking on what your targeted offer is. The offer runs through the end of the month, not everyone is eligible, and the bonus you’ll be offered will vary. It turns out that none of the accounts I manage were targeted for a purchased miles bonus this go-around. Even if they were, I wouldn’t be a buyer — certainly not at any amount under a 100%…
The US Airways Twitter Team Gives Us the Greatest Gift We Could Ask For
Someone on the US Airways twitter team committed career suicide today by posting a pornographic image of a woman playing with a Boeing aircraft in a manner not intended by the manufacturer. US Airways offers the following explanation, Our investigation has determined that the image was initially posted to our Twitter feed by another user. We captured the tweet to flag it as inappropriate. Unfortunately the image was inadvertently included in a response to a customer. We immediately realized the error and removed our tweet. This seems plausible, at least if by “initally posted to our Twitter feed by another user,” US Airways means that “our twitter team was surfing for airplane porn and cut and paste from the wrong broswer window when replying to a tweet.” If you want to actually see the highly…
My Predictions and Fears for American’s Coming New Award Chart
American will be the only North America carrier that doesn’t allow stopovers on its awards of any kind (unless they bring back stopovers later), and the only North America carrier to add fuel surcharges to US-originating itineraries on their primary partners. While American hasn’t devalued its award chart in many years, it is already quite expensive to many regions so that it is more or less on part — for all except first class redemptions — with where the industry already is with last year’s round of devaluations. There are a few regions where they’ve got headroom to increase award prices. And the fact that Delta doesn’t offer international first class awards, and their primary competitor United increased their so much, makes it thinkable that we could see first class increase a good bit. But…
