American is offering two stackable promotions for the purchase of miles. First, up to a 30% bonus on purchased miles through May 17. There are specific bonuses at various threshold levels of mileage purchases, it isn’t a straight percentage. To get the best deal you want to buy the minimum number of miles necessary for the tier level you’re interested in. To get a 30% bonus you need to buy exactly 40,000 miles — anything less and the bonus is lower, buying more miles and you still only receive 12,000 bonus miles so your percentage bump is lower as well. This offer on its own isn’t that attractive. But through noon central time on April 5 you also get a 15% discount on the price of the miles you’re buying (as long as your purchase…
Securing Transatlantic Business Class Award Space from Houston
Turkish Airlines launched Houston – Istanbul six days per week service yesterday. The route makes a good deal of sense for Turkish. They’re a Star Alliance member and Turkish is a Star Hub, so they should see some decent feed. They also connect up with a ton of former Soviet cities with oil, including many more obscure airports. I also like Turkish quite a lot for their strong business class lounge in Istanbul, their willingness to put even economy passengers up in a hotel when traveling on a forced overnight, and because of their decent award availability to Asia and Africa (it’s often a go-to last-ditch way of getting folks to either on award tickets). They’re also the best way to use Star Alliance miles to the Maldives. (And they’re willing to status match.) So…
Starwood’s May-July Promo: Double Points and Mobile Booking Bonus
Starwood announced their upcoming promotion on Milepoint this morning: SPG Double Take. Between May 1 and July 31 Starwood is offering double points at most hotels (non-participating properties.. hate that!) and 500 bonus points for all reservations booked on Starwood’s mobile site or iPhone/Android mobile apps (no excluded properties). Registration is not yet available, I tend to remind folks of these things once registration opens but Starwood is happy to remind you via text as well if you’d like: Request a text from us letting you know when registration starts in late April. To opt in, text DBLT to 44264 in the U.S. or 447950080934 in the U.K. Back in the fall they offered double or triple points and a mobile booking bonus. So certainly this one sounds familiar (I did a double take!). This…
The Death of the Double Miles Award: and Why the US Airways/American Merger Will Kill it For Good
I’m going to stake out a prediction for the US Airways-American Airlines merger that I haven’t seen anyone else make yet — it spells the death knell for the ‘double mileage award’. Most US Programs Used to Charge ‘Double Miles’ for a Seat When There Wasn’t Award Availability Traditionally US frequent flyer programs offered to let members book any seat on any flight for twice the miles. That way if there wasn’t any “saver” award inventory, it would still be possible to use your miles. Now it wasn’t always precisely twice the miles. Up until October 2006 United Airlines Mileage Plus offered awards from North America to Australia in business class at 90,000 miles roundtrip — or 150,000 miles for what they called "standard" or rule-buster style awards where you could have any empty seat…
50% Bonus When Transferring Hotel Points to US Airways
It sure seems to be US Airways day! (That is, in addition to April Fools Day…) There’s no registration required. US Airways will give you a 50% bonus on top of whatever miles your hotel program sends over to US Airways with an activity date in April. The promotion is supposed to be valid for transfers initiated in April, though the terms and conditions appear to have a typo in them since they seem to require points to be reported by a hotel program within the next 9 days! The last date that activity from a qualifying partner can be received by US Airways for bonus miles consideration is April 10, 2013, regardless of the eligible activity date for such activity. That’s clearly a mistake, and I’m unconcerned about it. What I don’t know, though,…
250 Bonus Miles for Every US Airways Booking Paid for With MasterCard
Register and every US Airways booking made by October 31 for travel through December 31, paid for with a MasterCard, will earn 250 bonus miles. At least one segment of the reservation must be for paid travel on a US Airways (or US Airways Express)-operated flight. Bonus miles post 6-8 weeks after travel is completed.
Preview of My Next Trip Report: Best First Class Award EVER
This is a quick introduction to a new trip report I’m starting, even though I haven’t finished the last one. I’ll do a much more thorough job especially with the return portion of the flight and also my adventures in Russia. But I just had to share right away a little bit of the product that I’ve just experienced — an ANA award first class redemption on new Russian carrier Meridien Airlines. It’s probably the best product I’ve tried, and right now award availability is really good. Two years ago Transaero Airlines (which many know as a partner of the since-acquired by British Airways british midland) split off a smaller airline, led by a disgruntled faction of the board, creating Meridien Airlines which operates Boeing 777, Boeing 737-800, and Airbus A319 aircraft. Last year they…
British Airways First Class, Seattle or New York to Anywhere in Europe for $120!
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen amistake fare as good as this. And while British Airways has pushed back on honoring these sorts of things in the past it seems pretty clear that under new FTC guidelines they’ll really have no choice. Your trip has to be entirely on British Airways, and originate in Seattle or New York (please add a comment here if you find it from other British Airways cities, but I haven’t seen it work from anywhere else yet) but apparently you can fly from those cities to anywhere in Europe for about $120 all-in. The exact price will vary just a bit based on the airport taxes of your destination, and I haven’t been able to get it to work for just London (you need to connect beyond London…
US Airways 50% Bonus for Shared (Transferred) Miles in April
US Airways usually offers a bonus of some sort for shared miles or purchased miles. When they run a 100% bonus on purchased miles the cost to buy miles directly is 1.87 cents apiece, something that many consider. Their best offer is a 100% bonus on sharing miles — transferring miles from one account to another, with the amount of miles transferred being matched by the same number of additional miles. That lets you buy additional miles at just a penny apiece. April’s offer isn’t as good as either one, but will be strategically useful to some that need to top off an account towards an award or clear out an orphan account with just a few miles in it. Limited time offer: Give a 50% bonus when you Share Miles! Share miles from from…
Frequent Traveler University in April is Sold Out — Book Your Tampa Tickets Now
Next month’s Frequent Traveler University in Northern Virginia has been sold out for months. Some folks have been able to secure tickets because, while tickets are non-refundable, they are transferable up to about four weeks before the event. So folks who bought tickets speculatively, or who discovered they had work or other conflicts, were able to transfer tickets to those who remained alert and jumped on the opportunity. Today marks the last day where April Frequent Traveler University tickets can be transferred. In all, we expect 650 people at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner April 26-28 — the biggest gathering of frequent flyers ever. They’ll come to hear from me, Randy Petersen, The Points Guy, Lucky from One Mile at a Time, Million Mile Secrets, Seth of Wandering Aramean, Frequent Milers, Rapid Travel Chai, plus…
