MJ on Travel calls programs going revenue-based “a big ol’ bag of nadda.” He wants suggests it really doesn’t matter. He makes three points: “[T]ravelers that are buying last minute high (or highish) fares should rejoice at these changes” He says he will be better off next year with Delta’s new revenue-based earning. Revenue-based earning doesn’t change credit card rewards, and other opportunities. Southwest carries the most domestic passengers, because they don’t suck, even though their frequent flyer program has revenue-based earning and redemption. I’m glad MJ is happy, and thinks his frequent flyer future is so bright he’s gotta wear shades. I also think there are several arguments here that don’t take him as far as he wants them to go. Most importantly, downplaying the significance of the changes misses the opportunity to help…
Beating Southwest’s Points Expiration Policy, Smisek Thinks Delta Can’t Touch United, and Ultimate Starbucks Tip List
News and notes from around the interweb: Southwest Airlines will only let you book award flights up through the expiration of your points, but there are easy workarounds. United’s Jeff Smisek actually thinks Delta can’t compete against his airline to Asia. “Our friends in Atlanta lack a gateway to Asia… The best gateway is already taken — that’s San Francisco.” Of course Delta is performing better overall. And United is revamping its marketing muscle to be as much like Delta’s as possible. Which apparently makes them a market leader. Or something. Virgin America Elevate is offering up to a 30% bonus on points purchased through July 1. Ultimate Starbucks Tip List Speaking of Starbucks they’ve started rolling out wireless charging for your devices. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis…
Booking United Awards On Brussels Airlines and Waiving the Phone Booking Fee
Here’s a booking story that seemed interesting enough to pass along, there are a couple of tidbits here for folks looking to travel to Europe using their United miles. A couple of weeks ago Brussels Airlines was showing up in award searches on the United website. Today that wasn’t the case. Flights to Brussels are one of the go-to routes for award seats to Europe in summer, and also one of the business class award routes to Europe that United doesn’t want you to know about. I had found space on United to Brussels, and needed a Brussels Airlines connecting flight in Europe. One of their flights was available with the award space I needed, it wasn’t showing up on the website, so I called United…
Which Flyer Deserves More Miles? You Be the Judge!
Sometime in the early 1980s I came across an old paperback book in the basement of the house where I grew up. It was worn, and I have no idea how many decades old it was at the time. It was called You Be the Judge and contained interesting ethical dilemma stories that called on you to sort through right and wrong. I Googled for it but only found a series by the same name from the last decade. I thought we’d try something like that here. I’m going to describe two customers, and ask which one should United award more miles? You be the judge. Fast forward to the end of 2015, and let’s review the travel for the year of Mary and John. Customer 1: John John is an investment banker out of…
United Reducing the Miles from Flying, Will Sell Them To You Instead (With 40% Discount)
United is cutting back on the overall total miles they’re awarding for flying starting March 2015 with their new revenue-based earning structure. They don’t want to spend as much marketing their flights anymore, with the economy strong. (Plus, they really really want to be like Delta, Delta has announced they’re doing this, and Delta didn’t lose $600 million last quarter. It’s the Underpants Gnome theory of running an airline and a mileage program.) But it isn’t that they don’t want as many miles out there, as some commenters have suggested (‘this will make getting awards easier, so it’s responsible’). They just want you or their marketing partners to buy the miles. In fact, they’ll sell the miles to you at a 40% discount through Monday (June 16). I don’t know about you, but buying miles…
The Fantastic and Confusing Breakfast at Park Hyatt Maldives Untangled
Over the weekend I wrote about why I love the Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives enough that I’ve returned to the resort (on points) three times in three years. One thing that’s changed since I first stay there is that breakfast is no longer complimentary for all guests redeeming points. There’s been confusion over what this means, and questions since my trip report. So here’s clarification.
Why Skymiles and MileagePlus are Getting Out of the Airline Business and Why Partner Earning Matters More in 2015
One way to read the move towards revenue-based mileage earnings, as announced by United and Delta, is as a move away from frequent flyer programs as having anything to do with rewarding flying. It’s a move away from programs’ roots, rather than a return to them. MileagePlus and Skymiles are getting out of the airline business, even if they don’t admit it. Here’s why.
Cash Back on eBay Purchases Returns to BigCrumbs
I first wrote about BigCrumbs four years ago. It’s one of the cash back shopping portals (where you receive a rebate for shopping you’ll do anyway by starting off at their site and clicking the link on their page to get to the retailer you want to buy from), and in particular one that often has useful payouts for purchasing American Express gift cards. BigCrumbs rebates are now back for eBay. It’s only a 0.5% rebate, but it’s great to have this back. Ebay used to be an earning partner common to cash back sites but that was discontinued back in 2011. One of the only sites I’d rather have is Amazon and sadly that’s been gone from the Hawaiian Airlines shopping portal for awhile. (Amazon has its own program and hasn’t been broadly participating…
A Frequent Flyer Program You Should Learn About With Some of the Cheapest Premium Awards Out There
As US frequent flyer programs devalue, I’ve consistently written that we should consider looking abroad. There are tons of programs in the world, and not only do many of them provide great value some of them are getting even better rather than worse. Many of those are viable options, although usually not perfect substitutes, for US programs. Yesterday I wrote about several options for crediting United flights to continue to earn full miles (for people not chasing United’s status) even after they make mileage-earning for flights credited to MileagePlus revenue-based. Today I’m going to take a closer look at Turkish Miles&Smiles, which: Gives you 100% of miles flown on United on all paid fares when crediting to their program, regardless of fare class. Offers status matches, even to United elites. So showing your Turkish Gold…
Amex Transfer Bonus, a New Terminal for DCA, and Don’t Eat that Inflight Meal!
News and notes from around the interweb: Field report from an American AAdvantage elite member successfully getting his elite upgrade at check-in on US Airways. The new reciprocal upgrades began yesterday. I hope these folks aren’t catering my next airline meal. Washington National airport is studying expansion in a way that would allow it to put all of US Airways and American under a single roof in a new terminal. Currently the airlines are on two separate piers, and also bus passengers out to regional jets. American Express Membership Rewards is running a 20% transfer bonus to Hawaiian Airlines through June 23. I don’t see a reason to do this, although they do have a decent offering to Hawaii if you live in one of their gateway cities. Their best award is US – London…
