I’ve discussed at length the American AAdvantage distance-based oneworld awards (now called oneworld explorer awards) in the past. In addition to the ‘normal’ way you can book an award, with the mileage cost based on the ‘region’ you start from and end in (which is subject to all sorts of rules, like you can’t fly from North America to Asia via Europe, there has to be a published fare between your starting and ending cities, etc) American will allow you to base the mileage cost of your award based on the distance that you fly as long as you only fly on oneworld airlines (and not their other partners like Alaska Airlines or Etihad) and fly on at least two different oneworld airlines (not counting American). The addition of Malaysia Airlines into oneworld has me…
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Return to the Maldives on Miles: Etihad and British Airways First Class and Tour of Park Hyatts
Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class One of the things I really like about American AAdvantage is that they’re generally the best program for securing international first class awards. They have a litany of partners both inside oneworld and outside of oneworld that make this possible – British Airways (albeit with fuel surcharges), Qantas (not nearly…
Lufthansa’s Shrinking First Class Cabins and What it Means for Award Space
Lufthansa currently offers a first class cabin on 94 out of 100 planes in its long haul fleet. They will be shrinking that down to 75% of their fleet. Already Lufthansa has been reducing the average number of first class seats in the cabin. Their 747s used to offer 16 first class seats and the retrofitted ones now only offer only 8 (albeit in the same amount of space on the upper deck, with a seat and separate bed for each passenger). Fewer planes with first class, fewer seats in first class. And they’ve been making efforts to sell those seats rather than letting them fly empty, offering discounted and two-for-one first class fares. All of which makes it more difficult to get those seats on points. And it has been tougher. Even on routes…
TAM Leaving Star Alliance, Joining Oneworld
This has been much expected since oneworld member LAN (with subsidiaries throughout South America) merged with Brazilian carrier and Star Alliance member TAM. The two airlines have separate corporate entities under the banner LATAM but were going to be forced to make a decision, and all signs have pointed to choosing oneworld over Star Alliance. That decision is now official. TAM will leave the Star Alliance in the second quarter of 2014, with an immediate entry into oneworld upon departure from Star. LAN Colombia — not currently a part of oneworld — will join in the fourth quarter of 2013. That positions oneworld for quite the fight against Star’s AviancaTACA. (Chile’s LAN has been a member of oneworld since 2000 and LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru are current affiliate members.) Oneworld has made…
Bits ‘n Pieces for March 5, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Lucky runs down the new Virgin America-Singapore Airlines partnership. The best opportunity so far is for occasional Virgin America flyers to credit cheap tickets to Singapore, since Singapore awards points based on miles flown and Virgin America based on ticket cost. We don’t yet know what sort of award inventory Virgin America will have access to on Singapore, and the answer to that question could be useful (since Singapore gives their own members substantially more premium cabin availability than they give to Star Alliance partners). Executive Travel profiles me on the value of miles and how to make the most out of them. Loyalty Lobby highlights Accor’s 40% off Asia Pacific sale for stays from March 27 through June 30. USA Today realizes that Delta has the worst…
Bits ‘n Pieces for February 27, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Abu Dhabi criminal court enforces price floor for overweight baggage. Hint: Don’t try the $20 trick at UAE hotels, either. (HT: sobore on Milepoint) Earlier in the month Delta and Starwood announced reciprocal elite benefits and the ability to earn points in each others’ programs — in addition to traditional points earning — for elite members doing business with the other travel company. You can now link your Starwood and Delta accounts either on the Delta website or on Starwood’s. (HT: Loyalty Lobby) Lucky runs into Justin Ross Lee at the airport. I met him at the first Frequent Traveler University, but he wasn’t sitting in the lounge in his bathrobe, or stealing bottles of first class champagne to pour for the coach cabin (while claiming to be…
The Top 10 Things I’ll Miss About US Airways Dividend Miles After the Merger With American
Assuming that the merger between American and US Airways is actually consummated, we know that the combined entity will be called American Airlines and will be based the Dallas Fort Worth area. The frequent flyer program will be AAdvantage and the airline will be a part of the oneworld alliance (US Airways is currently a member of Star). On the merger announcement day, Doug Parker explained that he learned a lesson when integrating US Airways with America West — it’s better to take the IT architecture of the bigger airline, rather than migrating the larger data set into the software platform of the smaller carrier. He thought that lesson was applied well when Delta and Northwest merged. And he was presumably too kind to say it, but the disastrous effects of ignoring that lesson played…
Hyatt’s New Toiletries Across Brands and Regions
I love hotel bath amenities, just as I love airline pajamas and taking cooking classes while on vacation and recreating those recipes in my own kitchen. It’s a part of bringing the road back home and connecting with travel and brands on an emotional level. So I probably have a bit too much of a fascination when hotels change up their toiletries, the ones I don’t like I really don’t like probably way more than is justified, and the ones I do like I buy myself and use when I’m not on the road. I miss Molten Brown at Westins, I’ve gone through phases where I like L’Occitane. And I’ve long detested Portico White Ginger, I’ve been following the saga of when Hyatt would replace it and was ecstatic when they finally did (and proud…
Flying Blue 50% Off Awards Through Mid-April
Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program has posted details of its 50% off promo awards for travel through mid-April. You can book discounted awards for travel between specific cities in North America and all of Europe. (Promo awards also include travel between Europe and other regions of the world, but here I focus just on North America where most of my readers are — sorry folks reading in South America and Asia!) The only cities offering discounted business class are New York JFK and Toronto, Air France business class can be booked to any destination in Europe for 25,000 miles each way. That is, you can fly from New York or Toronto to anywhere in “Europe 1/2/3” (via Paris) which are: Europe 1: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom Europe 2: Austria,…
How to Get Attention in a Crowded Aviation Marketplace
Low cost carriers often eschew global distribution systems – to save money you buy tickets from them in person or online. And in some parts of world many tickets are indeed still purchased in person. Brand identity matters — if you’re going to get consumers to buy from you, they need to know who you are. And certainly the Thai domestic market is crowded. In addition to national flag carrier Thai Airways, there’s competition between Thai AirAsia, Bangkok Airways (not to be confused with a low cost carrier), and Nok Air. So NokAir is running a promotion with Maxim models dressed as flight attendants posing with their planes. I’m not sure why this is supposed to make people want to fly Nok Air. Hooters Air didn’t survive, and the Hooters Girls were actually on the…
