Delta is selling end of year elite qualifying miles, so you can give them a whole bunch of money instead of giving them a whole bunch of money and spending your time flying. They will sell you between 2500 and 10,000 qualifying miles, at a cost that will vary based on you status. I have 10,146 “MQM”s for the year. Had I been flying Delta I would have credited the miles to Alaska Airlines. So this isn’t from a Delta flight. Instead, it’s from a Saudia business class flight that was redeemed for someone else out of my account and which posted incorrectly. Since I’m more than 10,000 miles away from status, and I cannot roll over these elite qualifying miles to next year, so these purchased miles are literally of no use to me.…
Frequent Flyers Got Their Day in Front of the Supreme Court Today: How Will It Affect You?
The Supreme Court heard the case today of the Rabbi Who Complained Too Much. Northwest Airlines cancelled his frequent flyer account and he sued in State Court, arguing essentially that even though the frequent flyer program’s terms and conditions say they can basically do as they wish, honoring their program commitments or not, for any reason or no reason, that the state’s contract law includes an ‘implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing’ that doesn’t let the carrier behave that way. Delta, which now owns Northwest, argues that the claim is pre-empted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act. When the federal government deregulated the airlines, it declared that states couldn’t step into the breach by regulating airline routes, schedules, or pricing. The irony is, that no matter which way the Court rules, the case…
Starwood Extends Expiration of Misunderstood Suite Night Awards (and Why the Program Remains Revolutionary)
One of the major improvements in elite benefits that Starwood rolled out at the beginning of 2012 was the introduction of “Suite Night Awards” for Platinum members who stay 50 nights in a year or more. Ten nights are awarded in suites, which are confirmable up to 5 days in advance of arrival. Lucky notes that instead of expiring at the end of the year, any unused suite upgrades will not expire until April 30th — giving Platinum members an extra four months to redeem them. Loyalty Lobby says that instead of extending their validity, Starwood: should do the right thing and scrap these crappy SNA’s altogether or make the suites confirmable at the time of making the reservation. In their current form the SNA’s are useless. I think that misunderstands the point and the…
100% Bonus Buying Miles from Star Alliance Member Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca’s LifeMiles program, a Star Alliance member, is offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles through December 31. This is only open to members whose accounts were open prior to today. I love the tagline, ‘Buy iles 2×1’, my eyes tricked me when I first read it and thought they were trying to sell me “lies.” After all, back in May they tweaked some award prices without notice and increased the cash cost of cash and points awards as well. That said, when they joined Star Alliance I declared the program the most generous in the alliance. After United’s devaluation, which goes into effect February 1, that’s likely true. They are part of my “Devaluation Plan B” which is to look to international frequent flyer programs for value if and when US programs devalue further.…
Your Checked Luggage Has the Same Locking Code as US Nuclear Missiles!
For 20 years, the launch code for US nuclear missiles was 00000000. The code was even written down on the launch instructions, in case anyone forgot. Think about that the next time you’re lamenting how unsecure your ‘TSA-appoved’ locks are! (HT: Randy Barnett) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
The New Merged American-US Airways Will Adopt American’s Service Levels (Food!)
With the US Airways – American Airlines merger, expected to close shortly, there are basically three risks for customers: Integrations never go as well as hoped. Training employees on new systems is hard, even when you get the IT right. People are grumpy. They take it out on customers. This is a challenge for any airline merger, and a key reason why many business travelers don’t like mergers – period. US Airways members lose out on generous awards. US Airways is a member of the Star Alliance which means more flight options to Europe and Asia than oneworld, which it will be joining with the merger. There are some great values in the US Airways award chart, like 90,000 miles from the US to North Asia. US Airways agents are generally clueless and their IT…
Quick Technical Help from My Readers?
Some folks may have noticed I’ve been invited to do a whole lot more media recently — giving quotes in places like the New York Times and prominent travel magazines, I’ve been profiled in Town & Country and Washington Business Journal, and I’ve been on the Colbert Report. Yesterday I did a ~ 25 minute radio interview for a show on SiriusXM. They sent me an .mp3 file of the interview. I’d love to know where I can upload mp3 files greater than 20 megs. Today I’m taping for CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Video I know how to upload, at least to YouTube. But any advice would be appreciated — on services I can use to upload large media miles, so that I can link tot hem here on the blog and archive…
50% Back and Lots of Miles from Neiman Marcus Through Noon Central on Tuesday
Nieman Marcus is often referred to as ‘needless markup’. But they have an uncharacteristically good, stackable deal that you can take advantage of only for the next several hours. Here’s how a $200 purchase from Nieman Marcus earns a $50 rebate, a $50 gift card, and up to 3900 miles. For many, that’s better than 50% off. If you have an American Express card, log into your account and under ‘Offers for You’ (next to ‘transactions’) you will likely find $50 back on a $200 purchase from Nieman Marcus. Click ‘Save offer’ next to this offer. Mentioned both on the Nieman Marcus website and on the AAdvantage shopping portal, promo code GC4YOU gets you a $50 gift card when you make a $200 purchase. This is only valid through noon Central time on December 3…
United Offering Double Miles to and From Seattle — And How They’re Doing it Wrong
United is offering double miles on flights between Seattle and Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, and Anchorage. You have to register and purchase travel by December 31 and fly by May 31. Here’s the kicker: flights booked prior to December 2 are ineligible for the bonus. If the idea is to generate loyalty, rather than just protect yourself from seeing mileage bonus-savvy customers booking away for the generous offers in the market from Delta and Alaska, then United should value all of its customers — especially those who were already loyal and purchasing travel with them. Instead, this sends the message that their business is taken for granted. Clearly United wants to goose its Seattle flights, and protect itself from customers who might book United looking elsewhere instead — and do it at the lowest…
How Much Are Miles Really Worth? The Answer May Surprise You
There are several ways to figure out how much miles are worth. When I was growing up the rule of thumb used to be 2 cents, which was wrong on many levels but made intuitive sense to someone that hadn’t thought about points for very long: “25,000 miles pays for a $500 cross country ticket.” Of course not all tickets were cross-country, many tickets were less expensive, award travel gives up earning miles, using a domestic ticket as the benchmark ignored some of the best uses of miles, and of course capacity controls (and back then, even blackout dates) weren’t factored into the value. Award chart changes and tighter capacity certainly has changed the value of a mile since then. But how much are miles worth today? I’ve written in the past that the value…
