Via David H., El Al is very excited to be bringing Boeing 737-900s into their fleet, which will begin service at the end of this month. There are 4 rows of business class and 26 rows of coach. It’s a modern aircraft to be sure, though El Al is hardly the first to operate it. And that’s an amazing amount of packing peanuts. 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. Don’t miss out!
US Airways Mileage Redemption Rebates for Credit Card Holders
US Airways sent out emails to credit card holders today with an offer of a rebate on miles redeemed for award travel through November 30th. These are targeted offers, with the rebate percentage varying by cardholder. The rebate is on all of the miles redeemed during the promotion period, and not just a single redemption, but is capped at 30,000 miles credited back. Award travel must cost a minimum of 20,000 total miles with travel complete by March 31, with the rebate to be credited 3 to 4 weeks after travel is complete. Upgrade redemptions qualify. I received an offer for 10% back. Necessary Indulgences sent along a copy of a 50% rebate offer. Meanwhile reader Yong G. sends me a 25% version of the offer. There’s no registration involved, so if you received this…
100% Bonus on Transferred Avianca Lifemiles Through October 15
Last year I explained Why You Want to Get Started With the AviancaTaca LifeMiles Program Right Now. LifeMiles is one of the best programs in the Star Alliance. There are some frustrations, like inability to book flights in more than one class of service on an award. But they sell miles cheap, their award chart is reasonable, they offer one-way awards, and the website is decent. Plus there are no fuel surcharges. I consider the better non-U.S. programs a great hedge and refuge against the risks of revenue-based frequent flyer redemption changes. And the AviancaTaca LifeMiles program regularly offers 100% bonuses on purchased miles and then lets you effectively buy miles at a deep discount again with their cash and points awards (where you need just 40% of the miles required for a given award…
Why Today’s American/US Airways Merger Developments Don’t Change Anything Legally But Could Still Influence the Outcome of the Case
Today’s American Airlines-US Airways merger news started with the government asking the trial court in the anti-trust case to stay the proceedings due to the government shut down. As a pure layman that seemed like the government’s best argument yet to push things off. The government after all has long wanted a much later trial, which would likely mean they’d win by default (since large companies can’t really remain in limbo indefinitely)Nonetheless the judge wasn’t persuaded and proceedings move on. Then come 3pm Eastern the Texas attorney general announced that this office would be pulling out of the government’s anti-trust suit which seeks to block the merger. When I first heard that a press conference had been scheduled with the Attorney General that seemed the only possible outcome. But what persuaded Texas to withdraw? Texas…
American Express Platinum Offers Non-US Cardholders Elite Status with Hertz
The American Express Platinum card comes with Starwood Preferred Guest Gold status (late checkout is the key benefit) and National Car Rental Executive status (choose a better car from the Executive Aisle rather than the Emerald Aisle). They advertise Avis and Hertz benefits as well, but for US cardmembers those are not meaningfully better than what someone gets from those providers on their own. Head for Points reports on a new Hertz benefit — their first ‘elite tier’ “Five Star” for Platinum cardholders. This benefit is only for Platinum card members resident outside the United States. The benefit page for this offer (which has a “GB” at the end of the website URL, presumably for ‘Great Britain’) allows signup of new accounts at the Five Star level. That the terms and conditions say cancelling a…
Bits ‘n Pieces for October 1, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: The Department of Justice is asking for a stay in the American-US Airways merger anti-trust trial in light of the government shutdown. We do not know how long the shutdown will last. The Department of Justice wanted to push things off into the future anyway and this gives them probably their most persuasive reason to do so. I’ll be interested to see the airlines’ response and how the judge rules. (Update: The judge denied the request to stay the trial schedule.) There are some travel concerns that, as a man, never even occur to me. TAM will leave the Star Alliance March 30th and join oneworld on March 31. Getting premium cabin awards between the US and South America on TAM is nearly impossible, and intra-South America space…
Diners Club 30% Transfer Bonus to British Airways
Reader John S. points me to a posting by the much-respected ‘mia‘ who writes that the US Diners Club Club Rewards program has brought back a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways through November 30. When I first got my Diners Club card a decade ago there were regular summer transfer bonuses of 100% from the Club Rewards program to British Airways. That bonus was cut in half to 50% around the time that the benefits of the Diners Club card were cut as well (e.g. elimination of two billing cycles to pay, increased foreign currency conversion fees, elimination even of the Diners Club dining program). British Airways has long been the partner they run the most promotions with and now 30% seems to be the new level at which they run promotions even as…
20% Off JetBlue Tickets Purchased Today
JetBlue is offering 20% off the base fare of roundtrip domestic tickets and 15% off the base fare of roundtrip international tickets that are purchased today for travel October 15 through November 20. The discount code is OCTOBER1 and the itinerary cannot include any Friday or Sunday flights. (HT: Stephen M.) 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. Don’t miss out!
Delta Actually Runs a Promotion! Hilton Stays Help Towards Delta Elite Status
Delta used to have one of the most aggressive programs for mileage accumulation. Their constant promotions, either directly inside the Skymiles program or for converting points into Skymiles, made the currency a drug on the market. While Delta awards can be truly outrageously priced, some would argue that the ease with which miles are accumulated in the program more or less netted that out. In other words, it’s okay to spend double or more miles on an award when accumulate rates are similarly inflated. This year though Delta has been almost absent in the promotion space. That follows 2012 where the dearth of promotions was similar. Roughly speaking Delta bonused only a few small things like Hilton stays and responded to major competitor promotions such as offering big miles for full fare and premium cabin…
New Elite Benefits for Le Club Accorhotels
Le club Accorhotels has revamped its elite status program, adding new benefits — benefits which are not in and of themselves impressive, but that are much improved. This is the loyalty program for Sofitel, Novotel, M Gallery, and related hotels. For a chain with full service hotels, their benefits were about the weakest out there. Now they are a bit better or at least will be come mid-October. And this is also a chain of course that gives away its top tier platinum status just for signing up…! Specifically, new benefits include: Free internet for Silver, Gold,and Platinums Late checkout (subject to availability) for Silver, Gold,and Platinums Early check-in (subject to availability) for Golds and Platinums Lounge access for Platinums Golds have to choose between early check-in and late check out, if both are available,…
