Delta went from two to three tiers of award pricing in 2008. The three tiers were called Low, Medium, and High. And that’s how they stand as I write this: Delta announced, however, that the names of its award redemption tiers will be changing to “Saver, Standard, and Peak.” To clarify our Award Travel chart, we’ve updated the Award level names to Saver, Standard and Peak from Low, Medium and High, respectively. Please note that the change of names for the Award levels does not indicate changes with the program rules or mileage redemption at this time. Visit our Award Travel page to learn more about using miles for an Award Ticket.” While some may speculate that this change is more than a wording change, we’d like to be very clear that this is only…
How to Find Business Class Awards to Asia for the Whole Family
Yesterday I wrote about how to find business class award seats for a family — not just one or two seats, but four seats on a single flight. Basic principles, More seats are harder than fewer seats. If you can split up (a family of four might fly 2+2) that makes things much easier. Roughly six months out is a good sweet spot for searching award space. Shorter flights are in less demand. East Coast – Europe is far easier than West Coast – Europe. West Coast – Asia is far easier than East Coast – Asia. If you’re on the opposite coast, be willing to connect domestically or even buy domestic connecting flights if needed. Multiple flights a day mean more award space. More total seats between a city will usually make it easier…
PointsHound 1000 Mile First Booking Bonus Through October 4
PointsHound Lets You Earn Miles for Hotel Bookings PointsHound and Rocketmiles are the two major websites that award you frequent flyer miles when booking hotel rooms. In general Rocketmiles has the biggest mileage offers, but they also have the fewest hotels and are in a limited – but growing – number of cities. Booking through Rocketmiles will not entitle you to earn points and elite stay credit through a hotel loyalty program. (Some hotel chains like Marriott and Hyatt will honor elite benefits on third party bookings, while Starwood and Hilton’s policy is not to do so.) PointsHound has more hotels in more locations, a subset of which are referred to as ‘DoubleUp’ hotels where you earn miles and can still earn hotel points and elite stay credit. Earn 1000 Miles For Your First Booking…
Etihad BusinessConnect 20,000 Mile Signup Bonus — And Why This is Really Valuable
Through October 31, Etihad will give you 10,000 miles each into your personal Etihad Guest account and a new Etihad business account — just for creating that new business account and connecting your Etihad Guest number to it and that of one other traveler. Follow these three easy steps to receive an extra 10,000 miles into your personal Etihad Guest account as well as receiving an additional 10,000 miles for your company’s new BusinessConnect account: Sign your company up to BusinessConnect via the individual who manages your company travel at etihadbusinessconnect.com Connect your Etihad Guest number and one other business traveller’s number to the BusinessConnect account via the website E-mail your Etihad Guest number & Company name to businessconnectoffer@etihad.ae Once these steps have all been successfully completed you and your company will receive an extra…
Hyatt is Giving Away 16 Free Nights on Twitter Today
Hyatt is calling their series of 4 twitter chats the “World’s Largest Focus Group” and they will be giving away 4 free nights during each of the 4 chats, for a total of 16 free nights. Here’s the schedule, and each lasts one hour except the last is 90 minutes: Seamless Travel 3am Pacific/4am Mountain/5am Central/6am Eastern (whoops, missed that one!) Routines on the Road 5am Pacific/6am Mountain/7am Central/8am Eastern On the Road Rituals 10am Pacific/11am Mountain/Noon Central/1pm Eastern Traveling Like a Pro 12:30pm Pacific/1:30pm Mountain/2:30pm Central/3:330pm Eastern To see the conversation, enter #HyattWLFG in the search box on twitter. And anything you tweet should include that hash tag as well so that others will see it (and so that you will be eligible to win free nights). You can join the 30,000+ people who…
How to Find Business Class Award Seats for the Whole Family
Last month I argued that premium cabin award travel is best for families. More award seats cost more miles, and not everyone has the balances to support flying up front. But premium cabin awards in many programs do not cost substantially more than coach awards do — a business class ticket might cost 5 to 10 times the price of a coach ticket, but a business class award may be only 50% – 100% more miles. Ultimately you should redeem your points for what you value, and not everyone feels like extra room, a better sleep on long flights, or fewer hassles is worth any extra points or money. Last month I suggested ways to earn more miles instead of strategizing to economize on miles, as well as some of the compromises involved in finding…
Don’t Panic! American AAdvantage Awards on Qatar are Being Added in Error
Canadian Kilometers writes that when trying to book an award on new American AAdvantage redemption partner (and soon to be oneworld member) Qatar Airways, American is adding fuel surcharges onto the cost of the booking. Just last month American had a glitch where they were adding fuel surcharges onto award tickets flying Malaysia Airlines. They compounded the problem by telling folks that this was a new policy that would roll out across all partners. In fact it was meant to correct an issue with revenue tickets only and not awards. Like the Malaysia redemption problem it turns out that fuel surcharges are pricing on Qatar awards in error. You cannot book Qatar awards online. You cannot even search the space online in most cases. But award availability is in many cases quite good, even if…
Bits ‘n Pieces for September 25, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: A mock-up of the new United website is buried in its new ad campaign. As expected, and despite being royally peeved at Delta, Aeroflot won’t be leaving Skyteam, link is in Russian. (HT: Max in the comments) Two-thirds of Alaska state residents are members of the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program and six other facts you may not know. Last month I featured a Munich arport promotional lip sync video that was just awesome. Brussels airport has its own video released six months earlier. The production quality isn’t as good, but in some ways it’s even more bizarre. (HT: Lucky) 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…
Get Marriott Status and a Free Ritz-Carlton Night at Zero Net Cost
Via mo26 on Milepoint, there’s an offer for the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa that gives you a $200 Ritz-Carlton gift card after first purchase on top of the usual bonuses and benefits. I reviewed the card extensively last year. The Ritz-Carlton Rewards program is essentially the same thing as Marriott Rewards, the key differences being promotions that are offered and the particulars of their co-branded credit cards. With the Ritz card you get enough points for a free Ritz-Carlton night after $2000 spend within 3 months. And the card comes with Gold status (equivalent to Marriott Gold — so the easiest way to achieve 50 night elite status) the first year and then continues to provide that status each year with $10,000 spend. Now, there’s a $395 fee for the card. But the first year that…
Ban on Inflight Electronics Below 10,000 Feet Likely to Be Lifted in 2014
Back in June the committee formed to make a recommendation on use of electronics inflight below 10,000 feet asked for more time. Now that committee is expected to deliver its report this week. They are expected to recommend the restrictions be lifted, which in turn could lead to the FAA removing the requirement to turn off electronic devices for takeoff and landing soemtime in 2014. This will not mean inflight internet below 10,000 feet. That restriction is not under review. Passengers will be able to fire up their e-readers, have their phones on in airplane model, and watch movies or use their laptops though. This will not mean inflight use of cell phones. FCC restriction against that will remain in place. People almost universally hate the idea of passengers gabbing away on their cell phones,…
