Via Milepoint, and as promised a week ago by AAdvantage President Suzanne Rubin, the American Airlines website is now capable of searching for Qantas (and its Jetstar subsidiary) award space. This is especially useful because while the Qantas website itself is one of the great tools for searching award availability — if you want to search for awards on oneworld airlines, American AAdvantage members sign up for a Qantas frequent flyer account (free for folks outside Australia), and it’s great for finding flights on partners like British Airways and Iberia but which does not include Japan Airlines — there is more Qantas award availability offered to Qantas’ own members than to partners. The Qantas website will often show award seats, for instance from Los Angeles to Sydney, that are available to Qantas members but not…
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Air France First Class Upgrades 50% Off Through August 31 (Flying Blue Elites Only)
Air France only allows first class award redemption to be available to its own Flying Blue elite members, not to partner airline frequent flyer members. And its own frequent flyers have to spend the rule-buster amount of miles to redeem. It’s a ton of miles, and the product is generally several standard deviations behind the top first class products in the world. But at least spending more miles also means it’s available pretty much whenever you want it. You also have to be a Flying Blue elite member in order to upgrade from business to first class. But for Flying Blue elites first class upgrades are 50% off for bookings made by August 31, travel in July and August. Flying Blue Platinum, Gold and Silver members can save 50% on the Award Miles usually required…
Air France KLM Flying Blue 50% Off Promo Awards for July and August
Throughout the year the Air France KLM (and related airlines) Flying Blue frequent flyer program offers discounted ‘promo awards’ — generally half off the usual redemption price for flights between Europe and various cities around the world. And ‘Europe’ has a pretty broad definition: Europe 1: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom Europe 2: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden Europe 3: Albania, Algeria, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Canary Islands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Western Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine. Here’s how I described promo awards back in May: Air France KLM Flying Blue offers ‘promo awards’ at 50% off with the specific cities varying throughout the year. Several programs transfer to Flying Blue including American…
The End of United’s Qatar Partnership Announced, and the Effect on Ultimate Rewards Transfer Options
United is ending its partnership with Qatar. Here’s the key line about mileage earning and redemption: Customers will be able to accrue mileage on Qatar Airways codeshare and interline flights until September 14, 2012. Award travel ticketed on or before September 14, 2012, will be honored as ticketed and valid for one year. It’s a terrible shame, United just added the functionality to book awards on Qatar to its website, and they allow combining Qatar and Star Alliance partners on the same award. Qatar has fabulous award space to many destinations, and transiting the Middle East is a really efficient way to get to many destinations in Central Asia and Northern Africa. While awards will be bookable through September 14, it presumably won’t be possible to make changes to those awards (except in ways that…
Turkish Airlines Star Alliance Gold Status Match
“Status matches” — a loyalty program offering an existing elite member with a competitor status in their own program as a means of attracting high value business — is predominantly a U.S. phenomenon. Very few international airlines offer status matches. Briitsh Midland was known to status match in its day, and plenty of elite members of U.S. frequent flyer programs took advantage of that — as an elite member of a non-U.S. Star Alliance frequent flyer program, they would have access to United, Continental, and US Airways lounges when flying domestically. What many folks who often grabbed bmi status found was that it was also an excellent frequent flyer program. Their award chart was reasonable, leveraged by cash and points, making their miles some of the most valuable out there. Calls routed over a poor…
Will US Airways Be Next to Offer a Revenue-Based Frequent Flyer Program?
Delta has been rumored to be on the verge of converting to a revenue-based frequent flyer program. I heard quite a bit after the story broke that Delta folks were apoplectic at the leak, that there was a lockdown, but like many such things the hordes subsided and the rumor mill has been mostly quiet. My hunch has been that after the leak their executives took better care of their documents and were more careful holding their tongues, rather than that the airline had abandoned its plans. While any move towards a revenue-based program might cause some to immediately think of United’s CFO commenting that some of their members are over-entitled, this airline after all seriously considered minimum revenue thresholds for its elite tiers, my thoughts went elsewhere: the summer 2002 move by US Airways…
Up to 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for Transferring in Points from Other Programs
Via Notiflyer, between May 21 and June 18 Aeroplan is offering up to 40,000 bonus miles for transferring points in from other programs (excluding the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program). The bonus isn’t per transaction or per partner, it’s cumulative — the more points you transfer in from various sources, the more total bonus points you earn. Eligible partners are: Credit card programs: CIBC Aventura World MasterCard Card, CIBC Aventura Gold Visa, CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite, CIBC Aventura MasterCard Card, American Express Membership Rewards – Canada, BankAmericard Power Rewards credit card, Diners Club Club Rewards Hotel programs: Starwood Preferred Guest, Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, Wyndham Rewards, Best Western Rewards, Choice Privileges, Coast Rewards, Club Carlson, Le Club Accorhotels, Shangri-La Golden Circle Award Car rental: Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Other: Points.com The highest yield points…
Weekend at the Falls: American Business Class, Gol Domestic, and the Sheraton Iguazú Resort: Sheraton Iguazú Falls Resort & Spa
American to Miami in First, then Business Class to Sao Paulo Gol Smiles VIP Lounge and Domestic Service to Foz de Iguassu Sheraton Iguazú Falls Resort The Wonder of the Falls Gol Domestic Back to Sao Paulo and the Admiral’s Club Sao Paolo American’s Business Class to Miami and on to DC With just a weekend in South America, and a goal of visiting one of the places I’ve wanted to see for years, I decided on convenience and time savings — I picked the Sheraton because it’s actually in the National Park, on the Argentina side. The Sheraton is on the pricey side, rooms were over $250++ and suites around $575++ during my stay. It’s a Starwood category 5 — so delivers a bit over 2 cents a point without any high season points…
Why We Shouldn’t Get Duped by the IdeaWorks ‘Study’ on Award Availability
It’s great to take an objective look at award availability across different airlines, so much is shrouded in secrecy and certainly the airlines are far from transparent. That lack of transparency has worked to the advantage of several programs — especially the less rewarding ones — since few consumers know the difference, it’s quite common for the median program member tho think that “all miles are alike.” I’ve certainly gained a great deal of experience through hands on practice, having redeemed over 200 million miles. I do know which airlines offer strong availability, which ones are weak. But even then I know the most important lesson is that the miles which offer you the most value are going to depend on your reward goals — cabin, number of seats, destinations. One study, highlighted by the…
My Conde Nast Daily Traveler Piece on the Best Credit Cards for Your Spending
Links: Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Starwood Preferred Guest American Express American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card Over at Conde’ Nast’s Daily Traveler I wrote a basic piece on rewards credit cards. It’s the first post of a three part series. This one focuses on the best cards to put your spending on. The other two focus on the best signup bonuses and cards with the best benefits for carrying the card (as opposed to actually using it). The basic principles I offered were: The first piece of advice is to pick a reward goal. If you want to fly to South America, your best bet is American miles. If you want to fly to Europe or Asia then United or US Airways miles are best, followed closely by American miles. For Australia and French Polynesia,…
