You may have seen this already, it’s all over everywhere: British Airways put together a spread showing their new mobile boarding pass, displayed on an iPhone. And the traveler was… Osama bin Laden. Here are the details of bin Laden’s travel plan: Apparently bin Laden likes to fly — or at least knows the value of loyalty — because the boarding pass features a frequent flier number. And don’t worry about his leg room. The world’s most-wanted man is apparently flying pretty up in first class, seat 7C. Except.. except.. What the crack security staff at Heathrow apparently missed is that this is clearly a forged boarding pass on bin Laden’s iPhone. That’s definitely not a British Airways frequent flyer number on his boarding pass. In fact, presumably the “NW” at the beginning designates that…
Lots of Sound, Little Fury in New Department of Transportation Proposed Passenger Rights Rules
Coming out today are a new series of proposed ‘passenger rights’ rules. They’re trumpeted, in the news, and don’t amount to much — though on net I’d score them a mild negative. The Department of Transportation will require more upfront disclosure of fees for various services on top of ticket pricing. It’s not at all clear that consumers want this information. Bureaucrats and pundits want consumers to want it. But their behavior suggests that they don’t. And perhaps for good reason — travel booking in a do-it-yourself world is complicated enough that many consumers would face information overload. It’s telling that there have been so few travel portals which bundle this information for easy consumer access. The major online booking site business is fiercely competitive, and yet none of them sees offering this information as…
US Airways 100% Bonus on Purchased and Gifted Miles is Back
US Airways is offering a 100% bonus on purchased or gifted miles through July 31. Leave it to US Airways’ marketing genuises to say that a mileage purchase promo that runs from June 1 through July 31 is “for one month only” — but the bonus indeed runs two months. The maximum bonus is 50,000 miles for buying 50,000 miles, and 100,000 miles gets you business class fro the US to Europe (90,000 gets you business class from the US to North Asia including Hong Kong). This year US Airways raised the price of miles from 2.5 cents apiece to 2.75 cents apiece, and also the mileage cost of several awards. So we’ve gone from $1000 in purchased miles for business class to Europe to $1400 for the same. Still, with the ability to redeem…
Repost: 1500 Miles for New US AIrways Dividend Miles Members
Back on April 21 I noted that US Airways is offering new Dividend Miles members 1500 miles for signing up by July 31 by using promo code NM15. The offer is here. I figured that a post noting the offer by Points, Miles, and Martinis is a good reason to mention it again in case anyone comes across this blog that isn’t already a US Airways frequent flyer member. 1500 free miles makes it worth signing up. While I don’t love the airline, I’ve certainly found the frequent flyer program to be lucrative — lots of great promotions for earning large number of miles at low cost, and amazing redemption possibilities using Star Alliance partner airlines with a reasonable award chart, no blocking of partner award seats (as United unfortunately does), and very few routing…
Getting Help Booking Mileage Awards
In the current month’s Wise Flyer, a regular feature in Inside Flyer (subscription required.), Randy Petersen answers a reader question about services that help you search for frequent flyer award tickets. AwardPlanner by MileageManager .. is part of a paid mileage manager service so you actually get far more for your investment since MileageManager manages your frequent flyer accounts–including help with expiring miles. AwardPlanner, a dedicated award tool, allows you to search for award seats from all the programs in which you have miles–making it a one-stop shop for watching for award seats. If the tool is unable to find your award seats at the time of your request, it will put your request into a queue and re-check daily for you until it finds an award seat and will then notify you via email.…
Three Major Questions for the United-Continental Merger
From the perspective of a frequent flyer, I’ve had (3) main questions about a United-Continental merger. Starnet blocking. United is the only airline in the Star Alliance that will not allow its mileage members to book any award seat taht its partners offer to them. United often doesn’t want to pay for the seats, to they program their computers to respond that award seats other Star Alliance carriers are offering “aren’t available.” Continental has explicitly rejected such a strategy. This month blocking has been at a minimum, though that’s part of the normal cycle (I usually see blocking at its lightest in February/May/August/November). So I’m not ready to take this as a clue that blocking is done for a merged entity. Whether or not blocking exists in the combined entity is – to me –…
10,000 Free United Miles for Graduating College Students
It’s been a very long time since I’ve written about this, so the reminder this week from the MilesLink newsletter is much appreciated — that United still offers the College Plus program which awards students 10,000 free miles upon graduation. You have to join College Plus prior to graduating and send your final transcript within 12 months of graduation to get the miles. So for everyone about to graduate, sign up now! (Or anyone in college not quite ready to graduate, sign up now so you don’t forget later…)
Behave at the Checkpoint, Children, or It Will Go on Your Permanent Record
USA Today reports on another flyer ‘list’ kept by the government: Airline passengers who get frustrated and kick a wall, throw a suitcase or make a pithy comment to a screener could find themselves in a little-known Homeland Security database. The Transportation Security Administration says it is keeping records of people who make its screeners feel threatened as part of an effort to prevent workplace violence. Remember – you must respect their authoritah! The database was created in late 2007 as the TSA launched a program to prevent the nation’s 50,000 airport screeners from being attacked or threatened, agency spokeswoman Kristin Lee said. At the time, TSA officials voiced concern about passengers disrespecting screeners, and they began issuing new uniforms with police-style badges pinned to shirts. (Emphasis mine.) But how’s this list of folks on…
4,725 US Airways Miles for a 3-Day Avis Rental
Flyertalk member Evan! points out that the US Airways 50% Bonus on Hotel, Rental Car Earning and Points Transfers I posted about yesterday (registration required) means that you can earn 4725 US Airways miles on a 3-day Avis car rental through July 31. That’s because the US Airways 3000 mile bonus for a 3-day Avis rental is eligible for the bonus. Wonderfully lucrative for any 3-day rentals you’ve got coming up!
Ranking the Best Airlines in the World
ABCNews.com ran a piece on why there are no North American or European airlines amongst the Skytrax top 10 in quality. Skytrax acknowledges progress in US and European ‘hard product’ such as seats and entertainment. Indeed, United’s new business class seats (installed fleet-wide on 767 and 747 aircraft and just beginning to roll out on their 777s) are very good. And British Airways has set a world standard for business class seats for many years. Air Canada has some outstanding seats, similar to the Air New Zealand (which makes the list) and Virgin (which does not) offerings. The new Swiss business class looks pretty great, though I haven’t tried it. Of course, American’s business seats and Air France’s are in my opinion quite awful and neither has a solid plan for replacement. But the piece…
