American Airlines is going outside of their American Eagle subsidiary to increase regional jet flying. They have a new 12-year agreement with Republic Airlines for 53 76-seat Embraer-175 planes. (The new pilots union contract lets them grow the regional fleet in this manner.) Republic currently flies 15 Embraer-140 planes for American out of Chicago as Chautauqua Airlines. The new larger regional jets will be coming into service 2-3 per month starting in the middle of the year and fully deployed by the first quarter of 2015. American currently deploys its Embraers with coach seating only, and Bombardier CRJ-700s which could otherwise fit 70 coach seats as 54 coach and 9 in first class. These larger ERJ175s will have 12 first class seats and 64 coach seats and will be painted with the new American Eagle…
A Better Way to Spend a Million Starpoints
About a month ago Starwood released some statistics on their program from 2012, perhaps what got the most attention was that a member was stupid enough to spend 870,000 Starpoints for 2 business class tickets to Italy. Why is this stupid? Because even if they don’t want to worry about availability, they could have spent double miles to buy out of capacity controls through Alitalia’s frequent flyer program — 400,000 Alitalia miles would have gotten them 2 Los Angeles – Rome business class roundtrip tickets out of much broader inventory than saver awards. So 320,000 Starpoints transferred to Alitalia would have been enough, and again that’s without even looking for saver awards that they could have ‘saved’ 550,000 Starpoints. For folks with more Starpoints than sense, looking to burn through their balance (perhaps bitter over…
The Ultimate Do You Know Who I Am Checkin Accessory
Reader gbw passes along this LA Times story on what looks to be the ultimate addition to the ‘Do You Know Who I Am’ toolkit: ReviewerCard. They’ll sell you a card that certifies you write online reviews, and you can use that card to signal to service providers — hotels, restaurants, what have you — that you’re likely to write a review about them so they’d better treat you well. Granted, that’s not how Newman, 35, would put it. He sees ReviewerCard as a way to enhance the relationship between amateur reviewers and the hotels or restaurants they visit. “I’m going to review them anyway,” Newman said, “so why not let them know in advance? It’s not hurting anyone.” …”It’s not a threat,” Newman insisted. “It’s a way to get the service you deserve.” …Thus…
Delta Isn’t Done With Changes to Make Skymiles More Revenue-Based
Last week Delta announced changes to how its customers will qualify for elite status this year, for their 2014 program year benefits. The information was quickly released after they mistakenly put it up online earlier than intended. Delta is setting minimum spending thresholds for each elite tier for their US customers, and waiving those thresholds for such customers who spend $25,000 on a co-branded Delta American Express card. The changes could be worse, and they aren’t entirely unreasonable (it’s not crazy to think that a customer would spend a minimum amount before receiving better treatment). Although the way it’s being implemented: Delta flights or Delta tickets only count, not even tickets on joint venture partners, although I imagine that’s driven by technical limitations more than anything else (since it’s harder to know how much a…
US Airways Partnership With Virgin Atlantic Ends June 11
It’s easy to forget that US Airways and Virgin Atlantic are partners, since you can’t actually redeem US Airways miles for anything other than economy. Per the award chart (.pdf), Award redemption on Virgin Atlantic is only available in economy class. Even that option will be going way, and indeed you will no longer be able to credit Virgin Atlantic flights to US Airways Dividend Miles effective June 12. After June 11, 2013, you will no longer be able to accrue or redeem miles on Virgin Atlantic. For travel before June 12, 2013, please include your Dividend Miles number when you book or check in. Please submit all requests for retroactive miles before December 11, 2013. That’s a shame because the US Airways program is much better than the Virgin Atlantic one, so this was…
Bits ‘n Pieces for January 23, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: While I may gripe about poor food in the British Airways Concorde Room, The Deal Mommy was just trying to get to Paris. Along the way she learned that: European airlines are really really non-sensical when it comes to enforcing limits on carryon bags. I’ll never understand the logic in this. British Airways customer service is surly. When you can actually reach a human being. She tried to reach out to the US customer service line when she couldn’t get through in the UK (when call volumes are too high they just disconnect you). But I’ve always found the US-based folks to be worse. In fact, I believe that British Airways customer service in the US is worse than any other US-based airline call center. I’ll never understand…
Enjoying a Special Rate at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman
Regular readers know that I offer an award booking service, and it’s gotten quite a bit of attention since I launched it about 3.5 years ago. It’s been covered in the New York Times and in USA Today, for instance. And I’ve been selected by Conde’ Nast Traveler as one of their ‘World’s Top Travel Specialists’ in 2010, 2011, and now also in 2012. Conde’ Nast hosts an annual gathering for this group, the first one I attended was in January 2011. This year’s event was held at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman. I’ve stayed at several Ritz-Carltons, but always on someone else’s dime or once for a night on Marriott Rewards points. This time I’d be paying, albeit as a business expense. The going rate on the Ritz-Carlton website was somewhere in the $700s for…
Air France’s Flying Blue Offering Status Matches
A couple of weeks ago, I outlined how airline status matching works — you have elite status with one airline, which airlines are willing to comp you that same status, or let you fly a reduced number of miles to earn equivalent status in their program? In that post I noted that “It’s rare for a non-US frequent flyer program to offer a status match” but also that Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program offered status matches up to top tier Platinum at the beginning of 2011. It looks like Flying Blue is back with another status match offer although this time only for Gold status. As I noted three weeks back, fellow Skyteam member Aerolineas Argentinas has a status match offer. For most US-based flyers, who won’t actually be flying Aerolineas Argentinas, this just…
Expedia Knows How to Take a Reservation, But Does it Know How to TICKET a Reservation?
My Expedia experience over the weekend reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld renting a car. See, Expedia knew how to take the reservation. They just didn’t know how to ticket the reservation… And really, it’s the ticketing that’s the most important part! I’ve written in the past many times about why I like booking airline tickets through online travel agencies, rather than with an airline directly — not every time, but frequently. I can choose my point of sale. If I want a ticket issued in Germany, Spain, or New Zealand I can use Expedia’s websites in each of those countries to make the booking. That can help for getting the absolute lowest fare at times. (Of course I will use a credit card with no foreign currency transaction fees, since the card will be charged…
100 Free American Airlines Miles for Enrolling with their Shopping Portal
The American AAdvantage online shopping portal is running a promotion with the following bonuses: 100 miles for enrolling in the shopping portal between January 21 and February 3 and remaining opted-in to receive marketing emails until the bonus posts. 300 bonus miles if you make a purchase through the shopping portal during that time period. 600 more bonus miles if you make a second purchase through the shopping portal during that time period and the purchase is for $100 or more. Sign up here if you aren’t already registered with AAdvantage eShopping to pocket the free 100 miles (and more if you actually use the portal). Of course, this portal may or may not be the best for any given transaction, I generally consult EV Reward before buying anything online to see which mileage or…
