I have booked hundreds and hundreds of millions of miles worth of premium cabin international awards through my award booking service. But believe it or not I had never booked anything with miles in a Korean Air Skypass account before. Actually, this isn’t that surprising. Most of my clients are US-based with a smattering in Europe and Australia. The clients I’ve had in Asia have mostly been using miles in US frequent flyer programs for their rewards. Not too many US customers have Korean Air Skypass accounts. Plenty have Chase Ultimate Rewards points, though (from Chase Sapphire Preferred). And those transfer to Korean — but since the Ultimate Rewards program is pretty new, and the Korean Air partnership still just shy of a year old, I actually haven’t had occasion. And today I discovered that…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 30, 2012
Various and Sundry Items from Around the Interweb: Pizza In Motion says that United’s new Miles for Merchandise option is like lighting your miles on fire. Then again your could use your Aeroplan points for LCD toasters or you could waste various credit card points on a McWedding… United Airlines has announced its rollout plans for the Boeing 787, after FAA certification flights they’ll begin flying their first aircraft on domestic routes out of Houston. Beginning November 4 you can expect to see the aircraft on certain flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Newark. NotiFlyer says that Canadians can get 50,000 Best Western points as a credit card signup bonus. I don’t usually highlight Best Western opportunities, but pickings are slim up North. Wired covers a plan by the Department of Homeland Security…
Redeem Your Miles Now for Summer 2013?
Scott McCartney offers some good, basic advice on booking award travel in today’s Wall Street Journal. A blog format, though, allows me to walk through it and explain what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s a bit more nuanced than presented in print. For airline mileage mavens, Labor Day is the unofficial start date for booking prime holiday and spring-break trips. As summer ends, many travelers begin planning their next year’s worth of vacations—and hunting for the most generous frequent-flier award tickets to get them there. As I explained in The Myth of Booking Award Tickets at Midnight 330 Days Out, airlines don’t necessarily open award space immediately when their schedules load into computer reservation systems. Airlines want to release those seats as (saver / low) awards that they don’t expect to sell for cash. Sure,…
Aerolinas Argentinas Joins Skyteam
Delta Points points me to the news release that Aerolinas Argentinas joined Skyteam today. But… don’t expect any reciprocal elite status recognition for awhile: In keeping with SkyTeam’s focus on enriching the customer experience, Aerolíneas Argentinas will implement SkyPriority – SkyTeam priority airport services for Elite Plus, First and Business Class passengers worldwide – by the end of 2012. (Emphasis mine.) The majority state-owned airline, which was re-nationalized in 2008, has been in the process of joining since November 2010. I would have imagined that being ready to provide elite recognition would have been a precondition to actually joining the alliance. I guess the folks at Amsterdam felt they had waited long enough. Aerolinas Argentinas flies Miami-Buenos Aires as their only US route though I have to imagine that they’ll eventually add more US service.…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 29, 2012
Offers and updates found elsewhere on the interweb: Frequent Miler reports several successes this morning going through a shopping portal to buy e-gift cards, earning a rebate, and then going through the shopping portal and using those e-gift cards a second time to earn a second rebate — double the cash back for purchasing a single item. Just Another Points Traveler notes a survey offering 1000 Priority Club points. Wandering Aramean flags that Amtrak is offering double points on all train travel September 5 through November 16. Registration required. Loyalty Traveler relays Tripadvisor’s win in court, when it dubs a hotel as “the dirtiest” it is expressing an opinion (based on the compilation of opinions of its users) rather than making a claim of objective fact (which if false could be actionable). If I were…
Redeeming American Express Membership Rewards on Star Alliance Airlines Without Fuel Surcharges
This little trick was shared with me some months ago in confidence (thanks S.S.!) so I never blogged it, but now it’s out in the frequent flyer forums and on blogs (e.g. today at The Points Guy). So now that it’s out, it’s no longer a secret, I can pass this along. American Express Membership Rewards is a great currency. I love flexible currencies because you can choose where to move points to when you know what award you want and further when you know who has award availability for that itinerary. It increases your ability to get the award redemption you want when you want it. But American Express has its drawbacks. Last year their partner Aeroplan started adding fuel surcharges onto most of their award tickets, you now often come out of pocket…
American’s Twitter Humor Amidst a Rough Day for Irregular Operations Due to Hurricane Isaac
Today’s been a rough day for United. Not only are flights being cancelled all over the place, but their computers went down. And took united.com down too. When United is hand writing boarding passes things have really hit a wall. Leave it, then, to Fake Jeff Smisek on Twitter to pile on. Under the circumstances, @AmericanAir which will reply to most anyone who tweets at them, was gracious in response. And the conversation — as well as United’s IT meltdown — was then more or less wrapped up. (@DeltaAssist and @SouthwestAir did not reply to FakeJeffSmisek’s tweets.)
Understanding Starwood Preferred Guest: Airline Mileage Transfers
Key Links:>Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card Starwood Preferred Guest Business American Express card Earlier in the month I outlined how to make the most of Starwood points for hotel stays. The Starwood program has more top-end properties that I’d want to stay at than any other chain, and while I don’t find the program all that rewarding for earning points from the money I spend at their hotels, there’s little question that it’s the most valuable hotel program for money spent on a credit card. And their cash and points awards really stretch the value of those points. In this post I intend to explain the value of Starwood points for airline mileage transfers which are in many ways the most lucrative option. The primary thing to know is that when you transfer points…
More Seats Added for Frequent Traveler University Los Angeles
Last week I mentioned coverage of Frequent Traveler University at CNNgo. CNN coverage is likely the reason that the few remaining spots for the upcoming Los Angeles (November 30 – December 2) event sold out. Tommy Danielsen announced that though the event had sold out of the original 250 spots available, more space was added and so another 100 tickets have been made available. We sold out late last week, but were successful in getting a larger ballroom at the Sheraton LAX adding 100 more seats. We’re not planning on adding even more seats as we really liked the interaction we had with the audience at the last FTU and I feel that a maximum of 350 participants is the perfect size for us. So if you’re planning on attending, please purchase your seat soon…
40% Transfer Bonus from American Express to British Airways Through September 27
American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 40% bonus on transfers to British Airways through September 27. Regular readers know that I’m not a fan of the changes made to the British Airways program back in November. In fact, in anticipation of those changes my Burn, Avios, Burn trip last Thanksgiving to Thailand was partially funded by taking advantage of British Airways transfer bonuses ‘before it was too late’. But of course British Airways does remain a useful and strategic partner of American Express Membership Rewards. Though there are fuel surcharges added to award tickets whenever a paid ticket would include those (you avoid fuel surcharges when flying to South America, US domestic, and a few other markets). And though the cost of awards are charged separately for each segment. There are some real values…
