There’s a new short-term offer for the Starwood American Express card, 10,000 points after first purchase and 20,000 more points after spending $5000 on the card within six months, no fee the first year. The offer is expected to be available through December 12, both for the personal card and for the small business card. (These links do not provide any referral credit to me.) 30,000 point offers have been around a couple of times in the past, these are better than the otherwise-best offer of 25,000 points. I don’t view this as your one shot at a 30,000 point bonus, and I’m not excited about the card for the bonus alone, but these are very good solid cards and if you’re going to apply for them best to do so when there’s a strong…
A US Airways Takeover of American Would Make No Sense
CrankyFlier reviews the American Airlines bankruptcy and says that the dream result would be US Airways taking over the airline. That makes no sense. Now, the only argument in favor I can imagine is that it would mean a new management team, and the theory that they can’t make worse decisions than American has over the past decade — beginning with acquiring TWA out of a prepackaged bankruptcy. TWA failed because (1) they paid lower than average wages but still had higher than average labor costs due to crazy onerous work rules, like maintaining a 747 maintenance base when they no longer operated 747s, and (2) being hubbed in St. Louis they had virtually no high revenue origination/destination traffic. American has had above average costs, in part because they didn’t go through bankruptcy while other…
25,000 Delta Miles for $500 Skymall Spend Offer Expected First Week of December
DeltaPoints describes how he used the last Skymall offer of 25,000 Delta miles for a purchase of $500 or more in order to generate 250,000 miles for a net cost of $700 by buying items and then reselling them on eBay. I found that they sold SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 10.1′s for $499.99. I also got a 9v battery for 99 cents. I then resold all 10 of the TAB’s on eBay in one day. My cost to sell them including my eBay, Paypal and s&h fee’s to get them out the door was a loss of $70 per order. Thus, for $700 I earned 250,000 skymiles plus 10,000 Capital One points for the $5000 purchase cost (10×500). Now, the price of tablets is coming down and I don’t see recapturing $430+shipping per Samsung tablet in…
American Three Million Miler!
A couple of weeks ago I reminded that American’s lifetime elite status recognition program was changing — going from counting all miles earned in the program to counting only flight miles (except that folks who get the pricey Citi Executive Mastercard before December 1 would have spend from that card count towards lifetime status for at least a year). I said at the time that I expected to end the month with 2,998,000 lifetime miles in the AAdvantage program. I had earned lifetime Gold at one million miles in 2006, lifetime Platinum at two million miles in 2010, and a bit over a year and a half later was on the cusp of 3 million lifetime miles which only means 4 additional confirmed systemwide upgrades valid from any fare… plus the distinction of course of…
Top Off Your Elite Qualifying Miles Without Flying
It’s getting close to the end of the year and it’s time to take a hard look at your status miles year-to-date, add up the miles from all remaining travel through the end of the year, and figure out if you’re going to be a few miles short of that next elite level. The traditional way to make up the difference in miles is to book a mileage run (flying just for the sake of the miles). And while that’s incremental revenue for the airline, it’s also crowding the front cabin (from domestic upgrades) by folks who don’t need to be in the air, it’s usually done at the cheapest prices, and flying is no longer the primary income stream for the mileage programs themselves — other revenue sources like selling miles to credit cards…
Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home We pulled up to the Conrad and were immediately assisted with our bags and directed to the front desk. Upon identifying myself, the woman at the desk went for assistance. I had a momentary panic — I had booked the room on a…
American Airlines Files For Bankruptcy — And Your Miles Are Safe
American Airlines’ parent filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning. In the past decade, United, Delta, and US Airways have all been in and exited from bankruptcy protection. American will certainly continue to operate through its reorganization, which is designed to shed costs that competitor airlines have already offloaded. While there will be some operational changes no doubt, frequent flyers need not worry. As I explained last month, an American Airlines bankruptcy is not bad for frequent flyers. I have nearly a million American Airlines miles myself, and lifetime Platinum status with the airline. And I’m not worried about my stash of miles. American Airlines will continue to fly, liquidation is not foreseeable. Bankruptcy may even be a boon to American’s mileage program. It’s been quite some time since American Airlines restructured their frequent…
The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home We landed in Hong Kong, proceeded to transfer security, and took the train over to Cathay Pacific’s The Pier lounge which was adjacent to our onward connecting gate. Though we were flying business class Hong Kong – Bangkok, as an arriving first class…
Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home Cathay Pacific first and business class check-in is with British Airways at the end of Terminal 7, it’s quiet and has its own dedicated security so no real waiting. With no one ahead in line it took a surprisingly long time for an…
Free Accor A|Club Top Tier Platinum Status
Via RoninTech on Milepoint: If you have an existing non-platinum account go here (its in german but chrome/firefox can translate for you), enter your member number and email, click the button and you get upgraded to Platinum for free. Update: Commenter Colleen notes “…or just select “English” on the upper right pull-down menu and the translated page will appear ” As I noted with a previous offer at the beginning of last month, Platinum status generally requires 60 nights (or 25,000 points earned) and comes with a 100% points bonus and then at Sofitel, Pullman, and MGallery hotels: room upgrades that the rules say you specifically have to ask for, 4pm late checkout, guaranteed availability, and a welcome drink and gift. I’ve always found it odd that A|Club elite status doesn’t get you recognition at…
