I’ve been a frequent critic of Spirit Airlines. This screed of an editorial from Sunshine State News even closes with my admonition about the airline, Can you blame Gary Leff, who runs the popular frequent flier blog View From the Wing for saying of Spirit, “This is the airline that’s famous for hating their customers”? But I think it’s possible to take things too far. Spirit goes gonzo with marketing antics positioning itself as a low cost carrier, driving down price. It should come as no surprise that you get less for paying less, and Spirit has even trumpeted the fact that they charge for carryon bags above a certain size rather than hiding it. You get what’s often (though not always) low cost transportation, and you pay for every conceivable ‘extra’ like water. But…
What Should the Occupy Movement Think About Premium Cabin Air Travel?
In the opening of Jerry Maguire, Renée Zellweger’s son asks her whqt’s wrong. They’re on a plane, sitting back in coach. She answers, First class is what’s wrong. It used to be a better meal. Now it’s a better life. Except they’re on a domestic flight, and it used to be that the meals were pretty good up there. Now it’s just a bigger seat. The quote struck me as so odd because it seemed so backward, it used to be a better life, now it’s just a meal (sometimes) and a seat. Internationally, of course, is a whole different story. I recently blogged a CNN.com story based on my thoughts about the best international airline lounges, for instance. Scott Mayerowitz writes a piece for the Associated Press on the current state of international premium…
Improving Delta Award Itineraries When Schedules Change
As a followup to my post on how to successfully book premium cabin international awards with Delta miles, I’d like to welcome deltagoldflyer to blogging, his first contribution at the new Delta Points blog is about using schedule changes to your advantage. Probably more than any other airline I’ve worked with, Delta is accomodating when schedule changes happen in advance even on award tickets. United will sometimes open up seats on their own flights, but only when there are no other reward options, if something happens to your flights and any alternative using award inventory exists, they’ll expect you to use it. Continental has always been pretty good when an award ticket falls apart, enough perseverence and on more than once occasion I’ve seen them open up reward seats on their own aircraft when only…
Hyatt’s New Room Service Burger
A week and a half ago the head of Hyatt Gold Passport did an online chat with Milepoint members. One of the lighter subjects was the new Hyatt burger that was launching. I admit, burgers are a bit of a staple of room service, they’re usually one of the cheaper items on most menu and they tend to be pretty reliable, even when they aren’t great they usually aren’t bad so you know what to expect. A brand standard burger only reinforces that, and when it’s good that’s a real selling point. So as trivial an item it may seem, it actually matters. Here’s the description of the new burger from the chat: [T]he wheat oat bun has been replaced with a brioche bun – much softer and richer. The meat ~7 ounces of all…
500 Free Miles for Joining American AAdvantage
This was buried in my earlier post on American giving away 2 seats on the oneworld MegaDO, thought it made sense to pull out separately. American AAdvantage is giving out 500 miles to new members who enroll using promo code OWMGD. I’m not sure who out there reads this blog that doesn’t already have an American AAdvantage account, but presumably some of you have friends, neighbors, family members, or random strangers at the supermarket who don’t yet have accounts.
The 11 Most Useful Travel Websites
Ok, these are the travel websites that I find most useful, and your needs may vary. But these are the ones I come back to over and over, I’ve written about most of them before, but thought this list would be useful in one place. Awardwallet. The free version suffices for most anyone’s needs, it’s a great tool for tracking all of your miles and points in one place, and it lets you have one-click login to your accounts as well. They offer some social and trip organizing features as well, though I don’t use those. It’s just my favorite mileage tracking site. The premium version ($5 every 6 months) tracks expiration of your points as well. AwardNexus, Expertflyer, and KVS Tool. These are all paid services, the three most useful tools for searching award…
How to Earn Miles for Amazon Purchases, and What it Reveals About Online Shopping Portals
A subset of the frequent flyer blogiverse has been lit up over the new US Airways shopping mall, and the changes that it’s implied – the Dividend Miles shopping toolbar no longer works to award frequent flyer miles (for online purchases or for internet searches), Amazon.com shopping no longer earns US Airways miles. Here’s one typically take from Flyalog, “US Airways Drops Amazon.com as a Partner” … only that’s not exactly right. US Airways hasn’t dropped Amazon.com because despite the shopping portal’s use of the US Airways name, it wasn’t before and isn’t now actually run by US Airways and neither US Airways nor the Dividend Miles program selects which merchants are going to generate frequent flyer miles. Instead, US Airways works with Skymall who contracts out to a technology provider. Previously that vendor was…
Become American’s Official Oneworld Mega DO Video Blogger and Win Fabulous Prizes!
Key Link: American AAdvantage Contest to Become Their Official Video Blogger on the Oneworld MegaDO The Oneworld Mega DO sold out in under half an hour. But two sponsors that secured seats are offering them up in contests. The Points Guy is running a video contest for someone to be his seatmate on the charter, and he’s covering the hotel costs during the event as well. American Airlines is giving away two seats and they’ve just announced details which are really quite generous. For the uninitiated, this is a frequent flyer once-in-a-lifetime dream trip. 150 enthusiasts charter a plane, meet with the top brass of oneworld airlines, tour the inner sanctum of Boeing, and see all of the behind-the-scenes stuff that passengers aren’t privy to. All in the spirit of fun and adventure, with any…
British Airways Award Chart Changes: the Good, the Bad, and the Funny
I offer my take on the British Airways award chart changes over at Conde Nast Travel this afternoon: The Good, the Bad, and the Funny. Trying very much to be fair, I do note the increased value of short-haul awards, and in Europe where those can be had without the onerous fees of the past if you’ve earned any miles in your account in the preceding 12 months. The short format doesn’t allow for extensive analysis such as my treatment earlier this morning, but it does reach a different and somewhat broader audience, so hopefully a useful addition to the conversation.
Using Credit Card Offers to Construct a Free Dream Trip Quickly
Important Links:Chase Sapphire Preferred card Chase Ink Bold Charge CardAmerican Airlines Citibank cardsUsing American Express gift cards to meet credit card minimum spending requirements A Few Credit Card Signups Can Fund Your Next Vacation: Planning ahead and paying attention to miles is great, accumulating large balances strategically and having a big stash when it comes time to redeem, in multiple programs even, that means you have a choice of airlines to redeem tickets with and you increase your chances of getting the award you want when you want it exponentially. But not everyone plays the game this way. Not everyone spends time in frequent flyer communities (I spend much time on Milepoint these days). Now, most people don’t take advantage of the deals that loyalty programs offer. They just assume those programs can’t provide much…
