Aegean Airlines Miles&Bonus is offering 2000 miles for signing up. In the past the offer was 1000 miles. The key though is that the 1000 miles counted as status miles. And it only takes 4000 miles within 12 months to earn Silver status. Which is Star Alliance Silver, for priority boarding and a free checked bag domestically on partners United and US Airways. This offer should mean you only need 2000 more miles to make Star Alliance Silver. And then after that only 16,000 more for Star Alliance Gold which gets lounge access. And it seems that, so far, once you earn status with Aegean you keep it (rather than having to requalify each year). I outlined the Aegean program back in June when I was comped to Aegean’s Gold status (based on my british…
Financial Times: Qatar Joining Oneworld (After All?)
The Financial Times is reporting that Qatar will be joining oneworld, despite explicit denials by the airline’s CEO. Maybe he didn’t get the memo? Qatar Airways is set to be the first of the fast-expanding Gulf carriers to become a member of one of the global airline alliances, by agreeing to join oneworld. The move is a coup for oneworld, whose members are led by American Airlines and British Airways, and underlines how the Gulf carriers may no longer be viewed with hostility by western airlines. Either FlightGlobal and the Financial Times will have egg on their faces, or the CEO of Qatar won’t be much believed in his public statements in the future. Personally I hope this happens, a boost to my American AAdvantage miles. We’ll find out soon in any case!
10% Off All British Airways Flights for U.S. Co-Branded Visa Cardholders
Did you get a British Airways Visa during the 100,000 point signup bonus frenzy? You may not realize that you also get 10% off bookings on British Airways. MileValue points to this Milepoint thread indicating that British Airways Visa cardholders receive 10% off of all British Airways flights — log into your account and book through BA.com/chase10. The offer is valid for travel through December 31 with promotion code CARDOFFERU, and takes a full 10% off including taxes and fuel surcharges, and applies to any class of service and for up to 8 passengers on the same itinerary.
One for the Canadians — British Airways Visa 50,000 Point Signup Bonus
Canadians for the most part don’t have the degree of competition in their native frequent flyer programs or amongst their credit card-issuing banks as exists in the U.S. So signup bonuses are generally smaller and rewards tend to be less lucrative. So it’s exciting when there’s a big bonus that our friends up North can take advantage of, eh? Through November 30, RBC has brought back a 50,000 point signup bonus for the Canadian version of the British Airways Visa. (Not my link.) 15,000 Avios points on approval and 35,000 more after $5000 spend within 3 months Earns a companion award ticket after $30,000 spend in a calendar year. Unlike the US British Airways card which earns 1.25 points per dollar, this one earns 1 point per Canadian dollar spent $165 Canadian annual fee It’s…
Club Carlson Fall Promotion: Stay More Nights, Earn More Points
Club Carlson’s fall promotion is out: The total number of nights stayed with Club Carlson (Radisson, Country Inn, Park Inn, Park Plaza) between October 1 and December 31 will earn progressively more bonus points per night. 2,000 bonus points per night when you stay one to five nights 4,000 bonus points per night when you stay six to nine nights 6,000 bonus points per night when you stay 10 to 20 nights Registration required. Points will be awarded in January.
US Airways 100% Bonus on Shared Miles in October
US Airways is offering a 100% bonus on shared miles (miles transferred between accounts) during the month of October. You can earn up to 50,000 bonus miles with the offer, which should appear instantly with the transfer. The cost for this is “$0.01 per mile plus a processing fee of $30 and a tax recovery charge of 7.5%” — transferring 50,000 miles from one account to another will deposit 100,000 in that account at a cost of $567.50. Since that’s a net increase of 50,000 miles you’re buying miles at $0.01135 per mile. At that price I’m a buyer. What I love about US Airways is awards in premium cabins on Star Alliance partner airlines, and a generally reasonable award chart — in some cases downright generous such as 90,000 miles roundtrip between the US…
Enter Here to Win a Seat on Star MegaDO 4!
BoardingArea is giving away two seats on the upcoming Star MegaDO 4. And the winners will even have their hotel accommodations paid for plus a little spending money as well. It’s the ultimate frequent flyer adventure. Join a couple hundred of your newest frequent flyer enthusiast friends, meeting with airline executives, getting behind the scenes tours, bringing home amazing souvenirs and memories, and earning bonus elite qualifying miles in the MileagePlus program along the way. Details of the program were released at the launch party. The event will begin the evening of Tuesday, November 13 in San Francisco. Wednesday flies San Francisco to Houston on the charter, a newly refurbished 767-400. Thursday is Houston to Chicago. And there’ll be plenty of United senior managers involved, other Star Alliance partners in San Francisco, and a whole…
The Ins and Out of Opentable: Getting Rebates for Online Restaurant Reservations
Opentable secrets: Opentable is an online service for making restaurant reservations. It’s the market leader in the space, you can search for a specific restaurant and make a booking or search an area and find restaurants that have availability for when you’d like to eat, near where you want to eat, and for the number of people in your party. What’s more they offer loyalty points, most of the time you earn 100 points for a booking, that’s worth $1 because 2000 points can be redeemed for a $20 gift certificate for dining at any restaurant listed on Opentable. Greater numbers of points can be redeemed for larger gift checks, but it’s still at that same redemption ratio. So it’s always a good idea to redeem points as soon as you have enough, and use…
United’s Computer Woes: Yanking Miles from Your Account Improperly When Partner ‘Fails to Confirm’ Flight Activity
If you’ve been flying United’s airline partners recently, and crediting those flights to your MileagePlus account, check your balance — apparently United has been removing legitimate flight credits en masse when their flight partners haven’t confirmed the activity. Some attribute the lack of proper confirmation to United’s IT woes and inability to properly sync up with its partners for validating the credits. Many flyers inconvenienced. Normally I toss boarding passes once miles post. Note to United flyers: save partner boarding passes even after you receive credit for the flights. Miles from Blighty reports a similar and perhaps related problem, with paid business class travel on Air New Zealand reverting from having earned elite qualifying miles to earning just redeemable miles. These sorts of IT problems, along with problems like failing to properly issue award tickets…
Qatar Not Joining oneworld After All
Qatar’s CEO says they will not join oneworld. Qatar Airways has no plans to join the oneworld airline alliance, its Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said on Sunday, dismissing reports that the airline had become the newest member of the group as “rumor.” Asked if the carrier would join oneworld, which includes British Airways, owned by IAG (ICAG.L), Baker said: “No, we will not. It’s all rumors.” Flightglobal had claimed to have documents to the contrary, and that such a move would be announced on October 8. The early October event could also be an announcement that TAM would move over from Star to oneworld, or perhaps that Malaysia Airlines had completed its integration to join the alliance. Flightglobal’s claim to have leaked documents to the effect seemed persuasive, though as I noted earlier it did…
