The U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to British Airways Executive Club through July 31. Points from Amex transfers post to BA instantly in real-time, and the bonus posts right away as well. (The fine print says ‘one bonus per cardmember’ so you may only get to do this once during the promotion period, though time will tell whether or not that’s enforced.) In February and March there was a 40% transfer bonus offer and that was a huge deal, of course this is even better. While I wouldn’t make transfers without a specific award in mind, because I do hugely value the flexibility of Amex points more than I do most bonuses, and it’s important to understand what BA miles are good for and what they aren’t,…
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How to Score the Best Hotel Room Upgrades
I was riffing yesterday morning over at Milepoint on different ways to get upgraded at hotels and thought I’d share the advice here as well and maybe blow it out a bit. Back in 2005 I offered up some recommendations, the upshot of which was to find a way to just ask (without being a jerk). I think I’m a bit more experienced now than I was then, and can offer some additional insight, hopefully some of it is new or will spark some idea about how to go about it. The crux of the advice from back in 2005 remains, though. There are a lot of guests in a hotel, man of which have some sort of status, and some get the upgrade and some don’t, some get the ‘special’ suites while others get…
Free Planeside Meet-and-Greet and Fast Track Immigration with Roundtrip Car Transfer in Bangkok
In most cases throughout South Asia, VIP immigration meet-and-greet is available, reasonably priced, and utterly gratuitous. It’s wonderful to have when included free, such as provided by Thai Airways for all of their first class passengers in Bangkok – you’re met at the jetway and escorted (depending on distance, either walked or taken by golf cart) through VIP immigration with no lines, assisted with baggage, and turned over to your driver if one is waiting for you. The first time I experienced this was back in 2006, Thai used to identify first class passengers at Don Muang airport with a card they would give out and since my wife and I were both given a card and I admit I turned back only one, I still have one. It was really need to be taken…
Buy Hilton HHonors Points Today at Half a Cent Apiece
Today’s Discover America Daily Getaway from American Express is purchase of Hilton HHonors points — 100,000, 150,000, and 250,000 point blocks and when you pay by American Express you get a 10% discount and bring the price down to half a penny apiece. Buying points from Hilton HHonors directly is limited to 40,000 per year and costs about a penny a point, so this is a deep discount relative to the normal cost of purchasing points. It’s a good deal, and yet I’m torn. My usual mental model is that the average Hilton HHonors redemption gets you about half a cent per point in value. So you’re more or less prepaying the cost of an average reward stay. Not that appealing. There are of course some really strong redemption values, and if you are likely…
Do Bloggers Get Treated Better at Hotels, and Who Has the Best Late Check-out Benefit?
The Frequent Traveler Awards were held at Citi Field, but were managed out of the Sheraton LaGuardia East, which also served as host for the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit and for Frequent Traveler University over the past several days. I have to say that for an airport property in New York, it worked surprisingly well. The rate was reasonable, I believe the conference rate was $159, and the hotel itself was just fine. The beds were comfortable Sweet Sleepers, the rooms were clean, and the space worked out just fine. There was confusion at the front desk, it isn’t the easiest place to catch a cab from (though a few blocks down at the subway cabs often congregate and you can of course take the subway!), but it has the huge advantage of being…
Results, Recap, and Experiences from the Frequent Traveler Awards at Citi Field
The Frequent Traveler Awards were held Thursday evening at Citi field in New York. Yours truly donned a tuxedo and had the honor of presenting Program of the Year for an Airline Frequent Flyer Program to Aeroplan (Americas), Lufthansa Miles & More (Europe & Africa), and Emirates (Middles East, Asia, Oceania). Here’s Ben Mutzabaugh’s take from USA Today, titled “And the world’s top frequent-flier awards go to …” It was an amazing evening, healined by emcee Robert Wuhl, himself a frequent flyer and mileage aficianado. These awards represent the voice of the frequent traveler, with more than a million individuals participating in the voting this year. While I’m honored to help run the event, I only get to be one vote — virtually inconsequential in the scheme of things — and so certainly the results…
The Top 6 Current Deals for Earning Miles and Free Travel
Through May 6 a new Chase British Airways Visa receives up to 100,000 bonus miles for the $95 annual fee and modest required spend. Use the miles for a business class ticket to Asia on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines, or a business class ticket to South America on American or LAN (not to mention business class to nearer-Europe). There are plenty of reports that the 75,000 mile signup bonus offer for American Airlines credit cards still works, even though the landing page for the offer says it was only valid through February 28. I’ve yet to hear of anyone using the link who didn’t actually get the offer applied to their card account. Share US Airways miles with a 75% bonus through May 31 or US Airways credit card holders buy miles with a…
Last Chance for 100,000 British Airways Miles for Credit Card Signup, and Is It Time to Burn Those Miles Fast?
There are 5 days left to apply for the Chase British Airways Visa and receive a 100,000 mile signup bonus, an offer which expires on May 6th. It’s a phenomenal offer. For instance, 100,000 British Airways miles can be used for a business class ticket on Cathay Pacific from New York to Bali via Hong Kong (with an allowable stopover). 80,000 British Airways miles can be used for, say, New York or Miami in business class on LAN all the way to Easter Island, with a stopover in South America in each direction (perhaps in Santiago and Buenos Aires). What’s more, those awards minimize the fuel surcharges that British Airways does charge on award tickets. But how long will these great value British Airways awards last? I don’t have any definitive information. There are some…
How Award Tickets on Partner Airlines Get Messed Up, And How You Can Protect Yourself
I helped someone with an award ticket through US Airways. Reservation set up, about an hour total on the phone while the rate desk validated and priced the itinerary, they took the credit card and told me everything went trhough. Miles were deducted but turns out that the credit card didn’t process and the tickets weren’t issued, US Airways never contacted anyone about this. Passenger shows up at the airport, no ticket, can’t fly. (To protect the privacy of the person involved, I’m not going to go into greater detail about what actually happened here, but suffice to say it won’t repeat itself for customers whose credit cards aren’t in the name of a third party living in Asia.) I call US Airways to get it fixed, they tell me they would and I gave…
Aeroplan Guts their Award Chart for High-End Premium Cabin Trips
Aeroplan has just released a new award chart which will go into effect July 15 and it hurts. On the whole, the changes to pricing of Air Canada awards aren’t terrible, nothing goes down but awards like coach to Hawaii goes from 40,000 to 45,000 (business is harsher, 60,000 up to 80,000). Business to nearer Europe goes from 85,000 to 90,000. Business to the Middle East and to Australia go from 115,000 to 135,000. Plenty more increases but on the whole all of that scale. Aeroplan claims that “[t]he adjustments represent an average increase of less than 5 per cent in the number of miles per reward for all ClassicFlight (Air Canada) and Star Alliance flight rewards.” Rewards Canada echos that changes in Star Alliance flight prices are mostly “to bring these rewards in line…
