Some links, news, and opinion from around the interweb: Christopher Elliott notes that the Republican Party platform calls for reform of the TSA and private screeners. He didn’t expect anything similar in the Democratic Party platform, and he was correct (.pdf). Elliott concludes that it’s an election year issue, but I’m not so sure. Most items in party platfoms aren’t ultimately issues that get play during a campaign. They serve more to cement coalitions and demonstrate relative status within a party rather than representing even what a Presidential candidate’s position on an issue will be. As of November 1, only elite members of LANPASS will be permitted to use miles for upgrades. The September issue of Inside Flyer‘s Ask Randy section (subscription required) recommends my award booking service. [T]here are a number of bona fide…
2000 Starwood Points or $50 for Test Driving an Acura
Back at the end of 2010, Acura teamed up with W hotels to offer Starwood points for test driving a car. It wasn’t as lucrative as the 10,000 British Airways points for test-driving a Jaguar back in 2003 — especially because BA offers family accounts, lots of people could test drive (or just get a form signed at teh dealership) and then pool their miles towards a single award. It was put most succinctly at the time by the world-famous Pudding Guy (who was memorialized in the Adam Sandler film Punch Drunk Love) as “Test Drive a Jaguar, Fly to Europe!” But it was still pretty good! This evening, Mike left a confusing comment on my post from 2010. I just took it to a dealership acura in tustin, ca and was told they did…
100% Bonus on Purchased Miles with AviancaTaca LifeMiles is Back
A couple of weeks ago I explained why AviancaTaca LifeMiles is perhaps the most generous program in the Star Alliance. Most folks wouldn’t naturally be interested in a Central American frequent flyer program. But they are partners with United, US Airways, Lufthansa, Swiss, Singapore, and the rest of the Star Alliance. So their miles can be used on those airlines. And they offer one-way awards for half the price of roundtrip, there are no fuel surcharges, and most lucratively they have “cash and points” awards where you only need 40% of the miles required for the ticket you want to book and then ‘buy up’ the rest of the miles necessary for the award at under 1.3 cents apiece. Commenter M. on that thread asked me to flag the next time that AviancaTaca was offering…
US Airways 100% Purchase Bonus is Targeted Again in September
I didn’t get an email, but apparently I was targeted. They say it’s because I booked a flight with them in 2012. If you did as well, perhaps you were targeted as well. When you go to the ‘buy miles’ link you are asked to enter your name and account number. Then if you are targeted you will see the details on the bonus. (If you haven’t been targeted, the offer just appears ‘as usual’ at 3.5 cents per mile plus tax and transaction fee.) As usual, accounts must be 12 days old or older in order to buy miles and the maximum number of miles eligible for the bonus is 50,000 (meaning you can buy 50,000 miles and receive 50,000 bonus miles – for a total of 100,000). Oddly, the offer is listed as…
Saving Money on Foreign Currency Transactions
On Friday, NotiFlyer highlighted an offer from EZForex of free shipping on foreign currency orders of $500 or more with promo code AAfxKickoff (a savings of $14.50). Ordering foreign currency online is never the cheapest way to get it. You’ll always do better using your ATM card on arrival in the country you’re traveling to. That way you will get a bank’s foreign currency conversion rate. Ideally you would even have an ATM card from a bank that doesn’t charge you to use ‘out-of-network’ ATMs. I use BankDirect, the checking account that awards you American Airlines miles for your average balance each month. (I get 100 miles for every $1000 average balance, and there’s a $12 per month fee for the account that isn’t waived). They not only don’t charge a fee to use ATMs…
Giveaway Contest: (2) $250 Fairfield Inn Gift Cards
Marriott’s Fairfield Inn & Suites offered up (2) $250 gift cards to give away to my readers in celebration of their Silver September national vacation giveaway. Fairfield Inn & Suites is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with its national Silver September giveaway, awarding 25 lucky guests with an all-expense paid weekend getaway to one of four premium Fairfield Inn & Suites destinations across the United States. From September 1-25, Fairfield Inn & Suites guests in the United States and Canada* will receive Silver September envelopes upon check-in – 25 of which will contain winning silver tickets. So if you win the blog contest, and you use your gift cards on a stay by September 25, you could leverage that into another free stay. (And if you use the gift cards by October 31 you…
Using US Airways Mileage Multiplier to Buy Miles at 1.2 Cents Apiece
On Thursday Brian Kelly wrote about using the US Airways mileage multiplier to buy US Airways miles at a deep, deep discount. When you buy a ticket at USAirways.com you are offered the opportunity to buy additional miles — double or triple what you would earn for the flight you are buying. The price of the miles is not calculated per-mile but based on ranges of miles. The sweet spot is staying just under 25,000 miles earned from a flight. (The mileage is calculated to include class of service bonuses and also elite status bonuses.) Brian recommends as an example San Francisco – Philadelphia – Tel Aviv in business class as a non-elite in the US Airways program for 24,836 miles including 50% class of service bonus. A US Airways Gold elite would earn the…
Saving Money When Cancelling an Award Ticket and Redepositing Miles
Points, Miles, and Martinis says that instead of paying $150 to cancel and redeposit miles on an award ticket you don’t plan to take, you can change an award ticket to the least expensive mileage redemption you can find and then be out miles instead of money. Since I have no United elite status, I’ll incur a fee to get the 280,000 United miles redeposited back into my account. Instead, my plan is to change my ticket to an award that requires fewer miles, like a 5,000 mile Hawaii intra-island award. Apparently United will refund the difference in both miles and taxes paid. So if all goes as planned, I’ll receive about 270,000 United miles and about $200 back in taxes and fees. But I haven’t tried this approach yet so I can’t say for…
American in Talks with US Airways, British Airways, and Hedge Funds About its Post-Bankruptcy Future
There have been lots of developments in the American Airlines bankruptcy. American wrapped up labor contracts with all of its groups except the pilots, their original request to the bankruptcy court to impose new terms on its pilots was rejected but only due to two defects and the court invited American to re-submit. American will soon have its planned labor cost savings in place, and the airline posted a $135 million profit in July. The expectations have been flying for a long time that US Airways would acquire American, largely because US Airways CEO Doug Parker wants to own a bigger airline so badly and makes no secret of it. His merger with United was reportedly scuttled the first time when he wasn’t going to get to run the combined carrier. His second attempt was…
Amazing Alaska Airlines First Class to Hawaii for Under $350 Deal Ends 8pm This Evening
Online Travel Review has played point on the amazing deal of purchasing Icelandair miles and redeeming those miles for first class awards on Alaska Airlines anywhere in the US and Canada including Hawaii and Alaska — for under $350 per ticket. Now Jared reports that Icelandair is finally pulling the deal — that at 8pm Eastern this evening they will be pulling Alaska Airlines redemptions. Their Alaska partnership continues, so presumably redemptions will return, but one imagines that those redemptions will be at a much higher mileage rate. The deal was a combination of the weak Icelandic Krona, a 20% mileage purchase bonus (which runs into September, but which isn’t necessary to have made this a good deal), and inexpensive redemption pricing on Alaska Airlines flights. From the beginning I had recommended finding Alaska Airlines…
