Last week I got to visit the American Airlines Flagship Lounge at JFK for two different meals. Which is never what I’m looking to do. Especially when it means that travel is taking a bit longer than it’s supposed to, and which is uniquely inconvenient when you’re doing what’s supposed to be an out-and-back trip. But spending a delay in a first class lounge, even a domestic one, is a pretty good way to while away a delay. It’s easy to stay productive, there’s snacks available, and relative quiet. Plus in a domestic lounge I’m always uncomfortable leaving backs behind or personal items strewn about while using the facilities, in a first class lounge I generally have no such concerns. Turning back the clock a day, though, I was heading up to New York last…
Horizon Air Relocates its Lost and Found Center to a Home in Portland
Passed along without comment. Police say a Nevada man who lost his iPad on an airplane used an app called Find My iPad to locate it inside the Oregon home of a flight attendant. …The flight attendant for Horizon Air allegedly told officers that a passenger brought her the tablet saying it was found on a seat. She said she never used the iPad and planned to turn it over to airline officials, but police found some of her personal information on it including her husband’s birthday.
Talking Miles and Points on the Radio this Morning
I expect to be on Rudy Maxa’s World nationally syndicated radio program this morning around 10:18am Eastern time talking about how to handle miles and points in death and divorce (fun times!). In addition I’ll be talking these same topics on Rudy’s KFWB 980AM Los Angeles show around 12:30pm Eastern. Listen in if you’d like.
American’s Commitment to Elite Members: One Hour Delays Entitle Re-routing Even on Other Airlines or Refund
American’s operational challenges (i.e. pilots deciding to stick it to customers) have been garnering lots of media attention in recent days. They’ve just sent out an email under the signature of AAdvantage President Suzanne Rubin that I much like. I’ll skip the boilerplate intro and then reproduce sections along with my commentary below: Prior to recent issues, American has been running an extremely good operation, with reliability measures at their best levels in many years. The recent delays are due to the increase in maintenance write-ups by our pilots, many right at the time of departure. Our maintenance teams are responding appropriately to such reports, which may cause interruptions in our schedules. I know you will agree that nothing is more important than running a safe and reliable operation. Ensuring the safety of our customers…
Bits ‘n Pieces for September 21, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Lucky reports that British Airways Avios has stopped adding fuel surcharges to award redemptions on Air Berlin which flies New York, Miami, and Los Angeles to Berlin as well as Ft. Myers, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Vancouver to Dusseldorf. Great cheap way across the Atlantic using British Airways points. Frequent Miler Highlights the MyVanilla Pin-based debit card that’s now available for online ordering. You can use this card instead of an American Express gift card to earn 5 miles per dollar on all of your spending. As a debit card, you can use it to pay taxes at a very small fee. As a pin-based debit card, you should be able to use it to purchase postal money orders (which you deposit in your…
US Airways Changes Terms and Conditions of its Double Miles Offer
On Monday when US Airways came out with its double elite qualifying miles offer for tickets booked on their website and paid for with a Mastercard, I pointed out that the terms and conditions were confusing and left several questions unanswered. US Airways has since updated the terms and conditions to clarify some of those questions. The original, full terms and conditions said: Registration is required. You must purchase a ticket on usairways.com September 17 – October 31, 2012 for travel September 17 – December 31, 2012. Use a valid MasterCard card to get double miles or use a valid US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard card to get double Preferred-qualifying miles on flight activity. US Airways will award miles 6 – 8 weeks after travel has been completed. All Dividend Miles terms and conditions apply.…
300 Free La Quinta Returns Points
Through October 31, La Quinta Returns is offering 300 free points on the page you reach after watching a video. Points should post within 72 hours.
Bits ‘n Pieces from Programs I Don’t Use Much
News and Notes that Won’t Much Affect My Frequent Flyer Life: Spirit Airlines has introduced online booking for award tickets. I don’t have any Free Spirit miles, I love that the airline exists but don’t want to fly them. Their miles have the most draconian expiration policy I’ve ever seen: Miles will expire when an account becomes inactive for a period of 3 months or more. An “inactive” account is one that has no miles credited to it from any source during the preceding 3 months. La Quinta is offering 1000 Delta miles per stay through December 30. I recall from reading the autobiography of Southwest Airlines founding President Lamar Muse that the founder of La Quinta was an early investor and board member of the airline. The chain got it’s name because the cheapest…
American Airlines Pilots Behaving Badly
Yesterday I suggested that American’s pilots were engaged in a sick out because after new contract terms were imposed on pilots through the airline’s bankruptcy process, we started seeing lots of flight cancellations — over 5% on Sunday, again over 5% of the schedule on Monday, and already quite a few for today. I didn’t even get into the really poor on-time percentage being logged by American’s flights, which weren’t unduly affected by weather. It certainly seemed like something was ‘up’. Which was also confirmed in comments I was reading on the post and elsewhere, such as reports of 20-plus minute times to taxi, and planes even being beaten out by tugs moving faster than they were. Sky Talk gets a comment from the airline’s pilots union: “No one at APA has either sanctioned or…
The US Airways Double Miles MasterCard Promotion Is Really Confusing
The offer I wrote about earlier today of double miles on flights if you pay with a MasterCard and double elite qualifying miles if you pay with a US Airways MasteCard is actually confusing rather than simple. Or maybe I’ve just been thinking about it too much? When I wrote the post it seemed so straightforward. You get double miles for paying by MasterCard for any US Airways flights booked at USAirways.com by October 31, for travel through the end of the year (provided you register). But then I got my e-mail from US Airways, and as a co-branded credit card holder the marketing language didn’t even mention the double redeemable miles, just the status miles. Here are the full terms and conditions, it sure seems to leave a lot to the imagination. Registration is…
