One of the questions I’ve been frequently asked lately is whether or not someone with American Express Membership Rewards points should transfer their points to Continental before the partnership ends September 30. I’ve been averaging at least 2-3 emails a week asking what to do. And it’s actually a riff on a larger question which is, “what should I do with my American Express points?” because folks seem to have a natural urge to transfer them somewhere. I’ve just answered a similar question on Milepoint, so I thought I’d share it here as well. Here’s my reply: Definitely not ‘now’ — you have through September 30 to transfer to Continetnal. So might as well wait at least that long to see what needs you have in the meantime, or what other bonuses come up. For…
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Would You Blow Off Dinner With Friends for Denied Boarding Compensation?
Lucky is taking some heat over on his One Mile at a Time blog for planning to meet some folks for dinner taking a bump instead, blowing off plans and friends for $400 in vouchers. Now, in fairness to Ben he actually thought he’d wind up making the dinner, maybe 15 minutes late. Because of another flight delay and some additional flight changes, he wound up with a second voluntary denied boarding. (Read the whole story, he was very creative and had a great strategy — worth learning from.) I used to take bumps all the time years ago, I haven’t taken any in a really long time, I’m almost always wanting to get where I’m going with enough commitments on the other end and downline consequences for missing a flight, that the compensation rarely…
General Principles for Booking Award Seats to Australia with American Airlines Miles
I summed up some advice for booking Australia flights with American miles over on Milepoint and thought it might be worth reproducing the advice here as well, since Australia is one of those really frequent questions that I get (and that I’ve touched on before). 1. BA/QF/CX loads their schedules ~ 355 days out. Their members can book flights beginning that early. 2. Interestingly, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan partners with these three programs. Alaska doesn’t load its own flight schedules until 331 days out but they can book award seats on QF/CX/BA 355 days out, no problem. In fact, you can book a partner award 355 days out and then call back later to add in Alaska segments once the Alaska schedule loads and they won’t charge you to make the change! 3. But American…
Frequent Traveler University Program Announced
I should have been more on top of this, considering that I’m speaking as part of the agenda, but Lucky scoops me on the schedule for the day at Frequent Traveler University. Events begin Friday evening, April 29 with cocktails at the Sheraton LeGuardia East. THen the educational program is as Lucky posted: 850a-900a Opening Remarks MORNING: EARNING 905a-1015a Part 1: Earning By Flying Fare Classes: How Flying 1 Mile Could Earn You 2.5 miles or .25 miles! Elite Status: How to Transform Precious Metals Into Precious Bonus Miles! Mileage Running: How To Top-Off Your Account To Achieve Elite Status or Reach Award Redemption Threshold 1015-1030a Break 1030-1140a Part 2: Earning By Buying Credit Cards: Sign Up Bonuses and Most Points Per Dollar of Spending Mileage Transfers: How Credit Card, Hotel and Your Best Friends…
Flying Solo in First Class Again! Thai Airways Phuket – Bangkok – Tokyo and the Bangkok First Class Lounge & Spa
This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn” Past installments: Prologue: The decision-making and booking process Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite In and Around Singapore Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore Iggy’s Restaurant in Singapore JetQuay Departure from Singapore Changi Airport Thai Airways Business Class Singapore – Bangkok – Phuket Sala Pool Villa at the Westin Siray Bay, Phuket The hotel’s (outsourced) car brought us to the Phuket airport, again about 45 minutes…
Sala Pool Villa at the Westin Siray Bay, Phuket
This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn” Past installments: Prologue: The decision-making and booking process Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite In and Around Singapore Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore Iggy’s Restaurant in Singapore JetQuay Departure from Singapore Changi Airport Thai Airways Business Class Singapore – Bangkok – Phuket Having landed in Phuket, grabbed our bags and walked through customs, we exited the terminal and found the man holding the Westin sign…
United’s Mileage Upgrade Awards Will Get More Complicated — And More Expensive — Come June 15
Earlier today I detailed the upcoming June 15 changes to the United Mileage Plus award chart. On the whole it really is just tweaking, some awards up a few thousand miles and some down a few thousand miles and actually the ones I’m most interested in are going down. Middle East and Northern Africa become as expensive as Southern Africa, but business class to Europe and premium cabins to Asia get less expensive. I’m good with that, especially considering that it’s been a couple of years since the last bloodletting and twice that long since the one before that. It could have been time. Of course, that might have been unlikely given the merger euphoria and that they’re about to combine Continental and United programs, but it was cause for alarm that turned out to…
United Details Award Chart Changes Effective June 15 — And it Really is Just Tweaking! No Big Changes.
Wow, that was fast. Right after I published my post on upcoming changes to the United award chart on June 15, Mileage Plus comes out with their actual new award charts. It really makes me wonder why they’d put up notice of coming changes, lots of marketing speak, without publishing the actual charts themselves — when they were planning to publish the charts a very short while later? Why not just wait and stick up the new chart all at once? And why scare everyone with marketing speak in the first place, talking about how some awards will go up and a couple of regions will stay the same when several awards were even going to go down in price? In this case, I read the marketing speak and assumed the worst, based on past…
Thai Airways Business Class, Singapore – Bangkok – Phuket
This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn” Past installments:Prologue: The decision-making and booking process Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite In and Around Singapore Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore Iggy’s Restaurant in Singapore JetQuay Departure from Singapore Changi Airport We boarded and found Thai’s international business class seats, which are perfect for a short hop like this but I wouldn’t want to sit in them for true long-haul. Leg room was ample,…
Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore
This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn” Past installments:Prologue: The decision-making and booking process Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite In and Around Singapore One of the best meals I’ve ever enjoyed was at Tetsuya’s in Sydney several years ago. So when we heard that Tetsuya had opened a second restaurant, at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, we decided we wanted to give it a try on our visit. The restaurant does two seatings per evening, 6pm…
