Via NotiFlyer, Alaska is offering 15 minutes of free Gogo internet. Passengers on Alaska Airlines can access Gogo for free for 15 minutes on Alaska Airlines through Sept. 3, 2012. The offer is valid on flights within and between the West Coast and Alaska. Just like that darned drug dealer standing on the corner by the elementary school. Fifteen free minutes of internet crack and you’ll be hooked. You’ll want to send your response to the email you just downloaded. Or finish watching that clip of South Park parodying What What in the Butt (which the Seventh Circuit just affirmed was fair use and not a copyright infringement). Of course you can turn down the offer to pay for Gogo internet, and just get hooked on the Milepoint.com frequent flyer community which you can access…
A FlightStats.com Primer: How to Access Airline Fare Class Availability for Free
The FlightStats.com website is a really useful tool — not just for tracking flights, to see whether they’re on time, and looking up historical flight reliability data (which is how most savvy fliers use it) but also to look up availability of seats on specific flights, including availability by specific “fare classes” which are the letter codes of the different buckets of inventory that airlines use. That may not seem like something that matters to you, but it’s incredibly useful! Here are some examples of how you can use the information. For awards: Say that you have Delta miles and want to know whether Saudi Arabian has business class award space from New York JFK to Riyadh. Or you have Chase Sapphire Preferred points and want to know whether it makes sense to transfer those…
American and Air Tahiti Nui to Introduce Codesharing
American will be codesharing with Air Tahiti Nui on the Los Angeles – Papeete route. You can already redeem American miles for Air Tahiti Nui award travel, and used to be able to earn American miles flying Air Tahiti Nui but that option was eliminated in 2009. Now, flying American’s codeshare, you’ll have the opportunity to earn both redeemable and elite qualifying miles on travel from the US to French Polynesia. Nice! Currently the only way to earn miles flying from the US to French Polynesia – other than crediting Air Tahiti Nui flights to Club Tiare – is to fly Air France Los Angeles – Papeete (3 times weekly service) or Hawaiian Airlines Honolulu – Papeete (Saturday service). For most, paid travel to French Polynesia was simply a miles opportunity wasted. I was fortunate…
My Club Carlson 50k Bonus Posted
The night of the Star MegaDO launch party, I checked into the Radisson near National airport in order to earn the Club Carlson 50,000 point bonus. It was a Saturday night stay, and points posted last night. One rule that struck me curious about the promotion was the requirement not just to check in in person (so that one person couldn’t go do a mass check-in for 50 people) but also to check out in person. I didn’t think it would actually be enforced. Were they really going to make hotels verify who had come to the desk for checkout? Were they really going to add that as an IT capability? It seemed a stretch. And in my case, it certainly wasn’t enforced.
How Easy is it to Obtain Starwood Stay and Night Credit on an Award Redeemed from Someone Else’s Account?
My stay in Iguazu Falls at the Sheraton was on points, a reservation gifted to me by a friend with more Starwood points than he can shake a stick at. Points for incidentals at the hotel (e.g. my bar tab!) didn’t post automatically to my account, so I scanned a copy of the bill and sent it in for credit. The points were promptly added to my account. Strangely, though, my stay and night counter for elite status didn’t go up. Now, it doesn’t matter a great deal for me. I have Gold status through the American Express Platinum card. I’ll earn Gold status on my own, anyway. And I’m not expecting to hit Platinum as tempting as this year’s changes to the program make it to do so. But it’s the principle of the…
Air France KLM Flying Blue Ends Fuel Surcharges on Intra-European Awards – and Triples Miles Cost of Intra-European Business
It seems that in the past day or so Air France KLM Flying Blue has made some significant changes to their award pricing for intra-European flying. They’ve substantially reduced the fuel surcharges added on, in some cases eliminating them. Basically they’re matching what British Airways has done with intra-European award travel (although in the BA case you need points earning within the previous 12 months to qualify). At the same time, though, they’ve massively ratched up the points price of intra-European business class. There’s no official release on this, it was done without any notice at all, but it seems like business class awards inside Europe are pricing out about triple what they were just days ago. (No change to the price of intra-European coach.) For example, business class roundtrip London – Paris is now…
Wisconsin Members of Frontier Early Returns Can Move their Miles and Status to Delta
This is an opportunity with a pretty limited audience — Wisconsin residents only with mileage balances in Frontier Early Returns — but for those members this is huge. Via NotiFlyer, Frontier will allow you to bail on the Early Returns program and move all of your miles to Delta Skymiles. Frontier elite members taking advantage of the offer will be enrolled in a Delta status challenge, receiving 90 days of silver status with a requirement to fly 8,000 qualifying miles or 10 qualifying segments on Delta within 90 days to retain that status. It’s all or nothing with the conversion of miles, but Frontier members with elite status will still keep their existing status. The offer is valid through August 31, 2012. It’s a one-time offer, so if you have Frontier flights coming up you…
Award Tickets are a Better Use of Miles than Upgrades
Probably the most frequent misconception I run across (although perhaps tied with the idea that you can productively use Capital One points for premium cabin international travel) in my award consulting practice is that upgrading with miles either opens up a world of options beyond what booking award tickets gets you, or that mileage upgrades are a better value. So I wrote a column fpr Conde’ Nast Daily Traveler on why award tickets are a better use of miles than upgrades. Here’s the lead-in: Conventional wisdom has always said that the most lucrative way to use miles was to confirm upgrades from coach to business class on paid international tickets. That’s because you would accrue miles for the paid travel, plus earn status. And because upgrades require fewer points than a free ticket, you stretch…
Buying Flowers As a Way to Purchase Miles at a Discount
The spectacular margins on online flower purchases mean that FTD, 1-800-Flowers, Teleflora, and similar outfits are willing to offer significant kickbacks to savvy consumers on their purchases. I once earned 100 Delta miles per dollar at 1-800-Flowers. Even the standard ‘better’ offers represent a less expensive way to buy miles than making a mileage purchase from an airline website much of the time. Mommy Points illustrates that the current AAdvantage offer of 1500 American miles for any order at FTD lets you buy miles at two and a quarter cents apiece (if you make the least expensive purchase FTD offers), which is less than American’s buy miles price — and you get a free teddy bear. She thinks you should then donate the bears to “Homeless shelters, Child Advocacy Centers, Child Protective Services offices, family…
Only 3 Days Left to Get the 100,000 Point Signup Bonus British Airways Visa
British Airways Visa: up to 100,000 point signup bonus The most lucrative current credit card signup bonus is scheduled to be pulled June 7. The offer is: 50,000 points after first purchase 25,000 points after spending $10,000 on the card within a year 25,000 additional points after spending the next $10,000 on the card within that year There’s a $95 annual fee, spending earns 1.25 points per dollar, and the card has no foreign currency transaction fees. After $30,000, they award a free companion award ticket – the second passenger travels on an award booked on British Airways flights for no additional points (though both passengers are charged taxes and fuel surcharges). And of course there are plenty of ways to goose your spending to get there. (Some folks have luck making a mock booking…
