I’m just back off of a two week trip, our annual Asia first class redemption. Prior to the gutting of the United award chart I booked two first class awards that combined five different Star Alliance international first class products, and managed to work around Starnet blocking for my transpac segments. After much time with agents who insisted that All Nippon Airways doesn’t serve Washington-Dulles (funny, I attended their party celebrating 20 years of service, and they only refer to the flight as NH 1) I did secure ANA three-class first, which I hadn’t flown since 2006. One sad note however is that I believe in July three-cabin service will leave DC, meaning I’ll have to hop over to Chicago if I want ANA F. On the return I fought agents who didn’t believe it…
American Introduces One-Way Awards and the End of Most Stopovers
As discussed at Traveling Better, One Mile at a Time, and Flyertalk, American has introduced a significant change to their award redemption rules. American AAdvantage now offers one-way awards for half the price of a roundtrip. So far, so good. But they no longer allow stopovers on awards, except international awards originating in North America and only then at the international gateway city. In other words, if you were flying DC – New York – Tokyo you could have a stopover in New York only. (No word yet whether stopovers will be allowed at, say, the international gateway city on itineraries originating in Europe.) This means that you cannot book New York – Tokyo (stopover) – Hong Kong (destination) – New York as a single award. Instead, you’d have to book three one-ways. This change…
Alaska Double Redeemable and Elite Qualifying Miles through June 30
Alaska’s Mileage Plan is offering Double Miles (and double Elite Qualifying Miles) from May 6, 2009, through June 30, 2009. Registration required.
Big New Priority Club Visa Signup Bonus
This Flyertalk thread discusses an offer for the Priority Club Visa that’s especially worthwhile: 45,000 points with first purchase 15,000 additional points after spending $3000 10,000 more points after spending $15,000b This is better than the standard 30,000 point signup bonus, although that card waives the annual fee for a year and usually comes with a $20 statement credit while this card offers neither. My view is it’s worthwhile putting $3000 spend on the card and not a penny more. The offer amounts to a 45,000 mile signup bonus and 6 points per dollar on all spend for the first $3000 if you hit that spend threshold. But since the earning on the card itself its otherwise weak, I don’t find the additional spending threshold of 10,000 more points for $15,000 in spend (10,000 points…
100 Free Continental Miles
There’s 100 free Continental miles just for entering your Continental frequent flyer number by June 30. The offer appears meant for Continental co-branded credit or debit-card holders, but the terms and condititons don’t say that it’s limited to such, we’ll see if the miles post (likely they won’t check accounts against previous miles posting from credit card activity). (Hat tip to Gary Steiger.)
United’s Continued Bogus Excuses for Starnet Blocking
Lucky is briefly persuaded by United’s arguments about Starnet blocking, that they have budgets and if they stopped blocking they would spend more on redemptions and have to cut costs elsewhere. The insinuation of a tradeoff between *elite benefits* and honest award redemption is a false choice, however. The former applies to a limited set of Mileage Plus members who are profitable on their own (and elite benefits are judged based on that profitability). It’s absurd to suggest a cross-subsidization, where general member benefits are cut to reward elite members whose profitability doesn’t warrant the benefits they’re receiving. Mileage Plus wouldn’t choose to give these members more than they are worth. Meanwhile award redemption applies to the general membership as a whole. What benefits exactly would be cut from general members if Mileage Plus spent…
SeatExpert Becomes Much More User Friendly
Some readers will recall that I have long found SeatGuru a very useful tool, but increasingly limited and inaccurate) for non-US carriers. For those, SeatExpert has been an excellent supplement. The site has been redesigned, and now for many non-experts will be a better choice since they’ve added a feature where you don’t even have to know your aircraft type in order to look up your flight’s seat map. Just plug in the flight number and date and SeatExpert will show you the relevant seat map. I tend to know the particulars of aircraft I’ll be flying, but I’m often reminded about how even the most frequent of flyers don’t have all the details of their travel at their fingertips. Earlier in the week I met a United 100,000 mile flyer who didn’t know they…
The Government Should Subsidize My Elite Status
It’s a public health imperative. Bear with me on this one. In recent days the convetional wisdom has become widely dispersed that infectious diseases spread on airplanes roughly two rows from an infected person, which is to say 3 to 5 feet. The two rows standard assumes a normal coach seating configuration. That means upgrades, even to traditional domestically configured first class cabins, may reduce the spread to a single row of individuals. International first class, though, should pretty much contain the spread (although I suppose a fair retort would be that the increased service from flight attendants of an infected person could enhance spread). Securing upgrades, though, would appear to be a strong public health imperative. And thus as a public good should be supported by the state. But like any good policy prescription…
Travel Deal Opportunities in the Face of Swine Flu?
I’ve enjoyed some of my very best trips during a locale’s ‘off-season’. At a minimum, shoulder season is desirable. Prices are lower, and key to my enjoyment is not to be surrounded by hordes of people. Upgrade: Travel Better takes this to what some might argue is its logical extreme, suggesting booking travel to Mexico. Of course, as he points out, many deals can be had well off into the future given current light bookings — so a gambling traveler might well score an historic opportunity booking forward to early 2010. And far from taking advantage of suffering, it could just as well be seen as pouring money into a local ecnomy otherwise-starved of tourist dollars on which it depends. What do you think? Moral, opportunity, foolhardy, improper?
New 40,000 Mile Delta Amex Signup Bonus
Through May 31, the Gold Delta American Express card is offering: 25,000 miles with first purchase 15,000 miles for spending $1000 within (3) months (2) Delta Club Passes No Fee the First Year If only this card were more easily churnable, sadly I’ve had it in the past…
