Via Milepoint, United isn’t the only one making changes to its award chart. The South African Airways Voyager Program will see some pretty steep increases in award prices effective April 15. Of course, there’s a formula to these announcements. They always begin with some modest improvement. In this case it’s improvements in mileage earning on some discount fares within South Africa, and to Addis Ababa, Dakar, Accra, Douala, and Lagos. Woo hoo! (Ok, I guess this is good for short-haul South African Airways flyers, though by definition short-haul means that the full earning won’t amount to a whole lot of incremental miles earned on each flight.) Then the hammer drops: Below is an advance look at the SAA Award Chart revisions and on average, the following can be expected in our new SAA Award Chart:…
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…
Award Price Increases Coming to United Mileage Plus on June 15
UPDATE: United has now detailed the actual award chart changes going into effect June 15, and it really is just tweaking. Lucky points out that United is going to be making changes to its award chart effective June 15, only they haven’t yet told us what those changes are. Here’s what we do know: Here are some examples of what will be changing: We will lower the mileage requirement for domestic award trips that are less than 700 miles one way. OnePass members have enjoyed this benefit, and now Mileage Plus members can, too. Some destinations will be included in different regions. Most notably, Mexico will become its own region instead of being considered part of Central America. Some United and Star Alliance™ Award amounts will go up; however many popular award routes, including North…
Chicago Seminar DO Registration Now Open
Last year’s seminar was a complete sell-out and people were turned away, long in advance. They sold out the host hotel, ran through the room block of the overflow hotel, and even had a second overflow hotel. Plus all the local folks, those crashing on couches, and goodness knows where else everyone came from! A couple of weeks ago I detailed the 2011 Chicago Seminar DO which is scheduled for October 29-30. You can read all about what to expect. Registration is now open. There’s a $75 non-refundable fee, which includes the weekend program and two lunches. The signup page will keep updated on the number of spaces left, as of this writing (things just launched) there’s 511 open spaces. If you can’t wait until October in Chicago to get your fill of elite status,…
Instant Star Alliance Silver with bmi (free checked bags on United, US Airways, and Continental) Still Works!
They can’t keep us down for long! The original offer page I posted over the weekend for instant free silver status with British Midland is now dead. Matt in the comments to that thread offers up the direct link and promo code 1DC6SM which seems to still be working. Bmi Silver is also Star Alliance silver which means free baggage. United has just reduced their free baggage allowance for Star ALliance silvers to only one on domestic flights (everyone gets a free bag internationally). Continental also offers just first bag free to Star Alliance silvers. Star Alliance silver members still get two free bags on US Airways. When FatWallet and Slickdeals pick this up perhaps the good folks there will be good enough to link back to this post 🙂 Update: The ‘voucher code’ no…
25% Discount on Awards with Etihad Guest
Via Milepoint, Eithad Guest is offering a 25% discount on all flight rewards: Book yourself a weekend getaway or a short trip with 25% discount on Etihad Guest Flight Rewards Promotion. From March 09 to May 31, 2011, you can redeem your miles for travel to any destination on our worldwide network in any cabin and enjoy a discount of 25% off the Etihad Guest Miles that you would normally require. So take a short break and book your tickets now on our Reward Shop. For those of you who may have already made your bookings and want to indulge in luxury travel, you can also upgrade your travel to the higher cabin and also enjoy the same discount on upgrading your journey using Etihad Guest Miles. You can call the Etihad Guest Service Centre…
The Agenda: Monday, March 14
Voting for the Frequent Traveler Awards runs throught the month of March. Vote today. The ceremony itself will be held April 28 at Citi Field and the frequent flying public can sign up to attend. The following day, April 29, will be the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit. And then there’s Frequent Traveler University April 29-30. I’ll be offering all of my award booking tips, other speakers include Ben from One Mile at a Time and Rick from Frugal Travel Guy blog, and many more. Meanwhile, you really should register at the new frequent flyer community, Milepoint.com. Milepoint is giving away an iPad2 a day every day during the month of March, and all you have to do to enter is register, which takes just a couple of seconds…
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,…
JetQuay Departure from Singapore Changi Airport
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 Our driver took us from the hotel to the Jetquay terminal at Changi airport. It was time to leave Singapore. As we pulled up to the driveway, our driver announced the flight that we were on. When we arrived,…
