Right after I posted an explanation of why there are very few airfare mistakes these days, we get two in a row — first tons of premium cabin award space available on Singapore Airlines (which looks like it’s being honored without any difficulty) and second United MileagePlus awards that touch Hong Kong for 4 miles (it’s too early to say for sure what will happen, though apparently at least two people have already flown on the deal). Both of these examples are consistent with my explanation — that ‘fat finger’ discounts where a zero or two are most commonly left off of a paid airfare are mostly a thing of the past. The system that airlines load their international fares into now contains a warning screen that flags fares that look too low. So it’s…
AviancaTaca Lifemiles Posts Their Star Alliance Award Chart
With the addition of AviancaTaca as a Star Alliance member, I noted that this will be a very useful program for some. They offer frequent bonuses on purchased miles, making their points cheap to acquire, and they offer cash and points award bookings as well. At the time there was no complete award chart posted, you had to search route-by-route to figure out how much awards are supposed to cost. That has been rectified. Overall the chart is quite good, generally competitive with US frequent flyer programs. They offer online award bookings, and some glitches (mostly in customers’ favor) have been reported so far (some destinations pricing in the wrong zone, other routings allowing getting off at a connecting city for less than the full routing costs). I wouldn’t bank of those remaining, I’d focus…
Is Delta Now Adding Fuel Surcharges onto Korean Airlines Awards? Perhaps Not.
Yesterday Lucky wrote that Delta had started adding fuel surcharges onto award bookings made with Korean AIrlines. Fuel surcharges are commonly billed to customers on award travel throughout the world. Nearly all European airline programs add fuel surcharges (usually several hundred dollars per ticket), with the notable exception of SAS Eurobonus which eliminated the practice a couple of years ago. Most Asian programs do as well. Most programs in the Americas do not. Notable exceptions are Aeroplan which began last year to add them to a majority of partner bookings, American which adds them to British Airways awards and a small one on Iberia bookings, and Delta which adds an ‘international origination surcharge’ to bookings originating from Europe (since their European counterparts add fees, they figure their European customers have little choice and they can…
Are United Award Bookings on Qatar Airways About to Go Away Early?
Matthew ran into an issue booking United MileagePlus award travel on Qatar Airways. Just weeks after Qatar award space became bookable on the united.com website, it was announced that the United-Qatar partnership was ending and awards would be bookable up until September 14 (for travel through the end of schedule as of that time). There are now lots of reports, though, that United’s telephone agents will no longer book the space, citing a memo they received that the partnership terminated early and award travel on Qatar is no longer bookable. The United website still stays bookings can be made through September 14, and the website shows the award availability as well. Qatar awards are still bookable online, and some folks have reported taking four or five phone calls to get it done offline. Bottom-line is…
United Awards to Hong Kong and Beyond for 4 Miles
Reader Sean emails to let me know that United’s website appears to be pricing out award tickets originating in China for 4 miles plus taxes. I’ve checked this with tickets originating in Shanghai and in Beijing (though I haven’t checked other cities), and for business and economy awards, and the result is the same. Here’s for a Beijing-Hong Kong roundtrip in business: I love that for $1035 I could save my 4 miles. You’ll see that it shows the correct mileage price initially and then the mistaken cost in the ‘total’. I haven’t tried to ticket this, though Sean reports that he was successful and had only 4 miles deducted. It remains to be seen whether this will be honored or not. My guess is that it will not be, but some may find this…
Why Taxis Suck and What You Can Do About It
First time in a city, with luggage, and after a long flight I’m not likely going to mess with figuring out public transit (and I won’t likely pre-research it, either). It may be cheaper. Sometimes it’s quicker (traffic-depending) and sometimes it takes much longer (with wait times and changing trains). But I was still much more often given to a cab. Problem is that I hate taxicabs. Not so much for the price, they can well be worth it. But for the condition the vehicles are usually in. In most cities I’ll find myself sitting on uncomfortable vinyl seats. The driver is rarely using air conditioning, sometimes he will if I ask (and it’s usually a he). My biggest beef is that most of the time I get into a car with worn out shocks.…
As of November 1, American’s Old Non-Expiring Miles Will No Longer Be Special
Via Milepoint, American sent out emails to folks with miles left over from the pre-July 1989 frequent flyer program to let them know that their miles would become subject to expiration like any other beginning in November, and that those miles would no longer be able to be used under the 1989 award chart at that time anymore, either. According to American’s FAQ they will be converting these old miles into current program miles with a 25% bonus. So 20,000 miles in the 1989 program become 25,000 in the current program. Thanks to FewMiles who archived the old award charts years ago and which I copied onto my hard drive, it’s an amazing trip down memory lane. See here and here. Back then 120,000 miles got you two roundtrip business class tickets to Europe. And…
Up to 30,000 American Airlines Miles for Progressively More Roundtrips
American is offering progressively more bonus miles for each of your first five roundtrips booked between July 18 and September 15 for travel between September 4 and November 15. First you need to register for Bourne Legacy co-branded “Welcome To The Program Sweepstakes” by August 31. You have to watch a couple of videos, listen to an audio clip, and click a button to reveal a marketing message in order to be permitted to register. (Or you could probably just click here, which is the page you reach after jumping through the hoops.) Then you have to register for the promo itself by September 15 (and only travel after registration will count towards the bonus). Note that N, O and Q fares are not eligible to earn the bonus miles. These are the lowest fare…
Legal Settlement Will Allow US Merchants to Add Surcharges to Credit Card Transactions
Lots of news on the multi-billion dollar settlement today, but tough to get good details on what exactly has been agreed to and tougher still to predict how it will all play out. But a case I wrote about earlier in the week, where merchants were suing over claims of price fixing in the fees charged to process credit cards, has been settled. Visa, Mastercard, and several banks will pay out over $6 billion dollars. They will temporarily reduce interchange fees while they write new credit card processing agreements. And, as explained by Visa’s press release, we’ll see: Modifications to Visa’s rules to permit retailers to impose a surcharge on credit transactions subject to a cap and a level playing field with other general purpose card competitors. The rule changes on surcharging likely would be…
How to Keep Up with View from the Wing
I want to make sure you get all of the best deals and opportunities I write about. Clearly I think it’s worthwhile or else I wouldn’t be writing it. But hopefully you find it worthwhile, since you’re reading it! At least the vast majority of emails I get suggest that folks find my posts useful, and if you’re one of the five figure visitors each day checking in here then you may want to pick the easiest method for your own reading comfort. You can follow me on Twitter Or friend me on Facebook You can of course bookmark the blog, or just type www.viewfromthewing.com into your web browser. There’s also an RSS feed for this blog, so you can subscribe via your favorite blog reader. I used to love Google Reader but am far less enamored of it…
