Don and Matthew send along the news that Delta is eliminating expiration of Skymiles. This is a consumer-friendly move to be sure, and deserves to be lauded. And I admit it’s a move that surprises me. Mileage programs hold unredeemed miles on their books as a liability until those miles expire or are redeemed. Expiring miles mean recognizing revenue without associated cost. That’s why programs have shorted expiration periods in recent years, with most programs going from three years to 18 months (Delta’s miles expired after two years). Mileage expiration is big business. United Mileage Plus booked an extra $64 million of revenue in the first quarter of 2010 just by tweaking their model for mileage expiration. So real applause here, but at the same time I don’t value the move myself and anyone who…
US Airways Will Sell You Your Elite Status
Troy points to US Airways’ new offer to let members buy elite qualifying miles or segments towards their status. Now, the status lasts only through February 2012. So it’s current-year status, not earning credits this year for status through February 2013. But what really sets the US Airways offer apart is that the offer runs all year, and you can buy all the way up to top tier status even if you’ve never had a single segment or qualifying mile credited to a US Airways Dividend Miles account. For the first five months of the year, you can choose to top off the elite qualifying miles you earned in your account in your choice of 2010 or year-to-date 2011. So you get more months of status and at a lower cost. For the last seven…
Double British Airways Executive Club Miles on BA and Iberia to Central and South America and on Iberia Between the UK and Spain
Through April 24, British Airways is offering (registration required) double miles on Iberia between the UK and Spain, between Madrid and South and Central America (excluding Mexico and San Juan.. odd), and also on all British Airways flights to and from South America. (HT: Milepoint)
Full Details of United’s New More Generous Award Routing Rules
This morning I described United’s increasingly generous rules for routing frequent flyer award travel. The rest of this post doesn’t need to make sense to you, everything you need to know is in this morning’s post. But a friend sends along the actual profile for the new United routing rules which confirms my earlier description of the changes. For the routing rules junkies it’s worth looking at, but not something the majority need to even read further on. UPDATED: 10FEB11 S*R.A PERMITTED ITINERARY TYPES (RT/OW/LEGAL SOJ/RTW) S*R.B STEPS TO VALIDATE ROUTING FOR ONE AWARD S*R.C STOPOVERS —PERMITTED ITINERARY TYPES————————— THE FOLLOWING ITINERARY TYPES ARE PERMITTED FOR ONE AWARD: – ROUND TRIP (RT) – ONE WAY (OW) – SINGLE OPEN JAW (SOJ) – DOUBLE OPEN JAW (DOJ) – AWARD TRAVEL DOES NOT NEED TO FOLLOW LEGAL…
United Mileage Plus Makes Award Booking Even Easier: Stopover AND Open Jaw, Exceed Maximum Mileage By 15%
Via Matthew, United is apparently loosening its award routing rules today. Historically, United has allowed: One stopover or an open jaw on a roundtrip award. Then they introduced one-way awards, including on partners. And that meant you could do a ‘double open jaw’ (they couldn’t restrict whether you flew back out of the same city you arrived in, or returned to the same city you departed from, since they were just one-way awards). But no stopovers on one-way awards. Now, you can have a double open jaw on a roundtrip award. Why not just do two one-ways? Because if you need to cancel two one-ways and aren’t a 100,000-mile flyer you will pay two $150 change fees per person. So this means lower fees, is more consumer friendly to offer this option. Now also you…
US Airways Credit Card with 35,000 Bonus Miles and No Fee the First Year
Via Rick, US Airways is offering a no fee the first year credit card with full mileage earning, something they haven’t done in several years. Here’s the offer: 35,000 bonus miles with first use, no fee the first year ($89 thereafter). The card also comes with a $99 companion ticket valid for up to two passengers ($99 each when you buy a ticket of $299+tax or more), an annual US Airways Club Pass, 10,000 elite qualifying miles after each card anniversary, and zone 2 boarding on US Airways flights. The no fee offer is geared to US Airways Chairmans elite members, given that the URL for the offer is http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans but it does not appear in any way to be a targeted offer, anyone can take advantage of it. If you haven’t had a US…
Tales of bmi Diamond Club’s Demise Have Been Grossly (Somewhat?) Overstated
Back in June it looked like bmi’s Diamond Club frequent flyer program had only a year left of life, that it would be merged into Miles & More in the summer of 2011. Wandering Aramean reports that tales of the program’s demise have been grossly overstated — at least according to a chat with bmi’d CEO, the Diamond Club program will not get folded into Miles & More during 2011. And they’re even still investing in and working on the program, introducing Star Alliance awards (ed: (meant to say — upgrade awards) this spring. I still ultimately expect Diamond Club to cease as an independent program evetually. The CEO isn’t denying that this is a likely outcome. But it won’t happen so quickly. That’s great for me because I still have plenty of bmi miles,…
Milepoint.com Private Beta Registration Link Revealed
Last week I shared that I was stepping down from my roles at Flyertalk so that I could focus on a new frequent flyer community that Randy Petersen is starting. That project is Milepoint.com, and it’s now in private beta. We’re using the month of February to begin building content on the site. Because when the doors open and folks come on it, it’s important that they find useful information there. And a group of people that are answering each other’s questions. It was important not to publicize the private beta too early, or else folks would come on over and wouldn’t see what they wanted, probably wouldn’t come back. Creating a community is about creating a useful experience, you need memebrs to create content but you need content to attract members. Solving that chicken…
I Just Received a Bonus Offer and I Have No Idea if It’s a Good Value or Not!
Expedia just sent out an email offering 1000 bonus points for Valentine’s hotel bookings using a coupon code: • Book a hotel* ($100 minimum) • Enter Coupon Code iHeartPoints at Checkout • Travel by February 16, 2011 Now, you would really have to heart points for their own sake to take advantage of this promo. Because the program which has just launched hasn’t even outlined their reward chart. We have no idea what 1000 points is worth! If I had to guess, a point would be worth a penny, but that could be completely wrong. It’s just the cynic in me. They haven’t told us what we can do with their points, but they want to motivate us with bonus points. Perhaps I should start a program where you can accumulate miles, but you cannot…
Best Western Stay Three Get One Free Offer
Best Western is running a free night promo through April 11, with additional point giveaway opportunities just for registering. The offer is: Stay three times by April 11 and earn a free night voucher good at any Best Western in the U.S., Canada, or Carribean valid through June 30. (Registration is required prior to qualifying stays in order to count towards the promo.) Then they have three additional ‘kickers’ on top: If you pay for three stays with a Best Western Rewards Mastercard, you’ll earn an additional 1000 bonus points. If your three stays are at two (or three) different ‘brand descriptors’ of Best Western, you receive an additional 6,500 bonus points. A daily prize drawing from among those who have registered, they are giving away between 6500 and 260,000 points each day, and also…
