The First Annual Frequent Traveler Awards was an amazing evening last year. And now the time is approaching to do it again. The goal last year was to ensure that an award was given out in 2010. But late in the year doesn’t make sense, when members are being asked for their views of loyalty program accomplishments in the previous calendar year. So the plan from the start was to shift to a regular date in the spring, and we’re doing that — the last Thursday in April, April 28. A venue for the awards has been announced: Citi Field, the Mets stadium in New York! Frequent travelers will have an opportunity to attend, more infomration on that to come, but what an amazing night to be a part of — your favorite frequent flyer…
How to Get the Best Hotel Deals
Points, status, and bonuses are often the most leveraged way to secure the best overall travel experience at the lowest price overall. In other words, best value proposition — combination of best rooms, best benefits like breakfast and internet, for the lowest price considering all that you get. That’s mostly what I write about and how I approach my own travel. But there are times when it’s all about price, not all about the best overall travel experience. So instead of ‘how do you get elite status quickly?’ or ‘how do you leverage that status with points promotions and upgrades?’ this post is about ‘how do you get the best price?’. I’m going to give a shot at look at airfare, hotels, and rental cars separately. Let’s start with hotels. Though since I’m not always…
How to Use Delta Skymiles to Book International Premium Class Awards
Yesterday I wrote a guide to redeeming US Airways Dividend Miles for awards on their Star Alliance partners. Now Troy has written up a similar guide for Delta Skymiles. Delta’s availability on its own flights tends to be much less generous than most other airlines. But they do have some pretty good partners, and those partners often have decent availability. But Delta makes the process more cumbersome than most airlines to find the great partner award availability, and to get it at the ‘low’ award level price. First, because the Delta website is very limited in the partners it has on offer. Second, because for most cases the only way to ‘hold’ an award is on the website, otherwise it’s instant ticketing only, which makes tinkering difficult. Third, because Delta agents aren’t very adept at…
SOME Things I Won’t Do, Even for the Miles…
MilesQuest points out that you can earn American Airlines miles for ordering Domino’s pizza. That’s great and all. But then you actually have to eat Domino’s pizza. I’ll forgo the miles on this one, thanks.
Using US Airways Dividend Miles to Book Star Alliance Awards
You can use your US Airways Dividend Miles for travel on Star Alliance carriers. This is usually the best way to make use of your miles (although consider US Airways’ new business class product, especially during ‘low season’ when the awards are discounted). With the numerous partners in the Star Alliance, most awards are possible. The US Airways website doesn’t help, you have to call to make your booking. But prepare for your call, agents have limited tools at their disposal and aren’t always well-versed in the rules. If you have difficulty, best advice is ‘hang up, call back’ and you can probably get what you need. It’s always best to plan out your award in advance, and I’ll be writing more about how to go about doing this in the near future. There are…
I’ve Resigned as Flyertalk’s TalkBoard President and Senior Moderator
I have just tendered my resignation from Flyertalk’s member-elected TalkBoard, on which I’ve served since 2003 (and as its President since 2005). I’ve also resigned as a moderator, I’ve moderated in the MilesBuzz forum since early 2003 and as a senior moderator since the beginning of that program. I have nothing negative to say about Flyertalk. Sure, there are things that I’d do differently there, but given the role I’ve held on Flyertalk for the past several years anything that I think is wrong — whether I could have changed it or not — I have to take a certain responsibility for. After Randy Petersen its founder, and after the current Community Director, if anyone is responsible for things I have to raise my hand. (I wouldn’t take credit for any of the positives, that…
The First Award Redemption I’ve Ever Been Jealous Of — All Nippon’s New First Class “Inspiration of Japan”
I’ve never been jealous of an award that I had booked for someone else, until now. I’ve flown many of the great airline products, tasted what the best carriers have to offer. And I’ll admit it, I do crave trying new and different seats and service and food and experiencing what innovative carriers are doing. Call it blog research if you’d like, but I admit to being a terrible geek for sucj things. We all have our quirks and foibles. It’s highly likely that I redeem more miles than anyone else, I’ve reserved over 80 million miles worth of awards during the past year for folks, and I’ve put together some very nice itineraries on the very best airlines among the more pedestrian ‘family of 4 to Italy this summer’ bookings. And I rarely stop…
40% Bonus on Transfers from American Express to British Airways
I logged into my Membership Rewards account and saw the following offer this morning, when selecting British Airways I get Limited Time Offer 40% Bonus BA Miles! and mousing over reveals: You can get 40% more BA Miles from British Airways just by transferring Membership Rewards® points to your British Airways Executive Club account now through March 31, 2011. It’s restricted to ‘one bonus per cardmember’ so only your first transfer during the promotion period will earn the 40%. Choose your transfer amount wisely! Transferring 72,000 Amex points to British Airways would yield enough miles for roundtrip business class on Cathay Pacific from North America to Asia, grab a free stopover in Hong Kong and travel as far as Bali. That’s a pretty excellent deal. Things to keep in mind about British Airways, though: You…
American AAdvantage Access to British Airways Award Space Across the Atlantic Really is a Game Changer
British Airways began offering full mileage-earning to their Executive Club members, even on discounted fares. That’s huge. No more 25% mileage-earning and never quite reaching an award. A monster step forward for a European program, and one that has Flying Blue scrambling and shaking their heads. Every European discount fare traveler with a choice, not wedded to a non-stop (or not able to access one from their home airport) and not striving for elite status in a competing program really should consider British Airways Executive Club. With bmi’s Diamond Club slated to go away, BA Executive Club became in one fell swoop arguably the best frequent flyer program in Europe. Sure, there are arguments to be made for Miles & More. But their award chart is expensive and has gotten more so. This really was…
Expedia Launches New Points Program (By Invitation Only, How to Join Enclosed..)
Expedia has just launched a new rewards program that offers points for bookings made via the site. They used to partner with Citibank’s Thank You Points but ended that relationship. Now their new offering is out, it lets you earn points for bookings made on their site and of course doesn’t interfere with the points you’ll earn from the travel provider as well (provided that the travel provider offers points for bookings made via Expedia, e.g. Starwood won’t give you points for room rates booked there). Unlike the previous Thank You Points offering, you can earn points not just for ‘special rate’ hotels and hotel/air booking combos. Standalone flight bookings earn points as well, so do vacation packages except that car rentals don’t earn points unless tied to a hotel booking and cruises don’t earn…
