I’ve written in the past that I expect Delta and Northwest to allow members to transfer miles back and forth between their Skymiles and Worldperks accounts at will, prior to the two programs combining into one. This is similar to what America West and US Airways permitted members to do, outsourced to Points.com to handle the transfers. Randy Petersen predicts that this will go into effect in February, and offers some inside baseball details on how this is being accomplished, via in-house technology. This will allow members to combine their points form the two programs towards an award ticket, access partners of one program that may not be partners of the other, and utilize the best award chart or award rules for their situation. Sadly, they’ve taken steps to limit the opportunities for arbitrage across…
Changes — Likely DEVALUATIONS — Coming to the Intercontinental Royal Ambassador Program
The Intercontinental Royal Ambassador program — which has been the most rewarding elite level program of any hotel chain — is making changes come February. Some foolish Flyertalk members believe those changes will make the program better. One Mile at a Time says the changes will make the program worse. He is correct. “[N]ew benefits and a brand new web experience,” as the marketing promises, cannot be good. “New benefits” will mean different and less lucrative benefits rather than “more” benefits on top of the existing ones (like free minibar, exceptionally generous upgrades, and 8am guaranteed check-in). And a “brand new web experience” will offer virtually nothing of value, and will not compensate in any way for whatever is taken away. Thanks to the Royal Ambassador program I’ve received a Terrace Suite at the Mark…
Award Booking Day
I only accomplished a limited amount of ‘work’ yesterday, spending more time than I should have developing award tickets for co-workers. One colleague is traveling to Bangkok and Singapore. It’s a first class award booked with Air Canada Aeroplan points. But the outbound was especially arduous — the only transpacific flight we could find on the needed day was Asiana’s Los Angeles – Seoul flight, but to connect to it from DC required a 6am departure connecting through Chicago — the early morning LA non-stop flight didn’t provide enough connecting time at LAX. (Asiana’s LA-Seoul flights, to some extent their LA-Chicago flights, and Air China’s flights are perhaps the most available Star Alliance transpac awards in premium classes, just a tip…)As the trip approached, United’s Dulles-Beijing flight opened up. Granted it’s United (and their old…
Air Canada Aeroplan: My New Favorite Airline Frequent Flyer Program?
For anyone that predicts the spin-off of a frequent flyer program into a separate publicly traded business must mean a devaluation of the program, check out the changes to Aeroplan and see what you think! The Aeroplan program has recently developed a reputation as stingy, but it’s anything but. Sure, they collect pretty hefty fees on award redemptions, usually called fuel surcharges. But when you combine at least two non-Air Canada partners on a single award they price taxes and fees manually and don’t include a fuel surcharge. I recently ticketed a first class award to Asia with Aeroplan points and the total taxes and fees were less than US$60. Air Canada is a member of the Star Alliance, so Aeroplan points can be used to book plenty of partners — this solves the frequent flyer…
The Travel Industry Has Blogs to Contend With
Nicholas Kralev’s Washington Times covers travel blogs this week. Public relations departments of airlines can’t catch a break. Not only is their industry under constant scrutiny by the public and the traditional media, now they have bloggers to worry about. … Gary Leff, whose blog is View From the Wing, said the best way to get him to write about something is to understand his interests. “But also be ready for questions. A PR flak who doesn’t know his product isn’t likely to get very far – or might get made fun of,” he said. “Sending me an e-mail about a new credit card is going to be a good thing to do if the credit card is meaningfully better in some way than other existing cards.” … “Of course, influencing the airline or hotel…
One Free Weekend Day a Month From Hertz
Via Frugal Travel Guy, Hertz is offering one free weekend rental day a month through March 31, no minimum days required. New York City, Hawaii, and Florida are excluded, and expect a few dollars in taxes. The coupon code is PC#127595.
The “Do Not Disturb” Sign Means… “Do Not Disturb”
When housekeeping sees a sign (or electronic light, at the case may be) on my door which says “Do Not Disturb” they should… (A) Knock on the door (B) Call to ask whether I want my room serviced (C) Not disturb me Answer: C That is all.
Online Shopping Portals Go Mainstream (i.e. The New York Times Notices EV Reward)
The New York Times carried a piece earlier in the week about loyalty programs’ online shopping malls. You click through a link on their websites to get to the stores you are going to shop at, and earn miles and points (or cashback, depending on the site) for the purchases you make. It’s like the mortgage refinancing commercial tagline, “It’s the biggest no-brainer in the history of earth.” The one useful bit in the article, of course, is to check EV Reward before making any online purchase. That site will tell you what miles, points, or cashback you can get for the purchase you’re about to make it and puts the link you need to click in order to get the ‘rebate’ right in front of you. Plus it will often show you coupon codes…
The Nuts and Bolts of United’s Partner Award Filtering
The author of the Washington Times piece (which I wrote about this morning) on United blocking its members from redeeming flights on partners that are otherwise offering award seats for redemption has posted some additional details on Flyertalk about how the process works. UA has a separate budget for paying partners for award seats and is very careful not to exceed it, because then it has to take money from somewhere else. Let’s take LH as an example. If the same number of award seats are redeemed by MP members on LH as are redeemed by M&M members on UA, no money exchanges hands. But if more MP members get seats on LH, then UA has to pay LH the balance, which is usually what happens. So UA has to estimate how much of its…
United’s Blocking of Partner Award Availability Won’t End Next Year Even As Award Mileage Prices Increase
The Washington Times carries another piece on United’s blocking its Mileage Plus members from redeeming for award seats offered by its Star Alliance partner carriers. Despite significant increases in the mileage cost of many awards beginning in the New Year, United will not be ending the practice. According to the article, they’re the only Star Alliance carrier which blocks award seats offered by other Star airlines, and they plan to continue to do this. United just wants its customers to understand why — they have to pay for award seats and they’re expensive, darnit! Of course, as I’ve written about in the past, United’s frequent flyer program is already the most (and at times only) profitable part of the company. That was true even before they began engaging in blocking of awards. That’s not to…
