TM Travel World points out that since Delta upgrades can be used on Air France there’s a real strategic improvement that many people are missing. Folks still need to buy nearly full fare economy tickets in order to upgrade from economy. And in general there’s much displeasure that upgrading from economy on Air France — now that Air France and KLM upgrades are now possible via the Skymiles program — only gets you premium economy. But Troy points out that often buying premium economy is cheaper than buying full fare economy. And buying premium economy lets you upgrade to business class. So that’s sometimes the best strategy to use with Delta upgrades — discounted Air France premium economy fares to get business class on Air France, rather than buying full fare economy on Delta or…
150,000 Free American Airlines Miles Just For Getting Two (No Annual Fee) Credit Cards
I’ve been writing about this occasionally for several months, but credit card signup bonuses have been incredible over the past year. First there was the 100,000 mile signup bonus offer from Chase for a British Airways Visa, then Citibank came out with their 100,000 mile offer for their American Airlines cards. Chase even had a 50,000 mile offer for the United Visa. Just incredible. Sign up for a credit card, maybe grab a second one (a small business card, most people are able to get one e.g. Their Name & Associates) and go anywhere in the world. In a premium cabin. Sometimes for an annual fee, other times even that’s been waived. Those banks, they must really think acquiring a customer is valuable. Well, the current big offer is 75,000 miles for an American Airlines…
How to Dispute the Value of Miles or Prizes Reported as Taxable to the IRS
Carol points me to a Flyertalk discussion from the past few days about Citibank sending 1099 forms to customers who earned miles from their checking accounts. I’m going to explain how to dispute 1099 prize value. Folks are shocked, even though there have been plenty of references in early threads on Citibank banking promotions indicating that they do report the ‘value’ of miles provided to the IRS. It’s definitely not new. Citbank reports as taxable the value of miles earned via bank accounts, but not credit cards (though apparently they once did this too – as a mistake! – since the latter are considered non-taxable rebates). This 2009 Flyertalk thread discusses Citibank reporting miles earning from banking products as taxable. Aside from being annoying, folks think they’re getting a tax-free benefit but learn it will…
50% Bonus and 25,000 Elite Qualifying Miles for Transferring 50,000 Amex Points or More to Delta (first time transfers only)
Lucky and MilesQuest blogged earlier in the week about an offer of 30% bonus on transfers to Delta Skymiles from American Express through March 31 (registration required). I meant to blog it for sake of completeness, in case any of y’all were going to happen to make transfers from American Express to Delta so as not to miss out on the bonus points. But it just wasn’t exciting enough to get around to, and certainly not a reason to proactively transfer from Amex to Skymiles. And since the bonus says it doesn’t post right away, it doesn’t help you transfer fewer points to top off for an award you’re about to redeem, it just gives you back more points later. But Rene passes along a link for another bonus for first time transfers from Amex…
Free Six Month Subscription to the Wall Street Journal
MilesQuest points to and offer for six months’ free subscription to the Wall Street Journal, no credit card required. Pretty cool. It’s easy enough, but on second thought, too much work for me. I already read the articles I want online, this would be more paper piling up, and I’m too lazy to complete the needed surveys.
US Airways Buy Miles Promos Are (Sort of) Back
US Airways has been the leader in monetizing their frequent flyer program, offering more and bigger promotions than pretty much anyone else including to straight up buy miles. They offered something along the lines of a 100% bonus on purchased miles for nearly 10 months in a 12 month period beginning November, 2009. And then they went silent. After a monster holiday shopping promotion at the end of 2009, the 2010 version was a thud. And they haven’t had buy miles promos for the past couple of months. While US Airways had developed a reputation as the ‘consolidator for Star Alliance premium cabin seats’ (they were selling miles cheap, those miles then would be used for premium cabin awards on their partners, effectively selling excess inventory — those seats released as awards — for a…
Observations After Two US Airways Roundtrips Over the Past Week
… as captured by the camera on my blackberry. This was the biggest ‘under 2 years old’ lap infant I’ve ever seen: It’s time for US Airways to update their interiors to, umm, their own logos. They aren’t America West anymore. This was my post-takeoff beverage, water: Wine with dinner is served in the same plastic cups. But then perhaps that’s appropriate, considering US Airways’ classy passengers up front.
20 Free Drink Coupons and More from Delta’s Small Business Rewards Program
Airline small business programs are an interesting way to ‘double dip’ on rewards. They’re designed to encourage businesses to focus on one airline and make their employees fly that airline. They offer the business rewards in addition to the miles earned by the traveler. I’ve found American’s Business ExtrAA program useful in the past, I gifted gold status to a friend recently and mostly have used small points totals for club passes and the like. Even a solo regular travel can earn enough points in a year for a reasonable reward, you don’t need to actually be a separate business with plenty of travelers to benefit from the program. In contrast, United’s Perks Plus is less friendly to the solo traveler just looking to double up on rewards. Delta’s program is SkyBonus and they’re currently…
Free Priority Club Points for Quick Surveys (with Answers!)
This post on Flyertalk notes 3 quick Priority Club surveys which offer free points: 100 points: http://usa-survey.priorityclub.com/unfvmw Answers are : C,D,B 100 points: http://usa-survey.priorityclub.com/fhaidt Answers are: D,A,D 300 points: http://usa-survey.priorityclub.com/mwpvwj Answers are: D, D, D, D, C I had already taken the second and third surveys, it wouldn’t let me take them again. But it did let me take the first one.
Airlines that Tax You When You Redeem Your Miles (and Those that Do Not)
TM Travel World runs down the fuel surcharges added to award tickets by various carriers. Bottom-line is that most North American programs do not add fuel surcharges to awards, most programs in the rest of the world do. However, there are exceptions. Air Canada Aeroplan adds thesef fees to flights on Air Canada only. American adds them to flights on British Airways only. On the one hand it can seem worthwhile to pay them with American — British Airways availability in premium cabins tends to be excellent, and they offer a very good business class seat. But flying multiple long haul BA flights can really get costly. US to London, stopover, London to South Africa, and then back to the US via London can be more than $1000 cash per person in addition to miles…
