United is starting seasonal service from Los Angeles to Melbourne (December 17 – February 1). Since it’s a brand new flight, just loaded into the system a few days ago, it’s also a great opportunity for award seats and upgrades. Australia is notoriously difficult to secure premium class awards, so this is as good an opportunity as any, and during the heaviest travel season.
Can Lufthansa Make the Frankfurt First Class Experience Even Better?
According to this Flyertalk thread, Lufthansa is adding a spa to their B Concourse First Class Lounge in Frankfurt. Which begs the question, will visiting that lounge be better than heading over to the First Class Terminal? I’m one of the few who actually prefers the Thai Airways Bangkok ground experience over the First Class Terminal precisely because of their proper spa and wonderful hour-long treatments. If Lufthansa offered a quality spa they could retake the top spot in ground experience in my estimation…
Westin Fails to Renew United’s Sorry Domestic Lounges
One Mile at a Time has pictures of the new Westin Renewal Lounge inside United’s San Francisco Red Carpet Club. The bottom line? It was worse than what I expected, and I went in with low expectations.
250 Free Northwest Miles
Frugal Travel Guy points out that creating a Northwest Airlines Gift Registry is enough to earn 500 miles in Northwest’s Mountains of Miles promo. (You’ll need to register for the promo before creating the registry in order to earn the miles.) As Frugal Travel Guy’s post points out, and as I can confirm, once you have created a gift registry you’ll receive a short survey by email asking you how you heard about the gift registry and why you created it. The survey will earn 250 points. Update: A reader actually reads the terms and conditions of the gift registry part of the Mountains of Miles offer and points out in the comments that $25 needs to be deposited into the gift registry in order to earn the 500 miles, and money deposited by the reigstrant…
Continental Dumps News of Their Frequent Flyer Program Changes on a Friday Afternoon
I guess they’ve learned some things from politics. The timestamp in my e-mail box is 3:29pm Eastern. First, Continental will charge $15 for a first checked bag within the US and Canada effective October 7th for tickets purchased from today forward. Elites (including Skyteam elites), first class passengers, and full fare passengers are exempt. Then come the changes to the frequent flyer program. Here’s the bad news. Continental is ending 500 mile minimums for short hops effective January 1. They follow US Airways and United on this change. Best strategy is to credit those short flights to another program which still offers minimum mileage. Very few flyers will find that the 200 or 350 miles will make a difference in award redemption or elite requalification. But it does require vigilance, as accruing more mileage in…
United Will Keep Handing Out Free Delicious Meals in Transatlantic Coach.. I’ll take it, but why?
Cranky Flier thinks United’s decision to reverse course on eliminating complimentary coach meal service to and from Dulles across the Atlantic was driven by Lufthansa… Remember, Lufthansa and United have a revenue sharing agreement that makes them very tight partners on North Atlantic flying. Anything United does has the distinct possibility of significantly impacting Lufthansa’s revenue. Something tells me that charging for meals crossed the line here. Is it really possible that United didn’t bother to discuss this with Lufthansa beforehand? If so, I’d think some heads might roll over this. They’re trying to spin this change in a positive light, but it really points to a management team that pulled the trigger on something major before properly vetting it. Seems plausible. Likely, even…
250 Free Starwood Points
Via Frugal Travel Guy, Starwood Preferred Guest is offering 250 Starpoints for reviewing their new redemption option, SPG Flights.
Surely There Must Be More to Starwood’s Announcement?
Granted, the conference call is only two and a half hours away. But the Wall Street Journal came out with news of Starwood introducing a new benefit, SPG Flights, where you can redeem your points for paid airline tickets. Sure, the redemption rate is better than Amex or Diners Club offers these days, and better than Citi’s Thank You Network variable redemptions. Which is to say you get better than 1 cent in value per point. But it doesn’t look like you can ever do better than 1.5 cents, and so I can’t imagine that I would ever use or recommend this benefit to anyone. Granted, adding benefits without taking benefits away is a positive thing. I was just hoping for more from the big announcement — something game-changing to take on Hilton which has…
Northwest’s Mountains of Miles Promo
Northwest has unveiled its new mileage promotion, Mountains of Miles. Not as great as the last one, not every activity under the sun earns credits towards miles (without any meaningful activitiy with Northwest — I’m not particularly involved with their program — I still managed to bank 10,000 miles last time). Still, as always it’s worth registering for the promotion no matter what because any sort of activity at all will earn some bonus and you never know when that activity might just turn up, such as by getting re-routed from your planned carrier onto Northwest during irregular operations. Register for the promo by December 31, 2008. But, really, register right away — because only activities from the time you register count. Activities completed by January 31, 2009 count towards the promo. And sadly, Northwest…
Air New Zealand Rolls Out Their Version of Economy Plus
The Global Traveller details Air New Zealand’s introduction of a Space+ product, more legroom at the front of coach akin to United’s economy plus. They’re starting with short-haul planes, which strikes The Global Traveller as odd. But it’s a clear improvement and these seats are open to Air New Zealand elites, Koru Club members, and to Star Alliance Gold members — the latter being a benefit that United used to offer but sadly took away. Meanwhile, Air New Zealand has updated its video on demand offerings. Way to go Air New Zealand!
