Continental is offering 100 miles “for learning about the benefits of the Star Alliance network” and all you have to do is register. If these miles post — and Continental is notorious for free 100 mile offers that never do — then it’s great, and could be helpful in averting mileage expiration for some. Personally, if I were using it to extend the validity of an account I’d take screen shots of the offer and of the page showing successful expiration, those should help dispute an account expiration if the miles don’t actually post. (Hat tip to Dan R..)
Award Wallet Expands Account Coverage
For the past several months I’ve been using Award Wallet to manage my frequent flyer accounts. The good folks at Award Wallet dropped me an email to update me on the programs they added support for in the past month: Airlines Czech Airlines (OK Plus), Fly Kingfisher, LAN (LANPASS), Malaysia Airlines (Enrich), Porter (VIPorter), Sun Country Airlines (Ufly Rewards) Hotels Coast Hotels (Coast Rewards), Fairmont President’s Club, Icelandair (Saga Club), Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life), Jumeirah (Sirius), Kimpton InTouch, Omni Hotels (Select Guest), Red Roof Inn (RediCard), Bus and Rail BoltBus (Bolt Rewards), Eurostar (Eurostar Frequent Traveler) Other e-Miles, Ebates, President’s Choice (PC Points), Sears Club Ok, ok, you don’t have an Icelandair Saga Club account? I don’t either. And I didn’t even know that BoltBus had its own program. (Don’t ask me why,…
Great Mileage Expiration Policy Reference
The Global Traveller offers a pretty extensive review of airline mileage expiration policies. Like Kiwi Flyer, I was perplexed reading the February Inside Flyer cover story on mileage expiration to read that Singapore miles expire after 36 months of account activity. : KrisFlyer accounts which have activity are valid for 36 months from the end of the month in which the last activity occurred, after which the membership accounts will expire. I had always thought Singapore miles expire 36 months after they’re earned, and that the clock doesn’t get reset through additional account activity. Sadly, Singapore miles do expire 36 months after they’re earned. I’m sitting on about 150,000 that I need to use sometime in the next 18 months…
When In Doubt, Hang Up and Call Back
I just got off the phone with US Airways. I called looking for Lufthansa award seats that I knew were available. The agent saw nothing. They saw nothing on the route for days. Finally they found a couple of coach seats a week after I wanted them. Weird. Sometimes US Airways’ IT systems will be out of synch with United after United loads new schedules. That’ll usually correct itself in a few hours. But I hadn’t experienced this before. My first thought — and I know better than to think this, rather than just hang up and call back — perhaps, wow, US Airways has finally figured out Starnet blocking. And just in time, as the millions of bonus miles from the holiday “Big Bonus” 250% promo for shopping should post March 1. Paranoia strikes…
Checked Baggage Fees: A Tax Avoidance Strategy for Airlines?
Back in October I explained why I was surprised to see airlines increasing checked baggage fees, that in fact I would have expected higher ticket prices and free checked bags to be a profit maximizing equilibrium — an equilibrium that more or less existed, so the current shift towards unbundled pricing was quite surprising: Moving checked bags is mostly fixed costs. Once the baggage carousel is built, the trucks are purchased, you’ve hired baggage handlers, and you’ve outfitted your planes to handle checked bags, you might as well get more passengers to check bags rather than fewer either at a price which is continually falling or bundled into the overall price of the ticket. (This seems true at least as long as the price of checking the bag or the increased price of the ticket…
New Alaska Mileage Plan Top Elite Tier
Alaska has announced its new elite tier above MVP Gold, this will be MVP Gold 75K. And it will be earned at the… wait for it… 75,000 qiualifying mile level. At least if you fly 75,000 qualifying miles on Alaska or Horizon. If you include partner miles in your total, it takes 90,000 qualifying miles or 90 segments. The additional benefits are 50,000 bonus miles (this isn’t actually new, it’s long been a benefit for flying 75,000 miles), nominate a friend for MVP status (c’mon, they could have offered to gift MVP Gold), higher upgrade priority and earlie clearance time, as well as a free DigE Player in coach (hah!), and 4 complimentary lounge passes. Giving higher priority for upgrades to more frequent flyers makes sense. And Alaska has needed a higher tier, as they’ve…
United’s New One-Way Awards Confirmed
United has confirmed the introduction of one-way awards starting Monday. Here’s some more detail: With Mileage Plus’ One-Way Awards, you can travel one-way for half the miles of a roundtrip award (starting at 12,500 miles for a domestic Saver award) on United or United Express. … Our work continues. Initially, One-Way Awards and Miles & Money Awards will only be available online. You will be able to call Reservations to book these awards later this year. The ability to mix and match award levels – Saver or Standard Awards – for a roundtrip award ticket will be available in the summer. I realize that you can mix and match awards now (or shall I say starting on Monday) by creating multiple PNRs. That will change and you will be able to do this on one…
Ancestry.com 5000 US Airways Miles Signup Bonus
Yesterday reader Mike brought an ancestry.com offer to my attention. Mike writes, An easy 5k US miles for $24.95. Ancestry.com has a 14-day free trial, and then you select your plan — each of which comes with US Airways bonus miles. The 12-month offer at $24.95 per month earns 5000 US Airways miles. Presumably Mike is thinking, “sign up for this offer, get the 5000 miles, then cancel and pay only one month’s charges.” Good plan and that may work. I’m not 100% sure, though. You can cancel an ancestry.com subscription at any time, so you should be able to cancel as soon as your miles post. And I imagine they’ll post within your first paid month. But it also appears that they bill the full 12 months in one payment up front, rather than…
Will United Introduce One-Way Awards?
There’s currently speculation that one-way awards will be introduced by United starting on Monday. It’s really just rumors at this point, with little confirmation. But it’s also been long-expected, ever since American introduced one-way awards, because well United follows most of American’s announcements and offerings pretty closely. One-way awards are fairly popular, they have some real uses, such as they’re great for positioning flighs for great fares, to start a series of trips in a destination city in order to get Saturday stays on all your round trips, to buy the cheaper of two domestic segments only on a roundtrip, to mix service classes on an award, etc. Personally, though, I don’t like the tradeoff introduced by American when they brought in one-way awards: the elimination of stopovers. International carriers like British Airways and bmi…
El Al Offers Status Match to bmi Elites Who Have Flown To or From Tel Aviv
This Flyertalk thread has the details on an El Al offer to match bmi Diamond Club status provided you’ve had two or more Tel Aviv flights in the past year. The offer (in Hebrew) is valid through February 10 and offers 6 months of status — bmi Blue+ members get El Al Matmid Gold, and bmi Silver and Gold members get El Al Matmid Platinum. There’s no match to Top Platinum. The offer also contains a fast track — earn 800 points in 6 months to earn Gold status for a year, or 2000 points in six months for Platinum for a year. You need to submit your El Al account number and bmi statement showing two Tel Aviv flights (those flights can be on any Star carrier) — by email to yaely@elal,co,il or by…
