Finnair is offering a status match (.pdf) after you take a flight on Finnair to Asia. You need to scan the boarding pass and send it to Finnair along with a copy of your Skyteam of Star Alliance elite status card and Finnair will match you to the comparable leve, Silver or Gold. They’ll also give you a fast track to requalify, This is marketed to French residents (via Finnair in Paris). TM Travel World says that it’s limited to French residents but I don’t notice that in the offer. Your mileage may vary on whether you need to make a friend in France to use the status match or not.
Double United Miles for Dining in February and March
Registration is required to earn double miles (6 for online-registered members, and 10 for VIP dining members) on spending at participating restaurants between February 1 and March 31.
Delta Miles Take a Step Towards Becoming More Valuable
The Daily Yomiuri reports that Delta and Japan Airlines “reached a basic agreement on a comprehensive tie-up” that will mean JAL moving from oneworld to Skyteam. Japan Airlines has historically offered pretty good premium cabin award availability. I was on record saying that despite reports that Japan Airlines would jump ship from partnering with American and oneworld, that I still believed that was mostly posturing for a better deal from their existing partners. The news coverage now suggests I was mistaken, and that American will be losing an important partner and oneworld will be shrinking. Delta and Japan Airlines will become the dominant carrier in the US-Japan market, followed by United and All Nippon. (And in the Skyteam case, Korean also flies Los Angeles – Narita, and in the latter case Singapore also flies Los…
A First Shot Running the Numbers on the Hilton HHonors Devaluation
Loyalty Traveler runs down the changes in hotel categories for Hilton HHonors and concludes that it represents a 19.3% increase in the average points cost of a room night. He crunches the numbers for US Hilton properties and finds the following category comparison between 2009 and 2010: Category 2009 2010 Opportunity 37 n/a Category 1 150 39 Category 2 1124 117 Category 3 1143 1334 Category 4 459 1109 Category 5 139 347 Category 6 57 121 Category 7 n/a 65 To a first approximation, just eye-balling, it does look like Hilton did mostly what was execpted: drop the opportunity level, add a new category 7, and shift most properties up a level. There remain 7 active categories, and each category has a similar number of properties in it. Category 2009 2010 Bottom 37 39…
Alaska Airlines Up to 25,000 Miles for New Members from Specific States (and Counties!)
Alaska Airlines is offering 5000 miles for signing up for a new frequent flyer account, and another 20,000 miles after taking a qualifying roundtrip. Account must be opened by April 1, and the roundtrip must be flown between February 15 and April 1 and must not be purchased as a ‘hot deal’ (booked in G or T class). And most importantly, the deal is only available to residents of Oregon and Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, and Skamania Klickitat Counties in Washington. Someone needs to figure out where those counties are, or if they have friends in Portland whose home can become their permanent address. What’s up with all of these residency-specific offers of late, both here and in Europe? (HT: Lucky.)
Is There Such a Thing As Too Much First Class, and Not Enough Business?
Lucky says he doesn’t want to fly first class. What I think he’s saying is that he’s made travel decisions based on in-flight products and lounges, and chosen to visit some places at the expenses of others he might have wanted to go as a result. And since he’s accomplished most of his inflight goals — the First Class Terminal, the Thai First Class Spa, the Turkish Suites, etc. — it’s time to move on to visiting places he’s neglected because of the lack of quality first class products to get there. That’s reasonable. And I have advice for him. It’s two-fold. (1) Don’t despair, the amazing thing is htere are always new products to try! Just a year or so back there wasn’t a new Swiss first class product. Turkish didn’t have suites. And…
Reserve the Best Award You Can, Then Trade Up
One of the great things about United’s 1K status is that they let you make virtually unlimited changes to award tickets at no fee. Delta’s top tier doesn’t quite let you do that, you get a limited number of free changes annually. But free changes are great, and sometimes changes are worth paying a fee for. Something I’m often struck by is how, if I have patience, the seats I want are likely to open up. On most airlines, if a cabin isn’t likely to sell out (and if they aren’t overselling the lower cabin and need to preserve space for operational upgrades), eventually award seats should become available. This isn’t universally true, there are some airlines who won’t open seats and let a cabin go out empty. But more often than not patience pays…
I Have Only 1000 Hilton Points Left
Today is the last day to book under the ‘old’ award chart, before the January 15 devaluation. I made a bunch of bookings, some for myself, some for others’, and got my account down to almost zero before virtually every Hilton hotel in the world becomes a more expensive redemption. Now, some of these bookings will inevitably be cancelled, so I’ll get some points back. And I’m not really a chicken little here. I earn and burn pretty much in concert, I want to earn points in one period and spend them in the same period so I’m not really effected by inflation. And I can earn more points pretty well as quickly as I want to. But to get the most out of the points I halready have banked, redeem away I did… Y’all…
35% Off Beds and Bedding at W Hotel Store
Promo code V4NT8 is good for 35% off at the W Hotel Store. Some will prefer to wait until the 40% off offer comes back around, but if you were considering getting a W Hotel bed, and didn’t want to wait, this is still a perfectly reasonable offer.
Asiana Brings First Class Back to Frankfurt
Beginning April 1, Asiana returns 3-cabin equipment to Europe with a 777 flying Frankfurt- Seoul. Even though the 777 has only 8 first class seats, award availability is excellent, they release two seats up front on plenty of flights.
