Through the end of the year, US Airways is offering a 100% bonus on purchased or transferred miles up to 50,000 miles for each of the “buy, share, or gift” options. This is better than the offer from July/August which only included bonusing purchased miles. This time transfers are included. With this offer you can buy 40,000 miles for $1030, get 80,000 miles in return, and fly business class from the US to Europe. Or if you and a friend each have 40,000 miles, you transfer to each other for $430 apiece, and you now both have 80,000 miles — enough for a business class Star Alliance partner award to Europe. (Hat tip Ian.)
2500 Continental Miles for Opening a Sharebuilder Account
There’s no account minimum and you get 2500 miles after your first stock purchase by December 31.
Singapore Award Chart Changes, and Introduction of One-Way Awards on Partners
Singapore is introducing new partner award charts. Some mileage prices are going up, such as North America is being combined into a single zone rather than having West Coast separate from and at a lower price than East Coast. On the flipside, one-way awards are being introduced on most partners for 50% of the mileage price. So far there’s limited discussion at SQTalk and Flyertalk. Personally, I’m just waiting for Singapore to decide to open up premium class awards on their Boeing 77W long-haul aircraft…
US Government Begins to Scold (and Praise!) Presidential Coin Churners
Buying coins with credit cards and depositng those coins to pay of the credit card is a technique which many have used to earn hundreds of thousands of miles. The US government pays the credit card merchant fees on the charge, and covers the cost of shipping, and the consumer gets the rewards. It appears that some heavy coin churners are receiving a letter as follows: Dear Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Customer: The Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Program was developed to make $1 coins readily available to the American public at no additional cost. Indeed, the United States Mint is the only place to obtain Native American $1 Coins at this time. The intent of the program is to encourage use of the $1 coins in oridnary day-to-day cash transactions. Increased usage of…
Continental’s Entry into Star Alliance Makes United’s Award Blocking Even More Untenable
Today’s Washington Time “On the Fly” column offers kudos to Continental for their transition to Star Alliance — offering liberal award routing rules such as flying from the US to Australia via Asia and permitting both an open jaw and a stopover on an award (though not permitting US to Asia via the Atlantic, though there have been some rumblings that this may be permited, perhaps for additional miles, in the future). The major contrast drawn in the piece is to United. With Continental’s decision to make most Star partners available for award search online, it becomes much clearer when United is blocking award inventory — if United says a given flight is unavailable, isn’t being offered by the partner airline for an award, or doesn’t even exist, it may well be showing as bookable…
Cocktail Recipe: Pacific Sunrise
I was searching for the recipe for the Cathay Pacific cocktail, Pacific Sunrise, and finally found it! For those of you who have tried it, and those of you who haven’t, here it is: The winning cocktail – Pacific Sunrise – was created by Hau Wai Ma, Bar Captain at the famous Hong Kong Jockey Club. It is a decadent and tasty blend of Champagne and Drambuie, garnished with the zest of lemon and orange peel. … Pacific Sunrise ½ oz. Drambuie Champagne 4 pieces each of lemon and orange zest Pour the Drambuie in a champagne flute. Top up with champagne and garnish with the lemon and orange zest.
10% Off Air Canada Flights Between the US and Canada
Pay with an American Express card by November 25 for travel between November 1 and December 15, 2009 or from January 11 to February 10, 2010 on Air Canada flights from the U.S. to Canada and promo code 4CKJFR91 will generate a 10% discount.
EliteTravelGal’s Luxury Hotel Giveaway
Elite Travel Gal is turning 40. (She doesn’t look it!) Her take on luxury hotels is worth following, and I read her infrequent posts and follow her on Twitter (@EliteTravelGal). She’s raising money for breast cancer research, and is about $800 away from her goal that she’s trying to hit on her birthday. Generously, Small Luxury Hotels of the World is donating a 5-night hotel stay to reward on of the folks that contribute to her birthday fundraiser. It’s both what strikes me as a good cause and a generous offer. Now, I haven’t run the numbers, but on a net present value basis the prize may even be worth the donation! That’s not the reason to give, of course. If you decide to help Stacy out, that would be a meaningful gesture. Thanks for…
bmi Silver status for a single premium economy flight
If you book a premium economy or business class flight on bmi with American Express by January 15 you can receive complimentary silver status. If you are already Silver or Gold with Diamond Club you’ll receive 10,000 qualifying miles. The terms and conditions are a bit odd, they say you have to ‘book’ rather than fly (can you refund?) the ticket. They don’t say when travel needs to be complete by. And they say the status miles for existing elites comes after registering for the promotion rather than after travel. Oh well, it’s Diamond Club, and I love them for the looseness of their rules more often than not.
Mileage Award Booking Tips, or Stories of Some of This Week’s Successes and Frustrations
I book a lot of award travel and I much love doing it. But since I’ve started offering it as a service I’ve had a whole bunch more people to do it for, and that means that I’m getting more even more experience and seeing real-time what’s going on in award and revenue management across a whole variety of ariliens. (Plus it helps when people like Wendy Perrin say such kind things about my service — seriously I don’t think I’ve ever been called anything quite like “the answer to many a Condé Nast Traveler reader’s prayers” before.) Booking award travel for myself I’ve had a chance to see first hand just how erratic award availability on Cathay Pacific can be. It changes day by day, and as you approach departure of a given flight…
