Both people out there who do Amtrak Guest Rewards segment runs take note, Amtrak now imposes a 4-segment per day limit for earning 100 point minimums, additional segments earn 2 points per dollar.
Air Asia $0 Fare Sale (No Fuel Surcharges)
It’s clearly Flyertalk morning, because hat tip to Flyertalk Air Asia is offering a true $0+tax (no fuel surcharges) fare sale. Book by November 16 (which comes earlier over there than it does here in the U.S.) for travel between June 22 and October 24 — so lots of advance planning required — and you can fly just for the taxes. By way of example, here’s an availability chart for flights out of Kuala Lumpur and here’s a chart for flights in and out of Bangkok. Specific flights, with total price, booked by the person starting the Flyertalk thread were: Clark-Kuala Lumpur one-way: $7.08 all-in (airport tax payable at airport) Kuala Lumpur-Tawau (Borneo)-KL RT : $19.22 all-in (airport tax incl.) Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok one-way: $15.31 all-in (airport tax incl.) Bangkok-Jakarta-Bangkok RT: $33.89 all in (BKK airport…
Step-By-Step: How to Use the All Nippon Airways website to Find Award Flights on Star Alliance
In my post last month with extensive tips for successful award redemption I mentioned the All Nippon Airways frequent flyer program award search site as a useful tool for finding available Star Alliance award availability. There’s a helpful Flyertalk thread in the bmi Diamond Club forum that explains step-by-step what the aforementioned website does and how to use it. Thought it would be helpful to pass this along to those new at using the tool to help find their awards. As I noted in my award booking tips post, the ANA website does not offer access to Air China or Swiss award inventory (though I provide a work-around for online availability of Swiss awards). And I also note that what the ANA site shows is not a perfect match for what United will permit you…
Another step towards Neothwest-Delta integration — and severing ties with Continental
This Flyertalk thread cites an internal memo to Northwest flight attendants telling them to accept Delta drink chits, and no longer to accept Continental drink coupons. (Northwest’s coupons can also be used to purchase buy on board items, but they don’t take Delta coupons for that.) Effective immediately, Northwest Flight Attendants may begin accepting Delta’s amenity coupons on all Northwest flights. A sample of the Delta amenity coupon Have One on Us is pictured below. Please note that these coupons are about the size of a standard business card. The Delta coupons may be exchanged for one (1) alcoholic beverage or headset. Delta amenity coupons may not be exchanged for any buy on board food items. Delta amenity coupons should be included in the calculations under the deposit summary section of the FS-95 Sales Activity…
Delta American Express Card Loses Its Mileage-Earning Prowess
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m not a huge fan of the Delta Skymiles program, at least in terms of the value of a mile relative to a mile in many other programs. The Delta award chart is expensive, availability tends to be tight relative to Star Alliance nad oneworld carriers, and the program unfriendly (they’re getting rid of US and Canadian departure fuel surcharges but they still have a partner fee and won’t hold itineraries when booking by phone). Plus since I like international first class awards, the Delta program doesn’t match up well, though they still do permit Singapore Airlines first class redemptions — and though I haven’t tested it yet I believe they still charge very hefty fees on those (several hundred dollars but worth it). That said, I am…
Delta Drops (US/Canada) Award Fuel Surcharges
With the Delta-Northwest merger, the airline is revisiting several of its fees. The big ones, an elimination of award ticket fuel surcharges and charging fees for first checked bags (elites and premium class passengers are excluded). The elimination of fuel surcharges from US and US/Canada-departing itineraries is great (they really ought to eliminate these fees from non-North American departures), but Delta still won’t put holds on awards booked by phone (and not all awards can be booked online, and those awards booked by phone incur a fee) and charges extra for awards on partners.
Possible 5000 Free Priority Club Points
One Mile at a Time reports: Per this thread on FlyerTalk, many Priority Club Platinum members have had success registering the promo code 6186. I signed up for this two weeks ago, and my 5,000 point bonus posted today. It seems like it’s not connected to anything other than being Platinum, but keep in mind that unless you were targeted, you’re technically not entitled to this, so don’t call Priority Club if this offer doesn’t post to your account.
A Mileage Opportunity Ends
One Mile at a Time mourns the loss of buying American Express travelers checks fee-free with co-branded American Express cards and earning the miles. I too am sad to see this go, and of late when you could buy them online even with under $6 shipping and save the trip to the Amex travel office it was even better. They’d mail you the travelers checks, you’d deposit them in your checking, and use the funds to pay off the card.. generating easy miles. A moment of silence, please.
Northwest Shopping Promo
Northwest — which will soon go away and merge its Worldperks program into Delta Skymiles — continues business as usual offering regular bonus promotions. This time it’s “Miles in the Bag,” a shopping promo offering triple miles at a variety of merchants through January 30. 1-800-Flowers and FTD offer 30 miles per dollar (compared to the hidden 25 United miles per dollar that’s still active…).
United Charges You Cash to Upgrade and More Miles for Awards
Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been predicting it for awhile. United announced changes to its frequent flyer program today. First, the minor change, they are restoring 500 mile minimum earning for elites matching Continental and American (leaving US Airways more or less out in the cold denying 500 mile minimums even to their elites). What’s more, they’re crediting the minimum miles retroactively so that elites won’t even be hurt by the change that took effect back in July. Second, starting July 1, 2009 they’re making mileage upgrade awards more like American — upgrade on any fare, but with a co-pay. Even domestic upgrades come at a $50 cost on top of the current 15,000 miles each way (I miss 10,000 mile confirmed upgrades!). Hawaii upgrades bump up slightly, to 17,500 miles each…
