The first stage of the Boarding Area – American Express Premier Rewards Gold card giveaway is complete — each of the BoardingArea blogs has selected one entrant for the final drawing. And the winner of this blog’s entry is Connie. There were over 600 loyalty program tips submitted, and Connie’s was chosen at random (from those meeting a bare minimum threshold of seriousness/responsiveness to the question). Connie’s tip was: When dining out with a group of friends and the bill comes on one ticket they always choose to pay cash. I take all their cash and then pay the entire bill – along with my portion of course – on my credit card simply to get the miles. I’m disciplined enough to put the cash in my banking account and make a payment towards the…
Airfare Pricing ‘Trick’ to Drop Fuel Surcharges from International Tickets is No More
‘Fuel dumps’ on international airline tickets are apparently dead. For some time it has been possible to push down the price of an airline ticket by getting pricing engines to ticket without fuel surcharges, which in some cases can be as much as $400. It’s a great savings, and there have been various techniques for accomplishing this. This Flyertalk thread has attracted about 4800 posts over the past year and a half about dropping fuel surcharges from tickets, and fleshing out the techniques. Many of the posts are ‘in code’, referring to booking tickets on Priceline as “negotiating” (William Shatner is ‘The Negotiator’…). In that thread, folks are blaming Airfare Watchdog who outlined one of the more popular techniques in a blog post yesterday, detailing adding throwaway segments to Canada to the end of a…
Must Watch 1933 American Airlines Promotional Video
Via Holly Hegeman, this 1933 promotional video for American Airlines (“American Airways”) is a must-watch for aviation geeks. Holly quotes from the beginning of the video From the beginning of time, man has been the master of his own journey, he chooses the road by which he goes. He steps ahead or he steps aside. Here’s the man who steps ahead. The kind of man who gets things done. He knows where he’s going and how to get there — The American Airways way.
I Just Earned Miles on an Award Flight
I’m planning on doing a trip report of some sort, I’m just back in the US from a jaunt to Asia in First Class on Cathay Pacific (Toronto – Hong Kong – Manila – Hong Kong – London) with a return to North America on British Airways in First Class. I had the Presidential Suite at the Intercontinental Manila, and suites on Mactan Island and in Macau, plus lunch at the Fat Duck Restaurant outside London. Certainly plenty of stories to share. But since I’m just back to the States today, and need to oh I dunno work all week (and I won’t be back in the air for about 11 days..) the trip report will have to wait. I’m not promising anything at all for specific delivery dates. I have to do my taxes…
Midwest Airlines and Delta Break Up
According to the Delta website, the Delta – Midwest Airlines partnership “[t]erminates June 7, 2010.” I haven’t found any press release, or mention of this on the Midwest Airlines website. But naturally there is a thread on Flyertalk. Midwest partners in addition to Delta were KLM, Frontier (as they’re jointly owned by Republic), and Amtrak. Delta’s departure, as poor as their award availability is, leaves a real hole. And redeeming on Midwest isn’t great either, the program even still has blackout dates. In the past the airline has had several frequent flyer relationships, including American, Virgin Atlantic, and Scandinavian. But those days appear gone. While the program wasn’t all that appealing in the first place to me, I’d probably just credit Midwest miles to Frontier at this point. At least they partner with Airtran! Any…
Time to Register for Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights (Err.. “The Big Wlecome Back”)
A few days ago I outlined Hyatt’s outstanding “Big Welcome Back” two stays earns a free night at any Hyatt worldwide promotion. The registration page is now live. Register.
2 Days Left to Enter to Win a Free Trip (Air Hotel Meals) to Australia’s Gold Coast
You can enter the contest here at View from the Wing by leaving a tip in this thread. Pearls of Travel Wisdom has written an extensive FAQ on the BoardingArea/American Express Gold Coast trip giveaway. The list of 20 participating BoardingArea.com blogs are here, you can enter once at each blog.
Will This Blog Get You Into Trouble with the SEC?
A reader points me to a story that apparently the Securities and Exchange Commission figured out that frequent flyer miles are code for insider trading, at least in the case of Igor Poteroba and Aleksey Koval. Among the means of communication used to illegally tip and trade on the inside information were coded e-mail messages that referred to securities and money as “frequent flyer miles” and “potatoes.” .. Poteroba: Keep me posted as to how * * * [m]any frequent flier miles you’ve got this far and how many you plan to get by Friday[.] Will be in Boston tomorrow[.] Plans for a trip look fine so far[.] Worst case we can get a refund by Monday, hopefully we do not[.] Koval: As I mentioned, I just got into this frequent flyer program. I got…
Which Airlines Honor Mistake Fares?
Scott McCartney‘s excellent Middle Seat column covers the final resolution to the British Airways India mistake fare ($40 + taxes/fees for full fare coach). BA lost a small claims case, and settled another. The Department of Transportation has said that airlines should at least ‘make consumers whole’ if they cancel tickets, covering costs that consumers have incurred as a result of the mistake fare. Most useful in the piece is the analysis of who has a policy to honor mistake fares: UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., JetBlue Airways Corp. and Singapore Airlines all say their policy is to not cancel tickets even when a mistake is discovered, no matter how large the error. “That is the right thing to do,” says United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. In 2007, United honored a…
Behind the Scenes of the No Fly List
Via Bruce Schneier, this piece does a good job explaining the process that names go through in getting on the list, and distinguishing between the various watch lists, selectee list, and no fly list. Schneier catches this bit of stupidity from the article: If a person on the no-fly list dies, his name could stay on the list so that the government can catch anyone trying to assume his identity. … and adds: But since a terrorist might assume anyone’s identity, by the same logic we should put everyone on the no-fly list.
