Further to my recent posts about United’s filtering of award seats (here and here), a reader asks: I have a DEN-IAD-AMS in C on the 27th, but I’d rather go LH DEN-FRA-AMS. It SHOWS Availability on ANA, but I cannot get UA to pull up a seat. Any ideas? There’s no foolproof way to circumvent StarNet but what you want is for the agent to do a manual sell of the segment you’re looking for, essentially sending a message to the other airline asking if there’s availability, and if there is then it should come back as confirmed. But agents aren’t supposed to do this, really. I suggest asking something along the lines of, I talked to another agent today about a different itinerary, and she said there were some problems with the award booking…
Looking on the Bright Side
Online Travel Review has a Christmas message for travelers: complaints aside, the world looks pretty good. We can travel basically anywhere in the world on a whim. Average roundtrip airfares between New York and London were about $6500 (in today’s dollars) back in the 1950s. I could fly there for $500 in 2 weeks. Despite rising fixed costs, airfares continue (for the most part) to be incredibly affordable in ways that most other countries can only dream about. It’s changed the way we keep in touch with friends, go on vacation, and do business. We’re all better off because we can fly off to Michigan to visit friends for $150, when driving the same route would cost about $180 in gas. Frequent flyer programs and the growing airline alliances have allowed us to visit roughly…
Who to fly, which program to earn with?
For top-tier elites, those that fly 100,000 miles a year or more, the best benefits are with United and American. United’s 100,000 mile flyers get (6) international upgrades a year valid on most fares and confirmable at booking (subject to award space availability). In addition there are up to (8) confirmed domestic upgrades a year, and that’s on top of the upgrades earned by lower level elites (4 500-mile upgrades per 10,000 miles flown on United or United Express). American’s 100,000 mile flyers get (8) international upgrades a year valid on most fares and confirmable at booking (subject to award space availability, but most importantly these are exempt from American’s required ‘buy up’ requirement to pay cash in addition to miles for international upgrades). Unlike at United, domestic upgrades are ‘unlimited’ with no upgrade coupons…
Dinner at The Source
Last night I had dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s new restaurant in DC, The Source. It’s attached to the Newseum in Penn Quarter, which hasn’t opened yet, and it’s across the street from Capital Grill. Brand new place, I don’t think it’s even been reviewed in the Washington Post yet. Verdict: outstanding. Not quite in the league of CityZen, either in terms of service or quite the same heights of cuisine. But really excellent nonetheless, especially with so many good trendy places having fallen recently (IndeBleu and Zengo are classic examples of the phenomenon).There really is something to the idea that the best places seem to burn out quickly, perhaps after six months or a year, so it’s best to go to good new places early. Don’t know whether the excellence here will last, but the…
New Look and Feel to the Site
View from the Wing has a new look and feel, and a new URL. Please update your RSS feeds, and check out the other blogs at BoardingArea.com.
9,999 Bonus Miles with Budget
Dec
19
2007
Budget car rental is offering 9,999 Continental Onepass miles on rentals of five consecutive days or more through January 31, 2008. Reservations must be made at Continental’s website at least 24 hours in advance with discount code (BCD code) U072506. Flyertalk discussion is here, and note that some folks are finding a higher price than otherwise best available when renting under this offer.
25,000 Bonus Miles for 6 Car Rentals
Dec
19
2007
Northwest’s Drive Your Way to 25K promo offers 25,000 bonus miles after registering and completing six (6) car rentals, for three (3) days or more per rental, of a mid-size or larger vehicle between December 10, 2007 and March 10, 2008with National Car Rental. Flyertalk discussion is here.
Discounted Business Class Awards to Spain
Dec
19
2007
For travel between January 1 and March 12, American AAdvantage is offering discounted redemption on Iberia, the best deals being business class from either Boston or Washington, DC to Madrid for 60,000 miles instead of the usual 90,000. If only my plans were taking me to Spain in March instead of April!
Details of Alitalia’s “New” Program (And How You Lose All Your Already-Accumulated Miles)
Alitalia has come out with details of its ‘new’ frequent flyer program. Really, it’s just a tweak of the old one, but by ending that one and starting fresh they get to completely flush out their existing mileage liability and hose their customers. Welcome to Alitalia! As previously reported, the current program ‘ends’ December 31 — that’s the end date for accumulating miles to add to existing ones, which must be redeemed by June 30th or else they disappear into the ether. Alitalia will match your existing miles in the new program, however, if you take two Alitalia flight segments in the first six months of 2008. Partner flights don’t count, so if you earned Alitalia miles on an Italy trip and you’re in North America you pretty much have to go back to Italy…
Amex Plat Free Virgin Silver Status
American Express Platinum has a new benefit, Silver status with Virgin Atlantic. (Centurion gets Gold status, and Virgin is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, so this relationship isn’t suprising.) Since the signup offer is online, it’s unclear to me what kind of verification takes place that the person signing up is an actual cardholder. I imagine there’ll be a file sent by Virgin to Amex of those who have signed up, and some matching process will likely occur in the future, but all this remains to be seen. Silver status comes with 2 free upgrades each for the Heathrow and Gatwick Express, a mileage bonus on Virgin Atlantic flights, and Premium Economy checkin privileges when flying Virgin in coach. Not a ton, but better than a hole in the head.
