United is offering discounted coach award seats between the US and Beijing or Shanghai for just 45,000 miles. Travel must be complete by March 31. This offer can only be redeemed by phone, not online, but the standard $15 telephone booking fee is waived (good call, United).
The Arizona Republic compares the two USAirways co-branded credit cards and correctly sides with the Barclays/Juniper Bank Mastercard product that I’ve been touting the past couple of days over the stale Bank of America card.
United is offering a total of 2006 bonus miles (the standard 1000 plus an extra 1006) for online bookings made by January 10, 2006 with travel by March 8 for domestic and Canada itineraries and March 31 for international itineraries. Fourteen day advance purchase is required for Domestic/Canada destinations and seven day advance purchase is required for international destinations
Even after burning through over $100 million and announcing the airline’s closure, Independence Air CEO Kerry Skeen blames everything but himself for the airline’s failure. But Skeen, the airline’s unyielding chief executive, blamed its demise on a combination of troubles, including record high fuel prices and cutthroat competition from other airlines. He’s shocked that competitors would respond aggressively? Then he’s an idiot. And fuel was not to blame for the problems faced by Independence Air — if fuel had been free they’d have still been losing money. The business plan flawed: a high per-seat cost and low fares, high-frequencies to destinations that couldn’t support the capacity, and even an initial unwillingness to list the airline’s flights in computer reservation systems. And Skeen wouldn’t even take the life preservers that were thrown to him: Analysts say…
Delta is offering bonus miles for booking multiple tickets at once online. Registration is required. SkyMiles members can earn bonus miles on all Delta, Delta Shuttle®, Delta Connection® carrier or Song® flights, for every flown round-trip ticket purchased at delta.com using your American Express Card and flown between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006. For transactions including 2 tickets, the purchaser will receive 1,000 bonus miles. For transactions including 3-4 tickets, the purchaser will receive 2,500 bonus miles. For transactions including 5 or more tickets, the purchaser will receive 5,000 bonus miles. To qualify, tickets must be purchased on the same itinerary.
Through January 31, Tumi — my preferred luggage vendor — is offering 40% off on discontinued items. Amazing sale, actually.
Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Observer reviewed Mileage Pro yesterday. The whole world of miles and points makes Mecia’s head spin a bit. At a Christmas party last month, I joined a conversation between two friends — both frequent business travelers — who were commiserating about falling just a few nights short of qualifying for the highest level of Marriott’s elite traveler program. Each was trying to figure out how to requalify for Marriott Platinum, a program that showers perks such as room upgrades, free gifts and guaranteed rooms, even when the hotel is sold out. To qualify, travelers must stay 75 nights per year in a Marriott. They were strategizing on how to squeeze in just a few more hotel nights by the end of December to qualify. “Is it really worth it?” I…
The new USAirways Visa site is operational. It looks like a pretty sweet card, especially for the first year of cardmembership: 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase Up to 10,000 bonus miles for balance transfer 10,000 miles towards Preferred® status No fee for 2 years 1.5 miles per dollar spent for the first year Preferred check-in and boarding One complimentary US Airways Club® pass per year $75 off one annual US Airways Club® membership 0% introductory APR for 6 months on balance transfers No annual mileage cap Annual Certificate redeemable for two $99 Companion tickets
Independence Air has announced that it will shut down on Thursday. Flight 1777 at 7:26pm from White Plains, NY to Washington Dulles is expected to be the last departure.
I’ve written previously about USAirways dumping Bank of America in favor of Juniper Bank (over $400 million cash infusion from the new bank certainly helps with that decision). The credit card was supposed to be available January 1, but the website still shows a ‘coming in 2006’ graphic. I’m anxiously awaiting details like annual fee, signup bonus, and elite qualifying miles for reaching a spending threshold, but I do know that it will offer 1.5 miles per dollar spent for the first 12 months of cardmembership and it will give 3 miles per dollar spent with USAirways (industry standard is 2).
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
