Over at the Perrin Post a reader asks the following question: I’m not able to book a business- or first-class mileage award on AA/Cathay Pacific, even though I try for 335 days out, calling at different times of the day and night. Do the agents make a distinction between miles earned by flying vs. by spending money on the affinity credit card? Most of my miles are from credit card transactions. Please advise. And I answer in the comments. There’s no distinction between earning your miles via flying versus credit card spend. Some mileage programs allow an extra inventory of awards for their mid- or top-tier elites, but those are fairly limited in scope. In most cases, members all have the same access to award availability. While most airlines load their schedules 330 days out,…
More Amazing ANA First Class Award Seat Inventory
As a followup to my previous post about All Nippon Airways showing two first class award seats available on the same flights, when previously even grabbing one was next to impossible, here are some more dates and city pairs. This list isn’t comprehensive, I only checked April, 2009 and only Dulles – Tokyo and Chicago – Tokyo. But talk about wide open! 4/5 IAD-NRT 4/5 ORD-NRT 4/7 IAD-NRT 4/7 ORD-NRT 4/8 IAD-NRT 4/9 ORD-NRT 4/12 IAD-NRT 4/12 ORD-NRT 4/13 IAD-NRT 4/13 ORD-NRT 4/14 IAD-NRT 4/15 IAD-NRT 4/15 ORD-NRT 4/16 ORD-NRT 4/19 IAD-NRT 4/19 ORD-NRT 4/20 IAD-NRT 4/20 ORD-NRT 4/21 IAD-NRT 4/21 ORD-NRT 4/22 ORD-NRT I’ve also been seeing tons of Asiana Seoul – Los Angeles flights with two award seats in first, and occsaional Seoul – Chicago flights as well. And the good news for…
25% Off on eBay Buy It Now Items via Microsoft Cashback
There’s a long Fatwallet thread about how to get (currently) 25% off on eBay Buy It Now purchases through the Microsoft Cashback program. (Hat tip to Flyertalk.) The summary is as follows: 1. Go to eBay.com and find an item you want to buy (it MUST have a Buy it now option with paypal) 2. You can get up to $250 per completed item/auction. Pick something $1000+ to get maximum CashBack 3. Add that item to your watch list. 4. go to live search type in cheap pc or try the following links until you see a CashBack link in the gray ‘Sponsored Sites’ section (refresh a few times if you don’t see it) cheap pc 5. click on the 15% banner (Live Search CashBack) 6. Now you are in eBay go to my eBay…
Book Your ANA Transpacific First Class Awards Now
All Nippon Airways offers one of the very best long-haul first class products in the world. Certainly their food is the very best. Their seat and entertainment system are nice. Their service is outstanding. The only real area for improvement is ground service, they excel in the air but really aren’t special pre-departure or on arrival. One doesn’t hear about their first class product nearly as often as Singapore’s. But then ANA flies only a handful of routes that offer first class, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington DC to Tokyo. Ever since their flights were all upgraded to new first class seats, first class awards have become next to impossible to get. One seat is exceptionally rare, outside of a couple days to departure. And so it’s strange that I’m seating flights…
All the Airlines Hate the Evil Oil Speculators
A colleague today asked me whether I was going to blog about the ‘open letter’ from a dozen airline CEOs calling for regulation of oil speculation, blaming Congressional inaction for their fuel price woes. I scoffed, and said no. Of course, others have scoffed online and I didn’t want to feel left out. Holly Hegemen of PlaneBuzz sticks a picture of Dr. Evil on her website and suggests that the airline industry is posturing the role of “victim”. I surmise it’s pressure for Congress to do something and if Congress can’t solve the fuel problems, then this is just act one… As victims there will be future calls for handouts, and it doesn’t matter a whit whether speculation is driving the price of oil or not. On balance there’s probably not much impact on price,…
Northwest Will Sell You a Free Ticket for $100, Plus Taxes and Call Center Fees
Northwest has played follow the leader introducing a $15 1st checked bag fee on tickets sold beginning tomorrow for travel beginning >>. Elites and full fare passengers are exempt from the fee. But they also dropped a bomb. They’re imposing “fuel surcharges” on all award tickets issued on or after September 15th. $25 for flights within North America, $50 transatlantic, $100 transpacific, $75 intra-Asia (unless travel originates in Hong Kong, in which case it’s $44), and $50 on all other itineraries. Of course, fuel surcharges are just part of the price of a paid ticket and have nothing to do with fuel per se. But just as I predicted in January, the allure of fees is just too compelling. Merger suitor Delta announced this sort of fee two weeks ago. They somehow believe it’s free…
Air Tahiti Nui, Christmas Awards to the South Pacific, and Wisdom of the Ages
(If only wisdom of the ages referred to me, it does not, so keep reading.) Air Tahiti Nui used to be one of the great undiscovered award options (for American Airlines miles, then also for Northwest miles also requiring quite a few more points than with American’s chart). Los Angeles to Papeete and on to… Auckland and Sydney. Premium class awards were easy. Air Tahiti Nui even introduced New York-JFk to Papeete service, giving them one-stop options from New York to Sydney and Auckland, which was precisely what Qantas offered. (They also fly Los Angeles to Paris, meaning a nice easy Paris – Down Under possibility in addition to West Coast – Europe, and Papeete really isn’t a bad place to connect given same-plane service.) The nicest thing about Air Tahiti Nui, besides the food…
Sweet Suite Deal on the Vegas Strip
Via Spirit Air, Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas is offering Panorama suites for $177. Rate calendar for booking and availability is here. It’s a 1,255 square foot suite with a 180-degree view of the Strip. Not bad! Hat tip to SC Flier on Flyertalk.
Photos of the A380 First Class Suites
I think I’ll be severely impressed and envious of travel in Singapore’s Airbus A380 first class cabin until I finally try it myself. But Singapore doesn’t offer award availability for their A380 suites, so I’m probably out of luck. Some folks have lucked out by booking awards on routes that then turn into A380 routes. But I haven’t been gambling and chasing the seat, so… I’m left to read reports such as this one on Flyertalk with lots of photos of the suite itself and the first class cabin. Definitely outstanding first class airline porn, for the luxury travel voyeurs among us.
Picking Up My First Rental Car for 9,999 Delta Miles
Some followup on the Delta 9,999 bonus miles for a single day car rental offer. First, some have been interpreting that the offer is good three times with Avis and three times with Budget. My read was three times total between Avis and Budget. I could be proven wrong, but I’m not making a 4th rental to try it out. Second, print everything and I mean everything. I printed the offer itself. I printed the page where I enter all the information about the rental (including my Skymiles number, etc). I printed the confirmation page. I’m saving all of those, and will save my rental receipt as well. There are tons of things that could go wrong here and mess with the bonus posting. Somehow rentals are flagged as being booked through iSeatz, which provides…
