ASIA

Search Results for "ASIA".

Cathay Pacific Visa for Canadians

by Gary Leff on May 24, 2005

May 24 2005

Canadians can get a Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum card from RBC Bank. The annual fee is stiff at CA$150, but the card earns 1 AsiaMile per Canadian dollar spent — pretty good earning — on top of the 5000 AsiaMiles with first purchase. The AsiaMiles program permits upgrading on British Airways and American in addition to Cathay Pacific, and some of its awards are incredible values. 60,000 AsiaMiles buys you a business class award of less than 5000 miles each way. That would yield a British Airways ticket from the U.S. East Coast to most destinations in Europe. American charges 50,000 miles in coach for that. AsiaMiles is my program of choice for transferring eBay Anything Points, by the way, since 1 eBay point yields slightly more than 1 AsiaMile.

More Intercontinental Hotels with Presidential Suites Available as Awards

by Gary Leff on May 6, 2005

May 06 2005

Following on the recent spate of Presidential Suites available for award redemption at Intercontinental hotel properties (using the standard room 30,000 Priority Club points per night rate, see here and here), Flyertalk’s Savage25 surveyed all the Intercontinental hotels to see where this glitch is currently coming up. The report: For kicks, I tried a random date in October for reward nights at all ICs. ICs that are out of the way seem to have great redemption deals. Figures are Best Flexible rates for the respective room types on the date of redemption. Asia ==== IC THE GRAND PALACE SRINAGAR KING PRESIDENTIAL SUITE $1,000 Middle East and Africa ========== INTERCONTINENTAL DOHA 1 KING BED DIPLOMATIC SUITE $563 INTERCONTINENTAL RIYADH 1 KING EXECUTIVE SUITE $933 MASSARAH TAIF INTERCONTINENTAL 1KNG 1QN 2 BEDROOM ROYAL SUITE $1,119 2 KING…

The End of Airport Club Lounges?

by Gary Leff on April 6, 2005

Apr 06 2005

In yesterday’s Washington Post, Keith Alexander suggests that airline club lounges are becoming less relevant: Those plush airport clubs began to lose their appeal after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Duffy frequently found herself stuck in long security lines and often had to rush through concourses just to catch her flight, leaving little time to relax in the club. And because of heightened security, Duffy could no longer hold meetings with clients in the clubs as she once did. So she began renting meeting rooms or suites at nearby hotels. Though it requires a bit more of a cumbersome process in the past, it’s still generally possible to hold meetings in airline clubs even if you aren’t traveling. Renting a club conference room or attending a meeting in one is usually enough to get a…

IRS To Tax Foreign Pilot and Flight Attendant Wages

by Gary Leff on March 27, 2005

Mar 27 2005

The IRS is apparently seeking to tax Latin American airlines for wages paid to flight attendants and pilots during the time they spend working over US airspace. (Link via Today in the Sky.) Critics of the move point out that other countries might respond by doing the same to U.S. airlines. Anyone with thoughts on why the IRS is focused on Latin American carriers — and not European or Asian carriers — feel free to offer them in them in the comments.

A small number of free miles in your choice of programs

by Gary Leff on February 25, 2005

Feb 25 2005

Through February 28 Frontier Airlines is giving all new accounts 1500 miles just for signing up. If you have a Points.com PointsPlus account (which you can get free) you can immediately transfer these 1500 miles into 675 eBay points, 349 American miles, 750 Asia Miles, 2250 Goldpoints, or one of several other choices.

Donate Miles in Addition to Money

by Gary Leff on January 1, 2005

Jan 01 2005

Here’s an updated list on how to donate miles for tsunami relief efforts in Southeast Asia. Not everyone can spare tons of cash, that’s certainly understandable although in times of severe crisis I hope that folks will dig as deep as possible. But those of us with even a small amount of spare frequent flyer miles — possibly not even enough to use for free tickets — can help provide free travel for relief efforts. While minimum donations vary by program, in some cases you can give as few as 1000 or 5000 miles. You may have this laying around in an otherwise-forgotten account. These miles might even expire on their own, going to waste. But you can do some good with them. And since most frequent flyer programs keep accounts active with any activity…

Northwest Raises Mileage Award Prices Dramatically

by Gary Leff on November 17, 2004

Nov 17 2004

Northwest has announced changes to elite qualification for 2005 and changes to its award charts as well. Business class flights from the U.S. to Europe are going from 80,000 to 100,000 miles roundtrip. Oddly, first class to Europe remains 100,000 miles roundtrip. Flights to Asia in business class are going from 90,000 miles to 120,000 miles. First class is going from 120,000 miles to 160,000 miles. Travel to Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific (such as French Polynesia) is going from 80k/110k/140k for coach/business/first class all the way to 100k/150k/200k. The above changes are huge devaluations of the Worldperks programs from my point of view. I just redeemed an American Airlines 145,000 mile first class award to French Polynesia and Australia using Air Tahiti Nui and Qantas. The same destinations on Northwest would cost…

Difficulties redeeming United premium class awards

by Gary Leff on October 8, 2004

United has gotten very difficult for redeeming saver award seats in premium cabins, at least on the routes I check. I scanned a full four months and didn’t see a single Los Angeles-Sydney or San Francisco-Sydney flight with two seats available as award tickets in first class. Only about 3 flights that had a single award seat up front. Exception is in the 3-5 days before flight, when availability seems to open up. This was never a problem in the period from 2000 – 2002. I suspect it’s a combination of fewer seats allocated, trying to hold back space for revenue tickets and even coach upgrades (of which I found plenty) along with more demand for awards given United’s financial difficulties and the fears about loss of miles that customers face. It is interesting that…

Security Overreactions Not Limited to the United States

by Gary Leff on October 7, 2004

An Australian airport shut down for an hour after a vibrating sex toy was mistaken for a bomb. The suspect package was later identified as a vibrator-type “adult novelty device”. The incident was the latest in a string of false alerts regarding air security in Australia. The alarm was raised by cafeteria manager Lynne Bryant, whose staff was cleaning the area near a bin where the package was found. “It was rather disconcerting when the rubbish bin started humming furiously,” she said, Australian media reported. “We called security and next minute everybody was being evacuated while they checked it out.” Police were about to call in bomb experts when an unidentified passenger came forwards to identify the contents of the package.

Air Canada Tussles with Air Miles

by Gary Leff on June 28, 2004

Canadian shopping loyalty program Air Miles faces a newly intensified challenge from Air Canada as its Aeroplan program branches out into more partnerships in retail. This is hardly new for a frequent flyer program, many of its US and Asian counterparts have already recognized that their currencies are powerful incentives beyond distinguishing commdity airline seats, and the partnerships are profitable as airlines sell their points to retailers for a higher price than the cost of airline seat redemptions.As Air Canada reaches more consumers through non-aviation earning opportunities, look for them to offer more non-aviation redemption opportunities as well — just as Air Miles offers low point redemption for movie tickets, many US carriers offer miles for magazines, and United now partners with Sony to offer music downloads.