New routes always represent a good chance for award ticket redemption. Since they’re new, the allocated award seats haven’t been taken yet after all. Air Canada will be flying non-stop from Vancouver to Sydney beginning December 16. If you have United or USAirways miles, this represents a new way to get to Australia.
More on Queen of Sky
The BBC is covering the Queen of Sky story about the Delta flight attendant who has been suspending for posting a picture of herself in uniform on her blog.
ATA Files for Bankruptcy
American Trans Air has filed for bankruptcy. It says it will continue current operations while in Chapter 11. It hasn’t received debtor-in-possession financing and will instead seek to use cash held as collatoral for the federally back loan that it received. This move generates risk for taxpayers but is similar to what was recently approved in the USAirways bankruptcy filing. American Trans Air has agreed to sell gates at Midway and landing slots at Reagan National to Airtran. That deal will have to be approved by the bankruptcy court, and creditors may well argue that some other as yet undisclosed offer is superior — so the Airtran deal is hardly done.
GroceryMiles Bonus
Register and shop 10 times at Safeway and Vons between October 29, 2004 and November 30, 2004 and earn 2500 United miles.Only one trip to the market per day counts, and each qualify trip requires spending of at least $25. The bonus can be earned twice.Update: Edited to correct the start date of the promotion.
American Express provides $600 million to Delta
American Express is providing a $100 million loan and prepaying $500 million for Skymiles. The loan is presumably part of Delta’s process lining up debtor-in-possession financing for a bankruptcy filing. Today’s 8-K filing details the transaction in substantial detail. American Express, of course, issues the co-branded Delta Amex cards, Delta is a key partner in the Membership Rewards program, and Delta benefits are key to the Platinum and Centurion products. In other words, Delta needs to keep flying for American Express’ profitability. When United filed for Chapter 11, BankOne which issues the United Visa, provided $600 million in debtor-in-possession financing. Frequent flyer miles are truly big business. We’ve reached a situation where airlines need to exist for banks’ profitability if for no other reason.
Phillipine Airlines Offers Lifetime Elite Status… who knew?
Million miler programs are a bit mysterious. Some airlines reward their frequent flyers with lifetime status after accumulating one million miles. United offers Premier Executive (mid-tier) elite status after one million flown miles. Delta offers Silver elite after one million flown miles, Gold elite after two million flown miles, and Platinum Elite after four million flown miles. American offers lifetime Gold status after one million miles accumulated in a frequent flyer account from any source, and lifetime Platinum (mid-tier) elite status after two million miles accumulated in a frequent flyer account from any source. (Though I understand they are reconsidering this and may switch over to flown miles only – but that’s just a rumor.) In addition to lifetime status, there’s usually a few upgrade certificates to mark the milestone. The reason the programs are…
250 Free Aloha Miles
Enter promotion code ALOHA and your Aloha Airlines frequent flyer number when enrolling in the Prince Resorts membership program. Through December 31st you’ll receive 250 free AlohaPass miles.
More on the Amex Black Card
For folks with an interest in the legendary American Express Centurion (“Black”) card, check out this page of benefits for British Centurion card members. (There is currently no U.S. Centurion website, but I understand one is in the works.) U.K. Centurion cardholders could have gone to the Emmy awards, attended a part with the cast of the Sopranos, and had lunch with Hilary Swank.
The TSA Should Compensate Passengers with Frequent Flyer Miles…
A Tongan noble was awarded 10,000 Air New Zealand Airpoints when he was held up 45 minutes at checkin while his identity was verified. As a noble from Tonga, he uses only one name.
Useful computer tip of the day
Via the Knowledge Problem, Google has a new downloadable tool to search your hard drive.
