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Delta Will No Longer Hold Awards On Telephone Bookings

by Gary Leff on March 19, 2008

Mar 19 2008

Delta will no longer allow Skymiles members (at least those members in the U.S.) to hold awards over the phone. If you book by phone, you have to ticket immediately. And booking over the phone just became more limited, as non-elites can only make telephone award reservations between 8am and 10pm Eastern. Holding awards for 48 hours is still possible online. Awards on Delta as well as parter airlines Hawaiian, Alaska, Continental, and Northwest are bookable online.. sort of, sometimes, when the website works and prices out awards correctly. Of course, that means that awards on other partners like Air France, Aeroflot, and Korean cannot be held at all. This is a really annoying change. Finding awards can be challenging at times. Sometimes it takes humans because the online technology is lacking. You find flights…

This Just Encapsulates How Bad U.S. Domestic Lounges Are

by Gary Leff on March 17, 2008

A Flyertalker visits the United Red Carpet Club in Los Angeles and finds these as snacks: Well, at least there were snacks. Last time I went through there neither self-service coffee machine worked.

Why Delta’s Move Won’t Kill Off the Award Chart

by Gary Leff on March 1, 2008

A comment by Seth regarding Delta’s new pay with miles program encapsulates the real fear behind this program, that it represents a move towards the end of the ‘award chart’ in favor of fixed value redemptions (which means the end of valuable premium class travel for a small number of miles): [T]his is just going to embolden other carriers to shift the paradigm of the reward schemes to prevent the higher redemption values of long-haul premium cabin travel. If that sticks then the entirety of the miles game may just pack up and go home. I actually raised and dealt with this issue 21 months ago, in the context of United’s Choices program which predates Delta’s offering in this space. I contended it wouldn’t happen, and so far I’ve been right… but I was worried about…

Details of Delta’s Miles as Money Option for Redeeming Towards Airfare

by Gary Leff on February 28, 2008

Webflyer.com wrote up details of Delta’s new pay with miles feature. Skymiles members with a co-branded American Express card can now use their miles to pay directly for tickets rather than searching award availability. I haven’t previously mentioned that this was coming (I don’t think) mainly because it doesn’t merit much attention. As I expected, the best you’ll ever do by using miles as cash for a ticket is one cent per mile in value. Now, Delta miles aren’t generally worth much more than a cent, I use my United and American miles to redeem (with ease, relatively speaking) for premium cabin international awards. In recent years I’ve booked international first class tickets on tons of airlines including Qantas, Air Tahiti Nui, Asiana, United, Thai, ANA, and Lufthansa (not to mention business class on many…

Is SeatGuru on the Decline?

by Gary Leff on February 10, 2008

For years I’ve recommended checking SeatGuru when making airline reservations. There really are better and worse seats on most aircraft, and SeatGuru always seemed to be ‘in the know’ and their advice was generally spot on. But more and more I’m noticing that their recommendations are flawed. Either the information is outdated, or I just disagree with it. And when it’s outdated, submitting feedback doesn’t seem to get it corrected. Take, for example, Asiana’s 747s. There’s no indication on the website that Asiana offers both an old-style first and business class, and a refitted version. (The refitted 747 is handling most of the New York-JFK – Seoul flying these days.) All they show is the passenger and combi old-style. My personal pet peeve, though, is that SeatGuru says there are power ports onboard the old…

Choosing Frequent Flyer Programs to Belong To

by Gary Leff on February 5, 2008

Tim Winship offers his advice on how to choose which frequent flyer programs to belong to. On the whole it boils down to: choose the program of the airline with the most service at your home airport. Not terrible, but there are much better answers. Winship thinks you should pick a program and stick with it: Since it doesn’t cost anything to enroll in a frequent flyer program, the temptation is to sign up for them all, in the interest of being ever-ready to earn miles for any and all flights. The problem with that approach is that you will find yourself spread too thin. The most-requested frequent flyer award is the free round-trip ticket within the continental U.S., offered in most programs for 25,000 miles. That’s 25,000 miles in one program. Banking hundreds of…

I Don’t Trust TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Award Picks

by Gary Leff on January 26, 2008

Frequent readers of this blog likely know the general disdain in which I hold most hotel ranking lists. The various ‘best of’ compilations are usually written by people who haven’t been to the properties, and many of the lists seem influenced by advertising buys. TripAdvisor has issued its new 2008 Travelers’ Choice Awards, which represent a slightly different take… it amounts to an amalgamation of traveler opinions. And while I find TripAdvisor to be a useful site for picking up very specific comments on properties and looking for consistent themes across reviews, picking the best properties from the masses of opinions on the internet doesn’t work very well in practice. Here are just a few of the oddities which show up at a quick glance: The Signature at MGM Grand is supposedly the best luxury…

$100 Rates at the Fairmont Empress, Vancouver Island

by Gary Leff on January 22, 2008

The Fairmont Empress Vancouver Island has $100 room rates bookable through 2008. They’re capacity controlled, of course, and you must book by January 31. But this represents an excellent deal, especially in summer when room nights can go for over $400. The rate is fully prepaid, but you can cancel 45 days or more prior to stay to receive all but one night’s accomodation back. Update: Yes, yes, of course, commenters are right, this hotel is not in Vancouver, British Columbia but rather in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Good deal nonetheless, I guess “Canada” is just “Canada” to me (funny, since I can pick apart the nuances of geography across South Asia. Heh).

New Year’s Resolutions for Miles and Points

by Gary Leff on January 16, 2008

I’ve seen several New Year’s Resolution stories, most of them are silly, and none are worse than the median piece on New Year’s resolutions for managing your miles, points, and travel — because anyone who would actually use the advice likely knows far more than the person writing the piece. So here’s my brief attempt at a set of New Year’s Resolutions. As always, your mileage may vary… And for many of my readers, even these will seem utterly pedantic. Keep track of your miles. A free tool like MilePort is my preferred method. It’s a program on your computer, you enter your frequent flyer numbers and passwords, and it updates your balances with a single click. And since they’re all in one place it’s easier to keep track of what miles you still need…

Redeem Continental Miles for Helicopter Flights?

by Gary Leff on January 3, 2008

Continental has started offering complimentary helicopter flights to Newark for business class passengers flying to Europe, Asia, and select other destinations. Paid business only, no upgrade or award customers need apply.That’s a good perk when the helicopter schedule matches your schedule, and when the two helicopter departure locations are convenient. The interesting thing for me, though? The moderator of the Flyertalk Continental forum adds this nugget: You can tack a helicopter flight onto a reward ticket for 10k miles each way. Interesting way to add a bit of a more unique experience to an award redemption! I’ve never seen this discussed anywhere though, so anyone with experience please chime in!