Qatar Airways, like many frequent flyer programs, adds cash surcharges when you redeem your miles. Their award travel isn’t free. Still, it can be an incredible deal to redeem 70,000 points to fly arguably the best business class in the world… even with a few hundred bucks out of pocket.
But what if you didn’t have to pay these cash surcharges at all?
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The American Airlines – Hyatt partnership isn’t about ‘rewarding us.’ The partnership is about looking for new customers for each brand. And these changes are designed to align marketing dollars with corporate objectives.
Wednesday afternoon’s United Airlines flight 557 from Charleston to Denver left about half an hour late. During the flight, a lavatory toilet started spewing water, according to a passenger on board. It came from one of the lavatories by the rear galley of the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
When working on your own strategy for this challenge, don’t forget fifth freedom routes. You don’t have to fly Virgin Atlantic across the Atlantic, for instance. You can do that with another SkyTeam airline, and hop on a short Virgin flight in the Caribbean like Barbados to St. Vincent or Granada. Other carriers have similar unexpected short (and usually inexpensive) options too – such as KLM’s Singapore – Bali and Kuala Lumpur – Jakarta.
Bilt Rewards has added TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go as a 1:1 points transfer partner, and Accor’s ALL – Accor Live Limitless as a 3:2 points transfer partner. Both partnerships are now live.
Not all of these are going to work! So surely they won’t all last. Maybe they’re trying too hard, taking too many chances with a large incoming fleet of planes. But they’re certainly playing an exciting game at United. It’s not small ball. In total United will serve more than 40 destinations across the Atlantic and 147 total international destinations.
If you flew last month, you probably got where you were going – and got there on time. Airline operations improved dramatically in September compared to August. Delta Air Lines flights arrived on-time nearly 88% of the time. Incredibly, United Airlines was right behind them, followed by Southwest and then by American Airlines.
I don’t think we have enough to really pin the blame here on Delta, but their customer wasn’t safe on their plane and 4,000 SkyMiles is an insult, since the currency is so low value and the number itself is so de minimis. They should do better here.
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 »
