SmartMoney.com has a basic strategy piece on accumulating and redeeming miles, including ten tips from experts. Likely nothing new for readers of this blog, but still worth a quick review.
USAirways Raises Mileage Requirements for Awards… but Not Really
Charlie Leocha reports that an internal snafu had USAirways telephone agents quoting a price of 50,000 miles for a coach award ticket with no capacity controls — an increase of 10,000 miles. Apparently the matter has been cleared up — the increase may go into effect but hasn’t yet. Developing…
More double miles for taxes
The Delta American Express is also offering double miles on tax payments made between February 15 and April 15.Update: A reader writes: The Starwood federal income tax offer this year is double points, $4000 MAX, March 15-April 15 ONLY, apparently www.officialpayments.com only. It’s not announced yet. I called earlier this week, and asked. I haven’t seen or verified this yet but it makes sense.
Double Miles for Credit Card Tax Payments
United Visa is offering double miles on tax payments from March 14 through April 30, 2004. I’m still holding back to see who has the best offer. Two years ago the United Visa offered 5000 bonus miles for any tax payment. I paid $5 online. Last year I chose double Starwood points with my Starwood American Express.We’ll see what else comes down the pike…
1000 United miles
Register to receive e-mails about United GroceryMiles and receive 1000 miles.
United iDine Bonus
Pay with your United Visa at iDine restaurants (Sunday through Thursday from February 1st through April 29th) and earn 250 bonus miles each time (up to 10 times for a total of 2,500 bonus miles). You need to have filled out an online profile with iDine to earn the bonus.
Fly in Comfort and then Fly Uncomfortably for Free
A new Notiflyer details a promotion being offered by both Northwest and United — fly from the U.S. to Europe in business or first class and earn a free (non-upgradeable) coach ticket to anywhere the airlines fly.Registration for the promotions is required to earn the free ticket and relevant links to the promotions are in the Notiflyer piece.
Should frequent flyer programs be abolished?
Several readers emailed links to me today to Scott McCartney’s Middle Seat column that argues airlines would be better off without frequent flyer programs. By giving away 10% of their product, major U.S. airlines missed out on some $25 billion in revenue between 2000 to mid-2003, Mr. Beyer says, doing a back-of-the-napkin calculation assuming travelers would have paid for trips taken with awards. Those same airlines posted pretax losses of about $28 billion over the same period. He sees a connection: “There is a cost to these programs, and it’s massive.” Of course this initial calculation is just silly. It makes little sense to add up the free trips and multiply by hypothetical fares. First, the awards wouldn’t all have been revenue tickets without the miles. Second, the bulk of the seats seats being taken…
Fair and balanced
I’ve criticized Chris Elliott’s columns in the past (see, for instance, this post) but I have to say that his “Fix My Trip” columns where he acts as an ombudsman between travelers and travel companies are exceedingly fair. There’s no pandering to the readership. Though Elliott has been no friend of industry, especially USAirways he also will tell passengers when they’re wrong. His February 1 column is a great example. When Hotwire was in the right, he was willing to tell a his correspondent so. Kudos, Chris!
Keith Alexander — and me — on USAirways woes
Keith Alexander has a column in Monday’s Washington Post on the disaster currently facing USAirways.Their costs are high and their yields are falling. After emerging quickly from bankruptcy protection, they have more or less continued the business model that led them to Chapter 11 in the first place.With the exception of the Northeast Shuttle (which USAirways is looking to unload for cash), I hadn’t flown the carrier in several years until this past weekend. And I can say that they have fallen behind their competitors in premium services. Their clubs, still nicely kept, have less food and fewer newspapers than before. Their planes are greying. I flew in first class from San Juan to Charlotte on Monday and the seats on my 767 were worn. The seatback wouldn’t stay straight up. And the personal video…
