Avianca LifeMiles is a popular Star Alliance frequent flyer program for U.S. members because they sell miles inexpensively on a regular basis, and because you can transfer points into their program from several different credit card currencies.
They have generally reasonable redemption pricing with no fuel surcharges, though getting customer service when things go wrong can be challenging at times.
TSA has often failed to catch over 90% of contraband going through checkpoints, there have been tens of thousands of misconduct complaints against the agency’s staff, and yet we haven’t seen repeats in the U.S. of 9/11 largely because there aren’t as many threats as we think, they’re harder to carry out than we imagine, and because we’ve reinforced cockpit doors and passengers would no longer sit docilely by as an attack was carried out.
United Airlines is pulling back on meal service in domestic first class. Starting January 1, United Airlines will only serve meals up front on flights of 900 miles or longer.
Kinect Air sells open legs on private flights, and lets you schedule private flights online, all without a membership fee or even registering first. They’re being touted as a company that lets you fly private for $111. But the real innovation is online booking and confirmation, and working with operators of less expensive aircraft.
Cathay Pacific just announced the return of first class service to New York starting March 31, 2024, with their flights CX830 and CX831 offering the Boeing 777-300ER forward cabin.
What’s more, first class award space is available using Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program.
Qatar has one of the best business class product in the world in its ‘QSuites’ that offer doors and movable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space. Their QSuite is a fantastic hard product, and service and food in the air are outstanding.
A month ago award space opened wide up. It went away, but on a handful of routes it is back in a big way.
All of a sudden Point.me has improved what they’re offering to let you search more than one date and even more than one destination at once using their new ‘Explore’ feature.
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.
A Delta Air Lines passenger flying from Atlanta to Houston this week found themselves sitting in coach besides not one but two support dogs.
Two separate passengers seated beside each other in the same row, in the window and aisle seats, brought on support animals. These were two dogs that did not know each other prior to the flight.
She was leaving the property at 2:30 a.m., realized she’d left her phone in the guest room they were partying in, and her friends went back to get it for her. They left her alone, apparently for an hour and she stumbled into a kitchen and into a walk-in freezer at 3:32 a.m.
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 »
