US airlines generally allow you to book miles at a ‘saver’ or ‘low’ award level, and at a more expensive price point that offers greater availability. The old standard used to be that spending ‘double miles’ would get you any seat, any flights. That’s how it worked at American for the most part until April 8. Alaska, Amterican, and Delta now offer multiple tiers of prices. United doesn’t offer ‘last seat availability’ to general members who are not co-brand credit card holders. Last seat availability is offered only to folks with the United Explorer and Club cards and to elites. The idea of spending extra miles to get the seat you want isn’t universal, you can’t do it with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic miles for instance. Most European and Asian carriers don’t offer this,…
delta
Search Results for "delta".
American’s Lounge Food Improvements and… Non Skid Slippers
Yesterday I wrote about American’s new brand heritage amenity kits and posted photos of the TWA business class amenity kit. American is out today with more information. These new amenity kits are offered in international business class and their New York JFK – Los Angeles / San Francisco first class cabins. Non-Skid Slippers Are Coming.. For international first class, a little less exciting: We’re introducing a new amenity kit that includes all of the items you already love – plus, by popular demand, we’re adding Scope® mouthwash for a breath of fresh air. But we’re not stopping there. If you’re planning to catch some zzz’s, we’ve added new pajamas and non skid 100% cotton terry slippers. So curl up, get comfortable and settle in for the long haul. As you can see, business class get…
Report From the Frontlines: United’s New Meal Service, and Why Other Airlines Will Put Money Into Improving Your Experience Too.
Reader Sam L. flew San Francisco – Newark yesterday on United and provides feedback on the brand new improved United meal service. 3 choices on a long-ish haul, up from 2. Had the mac and cheese and, while certainly calorific, it was excellent. Probably the best airplane food I’ve had in awhile. Ice cream was served (no toppings) but the flight attendant said going forward it should be some sort of fruit gelato outside of [premium New York JFK – San Francisco/Los Angeles] routes. Sort of a shame because I liked the sundae service. There is also a new cookie that is baked on board. Sort of flat but it is gooey and tastes excellent. Less bread-like than the old cookie. The cookie is, apparently, really baked and not just heated on board — a…
The Business Class Award Flights to Asia You Can Always Get Because No One Is Competing With You For Them
I attended a talk by a legendary fundraiser, probably 15 years ago, where he told a story about not going to visit with the wealthiest donor in a state. When making a trip to Arkansas everyone assumed they knew he was going to see the Waltons of Wal-Mart but he explained, ‘the line’s too long.’ One of the reasons I’ve loved redeeming Chase points for Korean Air first class, American miles for Etihad first class, and Alaska miles for Emirates first class, is that in those cases there are relatively few programs able to redeem for the seats. Etihad and Emirates aren’t part of global alliances, and Korean’s Skyteam partner Delta doesn’t allow redemptions for first class. In other words, the line is shorter. One of the shortest lines in award redemption is for Philippine…
In Defense of Korean Air’s “Nut Rage” Executive, And Why a US Airline Should Hire Her
We’ve all heard the story by now about Cho Hyun-ah, Korean Air’s Vice President for inflight services and daughter of the airline’s Chairman, who flew New York JFK – Seoul at the beginning of December and had an altercation with a crew member. She was flying first class, and a flight attendant presented her with an unopened bag of macadamia nuts, rather than asking her if she wanted the nuts and then serving them on a plate per proper procedure. Ms. Cho scolded the flight attendant, and dressed down the purser. She apparently hit the flight attendant, as this assault is the only charge she faces that she pled guilty to. She ordered the purser off the plane. The aircraft, which was apparently 56 feet toward the runway at this point, returned to the gate…
Upgrades Are Getting Harder and Harder… But You Can Still Get Them If You Know How.
The Wall Street Journal covers the disappearing perk of the road warrior: upgrades are getting harder and more expensive. There are (5) reasons this is true. Airlines are selling discounted first class fares far more than they ever used to. Airlines are making aggressive buy up offers to first class. The economy is doing better. Airlines aren’t expanding. As air travel grows, and the number of seats stays constant, there’s more demand for a dwindling number of available upgrade seats. Lots of people confirm their upgrades in advance – in part because of all the miles that are out there, and in part because of how tough the competition is. It used to be that 100,000 mile flyers found themselves in first class nearly all the time, and even mid-tier frequent flyers found themselves in…
Mileage Programs Adding New, Complex Rules That Make Your Head Spin. The Program Execs Themselves Don’t Even Understand Them…
On the whole I have personally liked how complicated frequent flyer programs are. The more complicated they are, the greater the opportunities for identifying unintended value opportunity and the greater opportunities for arbitrage. They’ve allowed the creation of businesses like this one to help guide folks through the morass. Programs are so complicated the the people running them don’t understand them. Pre-interviewing an executive from a major frequent flyer program for a panel I moderated last year, the individual shared that they’re in meetings frequently talking about how to build something or change something and everyone in the room will come to a stopping place and someone will have to take an action item to look up how a feature of the program actually works, what the rules are. The group in the room, managing…
Alaska Waives Checked Bag Fees for Credit Card Holders… for Three Months Only
Alaska Airlines gave free checked bags to everyone with a Mileage Plan number in their reservation in January. Now they’re running a limited-time offer of a free checked bag for their co-brand credit card holders from February 1 through April 30. Checked bag fees are one of the pain points of flying that irritate passengers most. And Alaska is even good with checked bags, having offered a baggage delivery guarantee since 2009. They currently offer 2500 miles or a $25 discount on a future flight if they don’t deliver checked bags within 20 minutes. (Pro-tip: the miles are worth more.) Alaska Mileage Plan miles are some of the most valuable of any airline. Alaska believes that continuing to award miles based on distance flown rather than revenue will be a competitive advantage for them. I…
Should American AAdvantage Members Be Worried Now That Joint Venture Partner British Airways Has Devalued.. Big Time?
With British Airways gutting their program — eliminating the principle that one mile flown earns one mile, reducing mid-tier elite mileage bonuses, and substantially increasing the cost of premium cabin award travel — I’ve had several questions about what this means for American AAdvantage frequent flyers since the two airlines aren’t just alliance members but are actually revenue-sharing joint venture partners across the Atlantic. When American and British Airways introduced the transatlantic joint venture in 2010 there was some frequent flyer program alignment. That is when American introduced US – London awards on British Airways (those has previously not been permitted with AAdvantage miles, so you had to fly from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean) but fuel surcharges started to apply on all BA awards. Previously American didn’t add fuel surcharges to those British Airways…
The False Narrative of Rewarding Expensive Fare Customers
In offering commentary on the major changes coming to the British Airways program, Lucky concludes, This change is pretty in line with what I expect from airlines in 2015: British Airways is being less rewarding to those on lower fares British Airways is being more rewarding to those on expensive fares “British Airways is being more rewarding to those on expensive fares” is what they want the narrative to be But I don’t think it’s quite accurate: Discount business fares earn less starting April 28 Silver elites earn less Premium cabin redemptions cost more So it’s not at all obvious that expensive fares come out ahead. For many it’ll be a wash (flexible business and first class fares earn more, but then redeeming for the same costs more) and for some (discount business fares, and…
