News and notes from around the interweb: Runway Girl Network thinks a major US airline is going to reduce seat pitch in domestic first class and introduce similar seats as an international premium economy. Much of the piece sounds like implausible speculation, but one or both of these basic ideas seem plausible. Passenger charged over $1000 for inflight internet. This was on one flight! Bank of America credit and debit card holders get $10 free when they enroll in Visa checkout. Asiana faces a 45 day suspension of their Seoul – San Francisco route over the crash of Asiana 214. $50 off Emirates flights from the US. Me, I’ll just redeem my Alaska Airlines miles for Emirates’ A380 first class suites. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day…
basic economy
Search Results for "basic economy".
Why British Airways is Now Adding Hundreds of Dollars in Fees to US Airways Redemptions, and How to Fly for Less
Both Dan’s Deals and Lucky note that British Airways has begun collecting fuel surcharges on award tickets issued for travel on US Airways. Lucky posits that the change is a result of changes to the way US Airways files fares. US Airways has long embedded fuel surcharges on tickets, meaning that the ticket didn’t show any fuel surcharges (instead they were “built in” to the fare). This meant that no fuel surcharges were collected on tickets booked using British Airways Avios. However US Airways has been adding fuel surcharges to their fares for the past few months. A more likely reason for the change happening now, rather than months ago, is that US Airways is finally collecting fuel surcharges when issuing award tickets for travel on British Airways. In other words, that British Airways wasn’t…
17,000 Singapore Airlines Miles for $10 (or 40,000 for $170)
Mighty Travels points out two very lucrative offers at the Singapore Airlines mileage-earning online shopping mall. (Singapore just launched this rewards portal.) In fact, they’re so good that I cannot promise they will be honored, though if the likelihood is inversely related to the value of the offer then the second one might post more easily. 17,077 Miles for a LifeLock Basic Subscription
Here’s Why Upgrades With Miles Aren’t a Good Deal… And They’re Getting Worse
Conventional wisdom used to be that the most lucrative way to use miles was for upgrading paid international coach tickets to business class. That’s because you would accrue miles for the paid travel, plus earn status. And because upgrades require fewer points than a free ticket, you stretch your miles further. Unfortunately that’s no longer true. Upgrade awards have become harder to get Airlines have introduced cash co-pays in addition to miles, or restricted the fare class you have to buy, making upgrades far more expensive Award tickets have gotten more flexible, allowing you to combine travel on different partners While upgrade awards haven’t gotten nearly as flexible for partner travel, generally requiring purchase of a full fare ticket if the option is offered at all. When you buy the cheapest ticket most U.S.…
Frequent Flyer Miles Are a Scam: Are You Being Taken?
My evil twin brother Gerald seized control of my WordPress account. And he decided to force me to make a case against frequent flyer miles. He tells me that he’s also gotten hold of my Awardwallet password and will drain all of my accounts if I don’t comply.
British Airways Will Have First Class On to Their New 787-9 Fleet Arriving Next Year
Current Boeing 787s (787-8 aircraft) operated by British Airways are configured with business class, premium economy, and economy seating. However according to Australian Business Traveller, British Airways is planning a new first class cabin for its forthcoming Boeing 787-9 fleet in a further evolution of the current design seen on its Airbus A380s. …Van der Post has now confirmed that the long-range Boeing 787-9, which it will begin flying next year, will also have a small number of First suites at the pointy end. “It may not be a full cabin of 12 to 14 seats, it will be a little bit smaller” van der Post told Australian Business Traveller. The A380 seat is an evolution off of the 777/747 seat. I like first class more on their 777 than their 747. I flew both…
The Best All-Around Credit Card is Chase Sapphire Preferred
Key Link: Chase Sapphire Preferred Veterans already know this, although the very experienced will find that they can earn the most bonus points with the Ink Plus® Business Card because it earns 5 points per dollar on telecommunications (cell phone, internet, satellite/cable tv) and at office supply stores (with all the myriad things you can buy there, including online through the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall for even more bonus points). Plus it has a signup bonus of 50,000 points after $5000 spend within 3 months and a $0 fee the first year ($95 thereafter). But for someone looking for just one card, wanting to know which one is best, I recommend Chase Sapphire Preferred. I have this conversation on a daily basis, and at events it’s probably the question I’m most asked. I start by…
What Good Does it Do to Require Minimum Spending for Elite Status When Your Systems Can’t Properly Track the Spending?
This Year Delta and United Are Requiring Minimum Spending to Earn Elite Status for 2015 Delta made their announcement back in January and United followed with theirs in June. Both require spending on airline tickets, not just flown miles, in order to reach status. And they’ve tied that spending at 10 cents per status mile — 25,000 mile status level requires $2500 spend 50,000 mile status level requires $5000 spend 75,000 mile status level requires $7500 spend United’s 100,000 mile status level requires $10,000 spend Delta’s 125,000 mile status level requires $12,500 spend These requirements apply to frequent flyers whose accounts list addresses in the United States. Somewhat surprisingly I haven’t heard of accounts being shut down (yet?) for “moving abroad” to skirt these spending thresholds. It’s Not Just Total Revenue That Matters It’s a…
What Economics Tells Us About Mileage Inflation, and Why United is Now a Banana Republic
Ten years ago on Flyertalk I outlined a simple model of why we can expect frequent flyer programs to devalue over time. I explained that frequent flyer miles are a currency, but they are printed by a single company and there’s no independent central bank or other body whose job it is to defend the value of that currency. When programs ‘print miles’ but the number of redemptions available doesn’t increase proportionally, prices will ahve to rise. We can understand the move to offer ‘miles for merchandise’ and even ‘miles as money to buy travel’ as (partially-failed) strategies to help increase the number of redemption options and serve as a release valve. Milton Friedman…showed the world that inflation is a monetary phenomenon — increase the supply of money in the economy, and the general price…
The End of the “No Electronics Below 10,000 Feet” Rule is Going Away is a Bigger Deal Than You Think
We’ll Soon Be Able to Use Personal Electronic Devices During Taxi, Takeoff, nd Landing Today’s big news was that the ban on using personal electronics onboard aircraft that are below 10,000 feet would be lifted. JetBlue hopes to be certified to lift the ban on its flights tomorrow. This change applies to both domestic and international flights on US airlines. Each airline has to submit a plan for how it will allow such use safely, and will be able to implement its own rules within FAA guidelines. But very soon we’ll be able to use electronics below 10,000 feet. We won’t be able to use broadcast signals, any such devices will need to be in ‘airplane mode’. And cell phone use will remain banned, since that’s an FCC rule and isn’t address here, because cell…
