In May 1981 American Airlines launched the world’s first airline loyalty program offering free flights. Days later United Airlines announced a similar program. Both programs turn 40 years old next month.
In the month leading up to the 40th anniversary of AAdvantage, American is running a sweepstakes with daily instant win opportunities. Here are full details.
IHG Rewards has always been a weak program for elite benefits, but made up for that shortcoming with decent earn-and-burn. But they hid their award charts and started raising prices, and now they appear to have done it again without notice – like an Intercontinental for 120,000 points and even a Holiday Inn for 70,000.
Starting mid-November, a majority of days have at least 4 business class saver award seats available flying American Airlines New York JFK – Milan. Some days even have 6 or more.
Brexit has meant a more decisive U.K. Covid response than in continental Europe, but there are real costs to Brexit as 40 British expats was sent back to Manchester after the British citizens residing in Spain were rejected for entry into Alicante last week.
Numerous passengers cheered as the woman and her travel companion were booted off the plane. And at the end of the video, once the departing passengers had cleared the aircraft, a flight attendant comes forward and does a dance of joy.
The single best use of Virgin Atlantic miles is business and first class redemptions on Japanese carrier ANA. Indeed, it may be the best value award in the world. And it’s just become more flexible.
Last summer OpenTable reminded members that they planned to expire points for members who weren’t using the restaurant booking service. In many places restaurants have been closed, and even where they’re open customers have been reticent to go out to eat because of the pandemic.
They made clear to expect points expiration to come March 31. So I emailed a complaint to OpenTable, at the suggestion of a reader. They got back to me saying they’d give me my points back.
The Executive Director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs offers this classic: “I want to emphasize that supply and demand is not the be all and end all. “
Just last week Delta Air Lines said they would stop blocking middle seats May 1, but they’re filling up planes including middle seats early – temporarily this weekend – as the once most-reliable airline in the country tries to recover from another holiday operational meltdown.
Delta proactively cancelled 72 flights as of this writing on Sunday, compared to just 1 for United and 5 at American, before the flying day even started.
Brian Cohen writes The Gate travel blog and has declared that he will not get vaccinated against Covid-19. I want to take his arguments seriously, because vaccine hesitancy – while continuing to decline – remains one of the major barriers to ending the pandemic.
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 »
