[Roundup] Big Improvement For Delta Upgrades And United Pillows

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Delta confirmed international upgrade certificates can now be used to upgrade from coach to business class on Air France (skipping over premium economy), are eligible to be used on most coach fares, and book into Z (deep discount business) instead of O (award) class.

    That’s a significant improvement for these certificates that are a choice benefit for Diamonds. They may become easier to use on Air France than on Delta, considering how challenging confirmed upgrade space on Delta has been in the past.

  • United is trialing new pillows in coach on Tel Aviv flights with enough for everyone. I’m confused. Does Scott Kirby know about this?

  • oneworld expects to finalize details for alliance upgrades in 2020 so members can use miles in one member airline’s program (like American’s or Alaska’s) to upgrade on another member airline (like Cathay Pacific or Malaysia Airlines). It may not roll out this year though. And don’t be surprised if buying among the most expensive coach tickets is required to upgrade to business.

  • Hyatt is offering legacy ‘Hyatt Credit Card’ cardmembers can earn a free category 1-4 night after spending $4000 spend. Registration required. The offer terms don’t actually say anything about being restricted to the old card you can no longer apply for, but if you don’t have it the site won’t let you register.

  • Chase and Hyatt are also offering:
    • 5 points per dollar at Amazon.com and 3 points per dollar at groceries stores on up to $1500 in combined purchases each month charged to a Hyatt card through December 31. You may have this in your Chase Offers when you log in.

    • $75 statement credit on $250+ spend at an Unbound Collection, Destination Hotel, or Joie de Vivre property November 1, 2020 – March 31, 2021.

  • New germ-reducing pillow to bring with you on your next hotel stay

  • The average union hotel worker in New York city costs $100,000 a year to employ

About Gary Leff

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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Pingbacks

Comments

  1. Unions suck. Anything that can be some to kick them in the teeth is good.

    Case closed, the end.

  2. As for the Delta global upgrade certificates, that’s great news. Hopefully, it’s easier to book than when redeeming on KLM, which can be a complicated process. I’ll take Air France business-class –– at least the 1x2x1 configuration — any day over Delta on transatlantic flights. Hopefully, I can use one certificate for LAX/SFO–CDG–SIN since Delta no longer serves Singapore.

  3. So you’re telling me that with the Chase.com/mybonus 5x and this new free night bonus all I need to do is spend $4000 on Amazon by the end of the year and I’ll get 20,000 Hyatt points AND a free night? That’s like $500-$600 back. Sold!

    Just added my Hyatt card as the default on Amazon. I was going to buy a new iPad and xmas gifts anyway so that’s about half right there. If I fall short of $4K, I can just buy Amazon gift cards.

  4. The 5X Hyatt points at Amazon offer is limited to $1,500 in purchases per month, so $3,000 total (November and December)

  5. @M Oh yeah. Good point. I guess the rest will be at 1x (or 2x at restaurants). So at least 16,000 points and a free night.

    Thanks for the reminder.

Comments are closed.