Search Results for "ASIA".
The new IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks hotels — reward nights you can book for just 5000 points — will be bookable on Monday for stays through January 31, 2017.
5000 points per night is a fantastic deal, the best redemption value for hotels bar none. You have to want one of the specific hotels on the list, want to stay there during the promotion period, and have to act fast because the most desirable properties tend to get pulled down from the list rather quickly.
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.
Doha is a really convenient stopover, as the home airport for Qatar Airways, a top world carrier and member of oneworld. Their first class lounge in Doha is amazing, and even features pieces from the Museum of Islamic Art’s collection.
I found just two days in Doha to be perfect, but if I had it to do over again I’d do four nights… two dedicated to a museum visit and two for The Ritz-Carlton Sharq Village & Spa.
Singapore Airlines launches its San Francisco – Singapore non-stop flight today with an Airbus A350 — the first A350 to operate out of San Francisco. Singapore has 67 A350s on order.
I attended the launch celebration for this new San Francisco – Singapore non-stop on Thursday.
Premium Citibank ThankYou Rewards cards — like the Citi Prestige Card and Citi ThankYou Premier — let you transfer their points to airline miles and hotel programs.
They’ve just added a new partner: JetBlue. What’s interesting is that Barclaycard’s new deal to issue JetBlue cards didn’t stop this. And that even no annual fee Citi ThankYou cards can transfer to JetBlue which is a first.
Hawaiian Airlines is retrofitting its Airbus A330 aircraft with lie flat business class seats. They’ll have three rows of six seats, so only the middle seats have direct aisle access, but it’s generally a good product for Hawaii flying.
The product launched in June, and they’ve been adding US West Coast flights. New international routes will be getting the seats before the end of the year. We’ll see them on Tokyo, Brisbane, and Auckland (December 5) as well as Sydney (December 13.
The way airlines are pricing tickets has changed. You can often buy cheap fares at the last minute now. You used to have to buy 14 or 21 days in advance for the lowest fares, and that’s one way airlines separated business from leisure travelers, but ultra low cost carriers like Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant have changed that model and advance purchase alone is no longer a guaranteed way for airlines to charge business travelers more.
You can still get the best airfare deals in advance though (last minute can be a risk). And those last minute deals are especially unlikely to happen around holidays, because planes will be full.
Cathay Pacific now has ‘priority awards’ for business and first class. In other words, there’s no longer just one reward tier, but two different levels of pricing when using Cathay Pacific’s own AsiaMiles.
It will almost certainly – at least over time – mean less saver award availability, since members can spend more points for more seats. And saver awards are what’s available to partners like American AAdvantage and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.
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.
Back in August United announced new change fees for awards and new limits award stopovers. They eliminated round the world awards as well. This was a devaluation, but — at least based on the announcement — seemed to be in areas where United was more generous than the competition.
It turns out the changes were more draconian than what United announced.
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 »
