ASIA

Mar 22 2016

There were two explosions in the Brussels airport departure hall around around 8 a.m. local time today. There was also an explosion at a subway station near EU headquarters. Flights were suspended. US flights to Brussels landed safely. Intra-european flights were diverted or returned to their origin.

As of this writing at least 13 have been reported dead at the airport and 15 at the subway station. Although some of what we will read and see on television reported today will turn out to be wrong.

One of the airport explosions is reported to have been near the American Airlines check-in counter, the other near the check-in desk for Brussels Airlines. American confirmed their “employees and contractors are accounted for with no reported injuries.”

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Mar 19 2016

Delta pretty much never makes business class saver awards available on its own Los Angeles – Sydney flight.

Nevertheless, you could used to be able to use Delta SkyMiles to get to Australia in business class — flying the long way through Asia. You could make award bookings on China Southern or China Eastern (with fuel surcharges) connecting in Shanghai or Guangzhou respectively. Or you could make an award booking on Korean Air through Seoul.

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Mar 16 2016

With American AAdvantage devaluing its award chart March 22 there’s a ton of last minute requests for space.

And for the conspiracy theorists out there expecting American to remove all award space until March 22 arrives, I’ve pointed out fantastic space to South America. There’s decent Asia availability come the end of the year. And here’s a route to try when nothing else works.

You can go to Europe for the holidays as well.

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Mar 14 2016

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.

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Mar 14 2016

Alaska Airlines is arguably running both the best airline operation (based on mainline on-time statistics for a non-Hawaiian U.S. carrier) and the most profitable one (based on operating margin). That’s in spite of their intense ‘Battle for Seattle’ with frenemy Delta, the partner that’s been building up a hub in their home town. Alaska has been growing significantly, and rewarding their Mileage Plan members.

At a time when everyone else is cutting back marketing spend through less generous frequent flyer plans, Alaska Airlines has been doubling down with a generous rewards program.

It wasn’t always going to be that way.

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Mar 13 2016

Planning vacations contributes more to your happiness than actually taking them. You may need to go on vacation to justify all of the planning time.

Most people get all of their relaxation benefits on the trip itself. Don’t expect to be relaxed when you get back. We quickly snap back into the stress of daily life, sans any benefit from the vacation.

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Mar 12 2016

I took a set of connecting flights, and on flight number one was seated next to someone that was sick. Then I took my next flight. It was a completely sold out flight. I was initially thrilled with my upgrade at the gate. But once I settled into seat 5A I discovered that the passenger sitting behind me in 6A was sick as well.

Much coughing ensued. There was no opportunity to change seats. I guess I could have (should have) gotten off the plane. And I realize that this is a challenging question, what to do — for sick passengers, for those not wanting to get sick, and for the airline?

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Mar 11 2016

It became commonplace in the past few year to declare the mileage run dead. And for the most part, the traditional mileage run has been dead for a long time. A combination of rising airfares and rising award prices meant that it no longer made sense to fly for the redeemable miles earned.

It didn’t used to be that way. Double, triple, and even quadruple miles offers abounded a dozen years ago. Airfares were low, $200 cross country roundtrips were common or even $500 roundtrips between the US and Southeast Asia (upgradable even).

I once cleared about 100,000 redeemable miles on a single roundtrip, and back then United’s business class awards between the US and Australia were 90,000 miles roundtrip. Sure, the opportunity cost of my time was lower back then. And there was no inflight internet. But I curled up with a good book.

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Mar 11 2016

Citibank is offering a 25% bonus transfers from ThankYou Rewards to Virgin Atlantic through April 6.

Virgin Atlantic charges 40,000 miles each way between the East Coast of the US and London. So that’s not a lot of points, with this offer 32,000 ThankYou points is enough for a one-way business class ticket across the Pond.

However the program adds fuel surcharges to awards. So while Virgin Atlantic itself has a decent business class product across the Pond, many prefer to book their awards through Delta SkyMiles (at a higher mileage cost) to avoid the fuel surcharges.

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