Search Results for "ASIA".
Today’s roundup of posts from other blogs and news from the various sources I cull together each day includes a source for gift cards (that earns 5x this quarter for many!), a great shot of Kim Jong Un, an airline that still offers free hotels on forced overnights, and a sneak photo of the contruction of the Centurion lounge offering in Seattle.
Qantas will be flying four koalas from Brisbane, Australia to Singapore where they will eventually join the Singapore Zoo. On loan from Australia as a symbol of friendship between the two countries, the 6-month gift could become permanent.
Transporting them requires custom-built shipping capsules that are climate-controlled and with a tree and eucalyptus leaves. Qantas, though, says they’ll be flying “koala class.” And they have photos…
Via Don’t Call the Airline, Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flyer program — a Star Alliance program and an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner — has a redemption pricing glitch. If you book a roundtrip award with premium economy one way and business class the other, the award will price as premium economy. Aeroplan’s reward chart for North America – Asia roundtrip is this: Premium economy is 125,000 miles roundtrip. Business Class is 150,000 miles roundtrip. Here’s an itinerary between Canada and Japan, business class one-way and premium economy the other. And it prices at 125,000 miles. The outbound is indeed over the water in Air Canada business class. This is how the award will price: So if you’re ever going to find yourself booking a premium economy award through Aeroplan, consider pricing it with…
It struck me reading about ten of the ‘most garbage’ airports in the world that while many of these are bad, the worst are completely left off — especially the worst U.S. airports.
It’s simply unreasonable to consider Chicago O’Hare worse than New York LaGuardia and… Manila.
Paris and Frankfurt are awful. JFK is worse than LaGuardia. And where’s Miami on this list? Here are the worst airports, and the ones that deserve a reprieve. Although I’ve only ever seen roosters break out of a cage at baggage claim in Manila..
There really are consolidators who can save you money on international business and first class tickets. Some are a scam. Here’s how to know the difference, and find the ones who will save you big money.
Barclaycard lost the US Airways co-brand as a result of the airline’s merger with American, with Citibank retaining the right to issue new American AAdvantage cards.. American Express lost the JetBlue co-brand (to Barclaycard) and the Costco product (to Citi) In an unofficial statement, Amtrak Guest Rewards says that their relationship with Chase is ending. I’ve heard this from two sources, but it hasn’t been stated publicly and could well wind up being premature (that the ink isn’t dry). For their part, Chase spokesman Rob Tacey simply replies, We are not accepting new applications at this time for the Amtrak Rewards card. (Amtrak promises an ‘official’ statement next week.) Until very recently I would have thought that we had reached something of a steady state with airline, hotel, and credit card co-brand partnerships.
Delta, whose CEO publicly called for the US government to crack down on flights to the US by Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar, because 9/11 has brought two more of its partners onto Delta.com for online award booking: Saudia which flies from Washington Dulles, New York JFK, and Los Angeles to Riyadh and Jeddah (and beyond). Each flight is non-daily, award space is pretty good though not as amazing as it once was, and represents a way to use SkyMiles to get from the US to India, Pakistan, and surrounding areas in business class on points. Middle East Airlines which is the Beirut-based carrier flying mostly regional routes. (HT: Delta Points) Back in November Delta finally created a functional award calendar. Delta has since added a ton of their partners to the website for online booking…
Since the fall, first class award space on Emirates A380 flights out of the US have been wide open. The programs that folks look to when redeeming on Emirates are: Emirates Skywards: an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, first class awards are exceptionally pricey and one-way awards require the higher tier chart. Alaska Airlines: the most common way for US members to book these awards. Japan Airlines: they have the best award chart, which is distance-based. Most members would get these by transferring Starwood points. Korean Air: Chase Ultimate Rewards is a transfer partner, although awards are pricey. Qantas: their award chart is out of this world insane, and while they print points like water in Australia most US members would be forced to transfer Starpoints to get these awards. Virgin America: does not…
News and notes from around the interweb: Here’s what various airlines did for April Fools Former American Airlines Chairman Bob Crandall doesn’t like privacy rights very much. KLM providing customer service via WhatsApp For the ‘they shouldn’t even bother to send the email’ marketing file. Apparently those surgical masks some passengers wear (especially common in Asia) really do work. How Atlanta is competing with O’Hare to stay the world’s busiest airport. United Continental really did used to offer this:
Reader Dee asked, I’d love to know more about how to transfer points from one airline to flying on a partner (example: AA to Cathay Pacific). Sites seem intentionally vague on how to do this and how many points it would cost. Am looking to fly ORD-PEK roundtrip as an example. THANK YOU This is actually a very simple point but one that’s often misunderstood. You do not transfer points from one airline to another when you redeem points to travel on an airline partner. When redeeming a partner award, the number of miles you need depends on where you’re going, and it depends on the frequent flyer program whose miles you are using. For instance, a frequent flyer program like United has a zone-based award chart. That means you look up the region of…
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 »
