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.
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Delta Adds Two Middle East Partners to Online Award Booking, Makes Their CEO’s Head Explode?
Apr
03
2015
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…
It’s Back! Alaska Airlines Miles Are Great for Emirates First Class Awards
Apr
02
2015
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…
Bob Crandall Speaks, Useless Credit Card Marketing, and What Flying Used to Be Like…
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:
How to Use Your Miles to Fly on Your Airline’s Partners
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…
Ways to Maximize Your Miles Without Credit Cards
Reader WR asked for “[w]ays to maximize miles *without* use of credit cards.” I’ll take the question to mean, what are the best ways to earn miles without signing up for credit cards, or using credit cards as the means of earning miles (through bonus categories, or heavy spend – manufactured or not). I’ll allow that credit cards can be used as a payment mechanism for activities you’d do otherwise. There have been plenty of great opportunities over time. I’ll never forget earning 20,000 Delta miles for a Bosley hair restoration consultation (I had more hair back then). I used to benefit mightily from United’s GroceryMiles program with Safeway. And then there was dumpster diving. But there are lots of ways to earn miles today:
Why Aren’t There Any Good Thai Restaurants in New York?
Reader Andrew said, Gary, would you tell us about your favorite Thai restaurants in NYC? Are any of them the same caliber as Elephant Jumps? Bonus points for being run-down, hole-in-the-wall places. If you want to eat Elephant Jumps’ food you’re going to have to go to Elephant Jumps. There’s unlikely to be a New York substitute. For all of you New Yorkers that have your back up at that statement, I’ll happily concede that the Washington DC area can compete or outcompete New York in probably only one or two other areas — Vietnamese for sure, and I’m tempted to say Ethiopian although that cuisine has been in long-term decline in the District. You’re going to get more hole in the wall places in Flushing than in Manhattan, and in Manhattan on the streets…
IHG Rewards Club Unannounced Update to Terms and Conditions
IHG Rewards Club has again updated its terms and conditions without notifying members. This isn’t the big change to points-earning they snuck in just before the clock struck midnight on the New Year. Instead it’s a change to how they reward meeting planners and corporate bookers. Roughly speaking it appears they’re aping what Starwood has done with SPG Pro but they’ve updated their terms and conditions without telling members.
Now that American-US Airways Has Consolidated into a Single Frequent Flyer Program It’s Time for AAdvantage to Update Its Award Rules
US Airways Dividend Miles was pretty much ‘anything goes’ as far as award routings go — the combination of flights you were allowed to use when booking an award to get from your origin to destination. There was no auto-validation of routings and no auto-pricing. Whatever region an agent thought you were traveling to determined the price they would enter. So you could ‘guide them’ (“I’d like to book a North Asia award, we’ll connect in Hong Kong in North Asia on the way to Bangkok. And now to wrap up this North Asia award let’s connect back through Tokyo and…”) I really do think American needs to liberalize their routing rules. American requires that:
Delta Adds 2 Airlines to Online Award Booking, Will Bring Back Virgin Australia
Delta added an online award calendar back in November (and then of course used it as a fig leaf for the elimination of award charts). Since then they’ve been adding various airline partners to their online booking functionality like China Southern and China Eastern and Aerolineas Argentinas and Garuda Indonesia as well as China Airlines and Gol. Now Delta has more updates. Aeroflot and Vietnam Airlines Added to Online Award Booking Aeroflot has decent business class award availability for two passengers much of the time and flies from New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Miami. Their inflight product is better than you think. And their flights are a way to travel beyond Moscow as well, such as to India. Vietnam Airlines doesn’t have a fantastic inflight product in business (though their new 787s will…
