US airlines generally allow you to book miles at a ‘saver’ or ‘low’ award level, and at a more expensive price point that offers greater availability. The old standard used to be that spending ‘double miles’ would get you any seat, any flights. That’s how it worked at American for the most part until April 8. Alaska, Amterican, and Delta now offer multiple tiers of prices. United doesn’t offer ‘last seat availability’ to general members who are not co-brand credit card holders. Last seat availability is offered only to folks with the United Explorer and Club cards and to elites. The idea of spending extra miles to get the seat you want isn’t universal, you can’t do it with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic miles for instance. Most European and Asian carriers don’t offer this,…
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United’s Secret Award Discount Still Works: Save Up to 25,000 Miles Roundtrip for Business Class Partner Awards
Two months ago I wrote about United’s unpublished business class partner award discount. United has been charging less for partner awards than their award chart says they will, charging as though you were flying just on United (perhaps a technical glitch rollings back a big chunk of the Great Devaluation). For US – Europe, business class awards are supposed to cost: 57,500 miles if you fly United (115,000 roundtrip) 70,000 miles if you fly a partner (140,000 roundtrip) But many partner awards are still pricing at the United price, a savings of 25,000 miles on a roundtrip. When this ‘discount’ first started pricing, it appeared to work only through March. But it works farther out in the calendar now as well. Here’s an Austrian itinerary in April: Here’s a Lufthansa itinerary in May: And LOT…
Another Airline Abolishes Fuel Surcharges, Etihad Lights Money on Fire, and Another Flight to Cuba
News and notes from around the interweb: Etihad’s quest to build its own fourth global alliance buy buying stakes in money-losing airlines that will continue to lose money, but can be used to redirect traffic through Abu Dhabi, continues with Alitalia. Cranky Flier dissects the Alitalia turnaround plan and finds it strangely like all the past failed turnaround plans. Etihad is just the latest (and possibly last) deep pocket. If you have an award on Etihad, check your flight schedules. They’ve just re-timed a bunch of flights for March 29-onward. That’ll create better connectivity to some destinations, but may be highly inconvenient for folks who already have travel plans. Speaking of bailouts, Thai Airways will get one instead of being allowed to file bankruptcy. According to the Prime Minister who installed himself in last year’s…
Taking Advantage of a Legal Loophole: You Can Avoid Paying Fuel Surcharges on Award Tickets If You Know Where to Start and End the Trip
Fuel surcharges are the bane of many frequent flyers, junk fees adding hundreds or even a thousand dollars onto award tickets by many frequent flyer programs around the world. Airlines like fuel surcharges because: Changing the fuel surcharge in a market can raise or lower every ticket price in that market, no need to re-file every single fare. They allow an airline to raise price even with many fixed-fare agreements. And, of course, because they can be charged to frequent flyers trying to redeem a captive points currency. US frequent flyers — who don’t participate in mileage programs based outside the US — don’t have to deal with fuel surcharges very much. American adds them to awards on British Airways (and to a very modest extent on Iberia) Alaska adds them to awards on British…
Chase Airline Transfer Partner Back Online!
Korean Air is one of my favorite Chase points transfer partners. First class awards have been so darned easy to get. There are real sweet spots in their Skyteam award chart They offer cheap awards to Hawaii Although they are of course very Korean and their processes for redeeming awards are unique. Korean went offline as a Chase transfer partner in November, though I wrote that it was expected to come back based on what Chase was suggesting. Korean Air’s website said it would be back in January. Last week Chase began confirming it would be back very soon, and customer service reps were saying January 25. And transfers are now back online! As much as I love the ability to be able to transfer Chase points to United, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Hyatt……
More $99 Transatlantic Fare Dates, British Airways Now Likely to Acquire Aer Lingus, Use MasterCard to Cuba and Bring a 747 to Burning Man!
News and notes from around the interweb: $99 fares to Iceland and cheap connecting fares to Europe will now start earlier out of Baltimore. Third time’s the lucky charm? After rejecting a second proposal two weeks ago, Aer Lingus may be set to accept a takeover bid by British Airways and Iberia parent IAG. FlyHermes.com ceases operations. This is the Malta-based airline, not the luxury brand. Someone is bringing a Boeing 747 to Burning Man. Since this environmental excuse doesn’t work, I think it’s a definite sign, if we needed another, of a shark that has been jumped. US-issued MasterCards can be used in Cuba starting March 1. What happens when an aircraft stalls. Relevant to the Indonesia AirAsia crash investigation. (HT: Alan H.) BBC’s new six-part documentary just debuted. (HT: Reid F.) You can…
The World’s Busiest Airport Isn’t Atlanta, Double Flight Points Through March, and an Air Marshall Wins at the Supreme Court
News and notes from around the interweb: Double Virgin America points through March 31. Registration required. Some commenters are reporting being told that Chase points transfers to Korean will return on January 25. I reached out again to Chase and got simply, “We anticipate the functionality returning soon.” Supreme Court rules air marshall didn’t violate federal law when leaking TSA plans. The new Vietnam Airlines blog, focused on that nation’s carrier and others in Southeast Asia, has new details on the Vietnam Airlines 787 including new lie flat business class seats and a seat map mockup. Now that Delta offers one-way awards I may wind up trying something like this.. Double American AAdvantage miles between the US/Canada and Asia on American and their joint venture partner JAL (though not on American’s China routes). There’s also…
Eight Ways to Save Money on Airfare… and How Not To Save Money on Airfare
Reader David B. pointed me to Scott McCartney’s column in the Wall Street Journal on what to do — and what not to do — to try to save money on airfare. Here are 8 important ways to save money:
Korean Air’s New First and Business Class Seats Revealed…
I’m a big fan of Korean Air — a good product and great award availability, and plenty of US routes. They also do more intra-Asia flying with a first class cabin than other carriers as well. Whereas most airlines limit their first class to long haul routes, you can fly Korean first class even on many short routes. Korean’s old first class was comfortable, but generations behind. The current long haul first class seat, which I flew the Sunday after Thanksgiving a couple of years ago thanks to their unprecedented award availability, is extremely comfortable, though not especially private. They now have a new first and business class product, and it’s installed in the first few aircraft.
Fuel Surcharges Lose Credibility With Low Fuel Prices, Invite Government Intervention
Airlines like fuel surcharges because: Changing the fuel surcharge in a market can raise or lower every ticket price in that market, no need to re-file every single fare. They allow an airline to raise price even with many fixed-fare agreements. And, of course, because they can be charged to frequent flyers trying to redeem a captive points currency. US frequent flyers — who don’t participate in mileage programs based outside the US — don’t have to deal with fuel surcharges very much. American adds them to awards on British Airways (and to a very modest extent on Iberia) Alaska adds them to awards on British Airways Delta adds them to awards on some partners – like China Southern and China Eastern – and to travel originating in Europe. United doesn’t add them at all.…
