I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). I’ve never gone and spent $450 on a hotel room, but I’m not a budget traveler either. There are a lot of travel bloggers who travel year round and do their best to keep costs super low. I travel for work, and pleasure, but I don’t travel full time or live in hotels. I also never really put myself into a box like travel blogger, this is just…
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Exploiting the Freshly Increased Value of Citibank’s Thank You Points
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Citibank Points Have Gotten Much More Valuable This Year Thanks to Airline Mileage Transfers Citibank introduced airline miles as an option for redeeming Thank You points over the summer, instantly increasing the value of their Citi Thank You Cards points substantially. And a month later they even added a transfer partner, signifying that they weren’t done building the program. Thank You Premier and Prestige cardmembers can now transfer…
When Kids Scream on a Plane, the Best Approach is Not to Slam Someone’s Head on an Overhead Bin
So you know things have gone too far when a pilot threatens an emergency landing over your behavior. Of course, it’s always the other person’s fault, right? A brawl involving three women erupted on a Chinese flight from to Chongqing to Hong Kong yesterday when two of them complained to a mum that her baby was making too much noise. The women, all believed to be Chinese, were warned that the pilot would be forced to turn back and make an emergency landing if they didn’t stop fighting. Naturally, “[T]he two women reclined their seats fully backwards, which aggravated things further. A scuffle ensued, with one of the women hitting on her head on the overhead locker..” There’s a video. When there are screaming kids on a plane, don’t do this. A year ago I…
Singapore, Cathay, and Qantas First Class.. Some of the Best Meals of My Life, and a Tour of Hyatts in Bangkok, Singapore, and Sydney
I’m about to head off on another trip, which I’m somewhat ambivalent about because of how much I’ve been on the road lately. But I’ve also done vacation and I’m much happier to share that trip with you in the coming days. It was a return to cities I’ve been to many times, it was visiting with family at the back end on the other side of the world, but it was also some top notch airline products including first class on two A380s (taking an A380 to visit family for the holidays really improves holiday travel). Some great hotels, and amazing meals. Qantas, Singapore and Cathay First – Oh My! Late last year I stumbled upon two Qantas A380 first class award seats, Sydney – Los Angeles for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
Here’s Why Airbus Says They May Discontinue the A380
Over the summer I made the controversial claim that the Airbus A380 is a failure. Let’s just say plenty of people disagreed with me in the comments. As a passenger I like the plane. I love flying Singapore’s A380 in first class for sure, there’s nothing yet in the skies like the Emirates shower. And the Etihad Residence should top even that. In August I wrote: There are no buyers in the U.S., South America, or Africa. They’ve barely penetrated China or Japan. In 7 years Airbus has delivered only 138 planes to 11 airlines. Word is the plane is being discounted by 50% off list. While aircraft manufactures don’t really sell for list, that’s still a significant discount and early buyers generally get ‘most favored nation’ status where future discounted sales entail rebates to…
Building the Perfect First Class Ground Experience
There are several elements to the first class experience that start and end entirely outside the in-air experience. Airlines that compete at the top end have invested heavily in their ground experience alongside their inflight soft and hard products. Some of the best are: Thai Airways Lufthansa Qantas A notch below, in my view: Emirates Etihad And then: Asiana Cathay Pacific I’ll go out on a limb and claim that Qantas has the best first class lounge food. It’s nearly all cooked to order out of an open kitchen, with no buffet (though there are substantive bar snacks strategically placed throughout the lounge). Singapore’s Private Room has a good cooked-to-order menu, and a willingness to go off-menu to accommodate preferences, but I’ve found the food to be only average. Lufthansa’s Do&Co offerings are quite good…
Singapore Reverses Course, Agrees to Honor Mistake Fare
Last week I reported that Singapore Airlines was refusing to honor a business class mistake fare between Sydney and London. It wasn’t a cheap fare — about US$3000 roundtrip — but apparently intended as an economy rather than a business class fare. There are varying reports of between 400 and 900 tickets purchased. And after much criticism of the decision to tell these customers to pound sand they’ve changed their minds and will make good on the tickets. SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) said on Monday it will allow about 400 passengers to fly business class after they purchased fares at economy-class prices in Australia following an embarrassing ticketing bungle. …About 400 passengers will fly up the front of the plane using tickets that were as much as A$5,000 (S$5,500) cheaper than they should have been. Singapore…
American Airlines: How to Get Your Two Workforces to Resent Each Other
As American and US Airways continue to merge their operations, one of the key issues is labor integration — and not just getting combined work contracts for flight attendants, pilots, and other groups, but getting the two work forces to operate as one and to be be both happy and productive. American management does realize that they need to avoid the kind of ‘us vs. them’ mentality that often pervades mergers. Legacy Continental flight attendants sometimes still announce that their United flights are operated by Continental crew. They’re proud of their heritage, think they’re better, and resent legacy United employees. So when American’s CEO says things like this, he probably isn’t helping: Mr. Parker said the most surprising thing of the past year was how many things needed improving at American once he arrived from…
How Much Are Miles Really Worth? Valuations for Each Program
What is the value of miles and points by airline, hotel and credit card program? Miles used to be thought to be worth 2 cents. I think that conventional wisdom developed out of the idea that a cross country flight cost about $500… or 25,000 miles. 20 years ago that was generally true, and award availability wasn’t really a problem either. That was long before: Airline alliances opened up huge possibilities for miles. Mileage programs increased the cost of many awards. Awards became tougher to get with flights full. Plus the 2 cent number probably wasn’t ever true to begin with. Many different folks have taken a stab at how much miles are worth. For this post I’m not going to give you a single number. I’m going to share my own rough and ready…
American Airlines (and other oneworld alliance) Elites Get New Checked Baggage Benefits
The oneworld alliance has improved its free elite checked baggage allowance and priority baggage handling. Specifically mid- and top-tier elites will get priority baggage delivery and mid-tier elites get an increased checked baggage allowance. Priority Baggage Delivery oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members — in the AAdvantage program the equivalent is Platinum and Executive Platinum; with British Airways Silver and Gold — will receive priority luggage tags when checking baggage on any oneworld alliance member. Notice I say the benefit is for priority luggage tags rather than “priority checked baggage” as oneworld advertises — because there’s huge variability across airlines in how well priority bags are delivered. It’s fair to say that the benefit will be equivalent to what’s offered to business class passengers. Whether the execution happens or not varies by airlines and airports, though…
