Lucky writes this morning about Cathay Pacific’s AsiaMiles being added as a transfer partner in the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program. He does a big ‘meh’ arguing that since you can claim the same flights through Amex transfer partner British Airways Avios as you can through AsiaMiles, there’s not much to get excited about. As it stands you can redeem British Airways Avios points for travel on Cathay Pacific (or any other OneWorld partner), and while their award chart isn’t especially lucrative for longhaul flights, Membership Rewards is offering a 50% transfer bonus for British Airways through May 31. Still, even without the bonus their award chart is still more lucrative than Asia Miles’ in most instances. I think he’s missing the boat here, AsiaMiles is a great addition to the Membership Rewards program.…
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United Award Tickets on Asiana Sometimes Cancel Themselves – How to Make Sure You Don’t Get Shafted
Prior to merging with United, Continental Onepass awards booked on Star Alliance partner Asiana would sometimes disappear. It was rare, but occasionally Asiana segments would drop out of a reservation. Continental wouldn’t notify customers. They’d either check online and see the segment gone, or they’d go check in and they wouldn’t have a reservation. Continental was already pretty good about fixing the situation, to the extent they could. They wouldn’t be able to get the Asiana flights back if there was no award availability on those flights. But they’d go to great lengths, generally, opening up seats on their own aircraft to use instead. Sometimes it would take a call or two to get someone who was helpful and would escalate this to the level necessary. But in the end things usually worked out, albeit…
Philippine Airlines All You Can Jet Within Asia for $270 EARNS MILES
On the heels of JetBlue introducing BluePass, this year’s more limited version of ‘All You Can Jet’ where they’ll let you fly as much as you’d like from either Boston or Long Beach, Philippine Airlines is offering their own an All You Can Jet Pass (so to speak), a “Fly Asia” pass which allows unlimited travel to 12 cities for 7 weeks for only US$270 + taxes/fees. (Unlimited business class is $1070 + taxes/fees.) And it earns miles. Travel from Manila, Cebu and Davao to Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Macau, Saigon, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taipei. They’re seling the unlimited travel pass through August 7 and all outbound travel must be between August 15 and November 30, with all travel complete by December 10. Within two weeks of purchase you must redeem all your travel…
Has Delta Increased the Price of their Asia Awards, and Are More Increases Coming?
TM Travel World reports that Delta has apparently increased the price of a whole bunch of awards. It’s always something that’s really difficult to verify, much of Delta award pricing is shrouded in mystery. They do not publish an actual award chart for flight redemptions that don’t start or end in North America. But Troy says that they’ve broken Asia into two separate regions. I remember when Asia was all just one region, and business class within Asia was 30,000 miles roundtrip. Now it’s apparently 25,000 miles just for economy within North Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and 45,000 miles for business class. With a new separate region for North Asia and South Asia, instead of just a single region for Asia, flights between the two regions — or even just…
All Nippon and Asiana Long Haul First Class Award Availability
I’m stuck flying nothing but domestically for the next couple of months, I have an India trip coming up (my first time in India!) but I’ve been still itching to at least book something internationally. So I did some research and put together a first class award to Asia, something I do at least once a year. It’s still about six months off, but I booked it anyway just to satisfy my wanderlust. Remember that planning a vacation is what brings the most happiness. And I’m pretty happy with what I came up with, flying All Nippon, Singapore, and Thai. I thought I’d share some of the comprehensive availability searching that I did yesterday, in case it’s useful to any of y’all in planning your own first class awards. In all cases I searched beginning…
Hidden Value Awards from Alaska Airlines: US to South Africa via Asia on Cathay Pacific for 140,000 Miles in First Class
Yesterday I booked two passengers from the US to South Africa via Asia and thought it was an especially valuable award. Alaska Airlines partners with Cathay Pacific. They charge 140,000 miles for first class between North America and Asia. They also charge 140,000 miles roundtrip for first class between the US and Africa. So these folks who live in San Francisco I routed SFO – Hong Kong – Johannesburg and return. Now, it’s 30% more flown miles than a one-stop via Europe. But it was available on their preferred dates, it got them to South Affirca with a single connection. And it was Cathay Pacific First Class, a total of four long-haul flights. American Airlines requires routing from the US to Africa via Europe, so they would have charged for US to Asia and a…
Finnair Offers Status Match After One Flight to Asia
Finnair is offering a status match (.pdf) after you take a flight on Finnair to Asia. You need to scan the boarding pass and send it to Finnair along with a copy of your Skyteam of Star Alliance elite status card and Finnair will match you to the comparable leve, Silver or Gold. They’ll also give you a fast track to requalify, This is marketed to French residents (via Finnair in Paris). TM Travel World says that it’s limited to French residents but I don’t notice that in the offer. Your mileage may vary on whether you need to make a friend in France to use the status match or not.
Asiana Brings First Class Back to Frankfurt
Beginning April 1, Asiana returns 3-cabin equipment to Europe with a 777 flying Frankfurt- Seoul. Even though the 777 has only 8 first class seats, award availability is excellent, they release two seats up front on plenty of flights.
Hilton 50% Off Weekends (Many Hotels Weekdays, Too) in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia
Loyalty Traveler points to the new Hilton 50% off weekends sale for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The sale is valid for bookings made throughout January. Hotels in the Americas are excluded. Rates are fully prepaid and non-cancellable, and include breakfast and late checkout. And while perhaps this will be corrected, currently many hotels are offering the weekend 50% off rate during the week as well.
The Hidden Value of the Asiana Award Chart and Asiana American Express
In my extensive post discussing the best rewards credit cards, I briefly mention the Asiana American Express card from Bank of America (which earns 2 miles per dollar spent!). I posted my credit card commentary on Flyertalk this morning, and Flyertalk member Guava went into extensive detail on why he values the Asiana Amex more than I was giving it credit for in my post. Because this advice is rather unique I will quote at great length. Bottom-line the card is useful especially to those who earn their miles predominantly from credit card spend and who want to redeem in particular from the Eastern U.S. to Europe or for upgrading from full fare coach or paid business class on Star Alliance partners. Not my redemption pattern, but it does match that of some readers, so…
