I’ve heard American Airlines CEO Doug Parker say that the most important thing, and almost the only thing, that matters for an airline is to run a safe on-time operation. US Airways has a tendency to start boarding early, and over the past six weeks or so I’ve noticed that American has started to do the same thing. I’ll show up at the gate 30 minutes out and they will already have started the boarding process. My flight this morning boarded a few minutes early. Boarding was complete more than 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure. And we pushed back early. That’s awesome, right? Not really, at least to me. I want an airline to run on its schedule, to do what it says it is going to do, to be predictable — not to…
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Buying Your Airline Tickets Outside the U.S. to Save Money
Reader Andy G. passes along this article that talks about how you can ‘buy airline tickets international’ — getting the best deal on airfare based on the country in which tickets are purchased. I think it overstates the case a bit (“once I was in Bangkok, that same flight that was once $300 would fall to $30 almost inexplicably”), but it’s worth understanding what ‘point of sale’ means for airfare purchases. It’s often cheaper to buy tickets “in-country” in South America and in Asia than it is to buy those same tickets abroad. The same phenomenon is true for buying train tickets in Europe versus online in English.
SPG Pro: Starwood’s New Points and Status Earning for Meetings, Agents, and Company Travel Assistants
I spoke with Chris Holdren and with Krystal Zell from Starwood Preferred Guest yesterday about a new initiative they’re rolling out: SPG Pro. This program continues the high level activity we’ve seen from Starwood over the past two and a half years since they: Introduced a new slate of elite benefits like Suite Night Awards, 24 hour check-in, breakfast, more bonus points, and free internet for Golds — plus lifetime elite status. Joined forces with Delta to offer each others’ elites more points and upgrades Partnered with Caesars in Las Vegas to offer reciprocal points-earning (plus limited elite qualifying night earning) Chris opened by saying he wanted to prove me to I was wrong about a blog post I wrote five weeks ago.
Sarcastic Shocker: US Airways 100% Bonus on Purchased Miles is Back
US Airways is offering a targeted bonus of up to 100% additional miles when you buy miles through Seotember 30. The offer is targeted, then you go to the buy miles page you have to enter your account information to see whether you’re being offered a bonus. (And there may be other, smaller, bonuses targeted to some accounts.) At least I’m suggesting it’s targeted because of the requirement to verify your account information — although it does look like the details of the bonus is itself in the background, which suggests to me that the bonus may not vary although it’s possible some won’t be eligible. If the offer is available to you, buying miles at a 100% bonus means buying them at a cost of 1.88 cents per mile. US Airways is almost always…
The Most Useful Advice from this Blog
Doctor of Credit asked me for my ‘most underrated blog posts’ and I admit I had a hard time figuring out what to share. Does that mean things I think are great but that didn’t get much notice? (That probably means I was wrong about their being especially good…) You can generally find many of my best posts using the left hand sidebar of the side, and also archives of my trip reports — flights, hotels, lounges, food, and activities. Thinking on my favorites, though, I’d suggest my primer on American financial reviews. There’s also the basics of throwaway ticketing, constructing awards with American AAdvantage miles, and making sure you actually have a ticket when you redeem United miles on partners. For best advice there’s probably hang up, call back, how to upgrade, and how…
Booking Star Alliance Awards Using Amex Points And No Fuel Surcharges With Aeroplan
Aeroplan is an American Express transfer partner. Points transfer instantly in my experience over the years. The Aeroplan program is great for booking awards on Star Alliance partners. Nearer Europe is just 45,000 miles each way in business class. But not all partners are created equal when using Aeroplan to book awards — because three years ago they started adding fuel surcharges onto awards booked with some airline partners. Aeroplan does not impose fuel surcharges on all of its airline partners, though.
Airline First Class Thunderdome: Two Blogs Enter, One Blog Leaves
Lucky posted about his rankings of first class airline products. This followed my ranking of top first class airlines list. You can see our full rankings, side-by-side, at FlightFox. Click ‘Flight Blogger Ratings’ on the upper right hand side. You can then sort by his and by mine. He threw down in a couple of places, offering disagreements. And I think that comes down to a few key differences.
Why Delta Miles Haven’t Suddenly Become ‘Great’ – But I Still Work Hard to Earn Them
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). Offer Expired. Lucky asks Is the relative value of Delta Skymiles increasing? And technically the relative value might be — if they’re a 2 on a scale of 1-10, and United used to be an 8 but has dropped to a 6 then Delta miles are, relative to United, more valuable than they used to be. But that really doesn’t tell us much. Here’s why it matters: The…
Citi Improving Its Thank You Points Program With a New Transfer Partner!
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 emailed yesterday to share that they’ve added Air France KLM’s Flying Blue as a points transfer partner in their Thank You program. Thank You Premier and Prestige cardmembers can now transfer points to: Air France-KLM Asia Miles Etihad Airways Guest EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles Hilton HHonorsTM Malaysia Airlines Enrich Qatar Airways Privilege Club Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus Of these, Singapore…
40% Bonus on Purchased Alaska Airlines Miles is Back!
Alaska Airlines is offering up to a 40% bonus on purchased miles through October 14. This isn’t all that uncommon an offer. Sometimes it’s 30%, sometimes 35%, and sometimes 40% — as often as not Alaska offers some sort of bonus on purchased miles. But this is as good as I’ve seen it. A purchase of 40,000 points earns 56,000 miles at a total cost of $1182.50 or ~ 2.1 cents per mile. Key things to know:
