American is going to have to change its award ‘routing rules’ — a perhaps unintended consequence of yesterdays announced changes. Without changes, members are going to face some absurd results. As American and US Airways integrate, they’re looking at each element of both frequent flyer programs to figure out what to keep and what to change. While I’m not surprised at the loss of distanced-based oneworld explorer awards, one thing that now must change as a result are American’s award routing rules. One of the more arcane rules of AAdvantage award travel is that you cannot connect in a third region — award travel between two regions cannot touch a third region unless a specific exception is in place. So you cannot fly from the US to Asia via Europe.. You have to fly direct…
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A Big Lesson Learned for American: Respect Your Members
Now that I’ve had a day to reflect on the changes American announced to their frequent flyer program (not to mention to the US Airways award chart and to checked baggage allowances), more and more I think the lesson in all of this is about member respect. A lot of readers gave me flak for not recognizing the gravity of the changes themselves. And while I will personally miss stopovers at a North American gateway city, and the hidden value in distance-based awards, I just wasn’t that surprised to see them go. My frustrations remain with the lack of notice, and with how that sets the stage for all of the other news that is still to come.
Huge No-Notice Changes to American AAdvantage Awards You Probably Don’t Ever Book
Without any advance notice, American is increasing the price of “AAnytime awards” for travel effective June 1. This is the price when regular award seats aren’t available. They are also eliminating their highly valuable, but complicated, distance-based oneworld awards. US Airways also changes their version of AAnytime awards for travel effective June 1 as well, going to a four-tier redemption chart. (US Airways has had a three-tier award chart for years.) That applies only to the US Airways award chart and not to the partner redemption chart. There are no changes at this time to American’s saver awards, which is what most of us book and care about.
AMAZING DEAL: US Airways 100% Bonus on Shared Miles Back This Week Only
US Airways is back with a 100% bonus on shared miles through April 13. Limited time offer: Give up to a 100% bonus when you Share Miles! Share miles from April 7th until April 13th 2014 and your friend or family member will get up to 100% MORE in bonus miles – up to 50,000 miles. The bonus is actually tiered, you need to share at least 30,000 miles to get that bonus. Lower amounts receive a lesser bonus according to the following schedule: This is effectively buying US Airways miles for 1.1 cents apiece. You transfer 50,000 points from account A to account B at a cost of $567.50. Account B receives 100,000 miles. If you have a spouse or significant other, transfer 50,000 points to them and they receive 100,000 miles; then they…
US Airways Is Now Part of Oneworld: What It Means for Booking Your Award Tickets
US Airways has posted its new award charts. There’s a separate oneworld award chart (.pdf) for travel on any combination of oneworld airlines and a partner award chart (.pdf) for travel on any combination of non-oneworld partner airlines. Redemption prices remain the same at least at first look. So US – North Asia (including Hong Kong) remains 90,000 miles in business class. You can now fly US Airways or American to a Cathay Pacific gateway city (New York JFK, Newark, Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver) to Hong Kong and back in business class for that price, and fly Cathay’s outstanding business class product. And instead of paying 110,000 American AAdvantage miles for the privilege, it’s just 90,000 Dividend Miles. I do not expect this price to last and it will certainly go up…
Anthony Bourdain is Bringing a Singapore Hawker Center to Lower Manhattan
From 10 Questions for Anthony Bourdain: Everyone is anticipating your new, international food market in Lower Manhattan. Care to dish on what’s coming — venue, concept, offerings? It’s about what turns me on. I’m a huge fan of Singapore and Hakka centers and the Asian-Hong Kong and Dai pai dong and the way that Singapore has been able to keep the integrity of their street food in a modern, germophobic world. I think it’d be very cool to have that in New York and I hope to riff on that model. I hope to have some great Singaporean and Southeast Asian and South American vendors and craftsmen bring in the kind of delicious food that many other people around the world see as a birthright and for one reason or another we really haven’t had.…
How to Decide Which Points to Earn: It Depends on What Points You Already Have
We can assign a value to miles and points, call a point worth 1.5 cents or 1.8 cents, but that’s only a small part of the story. That doesn’t actually say what miles are most valuable to you, at any given time. The value of a mile will change based on what you’re going to do with it, and also based on how much of a given currency you already have. Know your reward goals. It helps to know what you want to do with miles in deciding which miles are right for you. If you’re going to Australia, it’s hard to beat Delta miles (with their Virgin Australia partnership, plus Asian airline partnerships where you are allowed to transit and even stopover in Asia enroute). If you’re going to South America, American miles are…
The Top 10 Ways To Earn Miles
There have been plenty of great mileage-earning opportunities of the past, things like buying coins form the US mint, buying savings bonds, and buying debit cards online with a credit card. Some of my favorites classics were: I earned 20,000 Delta miles for a Bosley hair restoration consultation. I had more hair then than I do now. I used to like grocery shopping. At Safeway of all places. Thanks to the now defunct GroceryMiles program. 64 Coke cups at Wendys earned a free roundtrip ticket on Airtran Which, naturally, led to dumpster diving. US Mint Miles for making child support payments There used to be big miles for long distance. I once signed up to earn 25,000 miles for switching to Sprint. As soon as I’d qualify for miles, I’d switch long distance carriers again.…
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong’s Amazing Views and Club Lounge: Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report
Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
Singapore Has a Useful Chart on How They’re Dealing With the Exit of US Airways and TAM From Star Alliance
Alliance benefits, like Star Gold recognition, go away once an airline leave the Star Alliance. Reciprocal frequent flyer agreements may exist entirely apart from the alliance. Singapore’s agreement with US Airways has an end date that’s after US Airways’ departure from Star. Singapore appears to be continuing its frequent flyer relationship with TAM. Both US Airways and TAM leave Star Alliance and join oneworld on March 31. Here’s what will happen to their relationships with Singapore. In the case of US Airways, it’s not all that useful to US Airways Dividend Miles members during the April through July period. US Airways has a great award chart for intra-Asia travel, if there’s availability you can book Singapore – Male (Maldives) roundtrip in business class for 30,000 miles. But US Airways doesn’t have access to Singapore Airlines…
