I love that Spirit Airlines exists. They serve a different market niche than I find myself in. Air Asia uses the slogan, “Now Everyone Can Fly!” and Spirit is very much in that same mold. I don’t like their miles. I love their advertising. But at root I can appreciate that if their route network serves you and you can navigate their myriad fees, you can often fly cheaper than any other alternative. And they do seem really transparent about their fees if you book on their website. It’s bookings through third party sites that can lead to confusion, where folks may not know what they’re getting into. That’s the key, and don’t book Spirit if you don’t want the product Spirit offers. The AP’s Scott Mayerowitz spends time playing board games in the home…
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United Won’t Charge More for Connecting Flights on Partner Airlines (Despite Their Earlier Threats)
United’s big devaluation also creates a more complicated mileage program. There are distinctly different award charts for travel on United (or Copa) and for travel on United’s partners. The complication of course is that there are plenty of world destinations that United doesn’t serve. And they still want you to fly United for the major portions of the trip, since that redemption costs them less. The initial clarification was that you could add a partner connecting flight in a lower class of service than your United flight without forcing the higher partner award chart price. In other words, they said they were going to allow you to fly US – Europe on United in business class, and then Europe – Your final destination in Europe on a partner in coach and you’d still pay the…
What Changes Will Be Allowed to United Award Tickets Issued Before the Devaluation?
United’s big award chart devaluation which was scheduled to go into effect on February 1 was put off a few days but is now in effect. Lots of folks booked awards speculatively before the bloodshed. Transatlantic business class awards on United’s partners went up 40%. Some first class awards went up more than 80%. Of course, there were few changes to coach awards and to awards within the Americas. And a handful of awards actually get cheaper. But for Americans looking to travel to Europe, Asia, Africa, or elsewhere in premium cabins prices went up a whole lot. And for those who planned ahead and booked future travel under the old rates, there’s been lots of uncertainty about what kinds of changes to travel would be permitted without an increase in mileage cost to the…
The Family That Travels Together… (How to Leverage Your Elite Status Edition)
Paul offers this travel — and family — advice: My advice is to give your child the same first name as yours. In that way you can share status (albeit against the program rules) while still alive. For frequent family travelers, parent could go for high status in Star Alliance and SPG, child for One World and Hyatt. Only downside is that you can’t travel together 🙂 After death, the child can just pick up where their parent left off. And if they too named their child with the same name, we could have some 150 year old platinums out there 😉 See also: Tokyo’s “oldest man” may have been dead for decades (family collects a man’s pension for 30 years after he died). You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and…
Getting the Most Out of an American Airlines Award: Ultimate Guide to AAdvantage Rules
Three years ago I wrote an extensive guide to booking US Airways tickets. US Airways miles have been so easy to get, and their rules so opaque, that the guide was useful for many folks in figuring out what they could accomplish ‘within the rules’ of the program. Of course US Airways is unique in that agents manually apply regions to awards for pricing purposes, and routings are validated manually. Combined with a general lack of geographic knowledge, it has been possible to accomplish almost anything with US Airways miles if you’re persistent enough. Routing an Australia-US award via South America and Europe? Check! We already know that as part of the merger between US Airways and American, that the combined program will be American AAdvantage. A few days ago it was announced that when…
Virgin Atlantic May Have The Worst Miles, But There Are 8 Great Ways You Can Use Them
Best use of Virgin Atlantic miles: Virgin Atlantic may have one of the worst frequent flyer programs in the world, at least compared to major world airlines as opposed to regional players (I mean, I’d take Virgin’s miles over Frontier’s for instance). Their award chart is expensive (many flights take a whole lot of miles compared to what other airlines charge for the same itinerary). They add fuel surcharges onto award tickets, so you play a lot of miles and cash They have partner airline awards, but many of those are roundtrip one (no one ways) and you can’t mix and match partner airlines on a single itinerary. Virgin Atlantic’s miles aren’t even the best for redeeming travel on… Virgin Atlantic. Delta will let you redeem for travel on Virgin, and if you begin your…
I’m Not Burning My United Miles Before the Devaluation, But Here’s How You Can…
United’s big devaluation goes into effect February 1. Make no mistake, it’s huge, some awards go up 87%! At the same time it’s not as bad as we think. It all depends on how you use your miles. The biggest increases are in international first class partner awards. That’s where you’ll find the 80%+ increases. International business class partner awards go up too, that’s where you’ll find increases of ~ a third. They’ve created a separate category of United flight awards that do not go up as much as partner awards, you’ll see increases there of ~ 15%. Flights within the Americas, and coach awards, don’t really change in a material way. If you redeem for coach, the ‘devaluation’ doesn’t really hit you (except that higher prices for other awards may mean more people are…
Marriott Rewards and Cosmopolitan Points Now Transfer Back and Forth, and What it Means for the Lodging Loyalty Industry
Vegas is all the rage this year in the lodging loyalty industry. Las Vegas is the largest hotel market, but the major chains had very limited presences there. Hyatt kicked things off with its MGM alliance that involves both points-earning and redemption and also reciprocal elite status recognition. I think of this as the hotel industry’s answer to airline alliances. The latter have been close to tapped out, but have been a real engine of growth for a decade. Hotel chains can grow strategically in much the same way, exchanging customers, without the infrastructure cost or addition of new rooms, competition, and driving down of prices. Starwood and Caesars followed up with their own, somewhat less extensive partnership. IHG plants its flag with Venetian, and Marriott has the quite-good Cosmopolitan. Yesterday, Marriott Rewards let me…
Amazing American Airlines First Class Award Space to London in April
There’s been a real knock on American Airlines lately for the lack of award availability using their miles to Europe. They’ve been great to Asia — great space on their own flights, Japan Airlines seats are on the whole easier to get than they once were, and while Cathay has tightened up a bit it’s still doable (especially in business class and on new routes). But Europe has been something of a challenge. Business class space on American’s own flights has been really tough the past couple of years. First class used to be easy, but that changed perhaps six months back. On partners the transatlantic cupboard has been spotty — Iberia is feast or famine, Air Berlin has a few routes, and British Airways isn’t nearly as generous as they used to be with…
Tipping When Traveling Abroad: When to Do It? How Much to Give?
Commenter Scott G asked, Would love an insight into tipping in various regions of the world. Traveling in July to Paris and Japan and October to London and Ireland. In your experience does it vary by country, culture, or continent? When traveling to Australia a few years back was surprised that tipping is not always customary and only recently was becoming more popular in cabs and restaurants, etc. Haven’t seen a travel blogger explore this topic in detail. I’m not really an expert on tipping. Just because I know how to get around the world doesn’t make me an expert on its cultures. I think I’ve gained some insights into the places I’ve visited, my life has certainly been enriched by my travels and I understand places better than if I hadn’t visited. But goodness…
