Yesterday I wrote about revenue-based programs and how I think it’s likely that Delta will change it’s frequent flyer program to align both earning miles and the cost of redemption with the price of airline tickets — and how I think that revenue-based programs are bad for both travelers and for the frequent flyer programs themselves. Joe Brancatelli also expects to see a revenue-based program next year — on one or more of Delta, US Airways, and Alaska Airlines. I had written about the speculation of US Airways in addition to that of Delta in the past. I hadn’t seen it written about Alaska Airlines previously, although now that I’ve seen that speculation it resonates as at least plausible (more so than if the speculation were about, say, American AAdvantage for sure). I’d have put…
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Free One-Way Awards on American Using Stopovers, Just How Many Miles are You Allowed to Fly?
Back in January I wrote a post explaining that if you were booking an award where you arrived home from an international flight without any additional connections once you landed in the U.S., that you could book yourself a free one-way award ticket for later. In general I didn’t think this required a ton of explanation for most frequent flyer programs, some have very generous routing rules like United where you can have a ‘stopover’ (visit one city for awhile enroute to your final destination) and an ‘open jaw’ (fly into one city, then out of another) on an international award. So if you have a simple roundtrip to Paris, why end your trip when you make it back home? Call that your stopover, and grab a free flight to somewhere else at the end…
Where the First Class Award Seats are Using United and US Airways Miles
I love international first class. Living on the East Coast, for trips to Europe, business class is ‘good enough’ but often the mileage premium when redeeming an award ticket isn’t very much between business and first class. Miles provide me with an opportunity to travel in a manner that I could never otherwise afford to pay for, and they’ve allowed the travel itself to become part of the experience and not just a ‘way to get there’. I’ve certainly become spoiled over the years since I started redeeming for international first class awards, such that on longer trips I really don’t want to fly ‘just’ business class. I’ve accumulated enough miles, know about about the partner airlines, that most of the time when I’m flying more than 10 hours I do not need to. Sure,…
Korean Air Awards Now Bookable at Delta.com
Delta has added Korean Air award space to its website. This is huge because Korean Air has outstanding award availability in business class, and because previously there was no way to search Korean Air business inventory online. Korean Air’s website doesn’t even let you search unless you have enough miles in your account for the award. Expertflyer has displayed it on some intra-Asia routes only. So someone with Delta miles had to call Delta to hunt and peck for space — dealing with agents who might not be willing to make more than three searches in a call, agents who don’t know where Seoul is let alone cities beyond Korean’s hub, and agents who don’t know that Korean is even a partner let alone how to search for their award space. Here’s Korean Air business…
United’s Award Routing Rules Make No Sense — And Why That’s a Good Thing
Yesterday MileValue wrote about United’s award routing rules — for instance, the rules that determine what flights you can take when booking an award, how many miles you are allowed to travel between cities, and which partners you can combine on a ticket. What he discovers, in essence, is that ever since United and Continental integrated their computer systems on March 3, the Continental rules and procedures applied. And that the Continental rules and procedures make no sense, something which has been the case at least since Continental joined Star Alliance. United’s rules had been quite clear. Before they began cozying up with Continental, you were permitted a stopover (visiting a city on the way to or back from your destination) or an open jaw (flying into one city and back from a different city,…
It’s Official: Qatar to Join Oneworld
Here’s the press release. So I guess when Qatar’s CEO emphatically denied that they were joining oneworld less than 10 days ago — “No, we will not. It’s all rumors” — that he was just lying. The airline will be integrated into the alliance over the next 12 to 18 months. Great news for the value of American Airlines miles, Qatar offers great business class award availability (and has first class cabins on a limited number of Europe – Doha routes) and an outstanding business class product. Sadly within American’s program the Middle East — an amazing connection point for much of the world — is of limited usefulness. You can connect in Doha if you want to head to India and surrounding countries, or to the Middle East itself. But you’re not able to…
Monday’s Big oneworld Announcement and the Future of the Alliance
A couple of days ago I received an email from the Weber Shadwick PR folks about oneworld’s announcement on Monday in New York. The briefing will be at 2pm with oneworld’s Chairman, Willie Walsh of British Airways and Iberia, and oneworld’s CEO. On Monday we’ll find out what the oneworld announcement really is, there has been tons of reporting and denials amidst claims of leaked documents. The smart money has been on Qatar, either joining oneworld outright or creating some sort of alliance with part of oneworld rather than full integration (the recent Qantas-Emirates alliance, and termination of partnership with Qantas and other oneworld carriers on Australia – Europe routes, makes it tough for Qantas to also partner with Qatar). Although it’s conceivable that it’s something more mundane, full integration for Malaysia Airlines or formal…
500 Free Hilton HHonors Points for Syncing with TopGuest
Turning the mic to Frugal Asian Man: Hilton DoubleTree is running a special promotion with Topguest where if you sync your Hilton HHonors number on their page at http://doubletree.topguest.com, you will receive 500 Hilton HHonors points for free. This offer is available to only the first 40,000 Hilton HHonors users who sync. From my understanding, you do not need to be a member/user of Topguest to use this promo. However, it does seem that if you have had your Topguest account suspended before (and you had synced your Hilton HHonors #), you will not be able to participate in this promotion.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Still the Best All-Around Most Rewarding Credit Card
Key Link: Chase Sapphire Preferred There are three key value propositions for a credit card. Signup bonus (how much will they give you upfront for getting the card) How value is the earning for your ongoing spend (do you actually want to put spending on the card once you’ve earned the bonus) Benefits of having the card And the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is top of wallet for the first two of those criteria — one of the very best signup bonuses, 40,000 points after $3000 in spending within 3 months, and that’s an exceptionally good offer because their points are among the two best currencies of any loyalty program, and double points earning in that most valuable of programs on all travel and dining spending, Visa acceptance, and no foreign currency transaction fees. The…
United’s Computer Woes: Yanking Miles from Your Account Improperly When Partner ‘Fails to Confirm’ Flight Activity
If you’ve been flying United’s airline partners recently, and crediting those flights to your MileagePlus account, check your balance — apparently United has been removing legitimate flight credits en masse when their flight partners haven’t confirmed the activity. Some attribute the lack of proper confirmation to United’s IT woes and inability to properly sync up with its partners for validating the credits. Many flyers inconvenienced. Normally I toss boarding passes once miles post. Note to United flyers: save partner boarding passes even after you receive credit for the flights. Miles from Blighty reports a similar and perhaps related problem, with paid business class travel on Air New Zealand reverting from having earned elite qualifying miles to earning just redeemable miles. These sorts of IT problems, along with problems like failing to properly issue award tickets…
