Miles from Blighty posted earlier about seeing award space into Sana’a, Yemen using United miles. And I wondered, how useful would those miles be to leave Yemen right now? Granted, if you’re in Sana’a right now you’re probably there working for a government, a private employer that’s getting you out, or a non-governmental organization that’s hopefully working to do the same. In Yemen and across the region there are people fleeing because the U.S. has declared that really scary things are about to happen. (And presumably this is in comparison to the scary things that already do happen!) Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines flies six times a week from Sana’a to Istanbul with a 45 minute stop in Aden. And over the next few days availability is good — in coach only on the flight…
ASIA
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And this is Why You Don’t Book Tickets for Other People Using Airline Websites
Jeanne passes along this complaint about Delta that’s in the early stages of gaining traction online. Bottom-line: passenger is denied boarding by Delta because they couldn’t produce the credit card used to purchase the ticket (her boss bought the ticket). The passenger was enroute to Uganda. Her boss got involved in the call, trying to convince Delta the ticket wasn’t fraudulent. And while we have only the boss’ word for it, she contends Delta’s agent suggested… The talented and adept Delta Red Coat team answered all of my questions and explained to me that my employee was asked to present her credit card because the “country of Africa is full of frauds.” How embarrassing! All this time, I was under the impression that African was a continent full all kinds of different people. Thanks to…
Bits ‘n Pieces for July 30, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: I’ve been aware of refund.me but not EU Claims which reader Will M. reported got him 400 euros per person for a delay he claimed was due to crew availability and KLM claimed was due to weather. You pay a commission on successful claims but don’t have to hassle with the paperwork and back-and-forth. If your high heels are shaped like, or made from guns the TSA will consider you a threat. A United baggage worked has been charged with stealing luggage from passengers diverted from San Francisco after the Asiana crash. The US Airways mobile app is finally out. As expected, reported are: unimpressive. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just…
Korean TV Skewers Southwest LaGuardia Landing Gear Incident: Capt. Kent Parker Wright
Reacting to a San Francisco television station identifying the pilot of the Asiana flight which crash landed earlier this month as Sum Ting Wong, a Korean TV station has ‘confirmed’ the names of crew on the Southwest flight that went down hard at LaGuardia. After the landing gear failure of the Southwest flight at LGA they showed this graphic with American pilot names “Captain Kent Parker Wright”, “Co-Captain Wyatt Wooden Workman”. They even went as far as making up fake names for people to interview. Flight instructor “Heywood U. Flye-Moore” and skeptical passenger “Macy Lawyers”. (HT: Ozaer N. on Facebook) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free.…
If Fuel Prices Fall Will I Still Have to Pay Fuel Surcharges on Award Tickets? And How Can I Reduce Those Now?
Reader RKToledo asks, With airlines purchasing more fuel effecient long range planes, could you write on whether these purchases will ever lead to decreased or eliminated fuel surcharges on awards. I’m specifically wondering if BA will reduce YQ after implementation of A380 and 787 planes. The simple answer is no. Understanding this requires a bit of a longer answer. What are fuel surcharges? First of all, understand what “fuel surcharges” are. They’re generally a fixed amount of money added to a fare. The amount will usually be the same across all fares for a given city pair. In other words, all “New York – London” fares that an airline publishes will add the same amount for fuel surcharge. There are some exceptions to this. An airline may file a different fuel surcharge amount for premium…
The Toughest Travel Question I’ve Ever Been Asked to Answer
At first I thought the toughest questions came from Erich in my request for requests post. 1. Write a post in praise of Tyler Cowen (or another non-points inspiration who made you see things differently) 2. Give a Hansonian take on why Travel is not about vacation 3. How has your hobby modified your job or vice versa? 4. Write a post about how you think a smart but not involved person sees the points game (status chasing all the way down? Coupon clipping dressed in beach vacation dreams?) 5. Write a post on what the credit card game looks like 3 years from now. Don’t post it, but send it to a third party for a scheduled release 3 years hence 6. What are your best travel tips for introverts? 7. Invent a cynical…
United and Marriott Offer New Reciprocal Benefits – RewardsPlus Gives United Gold Elites Marriott Gold!
United and Marriott today launched a partnership called RewardsPlus. In some ways similar to Starwood and Delta’s Crossover Rewards announced in February, the program adds status recognition and some stepped up points benefits for elites in both programs. But unlike Starwood-Delta, points-earning has not been boosted under this new offering. United’s Gold elites and higher get Gold status in the Marriott Rewards program. That’s actually a pretty strong benefit (albeit one you can get by signin up for the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa) in that it usually takes 50 nights with Marriott to qualify. All Marriott Platinum and Platinum Premier members get United silver status. United elites will be able to convert miles into Marriott points at a 1:1 ratio, although this represents a poor transfer value (since a United mile is generally worth more than…
I Can’t Warn You Enough: Make Absolutely Positively Sure United Actually Issues Your Award Tickets
I’ve put out the clarion call several times in the past. But it bears repeating often. And every time this happens to me, even I remain surprised. A year ago I wrote about United award tickets on Asiana cancelling themselves. United’s system doesn’t always pass ticket numbers through to some partners and when the partner you have redeemed your miles on sees an ‘unticketed’ reservation, they may go ahead and cancel. United blames the partner, but United’s system is the only one that regularly does this. Solution: When you issue award tickets, call up the airlines that are operating your flights. Make sure they see the ticket numbers and confirm you are ready to travel. If there are changes to your flights that require re-issuance of tickets, repeat this step. I also wrote about the…
How Will I Be Able to Talk Miles and Points in 20 Minutes… TODAY?
This will be short because I have nothing unique to add to the conversation. I’m about to give a talk at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit on travel, and I don’t really want to. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great group of people, and it’s a talk that I love — but with the news of the Asiana crash in San Francisco it’s a little bit difficult to focus on my usual pedantic concerns of points, miles, first class cabins. And yet I won’t be posting much on the subject of the crash because I don’t have special knowledge from being on the scene, or special expertise other than as an observer of travel about crash investigations. I’ve just been following twitter for my updates. And I know to discount much of what’s reported…
EVA Airways Award Space Now Available at United.com
I’ve been writing a ton about new Star Alliance airline EVA Airways over the past two weeks. I noted briefly just how amazing their award availability is back on June 19. Taipei-based EVA Airways has joined the Star Alliance and is a truly awesome ‘get’ — business class award availability is really, really good and thy fly to Toronto, Vancouver, New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Another great way to get between North America and Asia and with a really stellar inflight product. I’ve found the Aeroplan website good for searching space, along with the ANA website. I was unsuccessful pulling up available space at United.com yesterday. I shared some of my frustrations with United’s call centers getting EVA Airways awards booked, since the flights couldn’t be found at United.com. Nonetheless, it’s…
