How and Why to Status Match to Turkish Airlines I’ve written in the past about getting complimentary elite status on Turkish Airlines by having them match elite status you already have. The status lasts two years and they’ve even been willing to match United MileagePlus status even though Turkish and United are Star Alliance partners. Having the status, of course, gets you access to United’s club lounges when flying United same-day even domestically. You used to be able to request the status match via email but they started accepting requests via online contact form only (and it can take a couple of months for them to get back to you — be patient). As a result of these posts many readers have Turkish Airlines elite status. I’d bet most just use the status for club…
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Etihad Introducing a Dallas Flight — Great Option for American Airlines Frequent Flyers
Etihad will launch Dallas service December 2, 2014. The flight will be operated three times weekly by a Boeing 777-200LR with 8 first class, 40 business class, and 189 economy seats. It’s too early to tell what award availability on this flight will be like but in general I find that Eithad’s availability is excellent, especially early on as they tend to load premium cabin award space when the schedules open. Especially interesting is that — with Qatar having joined oneworld and launching Dallas service — the move would seem to suggest that Etihad believes their relationship with American Airlines can continue. To make this flight work they’ll most certainly need feed from American. Etihad First Class Cabin – Suites Etihad Business Class American AAdvantage miles are great given the quality of Etihad’s product and…
Delta Dramatically Improves its Elite Program With Confirmed International Upgrades
Delta is making changes to their 2014 elite upgrade program, and overall the changes are positive. Confirmable Domestic and International Upgrades as a “Choice” Delta offers its Platinum and Diamond elite members ‘choice’ benefits — one upon reaching Platinum, and folks who reach Diamond get two more. New upgrade certificates are being added to the ‘choice’ offerings beginning March 1. That means that these certificates come at a cost or tradeoff. Platinums and Diamonds will have to choose these instead of choosing something else like miles, club passes, or gifting status. But overall these upgrade certificates are actually good and what most will choose. Regional Upgrades: a Platinum Choice Upon qualifying for Platinum, a new choice is 4 ‘regional upgrades’ which are confirmable upgrade certificates valid on any route where complimentary upgrades are offered. These…
What are the World’s Best Airport Lounges?
Scott McCartney‘s latest Wall Street Journal column makes some interesting claims about lounges. Why Are US Airline Lounges So Far Below World Standard? He explains that US airport lounges are below the standards of Europe and especially Asia because they’re populated by low fare domestic passengers rather than high fare premium cabin long haul ones. In other words, the economics are different. (Though I’m not sure why United’s and American’s international first class lounges, then, would be below the standards of their Asian counterparts.) That said, US lounges aren’t below the standard of many European business lounges, and certainly not below the standard for South America, or for that matter India or Parkistan. But in some sense that’s what George W. Bush used to call “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” I’ve spent many hours…
Last Day to Buy US Airways Miles for Just 1.1 Cents Apiece
US Airways brought back their “up to a 100% bonus on shared miles” (miles transferred between accounts) for just this week. So if you want to take advantage of it, today’s your last opportunity until and unless the bonus returns. And since it’s been a US Airways practice but not an American AAdvantage practice, the merger with American makes future such bonuses somewhat uncertain. You can earn up to 50,000 bonus miles with the offer, which should appear instantly with the transfer. The cost for this is “$0.01 per mile plus a processing fee of $30 and a tax recovery charge of 7.5%” — transferring 50,000 miles from one account to another will deposit 100,000 in that account at a cost of $567.50. Since that’s a net increase of 50,000 miles you’re buying miles at…
The New Merged American-US Airways Will Adopt American’s Service Levels (Food!)
With the US Airways – American Airlines merger, expected to close shortly, there are basically three risks for customers: Integrations never go as well as hoped. Training employees on new systems is hard, even when you get the IT right. People are grumpy. They take it out on customers. This is a challenge for any airline merger, and a key reason why many business travelers don’t like mergers – period. US Airways members lose out on generous awards. US Airways is a member of the Star Alliance which means more flight options to Europe and Asia than oneworld, which it will be joining with the merger. There are some great values in the US Airways award chart, like 90,000 miles from the US to North Asia. US Airways agents are generally clueless and their IT…
US Airways 100% Bonus on Sharing Miles is Back – the Best Mileage Purchase Offer Returns!
US Airways is offering up to a 100% bonus on shared miles (miles transferred between accounts) between December 2 and December 6. Don’t transfer points today (December 1) — wait until this promotion goes live. You can earn up to 50,000 bonus miles with the offer, which should appear instantly with the transfer. The cost for this is “$0.01 per mile plus a processing fee of $30 and a tax recovery charge of 7.5%” — transferring 50,000 miles from one account to another will deposit 100,000 in that account at a cost of $567.50. Since that’s a net increase of 50,000 miles you’re buying miles at $0.01135 per mile. At that price I’m a buyer. What I love about US Airways is awards in premium cabins on Star Alliance partner airlines, and a generally reasonable…
What to Cook This Weekend When You Tire of Turkey
I can only eat so much turkey. Perhaps some of you have special ways to prepare it, but it will always be fairly bland to me — and after a Thanksgiving dinner and perhaps a once over with leftovers, I need to spice things up a bit. Of course you may be entertaining family (or being entertained by them) throughout the weekend. But if wherever you’re staying has access to an Asian grocer, or even a Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, or the equivalent of either, you could bring a little bit of flavor and spice back into your meals. Six years ago I blogged some Thai recipes that I picked up while staying at the Le Meridien Khao Lak outisde of Phuket, Thailand. In December 2006 the hotel had mistakenly loaded rates (attached to the…
Despite Devaluations, the Miles Game Goes On — And We Still Win
When I got started in miles and points I mostly earned through actual butt-in-seat flying. Miles were much harder to earn: Credit card bonuses seemed a big deal when they were 15,000 miles for a signup (I had never seen a 20,000 mile bonus for a United card until April 2002). I thought iDine — earning miles for eating at particular restaurants — was pretty cool. If memory serves, United once limited that to elites. Redeeming awards wasn’t nearly as flexible, either: US frequent flyer programs did not allow one-way awards, and you could not combine more than one partner on a roundtrip award. If you booked a business class award on a partner airline and needed a domestic flight to connect up to the international segment, United would only throw that in ‘as a…
US Airways-American Airlines Merger: Ten Things to Expect Next
Now that the Department of Justice has settled its anti-trust suit with American and US Airways, what can we expect to happen as frequent flyers? The deal is expected to close in December. US Airways will leave Star Alliance, quickly, and join oneworld. We don’t have a timeframe yet but it should be within a few months. That means if you want to book Star Alliance awards using US Airways miles, you will want to book those very soon. And any changes, once US Airways leave Star, will need to be onto airlines that are in oneworld instead. Once the two airlines are both in oneworld, they will also implement a partnership with each other, and they will likely make it possible to move miles back and forth between US Airways Dividend Miles and American…
