Singapore Airlines first class is perhaps the most aspirational airline product in existence. It’s rarely available to Singapore’s mileage partners like United and Air Canada, but availability is quite good for Singapore’s own Krisflyer members. That’s lucky because Singapore Airlines Krisflyer is a transfer partner of both the US American Express Membership Rewards program and of Starwood Preferred Guest. As are result many people have access to Singapore miles and don’t even realize it. (At the beginning of July 2012 Singapore award availability was opened up briefly to all of their partners, and I made several bookings at that time.) Singapore’s award chart isn’t cheap, and they do add fuel surcharges on awards. But you get a 15% mileage discount when booking on their (only semi-functional) website, and you get.. Singapore Airlines first class. Sure,…
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Is American AAdvantage Adding Fuel Surcharges to All International Awards?
Lucky wrote a disturbing post this morning suggesting that American was going to start collecting fuel surcharges on all international awards. If correct, this is a very big deal. 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 cabins (so a business class ticket might have a higher fuel surcharge than a coach one). And it is possible to file discounted fares that do not incur fuel surcharges…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 26, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Don’t make a booking with PointsHound… until tomorrow. A little birdie tells me that Tuesday mid-day PointsHound will be launching a “double earning promotion” such that a reservation that would normally earn 3000 miles will instead earn 6000 miles. The promotion will run for bookings made through August 31. I mentioned on Friday that the list of IHG Rewards hotels participating in PointBreaks was out, so you could see which hotels would be bookable for just 5000 points per night. Booking is now available online for stays through October 31. Star Alliance member EVA Airways is bringing a Hello Kitty 777-300ER to its Taipei – Los Angeles route. With 3 daily Los Angeles roundtrips, we do not yet know which flight will get this aircraft. But the very…
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I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Apologies. The link you followed is not currently available. It is possible that the offer has expired, or my link to it is broken. Let me make some suggestions. Here are some of the best credit card offers for you to consider: Chase Sapphire Reserve® (See rates and fees) is a $795 annual fee card comes with an offer to earn 125,000 bonus points after you spend $6,000…
Singapore Airlines First Class Passengers Can’t Use the Bathroom in Hong Kong
Singapore Airlines does an outstanding job in the air (though service is usually phenomenal long haul it does vary and can be quite mixed flying short haul). Their food is very good as well. But Singapore Airlines does not match the quality of its inflight product with its ground services. Even most of its lounges in Singapore are just ‘fine’. Lounges outside of Singapore? Not nearly so impressive. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Hong Kong. Singapore Airlines has a fairly large presence in Hong Kong with 7 daily roundtrips between Hong Kong and Singapore. One of their flights heads onward to San Francisco. San Francisco – Hong Kong – Singapore and return flights are dubbed SQ1 and SQ2. This flight has seasonally been served by an A380 with ‘Suites class’. And yet… the…
What is the Most Devalued Airline Frequent Flyer Program in North America?
I believe the Most Devalued Airline Frequent Flyer Program in North America award goes to Air Canada and Aeroplan. I do caveat this, I am very specific in the title of the award. Airline frequent flyer program so the March 28 bloodletting at Hilton HHonors doesn’t count. (Nor does the introduction of category 7 awards at Starwood, although that was a specific devaluation and meanwhile the program has improved elite benefits.) North American programs, so LatinPass which first tried to make members earn back their existing point balances and then changed from being a frequent flyer program to an online shopping program doesn’t count. Devaluation isn’t the same as “going out of business” so while I lost all value from my Mexicana Frecuenta miles I don’t really think that airline’s shutting down is really a…
Why 35,000 Starwood Points May Be a Good Deal for 2 Tennis Tickets
Starwood is offering Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express cardholders the opportunity to redeem 35,000 Starpoints for a pair of US Open tickets, including access to a an event in the SPG Luxury Suite with food and drinks. You Shouldn’t Usually Buy “Stuff” With Your Points I almost always say that it’s a bad idea to redeem miles for merchandise. Use points from travel providers for travel, because then you’re getting not just the ‘rebate’ but also leveraging the travel provider’s ability to purchase inventory that would otherwise go unsold at a deep discount and pass that savings onto you. It’s why United MileagePlus miles can get business class award tickets to Asia for 120,000 miles whereas spending Bank of America Worldpoints it would generally be over half a million points. When a…
Seeking Playground Justice: Why Premium Cabin Travel is Best for Families
Mommy Points kicks off her “keeping it real week” by arguing that families have to stretch their miles across more people so premium cabin travel may be unrealistic or undesirable. And of course it’s mathematically true that more award seats cost more miles. But I think that ignores a good part of the picture. And of course the last thing you want is to add the stress of coach travel onto the already stressful family travel experience. It may sound funny for me to talk about family travel. I do not have children. So feel free to write this post off as insensitivity on someone who ‘just can’t understand the plight faced by families’. Hopefully it’s not just a rant, but useful advice, and I do think I’ve gained some perspective by working with countless…
Review: Grand Hyatt Singapore (Upgrade to a Duplex Suite) and Hotel Pickup #FAIL
Last year I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Singapore and really enjoyed it. If you want to be on Orchard Road it’s a great option. Singapore is a very tough hotel town, lots of good hotels but only a few that are close to great — and even the good ones can be pricey. So the ability to leverage elite benefits or points can be a strong benefit. I booked a discounted paid rate and confirmed my upgrade in advance. Hyatt allows Diamonds to confirm upgrades to suites at time of booking (subject to availability) 4 times per year for up to 7 nights each time. And they allow all members to use just 6000 points to confirm an upgrade of up to 4 nights if paying the ‘Hyatt Daily Rate’. The standard upgrade here…
Delta Increases Price of International Business Class Awards
Delta just dropped a new award chart with increased mileage costs for some international business class routes – the award chart is live now and applies to travel from June 1, 2014 onward. (Travel prior to that date should price at the older levels.) For instance, US-Europe in business class goes from 100,000 to 125,000 miles roundtrip US-Asia in business class goes from 120,000 to 140,000 miles roundtrip US-Australia in business class goes from 150,000 to 160,000 miles roundtrip US-South Africa in business class goes from 140,000 to 160,000 miles They say the need for the change is because their product is so good. In June 2014, we will be the only U.S. carrier to offer full flat-bed seats with direct aisle access in Business Class across our entire wide-body fleet. Except… except… United is…
