News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Delta will be squeezing four more coach seats into their 737-900s by shrinking the lavatories. More Than Mary has started a series with my advice on getting a little extra luxury for your travel spend, the first part of the series focusing on hotels – with a tip a week for the next six weeks, I believe. SAS will be eliminating intra-European business class. Possibly short-sighted move, if my conversation with a British Airways exec a couple of weeks back is any indication — BA loses money on their intra-European business product itself, but maintains it because it’s key to be able to sell long haul premium cabin seats (they believe cunnecting premium cabin passengers would book away without an intra-European premium product). Le Club Accorhotels instant top…
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Return to the Maldives: New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class
Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class After checking in for my Etihad flight — a bit of a process in and of itself because the check-in counters are roped off and there’s a staff member there to keep people away who don’t belong, though I didn’t have to show him an itinerary to get through.. and…
First Class “Used to Be a Better Meal, Now It’s a Better Life”
In the film Jerry Maguire, Renee Zellweger looks forward from the coach cabin and tells her son, ” First class, that’s what’s wrong. It used to be a better meal, now it’s a better life.” Except… she’s flying domestically and so that statement hardly seems true at all. Jeff Martin passes along an Atlanta Journal Constitution piece on Delta’s investments in their premium cabin product that can’t resist the urge to frame the issue as the haves and have nots. Over the years, airlines have been squeezing more seats into the back of the plane and have removed some extras like free checked bags and meals. Now, much of their attention is on ever-more luxurious seats and amenities for those up front, where the profits are. The comparison really doesn’t hold water at all. Coach…
The Best Mileage Credit Card for Beginners
Key Link: Chase Sapphire Preferred If you’re already an expert, stop reading this post now. You already know everything in it, and I don’t want you to waste your time. You won’t be able to get your 45 seconds back. If you have 6 or more credit cards open, this post is not for you. When I’m asked for frequent flyer advice, I have to resist the temptation to give an oral dissertation defense. I can easily run off at the mouth. I tend to be really quite earnest and feel like it’s important to qualify, to offer precise recommendations. But too much advice can be overwhelming. It’s probably why many of the people I work with think that this ‘crazy frequent flyer thing’ (jetting off in premium cabins around the world multiple times a…
Making the Most Out of (Devaluing?) Membership Rewards Points
Ronald A. asks how to get the most out of Membership Rewards points, in light of recent changes to their program — no more bonus to pay for airline tickets directly with points (which was never a good value to begin with), fewer transfer bonuses in the past, and partners that mostly add fuel surcharges onto awards. They’ve also eliminated their shopping portal that allowed accumulation of Membership Rewards points for online purchases. I’ve written frequently in the past that the biggest devaluations to Membership Rewards have come from external changes rather than changes to Membership Rewards itself — Aeroplan gutting its award chart and adding furcharges to most partners British Airways gutting its award chart for long haul/connections ANA adding fuel surcharges onto Virgin Atlantic awards Singapore Airlines increasing award chart pricing Loss of…
Considering My Next Big Award Redemption.. 3 First Class Products in One Easy to Book Award
I’ve discussed at length the American AAdvantage distance-based oneworld awards (now called oneworld explorer awards) in the past. In addition to the ‘normal’ way you can book an award, with the mileage cost based on the ‘region’ you start from and end in (which is subject to all sorts of rules, like you can’t fly from North America to Asia via Europe, there has to be a published fare between your starting and ending cities, etc) American will allow you to base the mileage cost of your award based on the distance that you fly as long as you only fly on oneworld airlines (and not their other partners like Alaska Airlines or Etihad) and fly on at least two different oneworld airlines (not counting American). The addition of Malaysia Airlines into oneworld has me…
Return to the Maldives on Miles: Etihad and British Airways First Class and Tour of Park Hyatts
Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class One of the things I really like about American AAdvantage is that they’re generally the best program for securing international first class awards. They have a litany of partners both inside oneworld and outside of oneworld that make this possible – British Airways (albeit with fuel surcharges), Qantas (not nearly…
Lufthansa’s Shrinking First Class Cabins and What it Means for Award Space
Lufthansa currently offers a first class cabin on 94 out of 100 planes in its long haul fleet. They will be shrinking that down to 75% of their fleet. Already Lufthansa has been reducing the average number of first class seats in the cabin. Their 747s used to offer 16 first class seats and the retrofitted ones now only offer only 8 (albeit in the same amount of space on the upper deck, with a seat and separate bed for each passenger). Fewer planes with first class, fewer seats in first class. And they’ve been making efforts to sell those seats rather than letting them fly empty, offering discounted and two-for-one first class fares. All of which makes it more difficult to get those seats on points. And it has been tougher. Even on routes…
TAM Leaving Star Alliance, Joining Oneworld
This has been much expected since oneworld member LAN (with subsidiaries throughout South America) merged with Brazilian carrier and Star Alliance member TAM. The two airlines have separate corporate entities under the banner LATAM but were going to be forced to make a decision, and all signs have pointed to choosing oneworld over Star Alliance. That decision is now official. TAM will leave the Star Alliance in the second quarter of 2014, with an immediate entry into oneworld upon departure from Star. LAN Colombia — not currently a part of oneworld — will join in the fourth quarter of 2013. That positions oneworld for quite the fight against Star’s AviancaTACA. (Chile’s LAN has been a member of oneworld since 2000 and LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru are current affiliate members.) Oneworld has made…
Bits ‘n Pieces for March 5, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Lucky runs down the new Virgin America-Singapore Airlines partnership. The best opportunity so far is for occasional Virgin America flyers to credit cheap tickets to Singapore, since Singapore awards points based on miles flown and Virgin America based on ticket cost. We don’t yet know what sort of award inventory Virgin America will have access to on Singapore, and the answer to that question could be useful (since Singapore gives their own members substantially more premium cabin availability than they give to Star Alliance partners). Executive Travel profiles me on the value of miles and how to make the most out of them. Loyalty Lobby highlights Accor’s 40% off Asia Pacific sale for stays from March 27 through June 30. USA Today realizes that Delta has the worst…
