It’s great to take an objective look at award availability across different airlines, so much is shrouded in secrecy and certainly the airlines are far from transparent. That lack of transparency has worked to the advantage of several programs — especially the less rewarding ones — since few consumers know the difference, it’s quite common for the median program member tho think that “all miles are alike.” I’ve certainly gained a great deal of experience through hands on practice, having redeemed over 200 million miles. I do know which airlines offer strong availability, which ones are weak. But even then I know the most important lesson is that the miles which offer you the most value are going to depend on your reward goals — cabin, number of seats, destinations. One study, highlighted by the…
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My Conde Nast Daily Traveler Piece on the Best Credit Cards for Your Spending
Links: Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Starwood Preferred Guest American Express American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card Over at Conde’ Nast’s Daily Traveler I wrote a basic piece on rewards credit cards. It’s the first post of a three part series. This one focuses on the best cards to put your spending on. The other two focus on the best signup bonuses and cards with the best benefits for carrying the card (as opposed to actually using it). The basic principles I offered were: The first piece of advice is to pick a reward goal. If you want to fly to South America, your best bet is American miles. If you want to fly to Europe or Asia then United or US Airways miles are best, followed closely by American miles. For Australia and French Polynesia,…
Delta Adds Virgin Australia Flights to Online Award Booking
The toughest frequent flyer award there that there is out there is North America to Australia/New Zealand non-stop. There’s not a lot of flying to Auckland these days, Qantas has pulled their Los Angeles – Auckland flight and Air New Zealand tends to release business class award seats about two months out during peak season (if at all). Meanwhile, getting Qantas seats to Australia can be a real challenge. They’re conservative about releasing award seats (though business class to Brisbane is among the most available). And seats released when the schedule loads are accessible by British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas’ own members, plus Alaska Airlines members, weeks before American AAdvantage members can access thsoe seats — because Qantas opens their schedule nearly a year out while American only books flights 331 days out. United…
Frequent Flyer Blogs With Simple Lessons on How Your Family Can Travel for Free
Last summer I wrote about how to convince people that frequent flyer programs are worthwhile. They’re my passion of course, and I get stares and jealous comments from colleagues, people say they want to know ‘how to do what I do’ and yet most of the time they don’t follow through. It just seems so far outside their experience and comfort zone, they don’t make the leap. And yet some people do, I did, many readers of this blog did, what made that difference? That’s the very nut that Dave Code wants to crack in this Huffington Post piece. He begins with the big value proposition of credit cards, making it sound simple to take your family overseas for free: Parents, you may not realize you have a chance to dramatically increase your family’s quality…
Is Marriott Devaluing Their Elite Upgrade Benefits Even More?
Regular readers know that I’m generally unimpressed with Marriott Rewards’ elite program. Their Platinum level is the most stringent top tier status to qualify for of any major hotel program requiring 75 nights in a year. And yet: Breakfast benefit only applies during the week (though some properties go above and beyond) Late checkout on request only, day of departure Suites are excluded from upgrades per terms and conditions Free health club access isn’t a top tier benefit Virtually no benefits on resort stays — late checkout (even based on availability) doesn’t apply, breakfast doesn’t even apply. And it’s those resort and leisure stays where I often care the most.. Several years ago Marriott added ‘excluding suites’ from the upgrade terms and conditions, the benefit once simply said best available room and there were often…
Debating The Points Guy on the Value of Delta Skymiles at Frequent Traveler University
Frequent Traveler University had some really outstanding moments, The Points Guy posted a video of his talk about Delta Skymiles. He was debating me on their merits, I wish someone had filmed my counterpoint. I certainly see value in the program. But I advanced the argument that the program is on the whole less lucrative than United’s, American’s, Delta’s, or Alaska’s, while conceding that it works better for me than Southwest’s or Frontier’s. My basic arguments were as follows: Their pricing engine is broken. A US-Australia award may be 150,000 miles roundtrip in business class, and it may be that the award is supposed to include flights inside the US to the international gateway city when those segments are available at the ‘low’ level, but Delta often prices it additively anyway. You’ll often see 45,000…
British Airways Status Matching of bmi Elites is Now Live
British Airways has acquired British Midland, and now they’ve made available the website to match bmi Diamond Club elite status to equivalent status in the British Airways Executive Club program. I’m a bmi Gold elite member, and am working through my best strategy here. The primary value for me in BA’s Gold status will be that I’ll receive access to American’s Flagship lounges even on domestic US itineraries, I don’t otherwise have much use for BA Gold as an American Executive Platinum. I do not intend to requalify as a British Airways elite. I’m looking for a non-U.S. Star Alliance program to reach Star Gold status with, preferably one that bonuses premium cabin fares and has a reasonable award chart. I do like that Asiana status can last up to 4 years and that their…
Restoring the Trust that United Lost with its March 3 Continental Merger/Integration Problems
Wandering Aramean offers a nice discussion of this morning’s Frequent Traveler University session with a United executive who came out to face the music of frequent flyers. He caught a red eye to make it to Newark, I think he showered, and then came down for a session which ran from 10am until lunch. To me, it was (hopefully) the beginning of United’s rapprochement with its customers — the March 3rd integration of United and Continental, their reservation systems, and mileage programs has been a disaster. At the Freddie Awards Thursday evening Robert Wuhl said that you could trust United to keep its promises — “when they promised 2 to 4 hour hold times, they key their promise!” And of course it hasn’t been just telephone hold times, which have improved (although hardly to pre-March…
A Newark Airport Hotel That’s Actually Worth Staying At?
My favorite airport hotel in the world is the Intercontinental O’Hare. It’s crazy nice, from the time you’re picked up in a new black party bus instead of the standard beat up van.. to the lobby with an art gallery… beautiful bathrooms… a view of planes lining up to land… plus decent restaurants attached to the property like a Capital Grill. I much like the SkyCity Marriott in Hong Kong as well, on the water with a great staff and great rooms, top notch bath amenities and free internet, right by the airport. Now, the best and most important thing most of the time is convenience and proximity, so it’s hard to beat the Sheratons in Frankfurt and Paris (though I don’t especially like either property as a hotel), the Sheraton Toronto airport, the Kempinski…
Frequent Travelers Speak: Which Programs Really are the Best?
The Freddie Awards website did an excellent job chronicling the evening’s blow-by-blow with photos. My own summary is over at Conde Nast Travel. Here’s the USA Today take. You can read about it at Rapid Travel Chai and at Mommy Points. Deals We Like covered the results. So did the Points Guy. And Live and Let’s Fly just Another Points Traveler is giving away her swag bag from the evening. The big winners on the night were: American Airlines in the Americas — Program of the Year, Best Earning Promotion (Double Elite Qualifying Miles), Best Customer Service, and Best Elite Program. I think they do deserve to be the big winner here, their award inventory domestically is head and shoulders above the competition and their elite program is a solid choice, I definitely feel valued…
