In addition to generous mileage earning for the charter flight, American Airlines has two separate offers for participants: bonus miles for flying on American between now and the charter flight itself, and an ultra-relaxed status challenge offer for folks who are elite members of another loyalty program. Here are the terms and conditions for the American Airlines bonus offers (.pdf) made to MegaDO participants. First, bonus miles for flying roundtrips through January 13. Earn up to 55,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles for round trip travel flown on American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection® between October 9, 2011, and January 13, 2012. Each roundtrip earns a successively bigger bonus. One roundtrip is 1000 miles, two roundtrips is 2000 more, three roundtrips is 3000 more… up to 10,000 bonus miles for the 10th roundtrip (and 55,000 total bonus…
ASIA
Search Results for "ASIA".
Excellent Award Availability and Excellent First Class: Etihad is Now an American AAdvantage Redemption Partner
Yesterday afternoon I got a tip from reader Abdou that Etihad flights were now bookable as awards with American AAdvantage miles. I meant to blog it right away, but looks like both Online Travel Review and One Mile at a Time beat me to the punch. While first and business class upgrade space (R and X inventory, respectively) are published through Sabre, and thus also searchable using the KVS tool and Expertflyer, the only way to search for award seats that I’m aware of is signing up for an Etihad Guest account and then using their website to search space. All reports so far are that American AAdvantage has access to the same award inventory that Etihad Guest members do. And that award availability is, so far, quite excellent. Like four first class award seats…
American Airlines Promos on Japan Airlines: Double Mileage Earning and Reduced Award Redemption Prices
Via DestinationDavid and JALPak on Milepoint come several mileage offers related to American Airlines’ joint venture with Japan Airlines. 50% off mileage redemption, San Francisco – Tokyo Haneda, for travel between November 1, 2011 and February 29, 2012. That makes makes business class roundtrip 50,000 miles and coach roundtrip 30,000. The same offer on Vancouver – Tokyo Narita Double miles on American codeshare flights operated by Japan Airlines and booked into a high fare class (K fare or higher) for travel between November 1, 2011 and February 29, 2012. Registration required. All of these are of limited usefulness, yet still interesting for what they signify. Winter is very much off-season for travel between the US and Japan. And the reduced mileage offers, while great for folks in or near San Francisco or Vancouver are appealing,…
Has Hilton HHonors Just Gutted Redemptions at their Best Properties?
Hilton has introduced several new features to the HHonors program recently, all at first blush sound great and some are even quite good. Cash and Points. Stretch your points farther, and you’re generally getting a higher value per point. Good on Hilton. I actually have an upcoming cash and points stay at two hotels in South Asia that represented remarkable value. I’m not all about the Cash and Points rather than traditional redemptions when available. As with Starwood, these awards represent real value. Premium Room Awards. One place where hotel chains can miss is with redemptions, you give them your room nights and earn your points and when it comes time to redeem you’re stuck in a base room. Intercontinental hotels won’t even officially honor elite upgrade benefits on award stays, which seems ludicrous and…
The Complaints Choir of Singapore
I’m a big fan of Singapore, here are some of my favorite things Singapore. Many Westerners complain that Singapore is too much like home for them, that it somehow isn’t “Asian” enough which says more about their own biases I think than it says about Singapore. It’s small, it’s clean, people in general speak English. Certainly it’s accessible for a first-time visitor. And for many it’s “just a stopover” but to me I actually enjoy spending time there. Of course, I’m not a local and so I don’t experience Singapore the way that locals do. And here are their complaints about life in Singapore, set to song, the Singapore Complaints Choir: We get fined for almost everything Drivers won’t ‘give chance’ when you want to ‘change lane’ The indoors are cold, the outdoors are hot;…
American Express-Continental Relationship Ends September 30: Should You Transfer Membership Rewards Points Now Before It’s Too Late?
With the American Express-Continental relationship ending on September 30 (crazy to think that they gave us a full year’s notice of year, serious kudos to them!), if you have Membership Rewards points it’s worth revisiting whether to take any last minute steps to protect yourself. Now, for me the first thing I think of is lounge access, since American Express Platinum (and Centurion) card members no longer will have access to Continental/United lounges beginning October 1. And Priority Pass Select members (which also happens to come with the Amex Platinum card) no longer get access, either. I’ll still get my lounge access via my British Midland Gold status. And I’m not really too tinked at American Express here, either. First, understand why the relationship is ending. Chase bank is the issuer of the co-branded credit…
United’s 2012 Mileage Plus Changes Announced, Some Bad News But Not as Bad as Expected
Scott O’Leary announced details of the new United Mileage Plus program for 2012 this morning on Milepoint. Here are the key changes, which aren’t as bad as feared but which have a couple of real key negatives from my perspective. United will go to a 4-tier elite program as expected — 25,000 miles, 50,000 miles, 75,000 miles, and 100,000 miles (plus Global Services). They will begin requiring a minimum of 4 United, Continental, or COPA flights to earn status, so both people that are earning United status from Air Canada or bmi flights alone will no longer be able to do so. They are not introducing a minimum revenue component to elite status qualification, as had been speculated. Reduced elite bonuses. Elites flying 50,000 – 99,999 miles per year will receive less than their current…
What Program You Should Use Depends on the Destinations You Want to Redeem For
One of the most frequent questions I get is, “Whose miles are really the best? I have a hard time using my miles and need to switch programs.” Or a common variation is, “I really should change credit cards, what credit card should I get to have the best chance of redeeming awards?” And there isn’t one true answer. There are some rough overall rules, but the best program for you depends on the award you want to redeem (and also the number of passengers, the class of service, willingness to take additional connections for better availability, requirements for inflight product, etc). Since I found myself offering this insight to someone this morning, I thought I’d share it more broadly — there are rough and ready rules about best program based on where in the…
Free Marriott Silver Status
Via Plane ‘N Simple, Marriott Rewards is offering complimentary silver status through February 2013 for residents of Australia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition, crediting your stays to Air China PhoenixMiles, China Eastern Airlines Eastern Miles, China Southern Airlines Sky Pearl Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, KingFisher Airlines King Club, or Jet Airways JetPrivilege earn bonus miles beginning with 1000 miles after your second stay, 1500 after each of your third and fourth stays, and 2000 after your 5th and each subsequent stay — up to 30,000 bonus miles (which would be earned on your 17th stay). Ok, not the most exciting promotion in the world. But it’s free elite status, even if you need to make a virtual move to the Asia Pacific…
The Myth of Booking Award Tickets at Midnight 330 Days Out
When to book award travel: There’s a persistent myth that the best time to book an award ticket is instantly when an airline’s schedule opens, and also that the moment when that happens is 12:01am exactly 330 days prior to travel. But before explaining why this isn’t true — as well as those times when it is! — it’s helpful to understand making award seats available on flights from an airline’s perspective. Airlines want to release those seats as (saver / low) awards that they don’t expect to sell for cash. Sure, they may load some award seats when the schedule opens but 11 months out they only have a rough idea of what seats are going to go unsold. They may not add a single award seat on a given flight when the schedule…
