In response to Tuesday’s post laying out my personal credit card spending strategy for 2012, reader Andrew writes: Gary, can you please write a post laying out a credit card strategy for those of us who don’t spend mega dollars in a year? Even with some reimbursable business spend, I’m probably not going to spend more than 50K this year, and it seems silly to split up that spending across, at minimum, three cards (as you suggest). Getting 15,000 or 20,000 points per card per year isn’t getting my wife and I closer to award travel very quickly. I replied briefly in the comments, but will share my take on this as well. My post was about my own personal situation which I described, and I absolutely recognize that it doesn’t apply to plenty of…
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Don’t Forget to Add a Segment to the End of American AAdvantage Award Bookings
American Airlines and partner awards don’t allow ‘free’ stopovers (visiting an extra city along the way) except at the North American gateway city. Many airlines will let you stop over, say, in Tokyo on the way to Hong Kong or Bangkok. American Airlines will charge extra miles for this. (Unless you are using one of their distance-based oneworld awards which require flying two oneworld airlines other than American, which permit no changes to routing after issuance, and which do not allow flying on non-oneworld airlines.) The exception is that you can stopover in whatever North American city you leave the country from, or first return to. If you live in New York, you can fly New York – Tokyo – Singapore on Japan Airlines, come back Singapore – Hong Kong – New York. And you…
Award Booking Tip: Placing Award Reservations on Hold
Though I have an upcoming trip to the Maldives, I don’t have a ton of exciting travel to look forward to beyond that, at least exciting by the standard of flying international first class on a premium airline to an exotic destination, hopefully one I haven’t been to before. So this weekend I decided to start playing around with future trips. First I put an award on hold to the United Arab Emirates — American miles to fly Etihad first class (suites with doors!) to Abu Dhabi, then a business class hop over to Delhi and back, the though was to stay either at the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi and/or Park Hyatt Dubai while in the U.A.E. I wasn’t sure if that especially appealed, but the ability to hold the award without committing was nice.…
Planning for Star MegaDO 4 Has Begun!
With the first ever oneworld MegaDO just around the corner, which I’ll be blogging and am super thrilled about — an aviation-enthusiast’s dream of inside operations with American in Dallas, Boeing in Seattle, and other oneworld carriers in Los Angeles all connected by a chartered 757 party plane — it’s actually time to start the thinking, planning, and scheming for future trips. Now, for those unfamiliar, a group of frequent flyers first got together and chartered a plane and set up tours and activities with some Star Alliance airlines, enthusiasts and loyal customers that the airlines decided to pay attention to. There were crazy moments like pillow fights gone viral on YouTube and sliding down an evacuation slide in Europe. The media quickly started paying attention, there was a feature article in Conde Nast and…
My Wishes for the Major U.S. Airline Mileage Programs in the New Year
Two years ago I offered frequent flyer wishes for the New Year, and some of them came true while two remain on my wish list going forward. Here’s what I’d love to see from major U.S. airline frequent flyer programs, little things that would make a great difference in terms of value derived by members, from the perspective of someone who is inspired by the aspirational nature of the programs and value leveraging miles for premium cabin award experiences. American Airlines. I love their domestic award availability, and I love several of their partners. I’ve had such great luck with Cathay Pacific first class award space that I’ve gotten lazy and fly too much Cathay First, not doing the hard work to get more interesting and varied products. But I wish the website were more…
The Simplest Advice Can Make the Biggest Difference
Sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks. I may write about pretty complex or convoluted deals and strategies here on the blog. Fortunately I have a patient readership. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is looking for the most Rube Goldberg-esque means of securing award tickets or earning more miles. I leave out the simple stuff, things that seem ‘obvious’ don’t really occur to me to write about most of the time. But then something happens to make me realize that there’s some useful advice that will be valuable for “the 99%” of mileage collectors. That isn’t actually too simple or obvious to be useful. Earlier in the week I had lunch with two professional acquaintences who asked if I might help them think about how to get more out of their miles…
Feature Article on the Benefits to Consumers and Hotels of Frequent Guest Programs
Gabriel Leigh covers hotel loyalty programs in DestinAsian magazine, explaining the lengths hotel programs will go to in order to win business from frequent guests. I’m quoted extensively in the piece, pointing out especially that hotel programs are lucrative, with points allowing members to redeem for truly aspirational properties they might not otherwise be able to afford. I note my own award stays at the Conrad Koh Samui (last month) and Park Hyatt Maldives (upcoming). At the same time the programs are lucrative for the chains themselves, since repeat customers are actually less costly to market to than new ones and elite customers can drive substantial revenue to a chain’s bottom line. I note that Hyatt Gold Passport and Intercontinental’s Ambassador program offer the most rewarding top tier elite levels. The article highlights free night…
Thank You! How to Support this Blog
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. 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). I’ve been writing this blog since 2002, and it’s been a tremendous labor of love. I started it under the name More Room Throughout Coach — the idea that was could all find additional space in our travels and our lives, freedom and prosperity, by paying attention and working at it. Of course, American got rid of their extra legroom throughout the entire coach cabin concept. But I kept blogging. Throughout the years there have been tremendous ups and downs to…
United Airlines Back Home: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home We had arrived early on our flight from Hong Kong. Which is great as far as it goes — but I had rather planned for the opposite. Since I was on a British Airways-issued award, I was using Cathay Pacific flights only. Adding…
Conrad Koh Samui, Resort: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home In my last post I focused exclusively on my room at the Conrad Koh Samui. The room deserved its own post because it was special in its own right, and also because the focus of a stay at this property is very much…
