I mentioned on Sunday that redeeming US Airways miles for Lufthansa transatlantic flights has been a challenge over the past couple of weeks. Flights that Lufthansa is offering to partner airlines are showing up to US Airways reservations agents as unavailable. I’ve tested this on a number of routes and dates and found this to be the case — bookable with Continental or Aeroplan miles, but US Airways says not available. At first I assumed it was an IT glitch of sorts, something I’ve seen and experienced with US Airways in the past. Or just agents who didn’t know how to search for what I was asking about or who didn’t know what they were doing. I’ve frequently asked about first class awards and the agent will say nothing is available — when the agent…
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An Amazing Night at the Frequent Traveler Awards
The first annual Frequent Traveler Award ceremony was held yesterday in Houston, and I had the great honor to be a part of it — as Chair of the Nominations Committee and as presenter of the Hotel Program of the Year award in each of three regions (Americas, Europe and Africa, Middle East & Asia-Pacific). Throughout the evening the ballroom was packed We had about 250 people in all, equally divided between representatives of the industry and the traveling public. The trophies were all lined up, ready to distribute And here I am doing just that: While each of the presenters waited to come up, we sat at the corner of the stage in Continental’s new business class seat Full results from the evening are available on the awards’ website, and the full Powerpoint presentation…
50,000 Mile Signup Bonus for British Airways Visa, and No Foreign Currency Transaction Fees
For those who missed out on last year’s amazing, incredible, 100,000-mile signup bonus for the British Airways Visa (the first true megabonus offer, pre-dating the 100k bonus from Citibank and American), they’ve come out with a new 50,000-mile signup bonus for the card. Well worth doing in its own right. 50,000 miles for a $75 annual fee is a pretty good deal. And what’s more, they’ve actually improved the card. Chase introduced the elimination of foreign currency transaction fees with their Priority Club Visa. That was a really interesting innovation, but earning 1 Priority Club point per dollar is just not an attractive reward proposition. Then they rolled out the benefit with the new Hyatt Visa, and that became a really worthwhile card as a result — a valuable reward currency in Hyatt Gold Passport…
American AAdvantage Fuel Surcharges on British Airways Redemptions … More Expensive Than I First Realized
On October 1 I wrote about American Airlines beginning to add fuel surcharges to awards redeemed on British Airways. Previously, AAdvantage members couldn’t earn or redeem miles on British Airways between the US and the UK at all. So members would fly from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. And there was no restrictions on flights beyond London, such as to Africa. But there were no fuel surcharges. Now, there are more available routes for redemption but all of those routes (including those which were previously available) are significantly more expensive. How much more? I find a US – Europe roundtrip in a premium cabin will often total nearly $600. Now the regular taxes are a bit over $200 anyway, that darned U.K. premium cabin departure luxury tax. But the fuel surcharges are a killer. And…
Delta Execs Share their Views of and Plans for the Skymiles Programs
Yesterday I posted links to notes on presentations by Delta Executives to members of Flyertalk. Since I’m not really much of a Delta flyer, the specifics weren’t hugely engaging for me, but I passed them along for those of you out there hub-captive to Delta for whom the nitty gritty of the Delta experience matters a great deal. Flyertalk member ND76 has posted notes of a couple more presentations, and these are much more up my alley. Bob Kupbens is Vice President of e-commerce and offered significant feedback on the airline’s IT priorities. I was most interested in the following comment: 16. When award calendar showed up on the screen, the house almost came down. There will be a new look to the award calendar by end of first quarter 2011, with emphasis on accuracy…
US Airways Award Chart Giveth… and US Airways Award Chart Taketh Away
In the neverending saga of US Airways award zone adjustments, after just last week definitively moving Thailand to their North Asia region (thus reducing the cost of US-Thailand awards in business class by 30,000 miles and in first class by 40,000 miles!), they’ve once again updated their partner award chart (.pdf) and it’s now back in South Asia. In the first iteration they moved Russia from North Asia to Europe. Ok, no more Moscow – Frankfurt – Seoul first class roundtrips for 40,000 miles. Fair enough. And they listed Thailand and the Philippines under both North Asia and South Asia, instead of just South Asia where they had previously resided. Then US Airways corrected the double listing mistake, moving Thailand and the Philippines to North Asia only. And now they’ve moved both countries back to…
US Airways Reduces Mileage Prices to Thailand, Philippines
Last week I posted that it appeared US Airways was in the process of adjusting their zone definitions. At the time they had Thailand and Philippines listed both in North Asia and in South Asia (whoops!). Well, commenter steven points out that they’ve cleaned things up. And now Thailand and Philippines are both listed solely in North Asia. Wow. I’m not sure the geography of it makes sense to me, but I’ll take it — business class awards are reduced from 120,000 miles to 90,000 miles and first class awards are reduced from 160,000 miles down to 120,000. Go Dividend Miles, seriously, THANK YOU! And with the current mileage purchase offer (100% bonus on purchased miles through November 15), it means you can buy sufficient miles for a business class award to Thailand for about…
US Airways Adjusts their Award Zone Definitions, First Class to Thailand Drops 40,000 Miles in Price
US Airways has posted a new Star Alliance award chart (.pdf) on their website, I haven’t noticed any changes yet to their mileage prices but the zone definitions have changed slightly. Russia used to be listed as North Asia, and so flying Russia – Europe – Hong Kong (for instance) for only 40,000 miles roundtrip in first class. Now Russia is gone from the list of countries on the chart, it’s possible that it’s been recategorized to Europe, I haven’t checked with US Airways yet. But they may have read about all the Flyertalkers jumping on that award value bandwagon. The one most interesting to me is that Thailand was moved from South Asia to North Asia. So first class from the US to Thailand just dropped in price from 160,000 miles to 120,000. Wow.…
Strategies for Earning 100,000 Bonus Miles Through the US Airways Grand Slam Promo
TM Travel World has an excellent post where he lays out how he plans to get 36 ‘hits’ in the US Airways Grand Slam promotion and earn 100,000 bonus miles. What’s useful about the post is that he details the specific items he’s doing and buying and their costs. I have many different items myself, and I’m not likely to hit the top bonus for 36 activities, but there are some useful nuggets here. He’s going to earn four different partner credits from hotel points transfers into US Airways. Starwood Platinum members can transfer as few as 1 point to miles in their choice of programs, you need to transfer a minimum of 100 miles for this promotion. Then he’s transferring points from Hyatt, Hilton, and Goldpointsplus. He’s going to credit six hotel stays and…
Behind the Scenes of the Frequent Traveler Awards Nomination Process
The Frequent Traveler Awards are underway, and I’m told there have already been hundreds of thousands of votes cast. I’ve gotten a couple of questions here on my blog, by email, and on Flyertalk about what it’s all about, and how it differs from the Freddie Awards — which Randy Petersen decided to bring to a close after two decades. Like the Freddies, the Frequent Traveler awards fulfill a unique role: They honor the best loyalty programs, not the best or hippest resort hotels or airline seats and food. They are decided by the traveling public at large, not by a group of self-described ‘experts’. I’m the Chair of the Frequent Traveler Awards committee that put together the structure, voting processes, and nominations for the Frequent Traveler Awards. I had always been a bit of…
