Wendy Perrin interviews Sir Richard Branson, who answers Steve Belkin’s question and says he would consider starting his own alliance. Steve imagines a world where Virgin hooks up with “Etihad Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Alaska Airlines, El Al…” I usually leave the industry commentary to Cranky Flier except where it touches on those things I’m uniquely positioned to speak on. But Wendy Tweeted this interview to me, and I couldn’t help but add my two pence. Virgin really is ‘left out’ of the current alliance game. They’re not joining oneworld, anchored in Europe by British Airways. Though they are 49% owned by Singapore, Star Alliance is pretty well anchored in Europe with Lufthansa and Miles & More partners Swiss, Brussels, Austrian, and soon-to-be British Midland.. in addition to LOT and Scandinavian, Croatian, Aegean, et al. That…
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My So-Called Travel Life
I’ve had a few recent comments on here on the blog suggesting that I’m out of touch from my readers, that all I do is flying international premium cabins. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of my travels are really quite mundane, average experiences – not average for the leisure traveler flying once a year with family perhaps, but average for the frequent flyer I turn up for my domestic flight about an hour before departure. I pass through security like everyone else, though I certainly have my routines. Maybe there’s an elite line, maybe not, but lines are rarely bad when.I fly. If I’m not wearing a jacket I don’t even use a bin. I use a checkpoint flyer laptop bag, so I unclip it so it lays flat. Laptop doesn’t come…
Aegean Airlines — the New and Easiest Path to Star Alliance Gold Status
Lucky and Kiwi Flyer have already written about the great, low qualification requirements for Star Alliance Gold status with Aegean Airlines which has just joined Star Alliance. I’ve previously written about the easiest ways to secure Star Alliance Gold status, Turkish Miles & Smiles requires 40,000 miles in 12 months to make Star Alliance Gold. That status is valid for 2 years. And — as long as you don’t reside in Turkey — requalifying only takes 25.000 status miles in the first year or 37.500 status miles over two years. Asiana Club…Star Gold is earned after flying 40,000 qualifying miles within two years, and status lasts for two years. If you earn the status quickly enough, it can actually last for a full four years before dropping down and having to requalify again. And of…
The Best Ways to Cure Jetlag
I’ve never found a magic cure for jetlag. I really don’t suffer too badly going to or returning from Europe. If I take an overnight flight I just have to force myself to stay up, a short name mid-afternoon is fine but I can’t let myself go to sleep otherwise. The key of course is to adopt the local time as quickly as possible. Coming home from Europe I’m just tired early, and that can last a couple of days, but I’m otherwise fully functional. Similarly coming home from Asia is no big deal, I love making it back mid-day rather than late at night or else I’ll suffer for 24 hours. But my real challenge is going to Asia. I show up and though I may be tired at night I will wake up…
Double Delta Miles for Amex Spend if You Redeem an Award
I took awhile thinking about whether to post this, and what to say. As a result, Lucky beat me to the punch on this one. Delta is offering double miles on all credit card spend with their co-branded American Express products between July 1 and September 30 if you redeem an award of at least 10,000 miles, e.g. a 25,000 domestic coach saver award or a 10,000 mile redemption for cash and miles. (Registration required.) Double miles is always tempting, and this one doesn’t appear to be capped like most Delta Amex promotions have been in the past. But it’s still not enough to tempt me to acquire a Delta American Express or to use one. Say that I was going to put $100,000 in spend on a credit card during the promotion period. I’d…
Continental’s Award Pricing Computer Problems, and What it Means for the Continental-United Merger
Continental agents do what their computer tells them to do. They aren’t especially empowered. And in a dispute between common sense and the computer, the computer is always right. Continental doesn’t permit ‘holding’ an award except when there aren’t enough miles in the account, and you plan to transfer points in (e.g. from American Express). My understanding has been that Continental will only put an award on hold for 24 hours, which is plenty to make a transfer since Amex points transfer more or less instantly, sometimes the points won’t be available for 15 minutes or so but it’s more or less immediate. Although each time I put an award on hold with Continental, the agents tell me they’re putting the awards on a three-day hold. The reservation on the Continental website will say just…
eBags 20% Off Sale with Free Shipping, a Good Opportunity to Pick up a Throwaway Carryon?
In addition to working with a nice roll-aboard, I like to have the occasional throwaway bag as well. The kind I tend to pick up for $20 in Southeast Asia. I hate to check bags but occasionally I want to overpack on the outbound portion of a trip, maybe bring a bunch of liquids with me or gifts, and I don’t want to bother bringing checking the bag on the way home, so a bag I feel comfortable just leaving behind. Ebags is running an extra 20% off sale through June 21. Combined with free shipping, this makes it easy to pick up a throwaway bag as well, something as cheap as $32 all-in. And of course it’s even less expensive than that because you can pick up 8% cash back via eBates or 10%…
ANA Website No Longer Allows Members Without any Miles to Search for Star Allaince Awards
I woke up this morning to some disturbing news. The All Nippon Airways website award search page is the killer app for searching out Star Alliance awards. The site displays award inventory for all Star Alliance members, and is easy to use (more or less). Sometime overnight (here in the US, presumably sometime in the morning over in Japan!) the website introduced a new restriction: The Partner Flight Award search function is not available for passengers who do not have any mileage balance. Makes sense, Star Alliance members the world over were using the ANA site to find their award space and then calling their home programs to book awards. Either ANA got tired of having their system resources used by folks who are only nominally members of their program, or other member airlines pressured…
Vietnam Airlines Award Availability a Boon for Skyteam
Vietnam Airlines has joined Skyteam, and Wandering Aramean (sbm12 on Flyertalk) notes that they publish their award inventory publicly in global distribution systems like Worldspan and Apollo. And most importantly that partners are booking business class awards into what’s traditionally thought of as a discounte dbusiness class inventory. If indeed Skyteam partners like Delta are booking business class awards on Vietnam Airlines from the J bucket as it appears, and they allow members to book whatever seats that “VN” releases into J inventory, Vietnam Airliens’ addition to Skyteam is huge. Vietnam Airlines flies to Frankfurt and Paris, providing a great redemption opportunity from Europe to South Asia and beyond. They have decent North-South routes as well. If you can find a seat to Asia, most of the time you get then get where you’re going…
Award Routing Quirks and Making the Most of Award Stopovers
I think about award booking a lot, getting the most out of miles, and piecing together available award seats to manage an itinerary that agents say isn’t otherwise available. And a couple of Flyertalk threads got me thinking about the quirks and inconsistencies of frequent flyer program rules. It’s often the case with some carriers that the rules are inconsistently applied, and while this can be frustrating for travelers it’s also an opportunity for those with patience and perseverance. US Airways is uniquely known for its flexible award routings, and also its inconsistency. Call a different agent on the phone, get a different answer almost every time. There are some rules that are clearly in the Dividend Miles Membership Guide, though not many, and those that exist aren’t always followed. You can have one stopover…
