Continental is offering 2000 bonus miles for new members and an additional 5000 for those members who fly Continental by the end of 2009. No minimum fare class is required to earn the flight bonus. The only restriction is that the address on the member’s account must list an address in the Mid Pacific, South Pacific, China or South Asia (excludes Japan). Residency is defined by the address on the OnePass account.
ASIA
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The Frustrations of Booking United Awards Before Their Gutted Award Chart Went Into Effect
Yesterday was another “award booking day,” where I spend a bit of time helping various friends with their award travel. One managed a Bali trip in first class on Asiana and Singapore. Another started off with a Thailand trip, ran into a bit of difficulty, and settled on Bali as wlel. Both were using United miles. Yesterday, it turns out, was actually award booking day on United for much of the frequent flyer world. That’s because as the New Year struck, so did United’s bloody award chart increase. In fact, at one point yesterday the regular international awards phone number featured hold times in excess of 90 minutes. That’s the number I usually favor, instead of elite agents, because the international call centers are frequently very helpful. Domestic agents can sometimes be helpful, and sure…
Award Booking Day
I only accomplished a limited amount of ‘work’ yesterday, spending more time than I should have developing award tickets for co-workers. One colleague is traveling to Bangkok and Singapore. It’s a first class award booked with Air Canada Aeroplan points. But the outbound was especially arduous — the only transpacific flight we could find on the needed day was Asiana’s Los Angeles – Seoul flight, but to connect to it from DC required a 6am departure connecting through Chicago — the early morning LA non-stop flight didn’t provide enough connecting time at LAX. (Asiana’s LA-Seoul flights, to some extent their LA-Chicago flights, and Air China’s flights are perhaps the most available Star Alliance transpac awards in premium classes, just a tip…)As the trip approached, United’s Dulles-Beijing flight opened up. Granted it’s United (and their old…
Air Canada Aeroplan: My New Favorite Airline Frequent Flyer Program?
For anyone that predicts the spin-off of a frequent flyer program into a separate publicly traded business must mean a devaluation of the program, check out the changes to Aeroplan and see what you think! The Aeroplan program has recently developed a reputation as stingy, but it’s anything but. Sure, they collect pretty hefty fees on award redemptions, usually called fuel surcharges. But when you combine at least two non-Air Canada partners on a single award they price taxes and fees manually and don’t include a fuel surcharge. I recently ticketed a first class award to Asia with Aeroplan points and the total taxes and fees were less than US$60. Air Canada is a member of the Star Alliance, so Aeroplan points can be used to book plenty of partners — this solves the frequent flyer…
Rebookings as a Result of the Bangkok Airport Shutdown
I mentioned a couple of days ago that a friend was scheduled to transit Bangkok overnight on the way back home from Kathmandu, Nepal. With the Bangkok airport closed, this was a challenge. (And to top it all off, many connections out of Kathmandu involve flying to Delhi and onward through Mumbai.) To complicate matters further, the flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok was on a separate ticket from the rest of the journey. United has historically refused to issue awards on the Thai Airways Bangkok-Kathmandu segment despite generally good availability in business class. I tried once for the award and found availability on two days only out of sixty I queried, and then only in coach. Thai was offering award seats on the flight on more than fifty days during that period. United has a travel…
United Charges You Cash to Upgrade and More Miles for Awards
Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been predicting it for awhile. United announced changes to its frequent flyer program today. First, the minor change, they are restoring 500 mile minimum earning for elites matching Continental and American (leaving US Airways more or less out in the cold denying 500 mile minimums even to their elites). What’s more, they’re crediting the minimum miles retroactively so that elites won’t even be hurt by the change that took effect back in July. Second, starting July 1, 2009 they’re making mileage upgrade awards more like American — upgrade on any fare, but with a co-pay. Even domestic upgrades come at a $50 cost on top of the current 15,000 miles each way (I miss 10,000 mile confirmed upgrades!). Hawaii upgrades bump up slightly, to 17,500 miles each…
Star Alliance Status Match Options for Alitalia Elites
Status match programs are exceedingly common in the U.S. but extend to very few programs elsewhere. British Midland is known to regularly offer complimentary status based on elite levels in other programs. British Airways will offer status matches as part of corporate contracts. And at least a few years ago Mexicana offered status matches as well. But beyond that, they’re almost unheard of. Although occasionally there will be a Star Alliance-wide offering, sometimes tied to distress of a competitor carrier or losing a member airline (e.g. Varig). Through December 15 there’s an offer for Alitalia elites to comp on over to the Star Alliance member of their choice. Only this time not every Star carrier is participating, notably absent are Lufthansa and Singapore. But Alitalia elites can receive status on Asiana, Thai, Air New Zealand,…
Tips for Successful Award Booking
Frugal Travel Guy offers his basic tips on award redemption, which start with being friendly to the agent on the other end of the phone (make them a friend willing to spend the time and do the work necessary to find you your award), be flexible in cities and dates, and be willing to overnight if necessary — plus know your possible partners and routes and suggest them to the agent you’re working with. All good tips, to be sure. But especially since I’ve been getting several requests for award booking assistance since the October 2008 issue of Conde Nast Traveler reprinted a comment I made on Wendy Perrin’s blog offering award booking help, let me outline my own award booking tips… Whose miles do you need, and how many? First, what miles are you…
Credit Cards I Don’t Use In Spite of 50% and 100% Everyday Bonuses On All Spending
I got an email over the weekend about the Virgin American co-branded American Express products from Bank of America. They’re tempting, to a certain degree. I blogged the cards when they were introduced in June. 1.5 miles per dollar on all spend is intriguing, but not all that desirable for me. (There are also some nice perks towards elite status as well, so this card may be indispensable for the regular Virgin flyer.) Their award charts are expensive, for awards beyond Heathrow in particular, and their fuel surcharges are noxious. Personally I prefer redeeming ANA miles for Virgin flights (transferred into ANA from American Express Membership Rewards): Washington-Dulles-Heathrow in Upper Class is 90,000 Virgin miles or 68,000 ANA miles, and ANA charges about half the taxes that Virgin does on the same ticket (so a…
Virgin America Finally Offers Redemption
Virgin America’s eleVAte program has been rather vexxing, you earn points but since the airline’s inception you couldn’t do anything with them. In fact, you didn’t even know what you would eventually be able to do with them (ok, flights were a good guess!) or at what price. My understanding is that the delay here was related to IT problems. I guess they’ve finally started getting those worked out, as they’ve just added redemption to their website. It looks like you need to be logged into an account to see the details, but helpfully there is a Flyertalk thread laying them out. (Helpfully for me because I have yet to fly Virgin America and have no eleVAte account.) What I’m seeing so far doesn’t really excite me. There are no confirmed upgrades to first class…
