With the Northwest/Delta merger (Delta acquisition of Northwest), the surviving credit card partner is American Express. The US Bank-issued Visa will be going away later in the year. American Express, with its higher interchange fees, is likley in a position to be offering more for miles, and American Express has played an integral role in the financial viability of Delta over time — prepurchasing as much as a half a billion dollars worth of miles at a time and extending a $100 million line of credit. Naturally this is a blow to US Bank, as their Northwest partnership is big business for them. Word is that they are going to try to keep customers in a new proprietary points program, offering their own points where 20,000 points buys a domestic ticket on any airline. Most…
ASIA
Search Results for "ASIA".
A Good Time to Book Way Ahead for Transpacific Premium Award Travel
I don’t usually talk about planning award travel ten months off, but I happened to notice today that there are tons of dates in January, 2010 available where All Nippon Airways is offering two first class award seats, Chicago – Tokyo. I didn’t check the reverse, or other gateways (New York-JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco… sadly ANA is pulling first class from Washington-Dulles in July, and first class award seats departing Japan have been harder to secure in the recent past) but if you’re having difficulty getting back my suggestion is to search first class awards on Asiana — Seoul – JFK, Seoul – Chicago, and the ubiquitously available Seoul – Los Angeles (this is certainly the most available transpacific flight in first class for an award, offering seats nearly every day of the year…
Starwood Cash & Points Availability Search Glitch
Starwood Preferred Guest’s website gets a lot of criticism, including from me. I’m frequently frustrated that it won’t display all reservations, especially if the reservation involves an upgraded room or if the hotel has touched or modified the reservation in some way. Detail on points posted to your account is limited as well, my own biggest frustration being that any given Platinum 500 point amenity doesn’t ever appear linked to a property so it’s difficult to track down missing point or to tell Starwood if a particular set of points are missing from a given stay. That said, the website is much improved. I like their hotel search function that shows availability on a single screen for lowest cash price, award availability, and availability for cash and points. (I do wish SPG50 rate plan availability…
Continental Onepass Signup Bonus
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.
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,…
