Frugal Travel Guy outlines how he values the mileage in the various airline programs in which he participates. He’s dead-on that British Midland”s points are worth the most: Cash and points awards stretch the value of miles. Reasonable premiums for premium class awards. Business class is 50% more expensive than coach, first class is double. One-way awards at only half the price of roundtrip provide for amazing flexibility. Star Alliance membership means that the above features are leveraged across an amazing network of carriers, and unlike United they don’t filter out otherwise-available award seats. And the program is rewarding for it’s elites as well, with low qualification thresholds for top tier (Gold), heavy bonuses for paid premium class fares (a Gold who has already requalified earns 625% on paid first class fares!), and top tier elites…
ASIA
Search Results for "ASIA".
US Airways Mastercard Now 25,000 Miles for First Use
The US Airways Mastercard offer is currently up to 25,000 miles. The offer changes occasionally, this time no annual fee waiver (or 50% bonus on spend). But it’s as rich a first-use bonus as you get, and there’s no minimum spend requirement to get it. Plus the card comes with a club pass and $99 companion ticket that’s actually usable in my experience. Well worth the $79 annual fee in my view. And there are reports that it’s churnable. This on top of the 25,000 mile offer for the Bank of America Visa and 25,000 mile offer for the Juniper Bank US Airways Business Mastercard. Now, all come with fees, but that’s 75,000 miles for three credit cards none of which have a minimum spend requirement. And since you can churn Bank of America as…
Alaska Increases Award Prices and Introduces Partner Fees
Following on recent minor cuts from the Alaska Airlines frequent flyer program (here and here, and admittedly most would find them minor..) Alaska has announced some pretty significant changes to their Mileage Plan program effective November 1. Here’s the bad news: Domestic coach awards will now cost 25,000 miles, even when booked online. The old award was 20,000 miles, which they recently limited to those awards booked online. Now at 25,000 miles they’re just like everyone else, no longer special. Unrestricted awards and first class awards get more expensive. Unrestricted coach is 55,000 miles! Unrestricted domestic first class is now 100,000 miles! Partner award fee. $25 to book on one of their many partners, they learned this trick from Delta. It stinks, but I can live with it, the Alaska partner desk really is helpful…
Northwest’s Odd $44 Award Fuel Surcharge for Hong Kong Departures
A week and a half or so ago Northwest announced fees for award redemption. They call them fuel surcharges, but fuel surcharges are really part of the cost of a ticket. And with awards they aren’t even tied to the fuel surcharge imposed on paid ticket, they’re made up fees imposed based on the region of travel for your award. $25 for flights within North America, $50 transatlantic, $100 transpacific, $75 intra-Asia (unless travel originates in Hong Kong, in which case it’s $44), and $50 on all other itineraries. The $44 fee for award travel beginning in Hong Kong struck me as strange. My hunch was correct, it is a bit of an anomaly. Turns out that there’s a law in Hong Kong which prevents them from imposing fuel surcharges on award tickets that are…
25,000 Bonus Miles for a US Airways Small Business Mastercard
Last month I posted about a 20,000 mile signup bonus for the US Airways small business Mastercard. Looks like the 25,000 mile offer is still around, however. Not bad. Though US Airways has made some pretty unfriendly changes to the Dividend MIles program recently (award redemption fees and ending bonus miles for elite flying), they are still a Star Alliance member — for how long, no one knows — and as such their miles can be redeemed throughout the world on some lovely carriers such as Singapore, ANA, and Asiana. And unlike United they do not generally filter out award seats those carriers are making available. Plus their award chart is closer to United in requiring fewer miles for awards than most Star Alliance carriers. 25,000 for the small business Mastercard, 15,000 for the personal…
More Amazing ANA First Class Award Seat Inventory
As a followup to my previous post about All Nippon Airways showing two first class award seats available on the same flights, when previously even grabbing one was next to impossible, here are some more dates and city pairs. This list isn’t comprehensive, I only checked April, 2009 and only Dulles – Tokyo and Chicago – Tokyo. But talk about wide open! 4/5 IAD-NRT 4/5 ORD-NRT 4/7 IAD-NRT 4/7 ORD-NRT 4/8 IAD-NRT 4/9 ORD-NRT 4/12 IAD-NRT 4/12 ORD-NRT 4/13 IAD-NRT 4/13 ORD-NRT 4/14 IAD-NRT 4/15 IAD-NRT 4/15 ORD-NRT 4/16 ORD-NRT 4/19 IAD-NRT 4/19 ORD-NRT 4/20 IAD-NRT 4/20 ORD-NRT 4/21 IAD-NRT 4/21 ORD-NRT 4/22 ORD-NRT I’ve also been seeing tons of Asiana Seoul – Los Angeles flights with two award seats in first, and occsaional Seoul – Chicago flights as well. And the good news for…
Book Your ANA Transpacific First Class Awards Now
All Nippon Airways offers one of the very best long-haul first class products in the world. Certainly their food is the very best. Their seat and entertainment system are nice. Their service is outstanding. The only real area for improvement is ground service, they excel in the air but really aren’t special pre-departure or on arrival. One doesn’t hear about their first class product nearly as often as Singapore’s. But then ANA flies only a handful of routes that offer first class, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington DC to Tokyo. Ever since their flights were all upgraded to new first class seats, first class awards have become next to impossible to get. One seat is exceptionally rare, outside of a couple days to departure. And so it’s strange that I’m seating flights…
Northwest Will Sell You a Free Ticket for $100, Plus Taxes and Call Center Fees
Northwest has played follow the leader introducing a $15 1st checked bag fee on tickets sold beginning tomorrow for travel beginning >>. Elites and full fare passengers are exempt from the fee. But they also dropped a bomb. They’re imposing “fuel surcharges” on all award tickets issued on or after September 15th. $25 for flights within North America, $50 transatlantic, $100 transpacific, $75 intra-Asia (unless travel originates in Hong Kong, in which case it’s $44), and $50 on all other itineraries. Of course, fuel surcharges are just part of the price of a paid ticket and have nothing to do with fuel per se. But just as I predicted in January, the allure of fees is just too compelling. Merger suitor Delta announced this sort of fee two weeks ago. They somehow believe it’s free…
Singapore’s New First Class “Private Room”
Singapore may be a great airline, but on the whole their lounges don’t meet tip top standards. At Heathrow their premium class customers get access to the Virgin Clubhouse, certainly one of the world’s better offerings, and a better option than Singapore’s lounge at that airport. Their home base lounges don’t compare to similar offerings by Thai, Asiana, or Lufthansa. The new first class lounge at Singapore’s new Terminal 3 was generally disappointing. But this past Tuesday they introduced a new product for paid first class passengers (apparently not those traveling in award first, not their top tier elites, and not the first class passengers of other Star Alliance carriers). It’s called The Private Room and over at sqtalk.com there are photos of the lounge here and here. Nice and exclusive to be sure, but…
The Decline of First Class? Hardly.
Tony France, guest-blogging for Cranky Flier, laments the decline of first class. He says it used to be about the service and the experience, the little touches, and now it’s just about the seats. As for the food: The caviar went first, a victim of conservationist activities as well as the most obvious “waste” on board the plane. One by one, everything almost down to the steak itself was removed and cost cut. Fresh eggs died an omelette with red sauce death long ago. Today’s premium passengers are essentially left to feel lucky they receive a meal at all. The entrees have become “lighter, healthier” and cheaper. The carved roasts and Maine lobsters are all in your dreams if you’re old enough to remember them at all. This seems about right for first class on…
