Tagged With "award"

Grouchy, I thought you had a magic carpet and didn't need to bother with such trivialities as plane flights

I've seen a lot of "award creep" in my days, and I think there's more to come. A "mile" is worth less and less all the time. It's clear that airline miles aren't worth banking for any period of time. Use them when it's logical to do so. They likely will be worth less in the near future. Thanks for the link, PHeymont.

Not sure I agree with the "burn 'em" philosophy. At the premium class end, there's certainly been a lot of creep, but not so much in coach, which is more price-sensitive, even for awards. True, summer awards to Europe have generally gone from 50K to 60K, but on the other hand, off-season at American went DOWN to 40K--and with the flexibility of taking one-way awards and combining them in interesting ways...it's actually a better situation. Also, there are some card-linked sales on flight...

I think you'll find reward trips from the Western USA are harder to get for European travel than from the East coast. But if your schedule is flexible, you could be lucky.

I think for premium travel,it makes sense. It has always surprised me that premium travel is so much cheaper from a frequent flier perspective (2:1) vs economy than when you actually buy the ticket. Just as a side note, aeroplan has recently reduced miles required on some of their reward charts as well.

John's point about the ratio between the two tiers is interesting (we looked at that a little in a forum post this week on value of miles). My guess--and it's just that--is that the same kind of yield-management used to set prices has taken a look at this and is carefully balancing loyalty vs. burn... I can't really compare East vs West availability personally; my school schedules have defined when I can travel well enough that I'm able to start hunting tickets 330 days out, when the...

Really good news, because some of those partner flights are hard to book online even when you know they exist. This should make it easier to make connection to a number of areas in Europe without having to do Heathrow...

Thanks Samantha, I'd love to visit Cooperstown. When I saw Hank Aaron's boyhood home at Mobile's minor league stadium with all it's incredible baseball memorabilia, I knew I had to see the Baseball Hall of Fame one day. Thanks for showing me what to expect!

Hi Rob, it is a really cool place to visit. I had been to the Negro Hall of Fame in Kansas, but not the one in Cooperstown. It was so worth the wait! Thanks for mentioning Aaron's home in Mobile. I would like to see it someday too. Have a great weekend

You can't help but be impressed with the Aaron family after seeing the place! Glad to see the Hall of Fame has a great Hank Aaron section too! My blog on Hank Aaron's childhood home: https://www.travelgumbo.com/blo...ron-s-childhood-home

That's good advice in her column! I've often had success calling back when I didn't get the "right" answer the first time helps...and the night shift often has the most experienced agents. Other useful tips, aside from being the most pleasant if sadly disappointed customer they've had all day: Plan early, book early. If you really want to fly to Paris in late July on the cheapest FF tickets, your best bet is late August: the airlines generally open seats 330 days ahead, and if you can be...

Conde Naste has published this year's Reader's Choice Awards, a broad range of awards but the one people most notice are the ranking of airlines.  This year's top international airline, yet again, is Singapore Airlines.  This year's top...

United Airlines has released a new award chart that bumps up the miles required for nearly all business and first-class awards, and (for the first time) makes flights on its Star Alliance partner airlines cost more miles than on United. Details HERE

This may not be news to some of you, but it is new to me. Heading to the AAdvantage webpage to see what flights might be available, I discovered a notice informing us that American now waives fees when booking by phone, starting today, when reserving...

If you've gotten confused at times by all the changes in airline and other loyalty-points plans, and been dazzled by the constantly-changing stream of offers and bonuses—you're not alone, and a small industry of consultants has risen up to show...

  Norwegian Air Shuttle has been named Europe’s Leading Low-Cost Airline by the World Travel Awards for the first time. They beat out Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, easyJet, Monarch, Ryanair and Vueling. Norwegian's CEO, Bjorn Kjos,...

Two specialists in cold homelands, Alaska Airways and Icelandair, have signed a deal for code-shares and for reciprocal mileage earning in their loyalty programs. The upshot should be increased availability for Americans visiting Iceland, and more...

American Airlines (for the third year in a row) and Marriott (for the seventh) have taken the Freddie Awards for best loyalty programs. Winners in other categories included KLM, Southwest and Virgin Australia. The awards are named for the late Sir...

AirlineRatings.com releases a new year's worth of airline ratings, with a 4-time winner continuing at the top.

British Airways is known for the steepest "fuel surchages," especially on award tickets--but a group of frequent fliers has sued, pointing out that the fees seem to bear no relation to fuel costs at all.  A senior judge in the U. S. District...

Buying frequent flyer miles is usually not a great deal, since the airlines sell them at a premium and charge a fee for the transaction (usually only makes sense if you need that last couple of thousand to claim an award). But, through Dec. 6, USAir...

Delta, which recently made a big change in how Skymiles are earned on flights, has made some little changes and one big one in how Skymiles can be used for flying in a new award chart that takes effect in 2015. The one big change is that members will...

I've always liked Wendy Perrin's column in Conde' Nast Traveler magazine.  Often she discusses things from a point of view with a bigger budget than my own, but today's newsletter points us to her tips on how to help get the airline award seats...

For Samantha, a huge baseball fan, a visit to baseball's Hall of Fame at Cooperstown was a dream come true, and one she shares with us.

Australia's central government is planning to save about $50 million a year, almost 15%, from its official travel budget by using frequent flyer points to buy tickets for government employees flying on official business.   The plan, which would...

Seeham, near Salzburg, has been named Austria's most environmentally-friendly place to live in a competition sponsored by the state broadcasting system, ORF. It was the top prize among 16 categories.