There's quite a bit of buzz around the web today about Spirit Airlines announcing that they'll be increasing bag fees for travel around the holidays. Spirit will be charging an extra $2 per bag for travel booked after August 19, 2014, for travel between December 18, 2014, and January 5, 2015.
They phrase the announcement as follows:
"Winter is coming... and that means holidays. Which means more people than ever will be flying with Spirit to visit their loved ones. To make sure we have room for everyone's bags, we're encouraging customers to pack a bit lighter. So, for travel booked after 8/19/14, for flights between 12/18/14 and 1/5/15, standard checked bags will be $2 more than listed below. Spend less time packing and more time laughing with family and friends this holiday season. Remember, $9 Fare Club members will keep their great prices and save even more during this period!"
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Delta is offering its elites and co-brand credit card holders a discount on award redemptions booked through September 23. Naturally, the more you dig in though the tougher this gets. Here are the discounts: So it’s 4000 miles off domestic roundtrip awards, though you get 8000 miles off if you’re booking at the more expensive […]
The post A Delta Award Sale With So Many Caveats and Gotchas the Savings Just Might Not Be Worth It… appeared first on View from the Wing.
We get a lot of fascinating airline news out of India, which makes it sound like flying one of their major carriers is akin to taking the Oregon Trail. From a Jet Airways plane dropping 5,000 feet, to both pilots on an Air India flight tricking the flight attendants into the cockpit so they could go nap in business class, to rats on a plane, there's no shortage of stories.
One of my most knowledgeable industry readers is Sean M, who left the following comments a while back on one of the above posts:
"Similar things happen more often than people realise, all over the world. It’s only news when the Indian press find out about it though."
The post Was An Air India Flight Delayed Because Of A Party? Who Cares?! appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Delta SkyMiles is offering discounted economy award tickets for travel on Delta & Delta Connection booked by tomorrow, Tuesday, September 23, 2014. The promotion is valid for Delta SkyMiles Medallion members, as well as those with a Gold, Platinum, or Reserve Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express. In order to qualify, the miles must…
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Via Traveling Better: Effective October 1, 2014, AA will no longer through check bags when the passenger presents separate tickets at the ticket counter except as noted below. …Customers traveling on separate tickets will only be able to through check bags when the ticket is for travel on: American Airlines and American Eagle US Airways […]
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For a long time, Singapore Airlines owned a 49% stake of Virgin Atlantic. While Virgin Atlantic never has been part of one of the "big three" alliances, they did have a pretty close partnership with Singapore Airlines for a long time.
Ultimately Singapore Airlines sold their 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic to Delta, which in part explains the joint venture between Delta and Virgin Atlantic.
But there are still some signs of the partnership between Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
For example, you can still earn and redeem Singapore KrisFlyer miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic, and vice versa.
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Typically when you’re booked on separate tickets you can still check your bags all the way through to your final destination by presenting your e-ticket receipt at check-in. Exact policies differ by airline — some airlines will let you check through bags from virtually all carriers, while others (like Southwest) won’t let you check through…
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Barbara DeLollis notes that bringing on New York hotels is really, really hard not least of which because of labor negotiations. The old 487-room Ramada Plaza hotel has been closed for 5 years. The property is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which doesn’t help matters. And they haven’t been […]
The post Why Can’t JFK (and New York) Get Better Hotels? appeared first on View from the Wing.
In my hotel reviews, I know I often refer to certain hotel toiletries as being among my favorites. I know I say that a lot, so I decided to actually sit down and compile a list of what my favorite hotel toiletries are.
First thing's first, I'm not the fanciest, or the most organic, or the realest (realest). So there's no science behind my selection of favorite toiletries. I didn't carefully study the ingredients. And I'm fine with that.
But I know when I walk into a hotel room and see certain toiletries I go "oh, yay," for whatever reason. The primary motivator for me is probably the scent and overall "feel" of the product. But I won't deny that perhaps packaging, branding, and associations have something to do with it, at least subconsciously.
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To be honest, I don't have an especially favorable perception of the Waldorf Astoria brand. While in theory it's one of Hilton's luxury brands, their New York property looks like it could be the set of Tower of Terror.
That being said, I had heard rave reviews of the Waldorf Astoria Chicago, which opened just a few years ago. It was formerly The Elysian, also one of Chicago's top hotels.
For the night I was staying, paid rates were hovering around $435. This is a Category 9 HHonors property, making a free night redemption 80,000 Hilton points. That's a bit rich for my blood. The good news was that Points And Money was also available, at the cost of 32,000 HHonors points plus $150 per night. That's a price I can stomach, both in terms of the cash outlay and points cost.
The post Review: Waldorf Astoria Chicago appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
When Aegean Airlines joined Star Alliance about four years ago it offered the easiest path towards top tier Gold status within the alliance. Indeed, what they’ve been offering is lifetime Star Alliance Gold status. They’d give you 1000 miles just for signing up. Then if you earned 19,000 more qualifying miles within the first year […]
The post A Great Deal Comes Crashing Down: The End of Lifetime Star Alliance Gold Status appeared first on View from the Wing.
Airlines are notorious for making changes. Sometimes they are waiting on delivery of a new aircraft, or an equipment swap changes capacity on a route. Other times the operating carrier is Thai Airways, in which case good luck. ;-)
And for the most part, the airlines are also quite good at handling these changes and accommodating passengers. When the 787 was grounded early last year, for example, airlines worked to swap equipment to avoid cancelations. They weren't entirely successful, so many flights were canceled, requiring many passengers to be rebooked.
With revenue tickets, this is fairly straightforward, given that most purchased itineraries tend to be fairly straightforward themselves. For award tickets, however, it becomes more complicated. There are often multiple partners involved, and award inventory and revenue inventory are vastly different.
And while airline have processes to endorse revenue tickets over to other carriers, there are more restrictions when it comes to award travel.
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There have been plenty of opportunities to generate lots of miles, ‘tricks’ if you will, over time — like buying savings bonus with a credit card from the federal government, buying travelers checks from AAA, and buying coins from the US mint (see among other posts here, here, and here). But there have never been […]
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