Via Tyler Cowen, the ‘Thanksgiving rush’ is something that many airports already experience at least one day a week, and some major airports regularly experience twice every week. According to the group’s analysis, a true “Thanksgiving rush” involves passenger volumes that run between 108 percent and 259 percent above an average day. ..Of the 30 […]
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In a comment on my post about the card that earns 2 Delta miles per dollar on all spend, Tokyo Hyatt Fan points out that there’s also a card that gives you Delta Gold Medallion status. It’s an American Express card. And it’s issued in Japan. US carriers in foreign markets have unique challenges. Generally […]
The post The Credit Card That Gives Automatic Delta Gold Status appeared first on View from the Wing.
Yesterday Alex wrote about some changes that Alaska Airlines announced to their mileage earnings structure for the 2015 Mileage Plan program.
The changes were both positive and negative. Most significantly:
The negative change was that Alaska devalued their mileage earning structure for travel on Delta.
This is hardly surprising, given the revenue based 2015 SkyMiles program, as well as the ongoing battle between Alaska and Delta over the Seattle market. Alaska Mileage Plan is already a great program for crediting Delta flights, so it's hardly surprising that they're not leaving this huge arbitrage opportunity open.
The post Alaska’s Awesome MVP Gold 75K Mileage Bonus appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Win asked whether or not he should mileage run. I’ve not flown since before September 11, 2001 and am tired of driving around in the car. Time to get in the air! An American Airlines/US Air mileage run (using weekends only) to earn elite status might be fun – any thoughts on an optimal strategy? […]
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All things considered I've been really impressed by the way American and US Airways have been handling their integration. Merging two airlines on completely different reservations systems is no easy task, and I think they've done a fairly good job managing expectations.
In particular, they've worked hard to "integrate rather than innovate," which I think makes a lot of sense given the scope of what they're doing. There's no area where this has been more evident than with their frequent flyer program. We finally know what the integration of the AAdvantage and Dividend Miles loyalty programs will look like, when the programs merge in the second quarter of 2015.
Overall the changes are quite positive, especially in relation to what we're seeing at Delta and United.
The post US Airways Chairman’s Preferred 2014 Segment Requirements Lowered appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Peter asked about “free one-way tickets on awards.” If you can summarize which airlines allow for free one-ways on international award tickets, that would be helpful. I know there’s been some changes in the past few months. The idea of the “free one-way” is that when you redeem a roundtrip award ticket, with an airline […]
The post Getting an Extra Free One-Way Ticket Each Time You Book an Award: The Programs That Still Let You Do It appeared first on View from the Wing.
If you think the systems US airlines use for awarding status are complicated, take a look at the systems offered by some non-US airlines.
For example, British Airways uses a "Tier Point" system for awarding status, with Tier Points being being awarded based on the distance of the flight and the class of service you're flying within certain "tiers." Beyond that, the number of Tier Points required to qualify for status is dependent upon what country your account is registered in.
British Airways has three "traditional" status levels -- Bronze, Silver, and Gold. But they also have some rewards above Gold, for those racking up lots of Tier Points each year.
The post British Airways Gold Guest List Requirements Increased appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
As I’ve written about in the past, US Airways has historically had one of the most generous programs when it comes to outright buying status.
US Airways used to offer a buy up to Preferred program, whereby you could outright buy top tier status without having flown a mile. They discontinued that program a couple of months ago, however, as part of their integration with American.
For the past couple of years American AAdvantage has let you buy up to status at the end of the year if you're not too far from qualifying. AAdvantage published the cost and rules for this year's offering earlier in the month, though said it would be a couple of weeks until the US Airways version of the offer would be published.
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Thank you. Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog. Thank you for commenting and sharing you experiences. Thank you for the e-mails — expressions of your own thanks, but also your questions, I love answering them and working through puzzles with you, and I love knowing when I’ve contributed in some way to […]
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Via rt.com:
"Freezing temperatures didn’t stop intrepid passengers from “helping out” a Russian plane that couldn’t move, because its wheels were frozen to the ground. The "selfie" won the day in a remote Siberian town beyond the Arctic Circle.
74 passengers, who were on board, offered the seven-member crew and technical staff to help move the frozen Tupolev Tu-134 plane to the takeoff runway on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the UTair company told TASS."
The post #Awesomeness: Passengers Push Frozen Plane appeared first on One Mile at a Time.