In October I shared my single favorite thing about living in hotels. It's not complimentary non-fat cappuccinos and egg white omelets in the morning. It's not never having to make my own bed. It's not massive suites.
Instead it's conventions. There's nothing quite as amusing to me as randomly ending up in the middle of a thousand person special interest convention.
From Hot Wheels Conventions to cheerleading conventions to biker gang conventions, I think I've almost witnessed everything.
The one thing I feel like I haven't yet witnessed is a furry convention. For those of you not familiar with furries, here's a good rundown NBC did:
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Back in May Prince William flew American Airlines coach. It was a bulkhead seat for Memphis – Dallas. This morning he flew first class onboard the US Airways shuttle to get from New York to DC. The ABC News article incorrectly indicates he flew from New York’s JFK airport. The shuttle flight originates at LaGuardia. […]
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As part of their "Going For Great" campaign (a slogan which I find peculiar yet remarkably honest, since American is admitting they're not great), American announced $2 billion in customer improvements over the coming years.
Now, a lot of the stuff in the press release has already been announced and is in the process of being implement. While American has a lot of faults, the transformation they've been going through has been really fun to watch. I remember a few years back when American had 400 MD-80s. To think how far they've come with the 777-300ERs, the new 737s, the A321s on transcons, etc. -- it really is a pretty radical transformation.
What else can we expect from American?
The post American Lie Flat Business Class Seats Coming To 757 appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
News and notes from around the interweb: Your fellow passengers are having sex in airports Up to 15,000 United or Aeroplan miles for travel between the US or Canada and Europe Apple has a new credit card with terrible rewards. A Road Warrior’s Gift Guide The bill to limit TSA security fees – intentionally increased […]
The post I Admit It: al Qaeda Was Foiled By the TSA. Plus Passengers Having Sex in Airports. appeared first on View from the Wing.
Through February 28, 2015, the Hilton HHonors Surpass Card from American Express is offering an increased 80,000 HHonors points sign-up bonus after you spend $3,000 in purchases within your first three months of card membership. The card has a $75 annual fee, which isn't waived for the first year. This is the highest publicly available sign-up bonus I've ever seen on the card.
What makes this card so valuable is that it offers Hilton HHonors Gold status for as long as you have the card, which gets you free breakfast/lounge access (based on availability) and free internet at Hilton properties. To me those are the two most valuable hotel elite perks. So I do think it's worth having a co-branded Hilton credit card long term.
Hilton's credit card portfolio is especially unique because they have two co-branded credit card issuers -- American Express and Citi. The co-branded Hilton card I have is the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card.
The post Hilton HHonors Amex Surpass Card 80,000 Point Sign-Up Bonus appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Think about how frustrating it is to book award tickets to Australia. Now just imagine every trip you plan involving getting to or from Australia. This probably explains why PointsPros receives so many award requests from "down under." ;)
I can appreciate the frustrations many people have with Qantas Frequent Flyer points, which seems to be the general mileage currency many Australians have. In general, non-US loyalty programs tend to be more expensive, harder to navigate, and less of a bargain (i.e. fuel surcharges).
For those with Australian-issued American Express cards that accrue Membership Rewards points, we have much greater success completing bookings. Australian Membership Rewards points transfer to nine airline partners, and while not all are great, I’m especially fond of Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Virgin Australia Velocity. These programs tend to have the award seats clients need to take their trips in a premium cabin.
I’m going to briefly run through each of the Australian AMEX transfer partners with transfer ratios, links to their award charts (if available), and my general thoughts. It is worth mentioning that Australia has a few different Membership Rewards programs -- this is geared towards those in the Ascent or Ascent Premium programs. Ascent Premium members can technically transfer to Qantas Frequent Flyer, but there are likely better options, as I'll explain shortly.
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I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, […]
The post 515,000 Points, All On One Page, to Travel the World in Luxury on the Cheap appeared first on View from the Wing.
Unlike Ben, I don’t have a “sixth sense” when it comes to pricing fuel surcharges. Nine times out of ten he can guess the taxes and fees on a given award within $15, which is a pretty cool party trick.
I do, however, have a good “general sense” of how much things should costs, particularly when dealing with an airline that doesn’t impose fuel surcharges. When you eliminate fuel surcharges, you’re mainly dealing with the government-imposed taxes, which are pretty consistent.
Most airlines have a computer that prices award tickets. The computer validates the routing against the published rules, calculates the taxes and fees from the published fare, and totals the final price for the agent.
Barring that, airlines have a rates desk, which is typically the powerhouse of the airline. This is a powerful component of the operation, and you generally find the best and brightest agents staffing the rates desk. What they say pretty much goes, and front line agents seem to be taught to treat their word as law.
And then there’s US Airways.
The post My Award Taxes And Fees Are How Much?!?! appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Guest blogging has had a rocky road over these last several months.
Well this story is just nuts! A Korean Air flight on Friday from New York to Seoul returned to the gate after an angry executive seated in first class wasn't pleased with how she was served her nuts.
Via Yahoo News:
"Heather Cho, 40, was in a first class seat on a flight bound from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for Incheon, near Seoul, on Friday when she took issue with a flight attendant who handed her macadamia nuts in a bag and not on a dish, according to local media reports and an industry source.
Cho, a vice president at the airline, summoned the cabin crew chief to ask whether the flight attendant was following the in-flight service manual, said the industry official, who was briefed on the matter but declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter."
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American announced several aircraft cabin improvements, some which are a really big deal. All but a “handful” of American’s new aircraft will have seat-back video screens throughout. All of the planes in the carrier’s primary jet fleet now have Wi-Fi, with plans to expand to it to regional aircraft, said Joshua Freed, a spokesman. American’s […]
The post American Bringing Us Lie Flat 757s and Improvements to US Airways Cabins appeared first on View from the Wing.
In October I wrote about EVA Air's latest route announcement, whereby they'll be starting service between Taipei and Houston as of next summer. The Taiwan based carrier also said they plan to commence flights between Taipei and Chicago as of 2016, though no timeline has been announced for that.
Obviously this growth is caused by their entry into the Star Alliance last year, which is opening up a lot of new routes for them thanks to the easy feed they can get from United in the US.
Anyway, EVA Air has now published the schedule and opened reservations for their new 4x weekly Boeing 777-300ER flight between Taipei and Houston, which launched on June 19, 2015. Via airlineroute.net, the flight will operate with the following schedule:
The post EVA Air Taipei To Houston Flights Starting June 19, 2015 appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
I've written in the past about which airline and hotel loyalty programs process points purchases directly.
When you buy points directly from an airline or hotel, they're often processed by points.com, which acts as the third party in these transactions. While the points.com interface is quite easy to use, the downside is that the purchase is processed by them as well. That means the purchase wouldn't qualify as airline or hotel spend as far as your credit card is concerned.
Conversely, some loyalty programs process points purchases directly. For example, Avianca's LifeMiles program processes points purchases directly, and that means when you buy miles with them you earn bonus miles as if it's airfare.
The post Buying American Miles Now Counts As Airfare Spend appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Delta is rebranding BusinessElite as Delta One and their extra legroom economy product as Delta Comfort+. Delta One, First Class and Delta Comfort+ are getting new seat covers. Delta 737 first class Over the weekend Delta eliminated free drink coupons for Gold elites and higher checking in online who had not been upgraded. Effective March […]
The post Don’t Be Fooled By Today’s Big Marketing Announcement from Delta (It’s a Devaluation) appeared first on View from the Wing.
For the third time this year, a US Airways plane bound for Philadelphia has diverted due to an "odor" on the plane causing nausea amongst the crew.
For a change in pace, this flight originated in Tel Aviv and diverted to Rome, rather than the Venice-Dublin setup from earlier in the year.
The post Yet Another US Airways Flight Diverts Due To Crew Illness appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Wandering the crowded streets of Hong Kong, one always finds street vendors serving delicious noodles, roasted ducks hanging in the windows of restaurants, fish tanks full of tonight’s dinner, and trendy restaurants next to decades old dim sum establishments. Smells of rice, friend chicken, and noodles fill the air as you move from restaurant to restaurant. Food is the grease that keeps the wheels of this city moving at a lightning fast pace. And, as my flight began its final […]
The post 16 Delicious Restaurants in Hong Kong appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.
US Airways and American both used to use Points.com to process purchase miles transactions. That meant the transactions were charged by that third party, instead of the airline itself. You would not earn bonus miles for an ‘airline’ or ‘travel’ transaction with your credit card. With American, the third party process meant miles would take […]
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