Last July I wrote about the Chinese art collector, Liu Yiqian, who used his American Express Centurion Card to pay for a HK$281 million (US$36 million) ancient Chinese ceramic cup.
Well, Liu Yiqian is back in the news again today, this time for his purchase of a US$45 million 15th century Tibetan embroidered silk thangka.
The best part? The focus of the story isn't even the purchase, but rather the points he's earning... and that he used points to fly to Hong Kong to make the purchase!
Via Bloomberg, it looks like he's paying more attention to points since the last story was written about him:
The post Even Billionaires Love Points! appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Airline seats are mostly sold as commodity products. The genius of frequent flyer programs has been to take what is essentially an interchangeable thing — a seat one from city to another connecting in a third city — and create differentiation and brand loyalty. What hasn’t historically worked in the US market is to offer […]
The post Virgin America Offering 2-for-1 Flights (It’s Like a Dallas Companion Pass, Without the Work) appeared first on View from the Wing.
After a day running around Los Angeles with a Silvercar rental, it was off to London for the next portion of the journey. I was oddly excited about this segment, since I'm so used to taking flights from the East Coast to London, which are so short that you can't really get any sleep.
We arrived at the airport right as boarding began, and turned left into the first class cabin. I won't talk too much about the cabin itself, as I covered that extensively in the installment for the flight between London and New York.
I quickly settled into 2A, where all of the amenities for the flight were already waiting for me -- Bose headphones, bottled water, the menu, the amenity kit, slippers, and even pajamas.
On one hand that seemed efficient, on the other hand it quickly became clear why the service was so thorough upfront -- the crew's sole goal was to limit interaction with passengers.
The post Review: American Airlines First Class 777-300ER Los Angeles To London appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
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 The State of Quintuple Dipping on Your Travel Purchases appeared first on View from the Wing.
Via the Uber blog:
"In anticipation of Sunday’s series premiere of The Royals, we’ve teamed up with E! to bring lucky NYC riders FREE rides in exclusive Rolls Royces this Thursday, March 12, through Sunday, March 15.
Catch a sneak-peek of The Royals on your car’s iPad while you ride, and adorn yourself in a selection of regal bits and bobs. You’ll enjoy the grand opportunity of parading around town in noble fashion, so you’d best start practicing your royal wave."
The post Uber Offering Free Rolls Royce Rides In NYC Starting Today appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
We're super excited to announce that Mr. President will be joining us in Portland this summer for our five-year anniversary event.If you've never been to WDS before, know that it's a gathering like no other. All that's missing is you—but we can fix that next week.
Boats take visitors through Penn's Cave, a quarter-mile subterranean waterway with ornate limestone formations and a bat colony, all underneath a working farm. It is also said to be the final resting place of the ill-fated suitor of a Lenni-Lenape chief's daughter whose name has been adopted by everything from a lake to college athletics.
Penn's Cave was opened as a show cave in 1885. An inlet of Lake Nitanee runs underground to a wide entrance where boats are moored. Tours use these boats to traverse the waterway into a cave with ceilings can go 55 feet high above the water. Visitors will have to keep their heads low in some areas and watch for resting bats right above them. The tour highlights limestone formations like "the Statue of Liberty," "Garden of the Gods," and "the Angel's Wing." The tour will also explore Lake Nitanee if weather permits. Aside from the astounding rock formations, the cave is also home to a legend that has spread its name all around the area.
A local legend has a young French trapper, Malachi Boyer, exploring the area until he met Nita-nee, a Native American chief's daughter. Wishing to marry her, Malachi could not get permission from the chief. One night, they tried to escape, but were captured by her seven brothers. Malachi would be thrown into this cave and guarded until he died. The brothers weighted down his corpse and sank it to the bottom of the cave's waters. Nita-nee's name lives on as the namesake of the lake, the nearby Mount Nittany, and Penn State's athletic teams, the Nittany Lions.
Penn's Cave also has a working farm, so tourists can watch the cows graze in a nearby pasture or see blooming sunflower fields once they experience the sights and slightly uncomfortable legend of the watery cave.
You've gotta love Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways' CEO. He's hands down the most prolific character in the airline industry. And I have such mixed feelings about him. On one hand I appreciate his passion and no-nonsense approach to things, on the other hand hand I don't appreciate the way employees are treated, and how he's dishonest about how he runs his airline.
But you've gotta love when other airlines joke about him.
Lufthansa is having huge issues with their unions at the moment, in particular with their pilots union. In 2014, Lufthansa's pilots went on strike 10 times over early retirement benefits, which apparently cost the airline over 200 million Euros.
So what solution does the Lufthansa CEO have, via Arabian Business?
The post Germans Can Joke: Lufthansa CEO Suggests Worst Labor Negotiator Ever appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
As I’ve written about in the past, Qatar Airways is unique in that they market the forward cabin of regional flights as first class. In other words, they use a lot of two cabin aircraft for regional flying (A330s, 777s, etc.), and when the aircraft flies within the Middle East the cabins are marketed as…
The post Qatar Airways Downgrades Regional First Class Catering appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
US Airways announced that their miles would be combined into the American AAdvantage program next month. We’ve long known that the US Airways co-brand credit card would stop taking applications when the US AIrways and American programs combine. I’ve seen speculation on several sites recently that this week would be the last chance to apply […]
The post US Airways Card Should Be Around for One More Month appeared first on View from the Wing.
All things considered Hyatt's offerings in London are pretty week. They have two hotels (the Andaz London Liverpool Street and the Hyatt Regency The Churchill), compared to the nearly 40 properties that Hilton has (admittedly Hilton has a much larger global footprint than Hyatt, but it's not 20x as big).
Unfortunately Hyatt's London portfolio was weakened even further last November, when the Hyatt Regency London The Churchill had a gas explosion, which shut the hotel down for several months.
Anyway, it looks like the Hyatt Regency London The Churchill will finally be reopening next week -- the hotel is slated to reopen on Monday, March 16, 2015.
I've actually never stayed at the Hyatt Regency. Instead I've only stayed at the Andaz London Liverpool Street, which I really loved.
The post Hyatt Regency London The Churchill Reopening March 16, 2015 appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
1980s rock goddess Joan Jett got it: rebelling against old ideas and grabbing new ones by the horns. NB: This is an ...
We've known for a while that American AAdvantage and US Airways Dividend Miles will integrate in the second quarter of 2015.
That being said, up until now American and US Airways haven't been more detailed as to which part of the second quarter the programs would integrate in. My understanding has always been that they were aiming for earlier in the second quarter rather than later in the second quarter, but that was never official.
Via the Dividend Miles e-statement which Dividend Miles sent out to members, it seems like AAdvantage and Dividend Miles will merge in April 2015:
The post American AAdvantage And US Airways Dividend Miles To Merge In April 2015 appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Sounds like a grand endeavour – and also presumes that travel is broken. But tourism development advisor Doug Lansky had the opportunity ...