You've gotta love airline alliances and the arbitrage opportunities that exist thanks to their unique programs. For example, I was a top tier elite member with British Midland (bmi) for five years before I actually flew with them. I was actually sort of convinced they weren't a real airline for a long time. And I'd speculate that a majority of bmi's top tier elite members had never actually flown with them.
Since joining the Star Alliance in 2012, one of the greatest Star Alliance frequent flyer programs has been Aegean, the Greek airline with a fleet of 30 narrowbody aircraft.
For one, Aegean had extremely reasonable requirements to achieve Star Alliance Gold status to begin with. You needed just 20,000 elite qualifying miles to achieve top tier status with them, and they'd give you 1,000 elite qualifying miles just for signing up. So in reality you needed just 19,000 miles to qualify.
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The easiest way to search for award space is with the Alaska Airlines website, since Alaska is a partner of Emirates and allows searching their space online. They also show an award calendar. Historically they have only shown a subset of the space that Emirates makes available. Expertflyer shows space, at least as offered to […]
The post Emirates A380 First Class Award Space Wide Open This Winter – Act Fast! appeared first on View from the Wing.
Today Virgin Australia revealed their brand new business class product, which they'll offer through their Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 fleet by early 2016.
It looks like their new product will consist of reverse herringbone seats, which are my favorite type of business class hard product. Here's how they describe the new business class suites:
"The revolutionary Business Class suites, which convert into 80 inch lie-flat beds, represent a major enhancement to the travel experience on board Virgin Australia’s Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 aircraft and the first major product innovation to be announced under the airline’s new three-year strategy, Virgin Vision 2017."
The post Virgin Australia New Business Class Unveiled appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia announced an innovative new option today, whereby it will be possible to convert miles between the two programs.
There are lots of airline partnerships out there, and typically when airlines are partners, it means you can redeem one airline's mileage currency on the other airline. However, it's typically not possible to convert or combine miles from different mileage currencies towards a single award.
In walk Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer.
The post Convert Miles Between Singapore And Virgin Australia Soon appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
My friend Rene at Delta Points is a bit of a Delta fanboy. It's kind of amusing at times. Naturally I checked my calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1 when I saw his headline yesterday -- "99 Days till #DOS – Why #Skymiles2015 will be horrid for EVERYONE! (even Delta)"
He takes January 1, 2015 seriously... he even has a countdown clock! While I'll likely spend New Year's Eve watching the ball drop on TV, Rene will be in a bathtub eating ice cream (which, on second thought, sounds more fun than watching the ball drop on TV).
Anyway, Rene's post is actually quite interesting, so I'd give it a read.
In part it's interesting because I largely disagree. Rene says the 2015 SkyMiles changes are bad for EVERYONE... even Delta! I disagree, because I don't think the changes are bad for Delta, and I don't think they're bad for me (though I certainly think they're bad for most Delta frequent flyers).
The post Why Delta’s 2015 SkyMiles Changes Aren’t Bad For Everyone appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
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Early last year, American put into service their first Boeing 777-300ER. To me, that plane was really the beginning of the "new"American. If you asked me five years ago what I thought about American, I would have simply said "old," given that more than half of their fleet was MD-80s back then. They've been doing a lot to change that.
Possibly the most exciting part of their new 777-300ERs was the business class cabin, which marked the first time that American offered fully flat beds in business class. And not only were they fully flat beds, but they were my favorite variety of them -- reverse herringbone seats.
These seats really are better than a vast majority of first class seats a decade ago. They're the same seats that Cathay Pacific has in business class.
The post American’s New 777-200 Business Class: First Picture appeared first on One Mile at a Time.