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Monday, December 1, 2014
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Alaska Airlines Announces Mileage Plan Program Enhancements
These days, it's pretty rare to find an airline making positive enhancements to it's frequent flyer program. Usually the "changes that you'll like" are quite the opposite, with those takeaways packaged with a trivial enhancement just to help with the optics and packaging of the negative changes.
But it appears that Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan program is making some real, substantive enhancements that will make it easier for you to earn more miles. Here is a summary of what's changing:
Higher Bonuses for Top-Tier Gold 75k Members
Effective January 1, 2015, Alaska's top-tier Gold 75k members will receive an elite bonus of 125% of miles flown for travel on Alaska and all partners, which is an increase from the current bonus of 100%. In addition to the enhanced bonus, Gold 75k members receive 50,000 bonus miles upon qualification.
To qualify for Gold 75k, you need to accrue 75,000 EQM's on Alaska alone, or 90,000 total EQM's including partners.
Anecdotally, many people have felt that other than higher-priority upgrades, there really wasn't much difference between the top-tier Gold 75k and mid-tier Gold status. This change certainly adds more incentive to go for top-tier status, and if I had known about these 2015 changes in advance would certainly have thought hard about it.
Higher Class of Service Bonuses on Alaska Flights
Since my travel is 100% leisure, I'm able to plan well in advance and score el-cheapo fares in the lowest fare classes. This change is most beneficial to those who can't plan well in advance, and purchase paid First Class fares or higher fare classes.
For fare buckets F / P (First Class) and Y / S / M / B (Economy Class), you will receive an additional 25% in miles earned over what you receive today.
Change in Miles Earned on Delta
In response to some of the changes announced by Delta, Alaska will be modifying it's mileage earning chart on Delta effective January 1st, 2015.
The changes vary greatly depending on fare class, but in general high fare classes in Economy Class as well as almost all Business and First Class fares will receive enhanced mileage earning of 25%-50%.
However, discounted Economy fares will receive a 25%-75% reduction in the miles earned, which will almost certainly make Alaska members think twice about flying Delta. This isn't a surprise given the turf war in SEA that Alaska and Delta are embattled in.
Bottom Line
These are true enhancements in every sense of the word (well, other than those Alaska members who regularly fly Delta) and depending on your fare class and status, will increase the number of miles that you earn on a given flight by as much as 75%.
The timing of the announcement certainly qualifies as short-notice, and we would be skewering Alaska for these changes if they were takeaways, but I guess there's a double-standard when positive changes are announced.
I'm wrapping up my Gold re-qualification this week, but the changes certainly have me thinking long and hard about another push to the 75k tier. What do you think - is it worth it?
But it appears that Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan program is making some real, substantive enhancements that will make it easier for you to earn more miles. Here is a summary of what's changing:
Higher Bonuses for Top-Tier Gold 75k Members
Effective January 1, 2015, Alaska's top-tier Gold 75k members will receive an elite bonus of 125% of miles flown for travel on Alaska and all partners, which is an increase from the current bonus of 100%. In addition to the enhanced bonus, Gold 75k members receive 50,000 bonus miles upon qualification.
To qualify for Gold 75k, you need to accrue 75,000 EQM's on Alaska alone, or 90,000 total EQM's including partners.
Anecdotally, many people have felt that other than higher-priority upgrades, there really wasn't much difference between the top-tier Gold 75k and mid-tier Gold status. This change certainly adds more incentive to go for top-tier status, and if I had known about these 2015 changes in advance would certainly have thought hard about it.
Higher Class of Service Bonuses on Alaska Flights
Since my travel is 100% leisure, I'm able to plan well in advance and score el-cheapo fares in the lowest fare classes. This change is most beneficial to those who can't plan well in advance, and purchase paid First Class fares or higher fare classes.
For fare buckets F / P (First Class) and Y / S / M / B (Economy Class), you will receive an additional 25% in miles earned over what you receive today.
Change in Miles Earned on Delta
In response to some of the changes announced by Delta, Alaska will be modifying it's mileage earning chart on Delta effective January 1st, 2015.
The changes vary greatly depending on fare class, but in general high fare classes in Economy Class as well as almost all Business and First Class fares will receive enhanced mileage earning of 25%-50%.
However, discounted Economy fares will receive a 25%-75% reduction in the miles earned, which will almost certainly make Alaska members think twice about flying Delta. This isn't a surprise given the turf war in SEA that Alaska and Delta are embattled in.
Bottom Line
These are true enhancements in every sense of the word (well, other than those Alaska members who regularly fly Delta) and depending on your fare class and status, will increase the number of miles that you earn on a given flight by as much as 75%.
The timing of the announcement certainly qualifies as short-notice, and we would be skewering Alaska for these changes if they were takeaways, but I guess there's a double-standard when positive changes are announced.
I'm wrapping up my Gold re-qualification this week, but the changes certainly have me thinking long and hard about another push to the 75k tier. What do you think - is it worth it?
Monday, November 17, 2014
My Oldest Credit Card Just Got The Axe
It's a sad day for me - I woke up to an ominous email from Citibank with the subject line "Account Closure - Important Information".
It's the credit card equivalent of getting a text from your significant other with the message "Need to talk to you right now, really important call right away!!!". While that conversation usually turns out to be a false alarm, along the lines of them being at the store and not remembering if you were out of milk, Citi wasn't messing around.
I logged into my account, anxious to find out which of my 4 Citi credit cards had gotten the axe. Of all the ones I didn't want it to happen to, of course that was the victim.
Why was my card closed
My Citi ThankYou Preferred card, the oldest of my entire collection of credit cards which I've had for nearly 15 years, died today, on November 17th, 2014.
A short and sweet message from Citi indicates that it was due to lack of activity, which is fair since I haven't used that card in several years.
So if I wasn't using the card at all, why am I so sad about the account closure?
FICO credit scores take into account your average length of credit history, and with all the churning that many of us do, it means that the majority of our credit cards don't even stay open for a year. While those closed accounts stay on your credit report for up to 10 years, it's a good idea to preserve a good average length of credit history by keeping a few no-annual fee credit cards in your sock drawer.
As an added bonus, American Express back-dates all new cards to your oldest credit card's date, which for me is about 10 years ago. So even if I opened a new Amex card tomorrow, it would count as 10 years old.
I have multiple credit cards that are just sitting around unused, and never had a problem until now. But this closure coincides with recent news that many of the old American Express Blue Cash cards were getting closed, and could be an indication that the card issuers are cracking down on inactivity.
My favorite memory of the card
As part of the eulogy for my oldest card, let's flash back to 2008. My friends and I decided to take a trip to Thailand, and I unwittingly lucked into being the one who booked all 4 tickets for the group on my Citi Preferred card.
Why did that matter? Back then, this card actually provided 1 point per flight mile on all airline tickets purchased with the card. Which meant that in addition to the 1x I'd earn on the cost of the tickets, I also earned 1x flight miles for each of the 4 airline tickets, which brought in nearly 70,000 points for the trip!
As ashamed as I am to admit it now, back then I was as unsavvy and clueless about points and miles as one can be. But that didn't change the fact that I was ecstatic about the points windfall, and did what a typical 25 year old would have done - I cashed them in for a $700 statement credit! Can you blame me? That's a LOT of pizza and beer!
It's the credit card equivalent of getting a text from your significant other with the message "Need to talk to you right now, really important call right away!!!". While that conversation usually turns out to be a false alarm, along the lines of them being at the store and not remembering if you were out of milk, Citi wasn't messing around.
I logged into my account, anxious to find out which of my 4 Citi credit cards had gotten the axe. Of all the ones I didn't want it to happen to, of course that was the victim.
Why was my card closed
My Citi ThankYou Preferred card, the oldest of my entire collection of credit cards which I've had for nearly 15 years, died today, on November 17th, 2014.
A short and sweet message from Citi indicates that it was due to lack of activity, which is fair since I haven't used that card in several years.
So if I wasn't using the card at all, why am I so sad about the account closure?
FICO credit scores take into account your average length of credit history, and with all the churning that many of us do, it means that the majority of our credit cards don't even stay open for a year. While those closed accounts stay on your credit report for up to 10 years, it's a good idea to preserve a good average length of credit history by keeping a few no-annual fee credit cards in your sock drawer.
As an added bonus, American Express back-dates all new cards to your oldest credit card's date, which for me is about 10 years ago. So even if I opened a new Amex card tomorrow, it would count as 10 years old.
I have multiple credit cards that are just sitting around unused, and never had a problem until now. But this closure coincides with recent news that many of the old American Express Blue Cash cards were getting closed, and could be an indication that the card issuers are cracking down on inactivity.
My favorite memory of the card
As part of the eulogy for my oldest card, let's flash back to 2008. My friends and I decided to take a trip to Thailand, and I unwittingly lucked into being the one who booked all 4 tickets for the group on my Citi Preferred card.
Why did that matter? Back then, this card actually provided 1 point per flight mile on all airline tickets purchased with the card. Which meant that in addition to the 1x I'd earn on the cost of the tickets, I also earned 1x flight miles for each of the 4 airline tickets, which brought in nearly 70,000 points for the trip!
As ashamed as I am to admit it now, back then I was as unsavvy and clueless about points and miles as one can be. But that didn't change the fact that I was ecstatic about the points windfall, and did what a typical 25 year old would have done - I cashed them in for a $700 statement credit! Can you blame me? That's a LOT of pizza and beer!
Friday, November 14, 2014
How A Singapore AIrlines Passenger Spent $1,200 On Wifi
Be careful the next time you purchase Wifi on board your flight, as one Singapore Airlines passenger learned the hard way when he was stuck with a shocking bill for $1,200!
He had purchased a Wifi package for ~$30, and during the course of his flight had just 155 page views, and also uploaded a 4MB PowerPoint file which took over an hour due to the slow connection speed. Here's a copy of his bill:
There is scarce detail about the source of the additional overage charges, but Singapore Airlines has said that they charge based on both volume of usage and time. That is a bit different than what I see on US airlines which sell packages that are time-based (e.g. 1 hour, 12 hours, unlimited) with some caps on the usage.
This reminds me of a story about a teenager who incurred over $20,000 in roaming charges while using his cell phone overseas. Once stories like these hit the media, the provider almost always does the right thing and will eat the cost rather than risk the ensuing PR nightmare.
To better protect passengers, I think it should be required to warn them about any overage charges prior to them being incurred, and would also be helpful if there was a pop-up box with your running total for the session. Either way, it's a good reminder nonetheless to read the fine print when using Wifi on-board your next flight!
He had purchased a Wifi package for ~$30, and during the course of his flight had just 155 page views, and also uploaded a 4MB PowerPoint file which took over an hour due to the slow connection speed. Here's a copy of his bill:
There is scarce detail about the source of the additional overage charges, but Singapore Airlines has said that they charge based on both volume of usage and time. That is a bit different than what I see on US airlines which sell packages that are time-based (e.g. 1 hour, 12 hours, unlimited) with some caps on the usage.
This reminds me of a story about a teenager who incurred over $20,000 in roaming charges while using his cell phone overseas. Once stories like these hit the media, the provider almost always does the right thing and will eat the cost rather than risk the ensuing PR nightmare.
To better protect passengers, I think it should be required to warn them about any overage charges prior to them being incurred, and would also be helpful if there was a pop-up box with your running total for the session. Either way, it's a good reminder nonetheless to read the fine print when using Wifi on-board your next flight!
Monday, November 10, 2014
The British Airways Companion Ticket Is Worthless From The West Coast
On the surface, the British Airways 2-for-1 Travel Together certificate that comes after spending $30,000 or more in a calendar year on the Chase British Airways credit card sounds like a fantastic deal.
While many people find Avios most useful for short-haul domestic tickets which only cost 4,500 miles each way, in general I prefer to use my miles for long-haul premium cabin flights. So in theory, this certificate is exactly the type of thing that would appeal to me, since I'd be able to save 150,000 miles for example on First Class flights from San Francisco to London.
While the certificate is good for 24 months, I'm quickly approaching the expiration date for mine. I've been trying desperately to find a good use for it over the past year, but am at the point where I'm going to give up and let it expire. Here's why.
The rules and restrictions
The British Airways certificate comes with some very restrictive rules that make it both hard to use and cost-prohibitive. Here are some details from the terms and condition:
"The Travel Together Ticket (voucher) allows the main BA/Chase account holder, when making a return flight booking using Avios, to book another seat on the exact same journey for a companion without having to pay the Avios flight price for that Companion. Taxes, airline, government, or other separately charged fees and charges must be paid by Member redeeming the voucher and is payable at time of booking"
A lot of words here, but the main takeaway is that you have to pay fuel surcharges on both tickets, which can be substantial. Let's look at what the surcharges would amount to on a SFO-LHR First Class ticket for example:
Each leg in First Class comes out to $479.60 per person, or an astonishing $1,918 round-trip for two people! To put that in perspective, over the past couple months you could easily find paid Business Class tickets for a similar route for as low as ~$1,500. Additionally, those tickets would earn both elite and redeemable miles, and were widely available on almost any date.
So in essence, you'd be purchasing 150,000 miles by using the companion pass for $1,918 which is a rate of roughly 1.3 cents-per-mile (CPM). It's worth nothing that at times that have been up to 50% transfer bonuses to Avios from American Express Membership Rewards, and in that case would effectively bring the cost of "purchasing" Avios down to just 1.0 CPM.
In itself, that's not a bad deal at all, if you're able to find availability.
Where's the availability?
"All travel must originate in and return to the US. The voucher cannot be redeemed for travel with BA’s franchisees, code share partners or oneworld Alliance members."
This is perhaps the nail in the coffin in terms of finding a practical use for the certificate. In short, you can only use the pass for travel to/from the US, and it must be on British Airways flights - no codeshares with other partners, including American Airlines, are allowed.
"The voucher will be issued in the name of the main BA/Chase Credit card account holder, who must travel on any voucher."
On top of that, you must be one of the two people traveling, which means that unfortunately you cannot use it for others.
So how does availability from the West Coast look like? Let's look at a few examples - there's no availability for close-in flights from SFO to LHR:
And nothing from either SFO or LAX to LHR several months out in March/April:
Even if you're able to plan 10-11 months in advance, there's still nothing!
Adding it all up
So if you live in the West Coast and are determined to use the certificate, you'll essentially to make your way Eastbound to other US gateways. For example, from ORD and JFK there is some decent award availability for both close-in bookings and further out in March/April 2015 for example. But even then, finding availability for both the outbound and return flights within a specific window of time isn't easy. You'll have to be extremely flexible.
Since the companion certificate does not cover non-British Airways flights, you are left on your own to pay for the cost of getting to gateways such as ORD or JFK. Even if you're able to plan in advance, round-trip airfare for two can easily cost $500-$600.
And on top of that, for a crazy risk-averse traveler like myself, flying on two separate tickets and facing IRROPS isn't something I'm willing to deal with, so depending on the flight schedule I'd likely find myself arriving the night before and booking a hotel.
When you add up all those costs and also take into account the availability of cheap Business Class fares, it simply does not make sense for West Coast flyers to utilize the British Airways Travel Together Certificate.
I'd love to hear from others who have successfully used the companion ticket, is there anything I'm missing?
While many people find Avios most useful for short-haul domestic tickets which only cost 4,500 miles each way, in general I prefer to use my miles for long-haul premium cabin flights. So in theory, this certificate is exactly the type of thing that would appeal to me, since I'd be able to save 150,000 miles for example on First Class flights from San Francisco to London.
While the certificate is good for 24 months, I'm quickly approaching the expiration date for mine. I've been trying desperately to find a good use for it over the past year, but am at the point where I'm going to give up and let it expire. Here's why.
The rules and restrictions
The British Airways certificate comes with some very restrictive rules that make it both hard to use and cost-prohibitive. Here are some details from the terms and condition:
"The Travel Together Ticket (voucher) allows the main BA/Chase account holder, when making a return flight booking using Avios, to book another seat on the exact same journey for a companion without having to pay the Avios flight price for that Companion. Taxes, airline, government, or other separately charged fees and charges must be paid by Member redeeming the voucher and is payable at time of booking"
A lot of words here, but the main takeaway is that you have to pay fuel surcharges on both tickets, which can be substantial. Let's look at what the surcharges would amount to on a SFO-LHR First Class ticket for example:
So in essence, you'd be purchasing 150,000 miles by using the companion pass for $1,918 which is a rate of roughly 1.3 cents-per-mile (CPM). It's worth nothing that at times that have been up to 50% transfer bonuses to Avios from American Express Membership Rewards, and in that case would effectively bring the cost of "purchasing" Avios down to just 1.0 CPM.
In itself, that's not a bad deal at all, if you're able to find availability.
Where's the availability?
"All travel must originate in and return to the US. The voucher cannot be redeemed for travel with BA’s franchisees, code share partners or oneworld Alliance members."
This is perhaps the nail in the coffin in terms of finding a practical use for the certificate. In short, you can only use the pass for travel to/from the US, and it must be on British Airways flights - no codeshares with other partners, including American Airlines, are allowed.
"The voucher will be issued in the name of the main BA/Chase Credit card account holder, who must travel on any voucher."
On top of that, you must be one of the two people traveling, which means that unfortunately you cannot use it for others.
So how does availability from the West Coast look like? Let's look at a few examples - there's no availability for close-in flights from SFO to LHR:
And nothing from either SFO or LAX to LHR several months out in March/April:
Even if you're able to plan 10-11 months in advance, there's still nothing!
Adding it all up
So if you live in the West Coast and are determined to use the certificate, you'll essentially to make your way Eastbound to other US gateways. For example, from ORD and JFK there is some decent award availability for both close-in bookings and further out in March/April 2015 for example. But even then, finding availability for both the outbound and return flights within a specific window of time isn't easy. You'll have to be extremely flexible.
Since the companion certificate does not cover non-British Airways flights, you are left on your own to pay for the cost of getting to gateways such as ORD or JFK. Even if you're able to plan in advance, round-trip airfare for two can easily cost $500-$600.
And on top of that, for a crazy risk-averse traveler like myself, flying on two separate tickets and facing IRROPS isn't something I'm willing to deal with, so depending on the flight schedule I'd likely find myself arriving the night before and booking a hotel.
When you add up all those costs and also take into account the availability of cheap Business Class fares, it simply does not make sense for West Coast flyers to utilize the British Airways Travel Together Certificate.
I'd love to hear from others who have successfully used the companion ticket, is there anything I'm missing?
Saturday, November 8, 2014
World's Most Popular Honeymoon Destination, Be Ready For The Next Mistake Fare, And Sneezing On A Plane
In case you missed it, here's a
round-up of some of the notable posts from the past week. Keep up with
all the latest news by following me on Facebook or Twitter, and feel free to send me an email anytime with questions or comments!
- In a strange turn of events, Sin City has become the world's most popular honeymoon destination based on a recent study conducted by Facebook. See what other destinations made the top 10
- I grabbed my first mistake fare in 2012 and flew First Class from Myanmar to the US for just $250. Since then I've been fortunate to score a few more - here's 9 tips to get you ready for the next mistake fare
- Watch how widely dispersed a sneeze on an airplane travels
- A throwback trip report where we flew Cathay Pacific First Class to Hong Kong and Macau to ring in the New Year where we had a front row seat to the fireworks over Victoria Harbor from the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
- Some exciting news related to the Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort in Australia - it will be rebranded as a One & Only Resort next year, and my review on Flyertalk was converted into the sleek new Hotel Review format
Friday, November 7, 2014
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort - New Management And A New Flyertalk Hotel Review Format
It was announced earlier this week that the Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa located near the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, Australia will be re-branded as a One & Only Resort, joining the newly opened One & Only Hayman Islands as the two properties in Australia managed by Kerzner International.
The timing of the re-branding hasn't been finalized, but should be finished early next year. Emirates will retain ownership of the resort for which they spent in excess of $100 million to build on a 7,000 acre conservatory reserve.
We stayed at this resort last year as part of our honeymoon and absolutely loved it. Our only complaints were mild ones, and revolved around the somewhat disorganized dinner service. I'd imagine that this is one area that will certainly be addressed by the new management group.
With Emirates retaining ownership, that bodes well for those that would like to use their Emirates Skywards miles which as it stands cost 65,000 miles per night. Given the retail cost of the resort and the fact that it is all-inclusive, it's not a bad option at all at 2-3 cents-per-mile (CPM) value.
New Flyertalk Hotel Review Format
On a related note, it appears that my review of the resort got the new Flyertalk hotel review format treatment. You can check out the new format here and compare it to the old one here. I certainly like the change as it creates a more structured and visually-appealing format. Most importantly, it aligns more closely to what you can find on other review sites like TripAdvisor which provide a rating for the various components of your stay like facilities, service, and food.
It also appears that each Flyertalk member's hotel reviews have been added into their profile, which will make it easy to read all of the reviews written by specific members.
What are your thoughts on some of the latest Flyertalk updates?
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