It's that time of year. Chase is changing up the welcome bonus offers on a number of cards. We already covered the increased welcome bonuses on all of the personal Southwest cards, but the United℠ Explorer Card is also getting a bump. We often see the…
It used to be that for the most part business credit cards weren't competitive with personal credit cards. However, over the past few years I'd say that trend has changed significantly. Presumably this is because card issuers finally see the amount of…
For years JetBlue has been talking about potentially launching transatlantic flights. Their existing A321s should already have the range to operate some transatlantic flights, though they'll soon take delivery of A321neos, which have even more range,…
Pistols at dawn! Qatar's (in)famous CEO Akbar Al Baker is known for saying all sorts of things on behalf of his airline that he doesn't mean (how's that new route to Las Vegas going?), but recently he has insisted that Qatar Airways is considering leaving…
Yesterday it was announced that China Southern will be leaving SkyTeam as of January 1, 2019. This is something that has been rumored for a long while, though many wondered if it would ever happen. What's interesting here is that China Southern is leaving…
La Compagnie is the all business class transatlantic airline that started flying in mid-2014. They operate flights between Newark and Paris using Boeing 757 aircraft. I reviewed La Compagnie back when they first launched operations a few years ago. They…
Emirates has just revealed their half-year results for 2018-2019, and there are some interesting notes in there. While the financial results differ for the overall Emirates Group, what I'm most interested in are the results of Emirates Airline directly:
At the end of October, Kenya Airways launched daily nonstop flights between Nairobi and New York. This was a huge point of pride for both the airline and country, and I witnessed that firsthand when taking the New York to Nairobi inaugural flight. If…
On Thursday, November 15th, Delta announced two changes to their ever-shifting Sky Club access policies: - Effective immediately, single-visit passes, previously sold for $59 or 5,000 SkyMiles, will no longer be available. - Effective January 1st,…
Capital One set the miles and points world ablaze this week with the announcement of a new flexible points program that will take effect in early December. Rather than the 1:1 transfers that are the industry standard in the U.S., transfers will process…
Through December 12, 2018, the US Citi ThankYou program is offering a 30% bonus when you convert points into Avianca LifeMiles. Points ordinarily convert at a 1:1 ratio, though during this promotion you can convert 1,000 Citi points into 1,250 LifeMiles.…
For the past few years, most of IHG’s global hotel promotions have been customized. Everyone gets some type of offer, but different members get targeted for different versions of the offer. The logic is that hotel loyalty programs want to generate incremental…
Between California's tragic wildfires and the Northeast's impending snowstorm, it's shaping up to be a week of extremes - and a rough one for travelers. In the Northeast, people are bracing for the first snowstorm of the season, with Winter Storm Avery…
This story came out last week but I was stuck on dodgy buses in Egypt, so have only managed to write about it now. Some passengers take sleeping tablets or other supplements to help them sleep during flights. I usually avoid these myself as they leave…
Last May plans were announced for Paine Field-Snohomish County Airport to open a passenger terminal. For those of you not aware, Paine Field is home to Boeing’s Everett Factory, and up until now hasn’t been used for commercial flights. However, airlines…
One of the things that I appreciate about British Airways Executive Club is that they guarantee a certain amount of award availability on each flight. British Airways guarantees a minimum of two business class and four economy class award seats on all…
At the forward door I was greeted by the cabin manager and pointed towards my seat, 4F. Etihad's business class cabin on the A320 consists of a total of 16 seats, spread across four rows in a 2-2 configuration. For aircraft mostly operating regional…
I had a roughly four hour layover in Abu Dhabi, as my flight from Washington arrived around 7PM, while my connecting flight to Ahmedabad was departing at 11PM. As usually seems to be the case, our flight arrived at a remote stand. I didn't mind this…
I landed at Washington Dulles Airport from my connection around 6PM, so I had over four hours until my flight to Abu Dhabi. Upon arrival I headed to the Etihad Lounge, which only opened around 6:30PM. There my passport was checked and I was issued boarding…
Welcome to my next trip report, which will cover travel in Etihad first & business class, as well as travel in Singapore business class on the world's (new) longest flight. Singapore Airlines resumed the world's longest flight, between Singapore and…
It's not often I review economy flights, though this will be an exception. While we could have flown Air Canada between Whitehorse and Vancouver, we went out of our way to fly Air North, which bills itself as Yukon's airline. We arrived at Whitehorse…
I love dogs and I love travel...so when I can incorporate dogs into my travel experience, it’s a perfect puppertunity. Just outside Whitehorse is a place called Muktuk Adventures. In addition to an “off-the-grid” guest ranch/B&B (which would probably…
After rumors of them working on this for years, it looks like Uber is finally going to introduce a full fledged loyalty program, called Uber Rewards. The new program will initially be available in nine markets, including Atlanta, Denver, Miami, New York,…
This is super exciting. The US Amex Membership Rewards program is offering a 40% bonus when you transfer points to British Airways Executive Club or Iberia Plus by November 15, 2018. It's pretty awesome that this promotion is valid for a full two months.…
There have been rumors of China Southern leaving SkyTeam and joining oneworld for years. In ways this is logical, as oneworld doesn’t have an airline based in mainland China, while China Southern has second-rate status in SkyTeam, given Delta’s close…
Last week American Express announced a "revamp" of their Business Gold Rewards Card, rebranding it as the American Express® Business Gold Card, and launching a new slate of benefits. Rather than earn 3X, the new Amex Business Gold has 4X bonus categories.…
All of the card issuers have different ways that they deal with people trying to "game" the system. Obviously card issuers want to encourage profitable behavior, so they do what they can to create policies that maximize the odds of that. There's no doubt…
Back in the day it was rare to see big welcome bonuses or generous rewards structures on business credit cards. That has changed, and nowadays we're seeing card issuers place huge emphasis on business credit cards. This is obviously an area where they…
American Express seems to be on a bit of kick with product revamps and I think I'm okay with it. They just launched the new American Express® Business Gold Card and it looks like they noticed how much people like the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card.…
For 48 hours only, Delta is selling roundtrip tickets from North America to Europe for 98,000 SkyMiles. Tickets need to be booked by 11:59 PM ET on Thursday, November 15th (yes, tomorrow), and the sale is valid for travel from December 24th, 2018 through…
As well as airline insolvencies, 2018 will be remembered as a year when numerous major airlines were hit by cyber criminals, with valuable passenger data stolen. Air Canada and Cathay Pacific were hit, as well as British Airways, which said at the time:…
2018 has already seen several European airlines go bust, including Skywork, VLM, Azul Air and most notably Primera Air. Another airline to cease operations was Cyprus based Cobalt. I flew Cobalt a year ago from Larnaca to Brussels, and it was a great…
