For years major US airlines seemingly barely used their loyalty programs to fill planes. After all, they didn't really have to, with airlines having experienced record profitability and loads. The pandemic has changed that, and we've once again started…
Awards
If you have any Southwest Rapid Rewards points, this is a great time to redeem them. Southwest Airlines is offering a 20% discount when you redeem Rapid Rewards points for flights: This is valid for bookings made through Thursday, September 17, 2020…
Air Canada's Aeroplan program has just made it significantly easier to redeem miles on the North American airline I most want to fly... Canadian North is an Inuit-owned airline with the most service to the Canadian Arctic. Canadian North has been a partner…
Iberia Plus has just launched one of the best award sales the program has ever offered. Of course that's only of so much use, given coronavirus and border restrictions. The Iberia Plus program is offering a straightforward 50% off award sale: This is…
British Airways Avios can simultaneously be one of the most valuable and one of the most frustrating points currencies out there. British Airways has a distance based award chart, meaning the currency is valuable in instances where other points wouldn't…
At this point if you want to redeem miles for travel on Singapore Airlines, you'll have to do so directly through the KrisFlyer program. Singapore Airlines has temporarily pulled all award availability through partner frequent flyer programs. This means…
Etihad Airways is offering a significant discount on award tickets at the moment, which could represent a great deal. The Etihad Guest frequent flyer program is offering a 30% discount on award tickets: You must book by August 27, 2020 You must travel…
While we're a long ways from a return to normal in the travel industry, it's nice to see that at least one popular promotion is making a return, after being paused since March 2020. Historically one of the best uses of Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles…
In April American Airlines announced several updates to the AAdvantage program. The airline extended elite status by 12 months, and revealed plans to introduce a new one-time American Airlines Vacations credit for elite members, and also adjust change…
The current pandemic has really highlighted how outdated technology is at many airlines, especially for those looking to cancel tickets. At most airlines getting refunds for cancelled tickets requires a phone call, and getting through to an agent by…
British Airways’ award search page used to be the place to go when searching for award space on oneworld airlines. Now that American lets you book most partner awards online, the BA search tool isn’t as vital as it once was. Despite this, the tool can…
For now we'll have to mark this as "developing," though it sure looks like something may be up... Japan Airlines (JAL) first class is one of my favorite first class products in the world, in particular for the amazing food, drinks, service, and Wi-Fi.…
Let me start by saying that I'm writing about this not because this is necessarily the time to redeem miles for Emirates first class (given all the uncertainty, border closures, etc.), but rather because there's an exciting development to how Emirates…
Yesterday Air Canada Aeroplan and Etihad Guest launched a new partnership, opening up reciprocal mileage earning and redemption opportunities. I'd argue that by far the most interesting part of this new partnership is the ability to redeem Air Canada…
Royal Air Maroc joined the oneworld alliance as of April 2020, and it's now possible to redeem AAdvantage miles on Royal Air Maroc directly through aa.com. This is also exciting because it means that awards on all oneworld airlines can now be searched…
While Emirates is one of my favorite airlines to fly in first class, I've never been a fan of the Emirates Skywards program. That may slowly be changing... Emirates Skywards reduces award fees Historically Emirates Skywards has been a pretty lousy program…
It appears that American Airlines tried to get rid of their (superior) old award search tool once and for all, but there continues to be a workaround. As many people may already know, since last year American has had two different AAdvantage award search…
Unbelievable. At a time when loyalty programs should be trying to woo customers, United Airlines is instead trying to push them away. A couple of days ago United MileagePlus quietly revealed plans to make it harder to earn status on partner airlines.…
This is great news for most people with American AAdvantage miles. At the beginning of the month, Royal Air Maroc formally joined oneworld, which was an exciting development. Obviously the announcement would have been more exciting if COVID-19 weren't…
While most people aren't planning any travel immediately, this is a great time to think about strategies for earning points, so that you're ready to redeem for travel when the time is right. Beyond that, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with planning…
While most of us probably aren't going to be traveling anytime soon, there's nothing wrong with starting to think about the award redemptions you're most excited about in the future, or even planning some award travel way in advance. In this post I wanted…
As I've said before, I don't think there's anything wrong with planning travel way in advance, given the deals that are available. However, if you're going to do so, go into it with the expectation that the trip may not materialize, as we don't know…
Airlines have been all over the place when it comes to their policies for changing and cancelling tickets. For some airlines, finding a way to avoid ticket refunds has become a necessity in order to not run out of money. Among US airlines, United Airlines…
If you're looking to take the whole family to Europe this summer, Aer Lingus has just released an incredible amount of business class award availability. In the past couple of days Aer Lingus has released an unreal amount of business class award availability…
