As a Canadian, it’s sometimes frustrating to see all the options available to our southern neighbours (that’s right, with a “u”, get used to it) to redeem Amex reward benefits. On this side of the border, Amex only has eight airline and hotel transfer…
This won't apply to everyone, but just in case it's relevant to you I wanted to share a quick note of caution regarding making multiple transfers from American Express Membership Rewards (at least the US program) to Air Canada Aeroplan in a single day.…
Historically one of the best uses of Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles is booking their Promo Awards. Flying Blue publishes these every month, and they offer 20-50% off select award tickets on Air France and KLM metal. In 2018 some major changes were…
Hyatt has quietly rolled out an award sale, offering discounts on both Free Night and Points + Cash bookings at 22 properties around the globe. Note that this can potentially be stacked with Hyatt's 10% discount on redeemed points, valid for stays between…
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles are among my favorite mileage currencies out there. On a per mile basis, I value Alaska miles more than any other airline miles. In this post I wanted to talk a bit more about actually redeeming Alaska miles -- the…
Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer program offers monthly "Spontaneous Escapes" promotions, where they constantly have a list of flights that can be booked at a discount when redeeming miles. Presumably they're primarily discounting flights that they don't…
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…
Etihad Guest is my favorite loyalty program of the "big three" Gulf carriers. They're the only program that has decent redemption rates on their own flights, and they also have some great niche redemption opportunities on partner airlines. Etihad is…
Over the past few years American's saver level award availability for their own flights has gotten terrible. While there are lots of great award redemption opportunities on partner airlines, American saver level award availability is quite hard to come…
There are some incredible award sweet spots out there, but this might just be one of the most generally useful and unknown. We've written in the past about the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program, which is a Citi ThankYou transfer partner -- points…
British Airways Executive Club is known for their outrageously high "carrier imposed surcharges" on award tickets. On transatlantic flights in first or business class you can expect to pay $1,000+ in cash in addition to the Avios required. In my opinion…
In late 2017, Singapore Airlines introduced their new A380 Suites. It's an impressive product, and one that I know many people want to try. As of now only select A380s feature the new Suites, and those are flown to Delhi, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, Shanghai,…
There are lots of things that contribute towards a great frequent flyer program. Obviously award redemption rates and award availability are both important, but there’s also something to be said for the ease with which you can search and book award seats.…
Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer program is unique in letting members waitlist award tickets. However, earlier this year KrisFlyer devalued their award chart, and at the same time they announced that they'd make changes to how waitlisting awards works.…
Turkish Airlines offers one of my favorite business class products, and that's in spite of the fact that as of now their business class seats are quite outdated. Fortunately that's changing shortly, as Turkish Airlines has just taken delivery of their…
While my favorite use of British Airways Avios is for travel on partner airlines, there are also circumstances where it can make sense to redeem for travel on British Airways. Unfortunately the airline charges steep carrier imposed surcharges on most…
I've written in the past about how redeeming Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles on Delta can be a spectacular value. The idea is that Delta SkyMiles has dynamic award pricing, and in many cases the award rates for travel on Delta can be outrageous, even…
Historically Air New Zealand is one of the stingiest airlines when it comes to making business class award seats available, in particular for travel between the US and New Zealand. There are many times where there's not a single business class award…
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs, thanks to the fact that they continue to award miles based on distance flown, have unique airline partners, have low award redemption rates, allow stopovers on one-way awards,…
In 2017 American Airlines invested about $200 million in China Southern, which is China’s largest airline. It became clear that this was part of a larger strategic alliance between the two airlines. Since then, China Southern has left SkyTeam, and American…
Well, this doesn't look good. For the past week or so we've been hearing about issues with Marriott Bonvoy points getting "stuck" when members have initiated transfers to Lufthansa Miles&More. This isn't entirely unusual, as post-merger many Marriott…
