File this under "something that won't impact 99.999% of American AAdvantage members, but which I find to be fascinating nonetheless." My awesome colleague Jordan at PointsPros was helping a client who was trying to redeem American AAdvantage miles for…
Awards
Something strange is going on, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. For now we'll have to mark this as "developing." It would appear that sometime in the past few days, Lufthansa has pulled a vast majority of its long haul business class award…
Emirates is known for having one of the world's best first class products, whether you want to shower in first class on the A380, or enjoy the fully enclosed suite on the 777. Late last year we learned that Emirates Skywards would increasingly restrict…
For now we'll have to mark this as "developing," but it's at least something worth being aware of. It looks like changes may be on the horizon for Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer awards. Or at least we may see the formalization of a new award category.…
Qatar Airways offers the world's best business class product, with its amazing Qsuites. There are lots of partner airline frequent flyer programs that allow you to redeem miles for travel on Qatar Airways, and in very few cases do I actually book through…
In this post I wanted to take an in-depth look at what I consider to be the single best sweet spot award redemption in the world, which involves redeeming Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles on All Nippon Airways (ANA). I'm writing about this because this…
With Alaska Airlines having just joined the oneworld alliance, there's an exciting development when it comes to redeeming British Airways Avios for travel on the Seattle-based airline. Alaska Airlines and British Airways have had a partnership that goes…
If you have any Southwest Rapid Rewards points and plan to travel in the coming weeks, 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…
Well that's disappointing... As noted by Head for Points, this week British Airways Executive Club has increased the cost of short haul awards by 750 Avios one-way, without any sort of advance notice. British Airways Executive Club has a distance based…
It wasn’t too long ago when most loyalty programs offered free stopovers on award tickets. American AAdvantage, United MileagePlus, and even Delta SkyMiles, all used to offer these. Unfortunately fewer and fewer programs offer stopovers nowadays. Of…
Often you'll find that the best options for redeeming miles on a particular airline are through the frequent flyer program of a partner airline. Actually, I'd argue that's the case more often than not, and it's where we see many of the best award chart…
How often can one frequent flyer program devalue award costs? In October 2020 Delta SkyMiles devalued partner awards significantly, and now it appears that the program has done so again (thanks to my awesome colleague Jimmy for the heads up on this).…
For now I'll pose this as a question, since the program's lack of transparency makes it hard to figure out what's going on. Etihad Guest doesn't publish an award chart for travel on its own flights, but rather has an award calculator. When you look up…
Marriott Bonvoy has just launched a "Week of Wonders" promotion, which is described as a "week of awe-inspiring experiences and offers." There are indeed a few promotions associated with this, and one in particular that members may find beneficial. To…
TAP Air Portugal is a member of the Star Alliance, and has a frequent flyer program that's often overlooked (including by me). I wanted to take a closer look at award redemptions through TAP's frequent flyer program, Miles&Go. Let me explain why, and…
Historically Qatar Airways' Privilege Club program has actively been a competitive disadvantage for the airline, which makes zero sense to me. The program hasn't been rewarding or competitive in terms of elite perks, mileage redemption amounts, and more.…
Several weeks ago British Airways Executive Club offered 50% off award tickets, and now Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is offering a similar promotion. Virgin Atlantic has launched what's being called its best Black Friday sale ever, and part of that is…
Some fantastic changes have just been announced to the American AAdvantage program. As of November 11, 2020, American AAdvantage is eliminating all change and redeposit fees for mileage awards. In other words, if you need to cancel an award ticket and…
Here's a trick that can save you a lot of miles, but it also requires a bit of effort. Airline award space is heavily capacity controlled, but there's a trick that can sometimes help you get around that -- specifically, waitlisting awards. It's probably…
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise (unfortunately), but Delta SkyMiles has just greatly devalued partner awards, for no apparent reason… Delta SkyMiles partner award costs increase Delta SkyMiles doesn’t publish an award chart,…
Most travel loyalty programs recognize that this is the time to reward loyal members, rather than devalue program perks. And then there's United MileagePlus... United MileagePlus no longer publishes award charts, meaning there's no transparency when…
If there’s any airline we’ve got a love/hate relationship with around here, it’s British Airways. They release the most award seats in premium cabins between the US and Europe of any carrier, but the fees are outrageous. Want to fly first class from…
A week ago British Airways launched its most lucrative award sale ever, though it goes without saying that this isn't exactly an easy time to travel internationally. Well, if you've been considering this promotion but haven't yet booked a flight, this…
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…
