I make no apologies for valuing and stretching for elite status. It certainly isn’t for everyone, and wouldn’t be worth it if I didn’t travel as much as I do, but I have found that the benefits outweigh the costs for me and my family. That said, in this case, my “loyalty” can be bought for a price. Or rather, it can be lost with a high enough price. Here’s… Read the Rest.

I got an email today announcing the new partnership between United and ticket reseller Score Big.  In addition to now being able to earl 5 United miles per dollar when you buy tickets to events via Score Big, you also get 1,000 United miles with your first purchase of $30 or more from now until September 30, 2013.  Here is a link to the full terms of that offer. I… Read the Rest.

Looks like Barclay’s Bank is the most recent credit card issuer to toss out a new 50,000 mile sign-up bonus – this time for the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard.  I’m loving these big offers and wanted to make sure you knew the basics of this one – especially since the value isn’t necessarily intuitive for those of us in the US who don’t typically fly on Lufthansa…. Read the Rest.

I’m off to the airport shortly (yay!), so will keep this short for now, but I wanted to pass on the news that United shared today on Flyertalk that they will be re-introducing subscriptions for United Club, Economy Plus seating, and checked bags.  Here is what United posted on Flyertalk: I wanted to give you a heads up on several full-year subscription products we’re getting ready to launch over the… Read the Rest.

The morning of our scheduled return from London, we were awoken early by my husband’s phone regularly going off with a warning that our booked US Airways Envoy Suites award flight was delayed…and delayed more…and then delayed even more. It was pre-dawn when we realized we would mis-connect in Charlotte due to the delay. I tried calling US Airways to make sure we had proactively been put on the next… Read the Rest.

Thanks to CokeandTaco Flyertalk for pointing out that some inexpensive fares to San Juan, Puerto Rico have returned for dates late in 2013 and into early March 2014.  I saw some even lower prices a month or so ago, but this is still a good way to escape to some warmer weather during the winter months. Here are a few round trip fares I saw when playing around online: DFW… Read the Rest.

I’ve written a few times about booking a free one-way on a United international or Hawaii award ticket, but today I got a chance to actually put it to use on a family trip.  I want to share this to hopefully inspire others to go beyond thinking that is something too wacky or too advanced or impractical for families, and to really add it to their “bag of tricks” for… Read the Rest.

In case you have missed it, there is a pretty interesting thread on Flyertalk about a family that apparently caused a flight to be diverted due to the perceived security risk they caused when they got upset about a violent movie being shown on the overhead monitors.  There are several interesting issues that this story has raised, so I thought it was worth sharing. You can read the full story… Read the Rest.

I’ll blame the Japan/US time zone difference for not wishing everyone Good Friday on Good Friday, but will instead shift it to wishing you all a Good Weekend. Probably more universally applicable anyway. I head back from Japan today in order to get home in time to play the role of the Easter Bunny. It’s a bit of a dichotomous life jumping from the Park Hyatt Toyko and hanging with… Read the Rest.

Plan a Hawaiian Vacation Using Miles and Points: Part 1 (Overview) Strategic Airline Ticket Decisions (this post) In Part 1 of this mini-series, I outlined what I would be covering in subsequent posts on getting your family to Hawaii on miles and points. If you missed that post, I recommend going back and checking out some of the tips and parameters shared there to give a baseline for what is… Read the Rest.