Despite their bankruptcy, American will apparently be taking delivery of 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in 2012 and 2013, which they’ll launch on their London routes. New planes at a US airline are exciting news, though what’s especially exciting is what they plan on doing with them, as announced today.

The most exciting news is that they’re introducing a new first class product, and also a fully flat business class product with direct aisle access at every seat, as opposed to their current product which is angled flat. I assume American’s new business class product will either be similar to Delta’s product on their 767-400 aircraft, or otherwise US Airways’ new Envoy product, both of which are great. Then again, it makes me wonder why they bother offering first class, given that the difference between business and first class will be minimal. I wouldn’t be surprised if they still make the decision to eliminate first class on the 777-300ER aircraft they’re taking delivery of, as that seems to be the trend in the industry.

The other interesting news is that they’ll apparently have wifi capabilities, which will also be a first for a US airline on longhaul international flights.

Lastly, they’ll also be introducing a premium economy product. It will be interesting to see whether it’s like Delta and United where it just offers a few extra inches of pitch (that’s my guess), or if they’ll go with a premium economy product similar to those offered by other foreign carriers, which would be more like domestic first class seats.

So this is exciting news, though leaves us with more questions than answers. The other thing I’m wondering is whether they plan on reconfiguring their current international fleet with the new first and business class product, and if so, at what point.

Stay tuned!

Carlson Hotels is offering a 30% discount off the flexible rate for stays at select Radisson, Park Inn, and Country Inn & Suites properties. The promotion is good for bookings made by December 13, 2011, for stays between December 23, 2011, and March 3, 2012. Simply use promotion code 30PCTOFF at the time of booking to take advantage of this offer. Best of all, even the discounted rate is still refundable, unlike many other programs that offer discounts off the flexible rate, only to make them non-refundable.

Keep in mind that Carlson’s 50,000 point bonus for making one stay runs through December 30, so if you can make a stay between December 23 and December 30 you should be able to take advantage of this promotion and still earn the 50,000 bonus points.

(Tip of the hat to Nima)

Through December 15, Delta is giving SkyMiles members the opportunity to purchase up to 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles. You can purchase MQMs at the following costs:

2,500 MQMs for $295
5,000 MQMs for $495
7,500 MQMs for $695
10,000 MQMs for $895

Since Delta offers rollover miles, these MQMs could even count towards status for next year if you’ve already requalified and can’t reach a higher status tier.

I give Delta a lot of credit for this, and am surprised more airlines don’t offer a similar “published” buy-up offer. The price is high enough so that you can’t cry foul that they’re diluting elite tiers by “giving away” miles. At the same time this benefits Delta a lot more than someone paying (probably less) to fly without a purpose.

The price definitely isn’t cheap so if you have the time to take a trip that would almost certainly be a better deal. But if you have more money than time, this offer is worth considering.

Classless or not, you’ve gotta give Spirit some credit for their quick thinking when it comes to fare sales, from Spirit’s “F-ing Golden” fare sale, where they were “guilty of selling seats though don’t expect to serve the time,” to their “Weiner” fare sale, with fares “too hard to resist.”

Well, after American announced they were filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, Spirit announced they would be starting service from Dallas to New York, Boston, Orlando, and Atlanta. Of course they celebrated their announcement by saying they were embarking on a new chapter, with an $11 fare sale.

Clever? Classless? A combination of both? What say you? While I’d never fly them, they never cease to entertain me.

Link: Chase Ink Bold Business Card

For a while now I’ve found Ultimate Rewards points to be among the most valuable points currencies out there, especially as the value of Membership Rewards points continues to plummet decline. One card which accrues Ultimate Rewards points is the Chase Ink Bold business credit card, which offers 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after making $10,000 worth of purchases in the first three months of having the card.

Last week I posted that the sign-up bonus/registration link was being pulled on Monday, and it was indeed. But fortunately the reason they pulled the link isn’t because they’re decreasing the sign-up bonus, but because they adjusted the benefits of the card substantially. You can read a summary of the old benefits of the card here.

Ultimately what the changes seem to come down to is that Chase is aligning the Ink Bold card (business) a lot more closely with the Sapphire Preferred card (personal). On one hand that’s a good thing since I consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to be one of the best all around credit cards in the market today. On the other hand it’s not all good news, since one of the unique benefits of the Ink Bold card that’s being cut is the threshold bonuses they offered, which were as follows:

You earn one point per dollar spent on the card, with the following threshold bonuses:

7,500 bonus points if you spend $25,000 on the card in a calendar year
15,000 additional bonus points if you spend an additional $25,000 on the card in a calendar year
25,000 additional bonus points if you spend an additional $50,000 on the card in a calendar year

That being said, they’ve added some benefits to the card (outlined below), that actually make this a really attractive card in my opinion.

How to Earn Points

You earn five points per dollar spent on telecom categories (cable, wireless, landline, etc.) and office supply stores, which is a huge bonus. This is actually really useful since not many cards offer bonuses in these categories. Keep in mind that this can all be stacked with other promotions through the Ultimate Rewards mall, which often offers an additional 5-10 points per dollar spent at office supply stores.

Then you earn two points per dollar on gas and hotels. While the Sapphire Preferred card offers double points on dining and travel, this is a pretty nice complement to the card, given that you can now earn two Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on gas (meaning there are now ways to earn two Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on gas, travel expenses, and dining, which covers about 99% of my purchases)!

Lastly, you earn one point per dollar spent on everything else.

How to Redeem Points

This is really what makes the program great. On September 30 American Express Membership Rewards ended their relationship with Continental OnePass, which was a huge loss for the program.

Ultimate Rewards not only partners with Continental OnePass and United Mileage Plus, but also with Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott Rewards, Priority Club, British Airways, and Korean Air.

Two of the best options when it comes to transfers are Continental/United and Hyatt. They transfer 1:1 to both programs, so this is a way to earn more Continental and United miles than you’d earn directly with their co-branded card, given that you earn bonus points for several spend categories.

Furthermore, the points transfers are instant, and points can be transferred to anyone’s account. This is hugely valuable, since you can use your Ultimate Rewards points to top off anyone’s account.

Alternatively you can apply points towards any “revenue” ticket at a rate of 1.25 cents per point. That means that a $625 flight will cost you 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points. This isn’t the most efficient way to use points, though it’s still a bit more lucrative than American Express’ “Pay with Points” option in most cases.

Other Cool Features:

The Annual Fee is Waived for the First Year

It’s $95 per year after that.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Should be standard with all cards nowadays (in my opinion), though unfortunately that’s not the case.

Free Priority Pass Membership

That gets you two free lounge visits and then $27 for every subsequent visit.

Verdict

This is a great sign-up bonus, especially in conjunction with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. If you sign up for both cards that’s over 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points, which can be instantly transferred to Continental/United/Hyatt. Even if the card doesn’t work best for your long term spending habits, the sign-up bonus makes the card worthwhile, in my opinion. Those 100,000 points can get you a business class ticket from the US to Asia, or even three nights in a suite at the highest end Park Hyatts (think Park Hyatt Sydney, where a suite is regularly $2,000+ per night).

Also keep in mind that Chase is usually pretty strict about approving multiple personal applications at once, though they’ll typically approve one personal and one business application. Even if you don’t actually have a business, you can still get approved for the card by listing your business as a sole proprietorship and giving your Social Security Number as the tax ID for the business.

Here’s the link for the Chase Ink Bold Business Card

Full disclosure: I receive a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through the above link. As always I will only provide a referral link if it offers the best available sign-up bonus.

This is actually a pretty decent deal. Gilt has a sale whereby you can charter a Virgin America plane (for up to 146 people) for a roundtrip flight on any of Virgin America’s nonstop routes, plus you can name one of their planes.

The cost is $60,000, which, when you break it down, is actually pretty reasonable given how much charters usually cost. That averages out to $410 per person roundtrip, which seems like a steal for a route like New York to San Francisco, given that a) it’s a charter b) you choose the name of the plane and c) it would be pretty damn awesome.

Not sure how they’d make any money on this, though.

So, who’s up for a Virgin Mega Do?