Via the NY Daily News:
Mile-high flirting is about to get a whole lot easier.
Virgin America’s newest service allows passengers to discreetly send a drink to another flier, all with the touch of a button in its seat-to-seat ordering feature.
The company announced its plans to help customers “get lucky” on Facebook Monday.
What do you guys think? Fun idea (for obvious reasons) or bad idea in a confined space where no one can escape from a creeper?
(Tip of the hat to Kristina)
Reader Will asked me the following question via email:
Ben -
This might be a possible blog post idea since I’m not sure I’ve seen you address this too often – I’ve seen you discuss the major players like Chase UR and AmEx MR. My question is can you share some thoughts on ease and value of Hawaiian and Alaska airline award redemptions? I need to take a break from Chase, Citi and AmEx and am wondering if either of these is worth applying for. I’m primarilly interested in flying to SE Asia and Central America as opposed to Europe. Thanks.
Since I figured this is a topic that might interest others as well I’ll answer it here instead of by email. There are tons of credit cards issued by Chase and American Express, and they get most of the coverage since they have the best sign-up bonuses and are usually the most rewarding for everyday spend. But often our limiting factor in applying for credit cards is the number of cards we can get from a single issuer.
I’ll take it a step further, though, and also include the Virgin Atlantic American Express, because I think a lot of people group these three programs and cards into the “other airlines” category when it comes to applying for cards.
As a reminder, the co-branded cards offered by these three airlines are as follows (and for what it’s worth none of them earn me a referral bonus):
Last week I wrote a post asking you guys how much of a reward you need to apply for a credit card. I said I needed about a $400 reward for it to be worth my while (and the small, temporary credit hit), and most of you seemed to be in a similar range. So I’ll cover each card individually as to whether I think it’s worth applying for or not.
The Alaska Airlines Visa — worth applying for
As I wrote about in this post, I do think the Alaska Visa is worth applying for under most circumstances. I value their miles at about 1.5 cents each, so 25,000 miles is worth $375 to me. Then there’s a $75 annual fee, though also a $100 statement credit, bringing the “gain” from the card to about $400.
There are two important things about this card worth noting, though. First of all, the card is churnable, meaning you can earn the bonus multiple times. This is huge. Second of all, the card comes with a $99 coach companion certificate, which is pretty valuable if you ever travel Alaska. Unlike other companion certificates this one has few restrictions, and the passenger traveling on the companion certificate even earns miles and is eligible for upgrades.
But the thing about Alaska miles is that they’re actually a really valuable mileage currency. Alaska partners with American, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Qantas, and many more carriers, so your miles have tons of flexibility. And now that they’re slowly introducing one way awards on partner airlines, the flexibility of those miles is increasing even more.
The Virgin Atlantic American Express — maybe worth applying for
This card offers 50,000 miles after spending $2,500 and adding two authorized users, which is a fairly good sign-up offer, and the card is apparently churnable. Now I actually shouldn’t recommend this card. I value Virgin Atlantic miles at 0.8 cents each, and the card offers 50,000 miles, meaning I value those miles at $400. Then there’s a $90 annual fee, bringing the value down to $310.
But under a set of specific circumstances those 50,000 miles might be worth it to you.
For one, you can transfer Virgin Atlantic miles to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, so the sign-up bonus basically gets you 100,000 HHonors points. Now, those were worth a lot more before the devaluation last month, but if you’re not looking to redeem for high end properties, those points will still get you pretty far. For example, the Doubletree Beijing is only 5,000 points per night, and every fifth night is free. So 100,000 HHonors points would get you 25 free nights there. If you were actually looking to spend some time in Beijing, chances are you value 25 nights at a nice looking Doubletree at more than $310.
Pricing reflecting the free nights
Virgin Atlantic miles are also quite useful for redemptions on Virgin America, as they have reasonable redemption rates with no fuel surcharges. Roundtrip flights up and down the west cost cost 10,000-15,000 miles, while transcons cost 25,000 miles. Heck, roundtrip first class to Mexico is just 40,000 miles in many cases.
So if you intend to use your miles in one of the above ways I’d say the card is worth applying for. Otherwise I’d say it probably isn’t, given the high fuel surcharges and redemption rates for travel on Virgin Atlantic and most of their other partners.
The Hawaiian Airlines Visa and Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines Visa — not really worth applying for
The one thing that makes these cards worth applying for is that they’re churnable, meaning you can earn the sign-up bonus on both cards multiple times. Hawaiian miles can be transferred at a 1:2 ratio to Hilton, much like Virgin Atlantic miles. So if you really love Hilton points this isn’t a bad card to get.
Still, aside from that there aren’t many good values on their award chart. Partner awards on Virgin Atlantic used to be a great value back in the day given the lack of fuel surcharges, though that chart was substantially devalued a few months back.
Awards on Hawaiian are rather overpriced, though I suppose if you’re aspiring to book an award to Hawaii then they’re not a horrible option, though you can also add those as a “free” one way to a legacy award in many cases. So I’d give this one a pass, unless you desperately want Hilton points.
Anyway, those are my two cents. What do you guys think about the above three cards — are they worth applying for or not?
Through May 7, 2013, Virgin America is offering up to a 40% bonus on the purchase of Elevate points. The incremental bonuses are as follows:
Virgin America Elevate points are ordinarily a whopping 5.2 cents per point to purchase, with an annual cap of 20,000 points per account.
Maxing out this promotion would get you 28,000 Elevate points (20,000 Elevate points plus 8,000 bonus points) for a total of $1,040. So even after the bonus you’re looking at roughly 3.7 cents per point.
I value Virgin America Elevate points at roughly 2.0 cents each. You can redeem each Elevate point for roughly 2.2 cents towards the cost of a Virgin America ticket. They also have some interesting fixed price redemptions on partner airlines, including on Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. But there are very few circumstances under which I could picture it being worthwhile to outright purchase points, unless you’re topping off an account for a redemption.
I’ve seen better bonuses on purchased miles in the past (including earlier in the year, when they were offering an 80% bonus), and I’m sure we’ll see better promotions again in the future.
It’s worth noting that Virgin America points purchases are processed by points.com, so aren’t eligible for the credit card category bonuses usually associated with purchasing airline tickets.
Over the weekend Virgin Atlantic was added as a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, and I dismissed this as mostly meaningless, given that I consider Flying Club miles to be the single least valuable mileage currency out there.
And while I’m sticking to thinking the partnership is mostly meaningless, some in the comments section pointed out that Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with Virgin America is actually potentially lucrative.
To be honest I’ve kind of lost track of the partnerships that Virgin America has. Some are one sided, some are reciprocal, and they’re all pretty damn confusing to me. It’s tougher than keeping up with the Kardashians.
But Virgin Atlantic’s award chart for travel on Virgin America is actually really lucrative:
While the transcon flights in first class and Main Cabin Select aren’t that attractively priced, their shorthaul pricing is really good.
For example, it’s tough to beat 10,000 for roundtrip travel in coach between Los Angeles and San Francisco, or 20,000 miles for first class travel.
Los Angeles to Cancun roundtrip for 20,000 miles in coach or 40,000 miles in first class is pretty damn awesome as well.
The good news is that Virgin Atlantic doesn’t impose fuel surcharges on award redemptions on Virgin America (which is the norm for domestic redemptions anyway), and there aren’t even any ticketing fees for booking over the phone (which is the only place to book this). The bad news is that only roundtrip awards are allowed on Virgin America, and there’s no way to search award availability online (since Virgin America has a revenue based frequent flyer program), so you have to call up Virgin Atlantic to inquire about availability and make the booking.
The truth is in many cases British Airways has similar (or even lower) redemption rates through their Executive Club program for travel on American and Alaska. Though truthfully if I were flying in coach I’d rather fly Virgin America (and get power ports, IFE, and wifi), than Alaska or American (neither of which offer all three).
So with a transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club as we’ve seen in the past, this is definitely a redemption option to keep in mind. Late last year they ran a 35% transfer bonus, so that would’ve lowered the cost of a roundtrip in coach between Los Angeles and San Francisco to under 8,000 Membership Rewards points, and would have lowered the cost of a roundtrip between Los Angeles and Cancun in first class to under 30,000 Membership Rewards points.
You know when you went trick-or-treating as a kid and people started giving out “healthy” snacks in place of candy, like apples or bananas? Well, I can’t help but feel like this is kind of what has happened with Chase’s new Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. On one hand more options are a good thing, on the other hand of all possible frequent flyer programs to start a relationship with, this is the least valuable one.
Chase has just added Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club as their latest Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. Points transfer instantly at a 1:1 ratio, as they do with most of their transfer partners.
I recently valued various mileage currencies, and in that valuation Virgin Atlantic ranked dead last in value, at just 0.8 cents each. The fact is that the program just isn’t that interesting. They impose heavy fuel surcharges on virtually all redemptions, and their award rates aren’t especially low either. The value in their points used to be that you could transfer them at a 1:2 ratio to Hilton, and while you can still do that, Hilton points were devalued substantially just a couple of weeks ago, so that’s not as valuable anymore either.
So aside from very limited sets of circumstances — like one-way awards in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class where you don’t have any flexibility, or Hilton points transfers for redemptions at mid-range properties — I don’t see this being especially valuable. Still, options are options are options are options. Right?
Secretly, and perhaps mildly realistically, I’m still hoping that either American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards steal Alaska Mileage Plan, either by issuing their co-branded credit card or by adding them as a partner to their programs. Now that would be a nice addition to either program.
(Tip of the hat to Gary)
Last November Virgin America began status matching American and United elites to their Elevate program. In reality if was more of a challenge than an outright match, given that the status was only valid for six months at most, and you had to fly a certain amount in order to keep it for the rest of the year.
Well, it seems they’ve now updated the terms of their status match offer in a couple of ways. First of all, they’re now also matching Southwest A-List and Companion Pass members to Elevate Silver and Gold, respectively. This makes sense given that they compete in many markets (though often at co-terminal airports).
They’ve also extended the expiration date of the status match offer to June 30, 2013. So this is at most a three month status match, and you have to cross the following thresholds in order to keep your status for the rest of the year:
While Elevate isn’t as rewarding as traditional frequent flyer programs, it does come with free upgrades to Main Cabin Select for Elevate Gold members, and with that you can purchase discounted upgrades to first class.
(Tip of the hat to Frequently Flying)
Introduction
Credit Card Points
Airline Miles
Hotel Points
Welcome to what will undoubtedly be the most controversial part of this series. There’s nothing quite as fun as valuing airline miles on the internet, because I’m about to be called an idiot by people that value their miles somewhere between 0.5 and 12.5 cents each. So I’ll once again make reference to my disclaimer in the introduction of this series by saying that these are my subjective valuations based on what I typically redeem my miles for, and based on what I value those flights at (not their retail value, because in virtually all cases I wouldn’t otherwise pay for first or business class). I’ve also added several programs below that I didn’t value last time, which I hope you guys find useful.
Since there’s a lot of information below, I figured I’d summarize my valuations upfront, which are as follows:
With that in mind, here are my explanations:
Air Canada Aeroplan – 1.3 cents/mile (previously 1.3 cents/mile)
Going back a couple of years Air Canada Aeroplan miles were hands down the single most valuable mileage currency out there. Then after a devaluation of their award chart and the addition of fuel surcharges for travel on most of their partner airlines, they took a big hit.
There’s still some value in their program, though. Business class between the US and much of Europe, for example, costs just 90,000 miles roundtrip, and you’re allowed either one stopover and one open jaw or two stopovers. If you travel on Brussels, Swiss, United, and US Airways there won’t be any fuel surcharges either. So while Aeroplan miles aren’t what they used to be, they are still a good option for those with a Membership Rewards balance they’re looking to redeem for premium cabin travel.
Great use of Aeroplan miles without fuel surcharges
Best credit card(s) for earning Aeroplan miles: American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Also the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent.
Air France Flying Blue – 1.1 cents/mile (not previously rated)
Flying Blue miles can be quite valuable in a limited set of circumstances. You can redeem them for one-way travel on Delta at half the price of a roundtrip (which you can’t do directly through Delta’s program), and as long as you’re originating in the US there are no fuel surcharges. Furthermore, they can be redeemed for travel on Aeromexico without fuel surcharges between the US and South America, which is another great option given how much award space they release. They even have lower pricing than Delta in many cases. For example, roundtrip business class on Delta between the US and Israel costs just 100,000 miles, assuming there’s award space at the saver level (while Delta would charge 120,000 miles for the same award).
These miles have also become more valuable for travel on Air France. Previously Air France gave their own Flying Blue members and Delta SkyMiles members access to the same saver award space. Nowadays they only give Delta access to a part of that inventory, to the point that they’ve blocked off Delta award redemptions for travel on Air France for just about the entire summer. So while Flying Blue does charge hefty fuel surcharges, it may just be the only practical option for redeeming on Air France.
Flying Blue business class award space between Washington and Paris for this summer (none of the space is being released to Delta SkyMiles members)
Though a word of caution — Flying Blue’s call center is indescribably useless and excruciatingly painful to work with. You’ve been warned.
Best credit card(s) for earning Air France Flying Blue miles: American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card.
Alaska Mileage Plan – 1.6 cents/mile (previously 1.5 cents/mile)
Mileage Plan is one of those programs that’s sooo close to being awesome. They partner with many airlines across multiple alliances, so the flexibility of the miles is great, in theory. Unfortunately they have some rules that really prevent these miles from being more valuable. One of those rules is that you can’t mix partner airlines on an award ticket. This can be really tough to do given that multiple airlines are needed to get to some destinations, and that can require multiple award tickets. Furthermore as of now they don’t allow one-way awards on partner airlines, though rumor has it that one way awards will soon be possible on select partners.
That being said, Alaska recently unveiled their mileage redemption chart for travel on Emirates, and while it’s not amazing, it certainly adds some value to the program. First class to the Middle East or India is 180,000 miles roundtrip, while first class to Africa or Asia is 200,000 miles roundtrip.
Emirates onboard shower suite
Those are decent redemption rates though they aren’t amazing, Then again it’s one of Emirates’ few mileage redemption partners, so it’ll have to do. So I think the miles deserve a bit of a boost compared to last year, though I really can’t value them at over 1.6 cents each.
Best credit card(s) for earning Alaska Mileage Plan miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Mileage Plan at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Mileage Plan miles per dollar spent.
American AAdvantage – 1.8 cents/mile (previously 1.8 cents/mile)
The value of American miles remains unchanged for me over the past year, which is a great thing. For me their most useful single partner is Cathay Pacific, which continues to release a good amount of first class award space between the US and Asia. Not only is it a great value at 135,000 miles roundtrip for first class, but they release quite a bit of availability both 11 months out and within a couple of weeks of departure.
Five Cathay Pacific first class award seats available on a single flight
American miles are also great for travel to South America given both American’s route network and their partnership with LAN. Star Alliance and SkyTeam can’t even begin to compete on that front. And their partnership with Etihad is also great for travel to the Middle East and India.
Their other partners certainly come with some weaknesses, though are still useful in many instances.
American also has a distance based award chart which can be extremely lucrative for travel to multiple destinations, and is both one of the best kept secrets and values in the airline industry.
Malaysia Airlines recently joined OneWorld which opens up a lot of new destinations using American miles, and Qatar Airways is expected to join the alliance next year. These partnerships really solidify the value of American miles, and are really narrowing the gap between Star Alliance and OneWorld.
Best credit card(s) for earning American AAdvantage miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to AAdvantage at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent. For the sign-up bonus it’s also worth considering the Citi AAdvantage Visa Card, Citi AAdvantage American Express Card, and Citi AAdvantage Business Visa Card, each of which offer 50,000 miles after spending $3,000 within four months.
AviancaTACA Lifemiles – 1.2 cents/mile (not previously rated)
Last year a lot of attention was given to the Lifemiles program, given that AviancaTACA joined the Star Alliance. They have a rather unconventional award chart for a non-US frequent flyer program, if for no other reason than that they don’t impose fuel surcharges on award redemptions. What’s also quite interesting is that as long as you have 40% of the miles needed for a redemption in your account, you can purchase the remaining miles for 1.275 cents each.
So why am I not valuing these points more highly? Because of their ridiculous policy to not allow cabins to be mixed on an award ticket. If you book a first class award you can’t have any segments on the ticket in business or coach class, for example. So if you want to book a first class award and live in a small city with single cabin service you’re out of luck. Or if you’re connecting somewhere within Europe that’s only served by an aircraft with business class and coach… no soup for you! If they’d change that silly restriction I’d say their miles would go up in value by about 25%, but as it stands I just find these miles kind of impractical to redeem.
Best credit card(s) for earning AviancaTACA Lifemiles: Lifemiles Visa Signature Card, which offers one mile per dollar spent, and one additional mile per dollar spent on AviancaTACA.
British Airways Executive Club – 1.3 cents/Avios (previously 1.1 cents/Avios)
About 18 months ago British Airways devalued their award chart, which was a big blow to the value of their Avios. Instead they now operate exclusively on a distance based award chart, which I’ve come to appreciate more by the day.
Avios award chart
I’ve found myself redeeming Avios lately more than any other currency, because there are certain markets in which they’re invaluable. A one-way coach award for a distance of less than ~650 miles costs just 4,500 Avios one way, which is an incredible value, whether you’re trying to get from New York to Toronto or Lima to Cuzco.
My major frustration with Avios redemptions to Europe was that at the time they imposed fuel surcharges for all their transatlantic flights, though nowadays they don’t impose fuel surcharges on Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, or Iberia if you play it right.
So while Avios typically aren’t the best currency to have for aspirational redemptions, they’re extremely practical to have for everyday redemptions.
Best credit card(s) for earning British Airways Avios: British Airways Visa Signature® Card, which offers 1.25 British Airways Avios per dollar spent. For more flexibility the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card are also good, given that they offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to British Airways at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Avios per dollar spent. Lastly, another great option is the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to British Airways.
Delta SkyMiles – 1.3 cents/mile (previously 1.1 cents/mile)
It shocks me that I’m saying this given the lack of Air France business class award space using SkyMiles, though I think the value of SkyMiles has actually gone up lately due to a variety of factors. Generally speaking SkyTeam gets all the “sloppy second” airlines, so for the most part the airlines you can redeem your miles on aren’t all that exciting. Furthermore you can’t redeem your SkyMiles for international first class, so for me that makes SkyMiles less valuable than AAdvantage and MileagePlus miles right off the bat.
But we’ve seen some improvements lately that make SkyMiles much more attractive, including:
At least nine China Southern business class award seats available on a flight
So I do think the above has made SkyMiles more valuable. In my opinion they’re the most valuable mileage currency for travel to Australia and Tahiti (given that they partner with both Air Tahiti Nui and Air France), and have also become extremely competitive to Asia.
Best credit card(s) for earning Delta SkyMiles: American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to Delta SkyMiles.
Korean Air SkyPass – 1.4 cents/mile (not previously rated)
When most people think of SkyTeam frequent flyer programs Delta SkyMiles comes to mind. But if you’re like me and like to redeem your miles for international first class, it’s Korean Air’s SkyPass program you should be looking at.
They have reasonable first class redemption rates between the US and Asia. For example, flying to Japan or Northeast Asia costs just 160,000 miles roundtrip. What’s actually best about them is the amount of first class award space they consistently release. It’s common to see 2-5 first class award seats per flight, which isn’t the case for most airlines.
Tons of first class award space!
They also allow one way awards for travel on Korean Air at half the cost of a roundtrip, though for partner airlines roundtrip travel is required.
The one major downside of Korean Air is the booking process, which is unnecessarily complicated and restrictive. Still, for first class on SkyTeam airlines, this is the way to go.
Best credit card(s) for earning Korean Air SkyPass miles: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 1.6 cents/mile (not previously rated)
The past year has been amazing for the value of KrisFlyer miles. Amazing. Early last year Singapore began making first and business class award redemptions in their new products available at the saver level. It’s ridiculous it took so long, given that their new product was nearly fleet wide, yet you couldn’t redeem for it at the lowest level since they were trying to “protect” the cabins. It wasn’t until early last year that they actually allowed KrisFlyer members to redeem for it at the saver level.
Then late last year they began allowing saver award redemptions in Suites Class, which was almost completely off limits with miles up until that point. Singapore Suites is probably the most aspirational airline product out there, so being able to redeem miles for it at a reasonable cost is awesome. Last May I wrote a post explaining all the basics of redeeming KrisFlyer miles for travel on Singapore Airlines (though note at the time Suites Class redemptions weren’t permitted, so that’s not reflected in the post).
Singapore Airlines Suites Class
Singapore has rather reasonable premium cabin redemption rates, and while they impose fuel surcharges, they’re quite mild. For example, San Francisco to Hong Kong roundtrip in first class costs 140,250 miles plus ~$371.30 in taxes and fuel surcharges.
Given that booking through KrisFlyer is one of the only ways to redeem miles for travel in Singapore Airlines longhaul premium cabins, I’d say these have quickly become one of my most coveted mileage currencies.
Best credit card(s) for earning Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles: American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to KrisFlyer.
Southwest Rapid Rewards – 1.4 cents/point (not previously rated)
Southwest has a revenue based frequent flyer program, where the cost of an award ticket is directly tied to the cost of a paid ticket on that flight. For “Wanna Get Away?” fares you can book an award ticket at the rate of 60 points per dollar — that’s a rate of ~1.66 cents per point. By booking an award ticket vs. a revenue ticket you’re giving up at least six points per dollar that you’d otherwise earn, which knocks about 10% of the value off. I also think it’s worth knocking a bit more off since redemption rates are higher for “Anytime” and “Business Select” fares, which brings me to my valuation of 1.4 cents per point.
Rapid Rewards redemption chart
Best credit card(s) for earning Southwest Rapid Rewards points: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.
United MileagePlus – 1.8 cents/mile (previously 1.8 cents/mile)
Fortunately nothing major has changed with United since the last time I valued them, so I think they’ve maintained their value pretty well. I still love United miles for how generous their routing rules are, for the fact that they allow one stopover and two open jaws on a roundtrip award ticket, and for how reasonable the change fees and policies are on award tickets compared to virtually any other airline.
United’s partnerships have more or less remained the same since last May, with the exception of Qatar Airways, which they lost as a partner. Some aspects of using United miles remain frustrating — Swiss doesn’t release any first class award space at all, Singapore doesn’t release any longhaul first class award space, and Lufthansa only releases first class award seats at most 15 days out, and I’ve found as of late they’re getting stingier and stingier even at that point. So that really does limit the aspirational redemptions using United miles, at least for those that need to plan in advance.
You can still redeem for Lufthansa first class within 15 days of departure
On the plus side a lot of Star Alliance carriers have improved their business class products lately, making for some attractive business class redemption opportunities.
So not only does United have amazing airline partners, but their miles are just so easy to use, between a (mostly) functional website, computers that automatically price awards (rather than leaving you at the mercy of clueless agents), extremely reasonable fees, and generous routing rules.
Best credit card(s) for earning United MileagePlus miles: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.
US Airways Dividend Miles – 1.6 cents/mile (previously 1.5 cents/mile)
US Airways, US Airways, US Airways… what can I really say? I love ‘em with a passion. I hate ‘em with a passion.
There’s no doubt with the upcoming merger my valuation will be changing soon, though as of now they still have a gem of an award chart. For 90,000 miles you can fly from the US to Asia via Europe as I recently did, and that’s an amazing value. In a way flying business class is more desirable lately, as we’ve seen more and more Star Alliance airlines introduce fully flat business class products.
Even though they got rid of off peak business class awards to Europe I still think the value of their miles has gone up, as we’re seeing more of a trend in Star Alliance whereby airlines release business class award seats instead of first class space.
Austrian’s new business class
Best credit card(s) for earning US Airways Dividend miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Dividend Miles at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Dividend Miles per dollar spent. It’s also worth considering the US Airways Premier World MasterCard® for the sign-up bonus, given that this card probably won’t be around for long given the upcoming merger.
Virgin America Elevate – 2.0 cents/point (not previously rated)
The past couple of weeks I’ve been focusing quite a bit on the value of Elevate points, as they have some really unique and lucrative partner redemption opportunities.
Virgin America has a revenue based frequent flyer program, meaning redemptions costs for travel on Virgin America are based on the revenue cost of a ticket. Regardless of what the fare is, each Elevate point gets you roughly 2.2 cents towards the cost of a ticket. Factoring in that you’re not earning the usual five Elevate points per dollar spent on airfare when redeeming points, I think it’s fair to value Elevate points at about 2.0 cents each.
Correlation between paid ticket and redemption ticket
In addition to that there are some amazing partner redemption options which have fixed pricing, especially for travel on Hawaiian, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic. The problem is that the “gems” on the chart are very limited in scope. For example, the Hawaiian award chart is most valuable for travel between the west coast and Hawaii, while the Singapore award chart is most valuable for travel on longhaul flights in coach. Certainly not a program that’s for everyone, though definitely a goldmine for some.
Best credit card(s) for earning Virgin America Elevate points: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card which offers one point per dollar spent. In comparison Membership Rewards points only transfer to Virgin America at a 2:1 ratio.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – 0.8 cents/mile (not previously rated)
There’s no polite way to say this, these miles are bloody useless. While British Airways has partner redemptions on which you can not only get decent mileage costs, but also not pay fuel surcharges, that’s not really the case with Virgin Atlantic.
You can redeem miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic with massive fuel surcharges, and those partners without fuel surcharges really aren’t a very good value.
High taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges for travel on Virgin Atlantic
One bright spot to their program has been that you can convert miles into Hilton HHonors points at a 1:2 ratio, but now that Hilton has destroyed the value of their program, the above valuation of miles is more reflective of my reduced valuation of Hilton points.
Best credit card(s) for earning Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card which offers one point per dollar spent. In comparison Membership Rewards points only transfer to Virgin America ta 2:1 ratio.
The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Virgin Atlantic at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent. Lastly, another great option is the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to British Airways. The Virgin Atlantic American Express is also worth considering for the sign-up bonus.
Conclusion
This has been a great couple of years for the value of airline miles. Without exception my valuation of miles has either remained the same or gone up from last year, which is extremely rare. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for hotels, which I’ll be valuing in the next installment. I definitely wouldn’t take the current mileage values for granted, as I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar slaughtering of airline award charts next year as we’ve seen with hotel charts this year.
So, release the hounds, I wanna hear what you guys think. Agree or disagree with the above valuations?
(In the interest of full disclosure, some of the above links earn me a referral bonus, and all are for the best available offers for each card — thanks for your support!)
About a week ago I shared the details of the partnership between Virgin America and Singapore Airlines, which in some ways looked quite promising. Then a day later I posted about the Virgin America Visa card which is issued by Barclays, since I thought the new partnership could have potentially huge implications on the value of the card.
Virgin America’s award pricing for travel on Singapore Airlines between the US and Asia is simple and extremely lucrative — it’s 35,000 Elevate points for coach, 95,000 Elevate points for business class, and 130,000 Elevate points for first class. Best of all there are no fuel surcharges on these redemptions, while Singapore Airlines will often charge $600+ per ticket when booking directly through their KrisFlyer program.
While American Express Membership Rewards points only convert to Virgin America Elevate points at a 2:1 ratio, the Virgin America Visa® Signature Card accrues one Elevate point per dollar spent on everyday purchases. So if you’re a big spender and a lot of your spend is in categories that otherwise wouldn’t accrue bonuses, I’d say this has the potential to be a phenomenal card.
Virgin America redemptions on Singapore Airlines only became possible a few days ago, so one big question lingered — would Virgin America get access to the same award space that Singapore gives their Star Alliance partners, or the same award space that Singapore gives their own KrisFlyer members? Singapore generally doesn’t release any premium cabin longhaul award space in their new first and business class to their Star Alliance partner airlines, which means for all practical purposes you can’t use miles from Aeroplan, United, US Airways, etc., to travel on Singapore Airlines out of the US.
Optimistically I had hoped that Virgin America would have access to the same space as KrisFlyer for two reasons:
Well, figuring out what space they have access to has been a real adventure. The Virgin America partner award desk is what you’d get if you combined the IT of Delta SkyMiles, the knowledge of US Airways Dividend Miles agents, and the patience of Priority Club Rewards agents.
Every time I’ve called to ask about Singapore award space the agent has taken a deep breath as if they were about to manage a space shuttle launch. They’ve put me on hold for about 20 minutes, and then come back and asked if they can call me back while they investigate further.
Well based on my queries thus far it seems as if Virgin America has access to the same Singapore premium cabin award space as the Star Alliance, meaning all longhaul first and business class seats operated by the new product are off limits.
So I hope ya’ll don’t mind, but I’ve taken the liberty of helping Virgin America rewrite their award charts in a way that’s easier to understand:
So is this partnership utterly useless, and for that matter is the Virgin America Elevate Visa useless? If you’re looking to redeem for international premium cabins, maybe. But for coach awards this card does still present an amazing value.
35,000 points roundtrip to Asia is unheard of good, and availability on Singapore in economy is generally excellent.
But you also should be able to redeem miles for regional business class, where availability is both excellent and Virgin America has attractive redemption rates. For example, roundtrip travel between Singapore and Bangkok costs only 13,000 points in business class and 6,000 points in coach.
Domestically Virgin America Elevate points are still quite valuable. Each point gets you roughly 2.2 cents towards the cost of a revenue ticket. That’s the same I value Starpoints at, so for everyday spend the Virgin America Visa Card ties for the most rewarding for non-bonus categories.
What about Virgin America’s other partners? Well, they partner with Hawaiian, and have phenomenal redemption rates between the west coast and Hawaii at just 20,000 points roundtrip in coach or 50,000 points roundtrip in first class.
Redemption rates on Virgin Atlantic are quite good as well, at just 35,000 points roundtrip in Upper Class, plus the standard taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges of ~$1,100 per ticket. Virgin Atlantic’s only partner which doesn’t impose fuel surcharges is Hawaiian, and they charge 125,000 miles for the same award. I don’t know about you guys, but all else being equal I’d rather pay an extra $800 in fuel surcharges than burn an extra 90,000 points.
So to sum it up this partnership isn’t quite as good as I had hoped, though can still be extremely valuable under many circumstances. I think the key is that the Virgin America Visa® Signature Card can be very rewarding if you’re a big credit card spender. With other cards you can easily transfer points and earn bonuses through category spend. That’s not the case on this card, though if you put hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on cards, I’d put a substantial chunk of spend on this card.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I earn a referral bonus for anyone approved through the above links. Thanks for your support!)
Link: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card
I’ll be the first to admit that I can be a bit dismissive of revenue based frequent flyer programs and their associated credit cards. It’s not that I have anything against them, it’s just that they’re a bit too straightforward for my liking. With a revenue based frequent flyer program no one wins and no one loses. Given that redemption rates are fixed and based on the revenue cost of a ticket, no one is getting an amazing value with their points.
Conversely with traditional frequent flyer programs there are winners and there are losers. If you redeem your miles for travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco at the “standard” level, you’re one of the losers. If you’re redeeming your miles for international premium cabin travel you’re winning. Big time. In my opinion very few people break even with traditional mileage currencies — they either come out way ahead or way behind compared to focusing the same amount of energy on a revenue based frequent flyer program.
With that in mind, I haven’t paid much attention to the Virgin America Visa credit card. At least not until last night, when I posted about the really interesting reciprocal mileage accrual and redemption partnership between Virgin America and Singapore Airlines. I made reference to the fact that you could transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Virgin America Elevate at a 2:1 ratio, and even with that it can sometimes make sense rather than redeeming directly through Singapore’s KrisFlyer program. But clearly I had a brain fart, because I completely overlooked Virgin America’s co-branded Visa card, which offers one Elevate point per dollar spent.
At that point I had a closer look at the card, and realized it might just be the most rewarding credit card out there for spend in categories that don’t accrue bonuses on other cards.
Virgin America has very simple (and fixed!) pricing for awards on Singapore Airlines (the mileage calculator can be found here). Travel between their US gateways (including Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco), and their destinations in Asia (including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Singapore) cost just 35,000 points in coach, 95,000 points in business class, or 130,000 miles in first class. These rates are across the board cheaper than what Singapore directly charges their own KrisFlyer members, not even factoring in that Virgin America doesn’t charge fuel surcharges, while KrisFlyer does (which on a roundtrip longhaul journey typically range from $250 to $700).
But it doesn’t end there. Some of their intra-Asia redemption rates are nothing short of spectacular. For example, take a look at their roundtrip redemption rates between Singapore and Bangkok. It’s literally just 6,000 points roundtrip between the two cities in economy.
And the cost between New York and Frankfurt is amazing as well. Roundtrip travel is just 20,000 points in coach, 70,000 points in business class, or 90,000 points in first class.
Now there’s one potential issue — For the most part Singapore doesn’t release first and business class saver award space for any flights operated by their new longhaul product to their Star Alliance partner airlines. Instead they release this space only to their own KrisFlyer members. This means that award redemptions between the US and Asia in first or business class on Singapore Airlines aren’t possible using miles from Aeroplan, United, US Airways, etc., given that all their routes to the US feature their new first and business class product. Instead you can only redeem for coach, or for routes operated by the older product.
That being said, I’d hope that this restriction doesn’t apply to travel booked through Virgin America. On one hand I feel like it probably will (why should they give Virgin America different treatment?), but on the other hand I’d hope they would have better judgment than even publishing a premium cabin award chart if they had no way of accessing the space. I tried to find out more, though apparently Virgin America redemptions on Singapore Airlines won’t be available for a couple more days, so I have no way of testing this yet.
Regardless, Virgin America hands down has the lowest redemption rates for coach travel on Singapore Airlines (or just about any airline for that matter!) to virtually anywhere they fly. You really can’t beat 6,000 points roundtrip between Bangkok and Singapore, 20,000 points roundtrip between New York and Frankfurt, or 35,000 points roundtrip between New York and Singapore. I can’t think of any other program with those kinds of rates.
On top of all that the card is actually pretty lucrative for redemptions on Virgin America as well. Each point can be redeemed for roughly 2.2 cents towards the cost of a ticket. Take the following flights between San Francisco and Seattle, for example. Here’s the cash cost for a ticket:
And here’s the cost using Elevate points:
Across the board you’re looking at about 2.2 cents of value per point, which is actually a really good return if you’d otherwise buy Virgin America tickets. The only points currency I value that high are Starwood points, and this is more or less 2.2 cents per point that are “good as cash” towards the cost of a ticket. So for someone that books the occasional Virgin America ticket, this alone may make this the most valuable credit card for everyday spend in categories that don’t otherwise accrue a bonus.
So I’ll post an update as soon as I found out more about redemptions on Singapore. If Elevate members have access to premium cabin award space on Singapore just as KrisFlyer members do, then this will mark one of the most lucrative frequent flyer partnerships in a long time, in my opinion.
If Singapore blocks their new premium cabins to Elevate members then this card will simply be the most lucrative for longhaul coach redemptions.
Link: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card
(In the interest of full disclosure, I earn a referral bonus for anyone approved through the above links. Thanks for your support!)
While the practical implications might not be huge, the new partnership between Singapore Airlines and Virgin America sure is interesting. I find it fascinating every time an airline with a traditional frequent flyer program partners with an airline with a revenue based program, as we get to see how they value things differently on both the accrual and redemption side.
At the beginning of the year Singapore and Virgin America began codesharing, which had limited implications since it only applied to itineraries involving both airlines, and most of the Virgin America routes were served by United anyway.
Then last week Singapore unveiled their award chart for travel on Virgin America, which was mildly lucrative for shorthaul coach awards, but not very tempting for transcontinental or first class tickets.
But now we have the full details of the partnership, involving both accrual and redemption
Earning Virgin America Elevate points for flights on Singapore Airlines
Here’s Virgin America’s accrual chart for travel on Singapore:
As a point of comparison, here’s Singapore’s accrual chart for travel on their own flights:
So I think it goes without saying that accruing Elevate points for travel on Singapore is a horrible value. Virgin America has a revenue based program and gives passengers five points per dollar spent on their flights.
So for a San Francisco to Hong Kong flight in Suites Class you’d accrue roughly ~4,849 Elevate points. That’s the same number of points you’d earn for a ~$970 Virgin America ticket. That’s a far worse value than accruing ~10,391 KrisFlyer miles. So I suppose the chart is nice in theory if you’re big into collecting Elevate points, have a revenue Singapore flight, and don’t want to credit to KrisFlyer. But this is hardly a lucrative alternative.
Earning Singapore KrisFlyer miles for flights on Virgin America
Here’s Singapore’s accrual chart for travel on Virgin America:
For the occasional Virgin America flyer this is actually a really lucrative accrual chart. You’re earning 100% base miles on all revenue fare classes, so this is essentially a way to earn miles in a traditional frequent flyer program for travel on Virgin America.
For example if you pay $100 for a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Seattle on Virgin America you have the choice between collecting 954 KrisFlyer miles and 500 Virgin American Elevate points. Virgin America Elevate points are each worth about 2.2 cents each towards the revenue cost of a Virgin America ticket, so I’d say KrisFlyer miles are the better value. That being said, if your fare is substantially higher or lower it can impact which program it’s more lucrative to credit to.
Redeeming Virgin America Elevate points for flights on Singapore Airlines
Here’s the mileage calculator for award redemptions through Virgin America for travel on Singapore Airlines.
There are a couple of interesting things worth noting. First of all, it appears as if Virgin America doesn’t impose fuel surcharges for redemptions on Singapore. Furthermore, while they allow one-way awards, they price at 60% of the cost of a roundtrip.
What’s interesting is that Virgin America charges the same for all of Singapore’s routes between the US and Asia, including those out of Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, and San Francisco. And they seem to be the same whether you terminate in Hong Kong, Seoul, or Singapore, for example. So it’s a very simple chart.
In all cases it’s 130,000 points roundtrip in first class, 95,000 points roundtrip in business class, and 35,000 points roundtrip in economy class.
Keep in mind you can transfer points from Membership Rewards to Virgin America, though it’s at a 2:1 ratio. That means you’re looking at 260,000 Membership Rewards points for first class, 190,000 Membership Rewards points for business class, and 70,000 Membership Rewards points for coach. For first and business class it’s almost always a better value to go directly through KrisFlyer, though for coach it could actually make sense to redeem through Virgin America, since redemption rates are similar and you save a bunch of money by not booking through KrisFlyer, which imposes fuel surcharges.
For example, if you booked New York to Singapore roundtrip in coach you’d pay 35,000 Elevate points (the equivalent of 70,000 Membership Rewards points) plus ~$60 in taxes, while if you booked through Singapore KrisFlyer you’d pay 63,750 miles plus $691.69 in taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges. So it’s no doubt worth spending an extra 6,000 points to save over $600 in cash.
So I’d say there’s potentially quite a bit of value on the redemption side, especially if we were to see a transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to Virgin America Elevate, as we’ve seen in the past.
Redeeming Singapore KrisFlyer miles for flights on Virgin America
I shared all my thoughts in this post, though for reference here’s their award chart:
What remains to be seen is what bucket Singapore pulls award space on Virgin America out of. Since Virgin America has a revenue based program they don’t have award “buckets” per se, as the number of points required for a redemption is entirely dependent on the revenue cost of the ticket.
I tried doing some research by calling up KrisFlyer and trying to book an award ticket from Seattle to Los Angeles, though that turned into quite an adventure.
Me: “Yes, I wanted to inquire about making an award reservation for travel between Seattle and Los Angeles on your new partner airline, Virgin America.”
Agent: “Sorry, which airline?”
Me: “Virgin America, it’s your new partner airline.”
Agent: “Please wait on hold as I look at availability.”
*Puts me on hold for a few minutes*
Agent: “I have checked availability for your dates on United and US Airways, and there is no availability.”
Me: “But could you please check space on your new partner airline, Virgin America?”
Agent: “Allow me to read you all our partner airlines [she proceeds to read every Star Alliance airline].”
Me: “Yes, but you also have a new partnership with Virgin America.”
Agent: “Could you please spell the name of the airline for me?”
I spelled it out and she put me on hold for about 30 seconds (not long enough for her to actually look up space) and then she returned.
Agent: “I checked availability on that airline and they don’t have space.”
Me: “Which airline?”
Agent: “The one you just mentioned.”
Riiight…
Conclusion
It’s nice to see a partnership that actually adds a bit of value for once. I’d say that KrisFlyer members get the better end of the bargain on the accrual side, while Elevate members get the better end of the bargain on the redemption side. Though in some cases redeeming KrisFlyer miles for travel on Virgin America can make sense as well, especially for west coast trips.
What do you guys think?
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