The debacle that is Avios, and a few gems it offers

Posted by Seth on November 18, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 9 Comments to Read

When British Airways and Iberia announced a couple months back that they were integrating their loyalty programs under the Avios moniker there were a whole bunch of folks (mostly based in the USA) who were pretty upset at the potential issues it could raise. At that time I took a somewhat measured approach, suggesting that there are a few areas in which folks might see benefits, mostly for those in the UK or Europe. Now that the details are out and we can look at the numbers I’m still not certain, but the program mostly seems to be a debacle unless you live in the UK or Spain and only fly on simple trips.

You didn’t want to connect, did you?

The single-partner award chart isn’t nearly as bad as previously expected, with a catch. Awards on a single partner now do not permit connections. If you require a connection for your itinerary then you redeem an award for each flight. That means JFK-EZE on AA would be one price (25K one way in coach) but connecting via Miami would add 7,500 to that total; connecting via Dallas is 10,000 more. So if you can position yourself to get to a hub gateway (or if you are lucky enough to actually live in one) then the numbers can be quite reasonable still. I queried ~150 city pairs on routes operated by wide-body aircraft by Cathay Pacific, Qantas and LAN and found a few routes where the numbers aren’t completely awful. But that assumes you’re at the gateway and want to go to the hub. A pretty significant catch to be sure.

Also on the connection front, it appears that folks based in Europe are going to feel the pinch of award prices rising. A trip from Istanbul to Paris sees a 4,500 point surcharge over a trip from Istanbul to London. Not all that surprising considering the rate on London-Paris is 4,500. In other words, even if you stay on BA metal for the journey you get hit with a connection penalty. This applies to flights originating in the USA as well, and the up-charge might be even more than you’d expect (ORD-LHR is 20,000; ORD-CDG is 25,000 while MIA-LHR and MIA-CDG are both 25,000). In other words, the award charts are very inconsistent and nearly impossible to decipher with any reasonable sense of reason.

Multi-partner Awards

The multi-partner award chart is unchanged and is shown below. With this scheme you are permitted up to 8 segments on an award, including an open jaw stopovers so long as the stopover is on the direct point of travel. That basically means only at hubs, which is also not particularly great, but also not atypical.

Some "gems"

So, what are these "gems" I referenced in the thread title? There are a couple to talk about.

If you’re looking for flights operated by international configured aircraft and hoping for a bargain there are a few routes that come up as quite reasonably priced. Some have gone down from the prior charts, though, again, no connections are permitted any more so there’s that problem. Still, take a look at some of these routes with the decent redemption pricing (o/w, economy):

Comparing those numbers to other carriers I’ve compiled data on suggests that the program isn’t a complete fiasco, so long as you can avoid that pesky connection problem.

Also, it is possible to redeem 10% of the regular Avios award price for an infant in lap which is a nice feature and most certainly not one that most programs offer. But that’s a pretty small consolation.

Upgrade or downgrade?

In the end, I believe that the overall changes to the program are quite negative for most customers. Yes, there are a few bright spots where award costs have gone down and those should be celebrated, but for most customers the connection penalty will be a rather steep price to pay to make the Avios retain value. That said, if you live in a hub or in a spoke with good frequencies there is the slight chance that the program can be made to work for you.

I’m quite happy that I’m not sitting on a pile of Avios right now, even being in NYC where I have the advantage of many non-stop options. If it comes to that I’ll just move some Membership Rewards points over and leverage the program that way.

Check out some other views on the changes from these noted loyalty bloggers:

• Lucky’s posts
• Avios points not pricing correctly – One Mile at a Time
• British Airways clarifies some Avios changes – One Mile at a Time
• TPG’s thoughts:
• British Airways Avios Program Worse Than I Expected

Related Posts:

• Updates to the British Airways program coming soon

Broader fuel surcharges coming to Aeroplan

Posted by Seth on November 9, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | Read the First Comment

Following on the heels of this summer’s award chart adjustments that saw many awards increase in cost it appears that Aeroplan, the loyalty program associated with Air Canada, is also adjusting the surcharges they levy on certain award redemptions. Specifically, it appears that the YQ fuel surcharge, to date only levied against redemptions on Air Canada flights, is now applying to flights operated by Lufthansa, Austrian and a few others.

This trend is not a new one. Recently American Airlines began charging the YQ surcharge on flights operated by partner British Airways. Delta charges a similar fee for flights originating outside the USA, even if flown on Delta airplanes, while not charging where the flights originate in the USA. Needless to say, the development is a costly one for customers.

With Aeroplan as one of the last great redemption options for the American Express Membership Rewards program this move also devalues those points a bit. Not great news at any level.

More over at View From the Wing.

Buying a ticket shouldn’t be this hard

Posted by Seth on October 22, 2011 under Trip Reports | 3 Comments to Read

I’ve been working lately on cobbling together a rather ridiculous series of flights for our winter vacation this year. The plan is mostly South Asia, focusing on the southern tip of India and Sri Lanka, plus a quick stop in Bangkok on the way home. At least that’s the theory.

Initially I booked the trip using points for award travel round-trip between New York City and India. Since then the itinerary has morphed a bit so I’ll be changing things up (thank goodness for free award changes as an elite!) but I actually need to get a couple of the tickets purchased in order to make those changes, just in case. And it is proving incredibly difficult to buy at least one of the tickets.

If you had asked me a month ago, before I started all of this, I would have bet that the ticket on Sri Lankan would have been the hard one to acquire. I would have lost that bet. The transaction with them was smooth as could be, handled fully online and it was only a couple days later that American Express called to make sure that I really was buying a couple one way flights from Colombo to Bangkok in early January. It wasn’t even a big enough risk for them to call immediately.

Buying the flight from Bangkok to JFK on EgyptAir, however, is proving to be a ridiculous mess. I started with their website which looks pretty slick, at least for the flight selection search bits. It showed the fare I had seen otherwise online (about $150 less for each ticket than any other channel) and I went through the long process of entering in all our personal data to book the flight. At the final payment screen, however, the transaction was denied. Repeatedly.

My first call was to Visa to make sure my card was OK. It wasn’t, but they cleared that up. Waiting two hours didn’t help; still denied. Another 24 hours later and still denied. Even more strange, however, was that the credit card company didn’t even show the most recent transactions. It is as if EgyptAir never even tried to authorize the card; they just rejected the transaction. It took a couple calls but eventually I got in touch with someone in the EgyptAir ticketing office in New York to try to process the transaction. The first agent saw the reservation and the price I was quoted online. She transferred me to another agent to handle the transaction who promptly informed me that the fare was $300 higher. Ugggh.

So long as I was not going to get the discounted fare I figured I’d try to get some other value for the transaction. American Express offers bonus Membership Rewards points for travel booked through their portal so why not give that a go, right? Apparently their system is not robust enough to handle selling a one-way ticket in business class from Bangkok to New York City:

That’s is simply ludicrous, especially considering that probably a dozen airlines or more offer service on that route with a single connection.

And so I’m essentially left with a bevy of third party online travel agencies through which I can try to book the flight, but now I’m faced with wading through their differing fares and service fees to find the right price. Plus I’m stuck with dealing with one of them for service going forward rather than dealing with the airline directly. What a mess.

It shouldn’t be this complicated to spend money on a plane ticket.

Bonus from Membership Rewards to hotels; not quite as bad a deal

Posted by Seth on October 9, 2011 under Hotel, points | 3 Comments to Read

I’ve never been a particularly big fan of using American Express Membership Rewards points for hotel stay transfers. The rates are generally pretty awful and there are better ways to accumulate hotel points out there. Still, the option is there and every now and then it is something that folks use.

It looks like AmEx is trying to make the product a bit better, at least for a few months.

UPDATE: This promo is only for cards in the MR First program, namely US-issued Platinum and Centurion cards. Sorry for getting anyone else excited, though you probably shouldn’t have been anyways.

Through the end of the year they’ve got a sale on for transfers to Hilton HHonors and Starwood Preferred Guest. Both programs are offering 25% off.

There is also a 25% discount on the various free night certificates that are available via the Marriott Rewards program:

None of these are a particularly great deal but it does suck a bit less.

Virgin America/Membership Rewards earning rate announced

Posted by Seth on October 2, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | Be the First to Comment

The partnership between American Express Membership Rewards and Virgin America was announced several weeks ago but without many details at the time. Those details were expected to be announced by October 5, 2011, when the partnership was supposed to be fully in effect. Apparently the numbers came out a bit early and The Points Guy noticed the rates. Wow do they suck.

The conversion rate is 200 AmEx MR points -> 100 Virgin America Elevate points. Virgin America’s Elevate program has relatively fixed redemption values for the points, topping out around the 2 cents/point range. With this conversion factor the AmEx points are topping out at 1 cent/point and can actually do rather worse. That’s a pretty bad rate of return on those points.

It is even more crazy when you consider American Express also has a buy with points option that natively values the points at a penny each (1.25 for Platinum/Centurion card holders) and buying via that method actually is seen by the airlines as a revenue ticket so one earns more points (the native program points, not Membership Rewards points) for flying on that flight.

The only slightly reasonable explanation for why one would transfer AmEx points into Elevate at these rates is if you’ve got almost enough for a reasonably high-value award already and you just need to top off the account. Otherwise it is quite a bad deal.

This change, coming on the heels of Continental exiting the program as a redemption partner and the impending doom of devaluation for US-based earners in the British Airways Avios conversion, doesn’t really do much to offset the losses in the Membership Rewards program.

Related Posts:

• Updates to the British Airways program coming soon
• A great time to transfer AmEx Membership Rewards to British Airways
• American Express steps up travel benefits for Platinum card

A great time to transfer AmEx Membership Rewards to British Airways

Posted by Seth on June 2, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 3 Comments to Read

The next two months are going to be a fantastic time for folks holding American Express Membership Rewards points and looking for travel awards through the British Airways Executive Club loyalty program. From now through July 31, 2011 transfers are earning a 50% bonus, meaning 1,000 MR points are now worth 1,500 BA points rather than the typical 1,000 rate. This transfer bonus is one of the best offered out of the Membership Rewards program in quite some time.

Is it a coincidence that this promotion came out mere hours after a news article and follow-on social media blitz panning the British Airways program for adding fuel surcharges to their award flights? Maybe so. But that’s fine by me. I’ll take the bonus any way I can get it, especially because I don’t plan on paying those extra fees anyways.

It was great to read the rants and vitriol spewed against BA and other carriers charging similar fees, if for no other reason than it didn’t reflect the whole story. Sure, there are times where those fees are going to apply and they suck when it happens. But there are still a number of times where they do not apply and that’s where the value proposition is of the programs.

Redeeming British Airways points on LAN attracts no YQ surcharge, for example. And if you can find the award seats a ticket from North America to Easter Island, with a stopover in Chile, all in business class can be had for a quite reasonable 80,000 points for the return trip. And with this latest bonus that’s only 54,000 points! Even better is that the award inventory seems to be pretty decent, at least for the days I’m looking to go around New Years.

Time to make a transfer and some bookings!

Related Posts:

• American Express steps up travel benefits for Platinum card
• American Express goes British for the holidays
• Fuel surcharges rolling back

Insight into loyalty programs at the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit

Posted by Seth on April 30, 2011 under frequent flyer, points | 8 Comments to Read

Ever wonder what’s going through the minds of the folks running your favorite loyalty programs? Of course; we all do. Ever think you’d see five of the most prominent program leaders sitting in the same room, taking questions from their customers about what makes their programs work and why they have chosen certain specific policies? Me neither.

Last Friday, at the first ever Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit, a group of us were treated to exactly that. The heads of Delta, American Airlines, United Airlines, Hyatt and American Express Membership Rewards came together for a question and answer session led by Mr. Petersen, by most accounts the guru of loyalty programs. After discussing the history of the programs (we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the very first one this month) and taking a walk down memory lane it was time to get to the meat of the discussion. Many questions were asked and the program heads were mostly quite responsive, though there were a number of issues where answers were denied in favor of not violating company policy or SEC regulations. Can’t say I really blame them there.

So what were the highlights of the session? I’ve picked out a few of my favorite nuggets and expanded on those discussions.

The "elites" really are

One of the oft-asked and never answered questions about the airline loyalty programs is just how special are the "elite" customers, the ones flying the most miles, really are. And the airlines held firm this time around as well, refusing to disclose the data. But they did give a couple hints as to what the numbers are.

For United Airlines the population of top-tier elites – Global Services and 1Ks – was described as "small six figures" in size. If that’s anything like the way merger partner Continental describes "mid-year" there is certainly plenty of wiggle room there in terms of nailing down what the number really is, but may more specific than the previous non-disclosures. Foland also made it clear that they do distinguish between their frequent customers and their high value customers and that they have many metrics on which they measure those things. Not surprisingly, the two are not always the same folks.

For Delta the numbers were not presented so much based on how many are elite but rather who generates the revenue for the company. It is a very small number of people that really are the High Value Customers for them, similar to the other carriers. The top 1% of customers are responsible for 10-12% of revenue to the company. Expanding that pool out to the top ~3% of customers doubles the revenue pool to about 25%. It drops off precipitously from there, with the bottom 70% of the customers representing only 40% of the annual revenue. It is no wonder that the companies cater to their best customers; they far and away represent more cash.

Mileage expiry is a big deal, except when it isn’t

Jeff Robertson, the man running Delta‘s SkyMiles program, noted at one point that as a company they strive to do what is right for the customer and for the company, even if sometimes that move costs them a little bit of money. In the case of changing their expiry policy for SkyMiles, there is no doubt that the change had some costs, though Jeff also noted that miles expiring represented the single most significant complaint that they received as an organization. And apparently the cost of not expiring them wasn’t so high so everyone wins, right? That’s Delta’s take on the situation.

The other two airline executives speaking on the panel, Jeff Foland from United Airlines and Maya Lieberman from American Airlines, had a different take. They noted that the purpose of the programs is to keep customers engaged with the brand. If a customer hasn’t been engaged for almost two years the expiry is a great opportunity to bring them back into the fold and remind them of the value of those points they’re holding, way better than just holding the points on the book and hoping the customer comes back eventually. Which is better in the long term for the programs? I guess we’ll all have to wait and find out.

It is also worth noting that if the points accrual is so slow that there’s a two year gap in the process, odds are that the points are a bad investment anyways. A customer showing loyalty with such low frequency is likely to be better served financially by simply being loyal to their wallet and buying the cheapest fare available rather than paying extra to accrue miles in a program.

The folks buying miles aren’t who I thought they were

Pretty much every airline now offers the ability to just buy miles outright. During the booking process, at check-in and in various other transactions along the way the opportunities to buy miles are every growing. The problem with these programs is that they are rarely a good value, at least not in bulk. Every now and then it might make sense to top off an account for an award but just not that often.

That’s why I was surprised to hear the great mileage guru Randy Petersen announce (several times over the course of the events) that he buys the miles at the kiosk nearly every time. He’s got tons already and earns them at a blistering pace, and he’s buying more at almost certainly overpriced levels. Even more surprising was a statistic he shared with the group: Over 50% of the folks buying the miles have elite status on the airline they’re buying from. The people who have the most points are also most aggressive about buying more. I just do not understand that.

Speaking with Gary Leff during a break he related similar tales, including one US Airways Chairman’s Preferred member who buys the miles on every single trip. Sure, he gets some awesome reward redemptions out of the deal, but at what price? Then again, if you’re willing to pay the $4500 cost for the trip and points are the right way to find that price point, why not?

Loyalty programs are sortof a zero-sum game, but it is still possible to win

One of the questions asked of the panel was how it is possible that there are loyalty programs can provide value to the companies as well as the customers. All of the loyalty programs are obviously trying to drive revenue to the company so it is hard to have a situation where everyone can win. Indeed, at the macro level the programs are more or less zero-sum efforts – some customers are going to profit and some will not but overall it will still be a benefit for the programs.

Jeff Foland perhaps summed it up best:

We want our currency and elite status to carry more value for the member tomorrow than it does today. We have to do that against the backdrop of running a fiscally responsible company.

So what does that mean? Well, for starters it means that they really do want some customers to have a chance at winning. It also means that when the good arbitrage situations arise that the customers can exploit there is a pretty good chance that the airlines are going to be closing them up in search of that "fiscally responsible" effort.

There has only been one incident in recent memory that resulted in points (the "currency" Foland is referring to above) actually increasing in value. It doesn’t appear that there are any similar changes on the horizon. So to make sure that the currency value increases it is important to pay attention to the trends in the industry and to make sure you’re redeeming the points, not just accumulating them.

Other bits

There were a number of other interesting things discussed, from the future of lifetime status recognition (unsurprisingly United and American were quite tight-lipped on the topic) to how issuing a credit card can help Hyatt drive heads in beds, their core business focus. Oh, and apparently LOTS of folks like redeeming their Membership Rewards points for toasters and other housewares; such a horrible value.

Neither American nor United would comment on any possible changes that may be coming with their lifetime status levels though Ms. Lieberman did note that the ranks of elites on American are somewhat swollen due to their easier accrual policies. No particularly useful information on what the changes are going to be, other than that they’ll provide plenty of notice and communicate them effectively should anything happen, but otherwise mums the word there.

Delta noted that perhaps the biggest challenge they face from a loyalty program perspective is not the merger of Continental and United, but rather that of AirTran and Southwest. The latter represents a sea change to the competition landscape in Atlanta and the new Rapid Rewards program, part of a trend towards rewarding spend more than miles, is a huge part of that change. What it means for SkyMiles or passengers in Atlanta will be fun to watch in the coming months.

Ultimately I must say that it was a great event, both for the information shared and the networking opportunities in the room. Whether with other travel writers (Ben from Today In The Sky and Brian from The Points Guy were two of the bigger names there, along with Gary Leff who was one of the hosts) or rubbing elbows with the executives who make the decisions about how the programs actually operate, it was a great day for meeting new folks and extending existing relationships.

Related Posts

• Continental joins the mileage multipliers
• American Airlines introduces Mileage Multiplier offer
• A frequent flyer promo you shouldn’t pursue

American Express steps up travel benefits for Platinum card

Posted by Seth on April 7, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 10 Comments to Read

There was a time that the American Express Platinum Charge Card was a tremendous value for road warriors. The list of benefits was impressive, from airport lounges to point accrual to other perks, like concierge service. And the benefits covered a broad chunk of the travel landscape.

In recent years, however, the shine has started to fade. Some of it was little things, like the concierge service effectively becoming an operator with OpenTable and Google trying to find stuff that might work. There were some big things, too, like partners dropping out of the Membership Rewards program at an alarming pace. Sure, some others showed up, but the value was slipping. When AmEx raised their foreign exchange fees to 2.7% that was yet another reason to keep the card in my wallet rather than whip it out as I wandered the globe; the points just aren’t worth paying that much extra for on every transaction, especially when better cards offer 0% f/x rates.

The final nail in the coffin seemed to be the decision by Continental to withdraw from the Membership Rewards and Airport Lounge programs. This move was announced back in September 2010 and it isn’t much of a surprise considering how tightly Continental has been tied to Chase in recent years. They even have their own premium credit card that includes lounge membership and some other travel benefits, and a similarly high annual fee.

And then AmEx was mostly quiet. There have been some ads and AmEx has shrink-wrapped the AirTrain at Newark touting the features of their Membership Rewards program to its customers at Continental’s hub. But the actual feature set hadn’t really gone anywhere useful. Until now.

First off, the end of foreign exchange fees finally happened. It was promised months ago in competitive response to Chase, Citi and a couple other issuers. Fortunately it has finally happened.

There is also the $200 “fee” credit that can be assigned to any one airline. Designated to offset baggage, food or other fees during a trip, this is a pretty sweet deal. It is not without fine print, but for the most part it is a solid benefit.

To address the lounge issue AmEx added US Airways as a partner last July. That was pretty good, but not so useful for international travel. That move was trumped by the addition this week of Priority Pass Select membership for card holders. The access is only for the primary card holder, not for guests and not for additional gold card holders, but it is still a pretty solid benefit, particularly overseas.

And, just for kicks, AmEx is also giving card holders free enrollment in the Global Entry program. This last one is actually the benefit I’ll probably get the most value out of. Sure, it is only $100, but I almost certainly wouldn’t have paid it myself given that I have not yet had a long line experience where it would have mattered.

Overall, it seems that AmEx really is trying to step up and provide value for the $450 annual fee. I’ve carried the card for nine years now and each year I say that I’ll cancel unless the value is there. They’ve still got me paying and these moves just ensured another year of fees. If I was only ever flying on Continental/United Airlines it would be a harder decision to make. But since I have options and I do fly with other carriers it is an easy one for me. At least this year.

For more details from AmEx on the card benefits check out their new site here.

And if you do not have an AmEx Platinum yet but are intrigued by the possibilities, you can apply for one here. It comes with 50K points for only $1000 spend in the first three months, which pretty much offsets the annual fee, and that’s before you get in to any of the benefits noted above. Definitely worth a look these days.

Related Posts

• American Express and Continental to part ways
• Upgrades and downgrades to AmEx Membership Rewards
• American Express to cut f/x fees for Platinum & Centurion cards
• American Express and US Airways team up on lounge access

American Express and Continental to part ways

Posted by Seth on September 15, 2010 under News | 6 Comments to Read

Continental Airlines and American Express’s Membership Rewards programs have been closely partnered for several years. From point transfers to lounge access for premium cardholders, the relationship was quite beneficial for both parties. At least it seemed to be. The partnership is coming to an end on September 30, 2011.

This move is not much of a surprise to most folks following the merger between Continental and United Airlines or even just the recent moves by Continental with respect to their credit card choices. Indeed, the Continental – American Express relationship has been softening for nearly five years at this point, with fewer promotions between the two programs during that time. Across the same time period the relationship with Chase has been strengthened significantly, with several new products launched. Chase is the issuing bank for both Continental and United’s affinity cards and both carriers recently launched cards that include many similar benefits to those of the premium American Express cards, including airport lounge access and a premium hotel program.

So no more lounge access to Continental Presidents Club lounges (they likely won’t be called that in September 2011 anyways given the merger) and no more transfers to the OnePass program from Membership Rewards. How will AmEx keep the value proposition up for the folks paying $450 or more every year for the card? The company has announced two significant additional benefits that will be added to their portfolio, effective December 1, 2010.

• $200 Airline Fee Credit — Cardmembers can check a bag or enjoy an in-flight meal on American Express. Every year American Express will cover up to $200 of incidental airline fees that are charged on the Cardmember’s enrolled Card on a selected airline. The $200 Airline Fee Credit can apply to fees such as baggage fees, flight change fees, in-flight food and airport lounge day passes.
• 20% Travel Bonus — When Cardmembers use Membership Rewards Pay with Points to pay for part or all of their travel including airlines, hotels, cruises and vacation packages, they will get 20% of those points credited back to their account. For example, if a Cardmember redeems 30,000 points to pay for an airline ticket, American Express will credit 6,000 point to the Membership Rewards Cardmember’s account.

While the Pay with Points program is often a poor value proposition, increasing the yield by 20% is a nice touch. It should be noted that the 20% credit will be issued after the fact rather than as a discount from the original purchase. Minor detail but it can make a difference if you’re just on the cusp of a redemption level.

The Fee Credit is a very nice offer, particularly given the broad range of things that it can be applied to. While some of the fine print remains to be seen (I’m particularly concerned with the “a selected airline” phrase) the idea looks to be pretty solid.

This was a change in the program that is not particularly surprising. And there is over a year to work out the details of how to handle points and annual fee renewal decisions. Plus AmEx came through with some additional benefits to offset the loss. Overall I’d say that both programs handled this about as well as could be expected in the situation.

Bad news for Star Alliance reward searches

Posted by Seth on June 17, 2010 under frequent flyer, News, points | 5 Comments to Read

Finding reward seats is always the harder part of playing the mileage game. Earning enough for a great reward is one thing but once you have the miles being able to actually find a reward seat can be incredibly difficult. Fortunately there are a few tools out there which help the process for certain carriers. For Star Alliance searches ANA provides the best engine for searching. You have to have an account with them but otherwise it is wide open.

Well, it used to be.

ANA has changed their policies recently to require that one have points in their ANA account in order to search partner award inventory. Seeing as how their site has become the go to source for Star Alliance reward searches, including some folks who have built web applications leveraging that source (not my tools; I don’t have *A reward availability in my set) it is not too hard to se how the load on their systems is not consistent with their actual user base and the volume of bookings they’re handling. It gets expensive to maintain and run systems and this is no exception.

At least for now there is a workaround to the issue, identified by a user on FlyerTalk, but the expectation is that the loophole will close soon enough. Getting miles into ANA isn’t all that hard. They partner with American Express Membership Rewards and a number of hotels and rental car companies as well. The miles will expire after 3 years but that is a small investment to make for the phenomenal search engine that ANA provides.

Some coverage of the issue from Lucky here.

Upgrades and downgrades to AmEx Membership Rewards

Posted by Seth on January 6, 2010 under News | Read the First Comment

A couple changes coming out from the American Express Membership Rewards program here in early 2010, one good and one bad.

First, the bad news.  Southwest Airlines will no longer be a transfer partner for the Membership Rewards program as of July 1, 2010.  They’ve given ample notice which is nice but the loss of a partner is unfortunate.  The Rapid Rewards program never did anything good for me but I understand that a lot of folks do enjoy the program, especially with the companion ticket program.  So that’s an unfortunate loss of benefits.

And, now, the good news.  The American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program now has an online booking engine.  Finally.  The new website allows US-based Platinum and Centurion card-holders to research rates, benefits and availability online.  Members can also complete bookings directly through the website.  The site is a bit slow, flash-based (which I find annoying since it adds no value) and doesn’t display rates at all until you click through to the individual properties.  Still, it is a nice improvement from the old system of having to call in.  Also, the functionality is set only at the Platinum cardholder level.  For Centurion members to receive their added benefits (time-of-booking upgrade and better rates) they will still have to call.