January 31, 2011
I have some great plans for 2011, since my wife is on track for China permanent resident card, which requires marry to Chinese citizen and stay 9 months out 12 each year in China for 5 consecutive years, she won’t be able to go with me to many places, so I can visit many places she doesn’t/can not go.
March:Tahiti, New Zealand and Japan(booked)
April: democratic republic of Korea(AKA North Korea)(waiting for tour operator to load schedule)
May/June: Central Asia+ Middle East+Africa(planned and waiting for my other friends to confirm)
That’s all I planed for first half of the year
With exception of North Korea trip, all others are still using points and miles
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip |
January 29, 2011
I know Delta is not best program and it’s not easy to use sometimes, but for me, since I live in China, it’s actually a great program because Delta partners with China Eastern, China Southern, Korean Air, Malaysia Airline, China Airline and Vietnam airline, also Kenya Airway has HKG-BKK, KLM has SIN-DPS and of course Delta self. the three tier award system doesn’t work for award on partners. I know KE/CI have blackout date, I know there are several pricing errors exist such as
1 flight from China to SIN, BKK will be priced as 40K for economy, 80K for business if route via NRT
2 Any flight segment out of REP will be priced as a separate award, to avoid that, use open jaw to leave from other airport
3 Flight from Shanghai to ROR(Palau) will be priced as 40K, but from PEK is correct 20K R/T
4 Flight to MNL will be priced as 2 one ways, so 40K R/T for economy.
5 China domestic flight on China Southern is priced by segment, so for each connection, additional 10K will be charged
6 No first award on China Eastern 2 cabin AC
I don’t know when or if ever Delta will fix those errors, but still a great deal for 20K economy or 40K Business R/T with open jaw+ stopover for award within Asia. In general, I can live with that. For people live in Asia, it’s really a great program, there is no better program than Delta for Asian countries.
I just completed 4 tickets together in Coach for my family PVG-ICN-KIX(destination)-ICN(stopover)//GMP-SHA-WNZ(open jaw)
Posted by Troy under Delta |
January 29, 2011
Acorrding to this FT thread, you can earn miles on all S7 flights and redeem AA miles on S7 flights, but for now, you can only use AA miles ALL partner award for S7 flights in West Russia, why? because AA has not figure out how many miles should charge you for flight within Russia, primarily flights across Russia from west to east.
* Destinations in Eastern Russia (east of the Ural Mountains) include Barnaul, Bratsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Kurgan, Nizhnevartovsk, Novokuznetsk, Novy Urengoy, Nadym, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Surgut, Tomsk, Ulan-ude, Blagoveshchensk, Magadan, Khabarovsk, Norilsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Vladivostok, Yakutsk
However, all destinations can be redeemed using one world award, which is distance based
This is not first time AA separate a country for award redemption, they separate Easter Island from Chile as part of south Pacific award, but remember few days ago I talked about British Airways miles?I think they will not separate Russian for award redemption, just like Easter Island is part of Chile. At least for now.
BTW, British airways website now suppose award search S7
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, British Airways |
January 28, 2011
I know there will be a JW open in Maldives in Oct 2010, but never paid attetion. Today, a friend mentioned this hotel to me again because it pre set as a Cat 5 hotel, which requires only 100,000 points for 5 nights, or if you have lots of Marriott points, you can do travel package, which requires 270,000 points for 120,000 miles +7 nights at this property. If you are doing travel package, US airways and Delta are best option because 120K miles can get you 1 business seat to Central Asia(including Maldives or Sri Lanka) consider business class on SQ from SIN is extremely hard to be found, fly all the way to Sri Lanka, then buy a cheap economy fare to Male is the best option.
Delta also has partner serve to MLE, but you need some creativity. award level is 120K per person in business class
you don’t get free Breakfast as Marriott Elite at resorts, but some Asia resorts do offer free breakfast to Gold or Platinum.
Personally, I think Maldives is not worth a trip all the way from US and I will be surprised to see the hotel stay at Cat 5 for more than 1 year
Posted by Troy under Delta, Marriott, US airways |
January 28, 2011
You need to register this promotion and fly before Apr 30th, you will earn fixed amount of bonus miles or double miles depends on the market. it looks to me some weak markets are offered double miles.
Please remember, Air Canada doesn’t charge fuel surcharge for partner awards
Posted by Troy under Other Airline Reward Programs |
January 27, 2011
View from the wing talked about award from US to OZ/NZ, Tahiti and Maldive, I want to add a little bit my own advice.
The easiest program to go to OZ/NZ are CO/US because both programs allow routing via Asia and Thai airways have plenty of seats to these areas.
AA is a little bit limited because of routing on Qantas or Air Tahiti or Air Pacific via Nadi, seats are limited。 however, if you want to pay some extra miles, you can use AA one world redemption, which can be route via Asia, but award are distance based
Delta also permits routing via Asia, have you thought about using China Southern, china Eastern, China Airline, Malaysia airline, also Air Tahiti routing via NRT to PPT, Tahiti? let’s ignore Korean Air because you can not find 2 seats in business class across Pacific at same time, Delta blocks the seat(like *net blocking)
As for Maldive, Male, the easiest way to get there is to Sri Lanka, Colombo, then buy a cheap ticket to Male, Colombo is partner Central Asia for most programs. Personally, I don’t think Male is worth a trip all the way from US.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Award redemption, Continental Airline, Delta, General Frequent Flyer Advice, United Airlines, US airways |
January 25, 2011
Delta has so many partners and most of them has different award booking class, which caused Delta award even harder to use. I am giving out a summary of Delta and their partner all award booking class, so it may give you a idea to tell agent which class to look for! If you know the missing one, please add on.
|
Economy |
International Biz |
2 cabin first/Biz |
| Delta |
N |
O |
R |
| Aeroflot |
X |
O |
|
| Aeromexico |
U |
C for all except R to NRT |
|
| Air Europa |
note 1 |
Z(2) |
|
| Air France |
X |
O |
|
| Air Tahiti |
W |
I |
|
| Alaska |
W |
|
A |
| Aitalia |
U |
Z |
|
| Avianca |
Z |
A |
|
| China Southern |
O |
I |
P(3) |
| China Eastern |
I |
D |
A(3) |
| Czech Airline |
E |
Z |
|
| China Airline |
S |
O |
|
| Gol Airline |
I |
X |
|
| Hawaii Airline |
T |
D |
|
| Jet Airways |
X |
D |
|
| Kenya Airways |
W |
see note 4 |
|
| KLM |
W |
O(see note5) |
|
| Korean Air |
U |
D |
|
| Kingfisher |
R |
Z |
|
| Malyasia Air |
T |
I |
|
| Tarom |
X |
Z |
|
| V Australia |
note 6 |
Z |
|
| Vinantem |
U |
J |
|
| 1 if I remember correctly, Air Europa also changed Economy award booking class, but forget code |
| 2 changed from P to Z, many agents don’t know this |
|
|
|
|
| 3 You can not use Delta miles for 2 cabin MU/CZ domestic first class |
| 4I had feeling this may change to O |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 Award changed to O class from D class, some agents don’t know this |
|
|
|
|
| 6 never booked before, so unknow |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Look at the chart, unlike *A, which has nearly uniform award booking class for all carriers. Of course it will make award so hard to use.
Posted by Troy under Award redemption, Delta |
January 25, 2011
Gary mentioned the two MR to Delta miles offer are stackble, one is 50% bonus for first time only, and 30% bonus for all MR transfer until March 31st.
If you are short miles for a delta business award, you may consider think offer.
Posted by Troy under Delta |
January 25, 2011
Continental Chase Credit Card 50000 sign up with no annual fee for first year is back
Besides miles and fee waive, you also get
- Two miles per $1 spent on tickets purchased directly from Continental.
- First checked bag free every time you fly when you purchase your tickets with your Card for flights operated by Continental only (a savings of up to $50 per round trip).*
- 10,000 bonus miles annually when you spend $25,000 on your Card.
A great offer to jump in after FEB 1st, when you earn some points for CO Milethon
Posted by Troy under Continental Airline |
January 25, 2011
I have around 100K Thankyou network points left in mine and my wife acct, 50K each, which I was going to use burn them for my Tahiti intra island flight, PPT-BOB and PPT to MOZ. since it was in 2 accts(I know I should have merge the acct long time ago), I had to book my reservation separately.
After I complete my booking for my flights, I was distracted, but thought the flight was open pretty much every day, I left my wife’s booking half way. The next day, after I started to work on her booking, oh no ! return from MOZ-PPT was not available anymore on the date I want. I need to take that flight(only one) to connect with my PPT-AKL flight. I checked around, that’s the only flight sold out for that entire month!!! Really Bad luck
Now, I am using Expertflyer alert service and go to expedia to check twice a day to wait for 1 opening. In the end, If nothing open, I will have to take 6:00am boat, then take taxi connect back to PPT airport.
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Oceania |
January 24, 2011
In the past few years, Delta SWU were nearly useless because it can only be used on DL flights with booking class Y, B and M class only. Those were full or nearly full economy fare and most time were very expensive.
I know they have changed their SWU rule, but I did not bother to check the detail as they were still considered useless to most people. Recently, I learned, those SWU can be used for Air France and KLM flights too.
For Air France, upgrade can be used for Economy Y, B, K class to Premium economy or from premium economy class S, A and W class to Business class. excludes MIA-CDG flight and only valid on flight with Premium economy cabin. The key here is a lot times, Airfrance premium economy is selling cheaper than full economy fare.
SWU can also be used for flight on KLM with booking class M,B,S,X.
For both AF and KLM upgrades, looking for O class inventory(same inventory as for KLM or AF business award ticket), must contact Delta agent to request upgrade. Please note: Many agents have no clue how to process them, so expect some long wait on phone)
More detail can be found here
For those people who booked AF premium economy on PRG(WAW) mistake fare, great run with comfort!
Posted by Troy under Delta |
