Continental Double Elite qualifying miles offer on Copa
Via Gary, from now until Dec 31st, 2010, Double CO EQM on Copa flights. registration is required
One UA new benefit I wasn’t aware of
If you book R/T *A award with UA miles, you can now change the ticket even AFTER the trip starts. If you are 1K, you don’t even need to pay any change fee and routing can be changed too. Basically, just like Continental airline award ticket.
United one way award on *A is here!
As I mentioned yesterday, United starts to offer one way redemption on *A partners effective today.
1 Book by phone only
2 cost half of R/T
3 no stopover permitted
Finally, United offers this benefit and I can pretty much guarantee that even after the merge of two programs, the benefit will remain, but I also think CO stopover+open jaw benefit will be gone. Personally, I think Delta will eventually offer the same thing because it becomes “Industrial standard” now. Let leave US airways, because they are always on their own.
Continental Checking account offer extended to Oct 31st.
For personal, the link is here,
For business, link is here
25K each.
Why I decide to leave United and keep Delta
United was my first mileage program that gave me Elite status on any airline, also the first program I got top elite status(excluding GS) on any airline, it was hard to say good bye to them, but after I re evaluate everything, I decided to give up.
1 Mileage Program- United has one of the most expensive award chart AND the least flexible program on routing, carrier, change, and availability among all Major North America Programs. You can only route via one direct, no mixed of *A and Non *A, no change on *A award, no one way except UA only, open jaw or stopover and MOST IMPORTANTLY STARNET Blocking.
2 In flight product- United has the most uncomfortable first class seat, agree? No in flight power(exclude PS and some 767 first class), no internet except PS, no PTV like Delta or Continental. I agree they have flat bed cross ocean, but others too such as US air, CO, DL, AC
3 Systemwide Upgrade certificate for 1K, Lucky mentioned today on their W fare, which is the lowest booking code you can use SWU, they are just getting more and more and more expensive.
I like Continental airline a lot, they have very good program, new FLAT bed seat and In flight entertainment program just amazing, but next year, or maybe 2, CO will merge with UA, I have no idea how the program will turn out. due to my limited presence in the States for next few years or may be forever, I decided to quite both together.
As for Delta, I have to agree they have done many little things better than others, they have upgrade list under my trip section, so you know where you stand before departure. they have better domestic in flight product. In general Skymiles program is rip off, but did you notice they have the generous offer for bonus miles everywhere? Also, Their miles are not as bad as you though, it can get very creative.
For people who’s living in the hub cities, you don’t have choice, but for those don’t live around hubs, maybe you should think again such as AA, US, DL or AC.
To Clarify : I was not trying to compare UA with Delta only, I was trying to compare UA with all North America carriers.
I almost missed my flight and got lucky again!(ONT-IAH)
I had flights from ONT-IAH-FRA-PRG, the flight from ONT-IAH scheduled to depart 12:25pm. Since I live pretty close to ONT, I normally don’t leave home until 1 hour prior to departure. For some reason, I thought my flight was actually 12:55pm, so my plan was to leave home around 12:00.
Around 11:15, my internet at home was down, so I decided to go to the airport a little early. Checkin, security all was pretty quick, I got to my gate around 11:50. All of sudden, I saw the boarding already started, I then looked screen TIME 12:25 pm. Had internet working properly at home, I would definitely missed the flight!!!
The flight had directTV on board, so I had various selections of entertainments! It was a great flight, but my connecting flight from IAH-FRA are much much much better and I was impressed by the brand new aircraft!
Summary of award change policy of big 5 US carriers
American Airline:
Before fly first segment: Free Date or time change or class of travel if original reservation was booked under higher class are permitted, all other changes such as carriers, routing, class of travel request award to be redeposited, therefore $150 change fees apply
After fly first segment: Same as Before
Fees waived if miles are pulled from Executive Platinum account
Continental Airlines
Before fly first segment: Date or time change or class of travel if original reservation was booked under higher class are permitted for $75 , all other changes such as carriers, routing, class of travel request award to redeposited, therefore $150 change fees apply
After fly first segment: Same as Before
Fees waived if miles are pulled from Platinum account
Delta:
Before fly first segment: Change in anything requires a fee $150, but no restrictions.
After fly first segment: Same as Before
Fees waived is miles are pulled from Platinum and Diamond
United Airline:
Before fly first segment: Free Date or time or class of travel change if original reservation was booked under higher class are permitted, all other changes such as carriers, routing, class of travel request award to be redeposited, therefore $150 change fees apply
After fly first segment: Free Date or time or class of travel change if original reservation was booked under higher class are permitted if the rest segments are on United only. Free routing change permitted for 1K if on United only. No change is permitted on *A carriers. However, there is a exception, change is permitted if change from *A carriers to United flight for $150, this fee is not waived even if you are 1K member.
change fees waived for if miles are pulled from 1K member and change before fly first segment or United only
US Airways
Before fly first segment: All change requires $150 fees, However, member people have reported they sometimes don’t charge for time or date or time or class of travel change if original reservation was booked under higher class , all other changes such as carriers, routing, class of travel request award to be redeposited, therefore $150 change fees apply. Change only permitted if it’s on US
After fly first segment: Change only permuted if it’s on US with a fee, no change is permitted on *A travel.
Fees are waived if miles are pulled from Chairman accounts.
Please note once thing: If your original trip does not have a stopover, but new trip has a stopover even if everything else remains same, this is considered as routing change, change fee will apply. However, change from a trip with stopover to without stopover, change fee doesn’t apply
US Airways offers DEQM and DRM offers that are similar to AA and DL Offers
Delta offered DEQM offer for R/T flights from RDU/BNA/PIT and STL, then American Airline matched.
Now, US airways offers similar promotion, but it actually better than what DL and AA offered.
Both DL and AA requires travel originate and terminate in the same city, but US airways offer is “originate or end”
Booking and travel must be made after registration, here is link for PIT, RDU, BOS and MSP.
I am expecting UA and CO to offer something similar.
EDIT: Acutally, there are more than just 4 cities listed above, it also includes STL, RIC and SAN
Elite Upgrades on OnePass Rewards ticket
CO insider released this information on FT today, start from beginning of next year, CO elite upgrades will be available to award tickets operated by CO, however, the benefit is for Presidential Plus and OnePass Plus MasterCard cardmembers only,if you are not member yet, you may consider to sign up one before end of the year.
My take on the very best airline mileage award values
View from the wing talked about his take on the very best airline mileage award values and I’d like to add more.
Without a doubt, airline mileage award always get better value when redeeming on business/first class, but I know some people enjoy to visit more places than burning miles all at once, so I will also mention some good redemption on economy too. Back in 2008, I wrote an article to summarize all good value awards, but two years later, lots of them changed. here is my new summary:
American Airline:
70K/90K in business/first from Asia 2 to South Pacific including Easter Island
60K/90K in business/first from Asia 1 and 2 to Middle East
20K/40K in economy within Europe
20K economy within countries like Chile (excluding Easter Island), Argentina
Low season economy to Europe, South America 2 and Asia 1
Also, most importantly, all award can be redeemed for one way at half of RT cost.
Alaska airline:
Besides what’s Gary has mentioned in his blog, 7500 for one way travel within Alaska is also a great value
British Airways:
all economy/business award on single partner Lan from NA to South Aemrica(especially Southern South America) are excellent value.40K in economy, 80K in Business, all can be redeemed for one way at half of RT cost. Note: IPC(Eastern Island) is considered as part of Chile, so same amount as to South America
Also, all econ/business award on lan within South America/single country are also good value. 20K economy for within same country, 25K economy within south america, times 2 for business, divide by 2 for one way.
All BA awards allows unlimited stopover provided u are using the most direct routing, that means from LAX-IPC, you can get at least 2 stopovers, one in LIM, another one in SCL.
BA single airline to Asia in business class is considered a great value too.
British Midland:
BD still offers one the best award redemption table in business class. as mentioned before, no big changes since then. besides the great value in business class, there are some excellent value in economy class too.
one way Non stop flight within Europe from Zone 1 to 2, for Cash+miles, this award costs only 3000 miles+some cash. some non stop flights can be very expensive within the region.
Economy/business class within zone 5 or btw zone 5-6, within zone 5 costs only 5000 miles+cash in economy one way, but zone 5 covers almost entire Middle East/Central Asia/North Africa all the way to Tanzania.
Continental:
CO currently has exactly same redemption table as UA, but routing and award rule/availability are much much better than UA.
From North Asia-South Asia business class costs only 30K, you can go as far as Indonesia and you can find some crazy routing on Co website.
In addition, unlike most *A carriers program, you can combine non *A carriers with *A carriers when u searching online, that’s including VS upper class.
Don’t forget, you can one stopover+one open jaw with CO miles
For same amount, you actually get much better value with CO mile than UA.
Delta:
After NW and DL merged, DL have the worst availability in the entire industry, especially for award to Asia. However, with help of KL and AF, award to Europe/Middle East/central Asia/Africa are not that terrible yet.
100K business from US-EU with open jaw and stopover
110K business from US-EU, with stopover in EU, then open jaw from Africa/ Middle East/Central Asia or v.v
120K business from US-any Africa/ Middle East/Central Asia with stopover in EU and return from another region
If you are still wondering how to travel btw these regions Africa/ Middle East/Central Asia, BMI miles I mentioned above is your friend.
Also, 20K in economy anywhere within Asia is not that bad.
Note: Delta Awards allow one stopover+one open jaw for travel to/within any region provided their stupid system can recognize it.
KLM/AF:
KLM and AF offer 50% off redemption award year round to selected destinations, a lot of times, economy award from US-Europe can be as low as 25K, also business class award often half off too.
United:
Really, I can not find any,as I said, UA and CO have exactly identical redemption table, but UA has too many restrictions such as *A blocking, open jaw or stopover, not both. Non*A partner can not be combined with *A partner, etc……
US airways:
I just mentioned US airways few days ago, it’s one of the best program is US now.
US airways consider Russia as North Asia, from Russia-Hong Kong 20K in economy and most program consider Russia as Europe, so you only need 40K from Hong Kong to Europe in coach RT, first to Russian with US airways miles+AA miles from Russia to Europe.
or even better, fly to LED, then take a cruise to HEL.
Low season redemption on US own flight is a excellent deal too.
ANA:
I mentioned here and here how to best use ur ANA(AMEX rewards) miles.
Virgin Atlantic:
Whenever award is on sale
Lan(distance based)
Dan deals had a summary on Lan kilometers, best is for non stop short haul flight.
Once again, there are many good redemption levels to certain regions/countries on different programs worldwide, but accumulating and managing miles on those programs may not as easy as programs mentioned above, so I won’t suggest to put your miles into a program you are not to familiar with or just for a particular award unless u need to travel to/from that region frequently.
