April 19, 2010
Why? check the ticket price, last year around same time, not to mention DEQM promotion offered by all legency airlines, I was able to score 1 cheap ticket on UA to FRA from LAX in June and return in July for 400+, another 1 cheap ticketon AA to FRA from LAX in July and return in Aug for 500+. Look at the price now, 1000+ for summer travel to Europe and price to Asia on UA
LAX-SIN JUN 1400++ S class
LAX-NRT June 1000++ L class
I think I just have to use my miles for the ticket if the price don’t drop by early May.
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice, United Airlines |
March 31, 2010
ANA website just performed system upgrade, now their award search function is able to check availability of ALL *A carriers!
“Reservations for Air China[CA], Shanghai Airlines[FM] and
Swiss International Air Lines[LX] have become available through the
internet from April 1st, 2010.”
Good Job!!
I think Expert flyer needs to develop something new now!
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice, Other Airline Reward Programs |
February 10, 2010
I mentioned here and here on how to use delta.com to construct an award, here are more tips:
1 When you plug into Delta website award search after finding seats on AF site for KL or AF flights, always select search by schedule.
2 If you want to change certain segment to more direct route, you can place ur award on hold for 48 hours on delta.com, then call Delta(prefer Singapore call center) to search(if can not be search online) and replace that segment only. For example, using the trip LAX-CDG-PRG(stopover)-CAI//MRU-CDG-LAX, delta.com only shows PRG-CAI via AMS or CDG, but you want direct flight on OK, you can search on seatcounter.com for OK award seat, E for economy, Z for business, then call Delta to replace the segment.
3 AF site also shows award on KQ
4 DL website shows seats on AS and AM, but not for all routes, for AS, search on AS site first.
those should be enough to play with DL miles for now.
Posted by Troy under Delta, General Frequent Flyer Advice |
February 1, 2010
nwa.com is not longer exist, how to search intra Asia flight?
The answer is no way, Unless Delta bring back NWA search function, there is no way to search award on KE and CZ on any free website, Expertflyer supports CZ,, but Delta has more than $100 CZ fuel surcharge on Intra Asia CZ flight and $15 for KE.
So using Delta miles on CZ intra asia will be very expensive!
Also, I see some people reporting that Delta website blocks AF Trans Atlantic Flights, from what I have found so far, it will show AF Trans Atlantic Flights only if available. you can sign up an AF account use AF website to do month long search
More interest routing found, from US to europe, open jaw from Africa cost 110K in Business class.
From US to India or Middle East with stopover in Europe, and then open jaw from Africa, cost 120K in Business class.(1 award to three regions) 
a one way award from Middle east to Africa using BMI miles is very cheap.
Posted by Troy under Delta, General Frequent Flyer Advice |
January 27, 2010
Gary posted a Reader email about “What are delta miles still good for”,
other than what’s already mentioned in the article, I added in comment section “Delta Award miles allows one open jaw and one stopover on any award tickets, even within Asia. I was able to price LAX-CDG-PRG(stopover)-CDG-SEZ(destination)//CPT-AMS-LAX all in Business for120,000 each and bookable online on Delta.com”
Another reader asked how did I make it happen, I am now writing a detailed instruction, hope to clarify some questions. In order to book above award, you need to do following:
1 sign up an account with Expert Flyers, a paid award inventory search site, $9.99 per month with 5 days free trial. Then use EF to search award inventory on AF from LAX-PRG, once u find ur date, write down flight number and time then plug LAX-PRG into Delta.com award multi city search segment 1.
2 use EF to search award inventory on AF from PRG-SEZ, after u find date, write down flight number and time then plug PRG-SEZ into Delta.com award multi city search segment 2.(Note: flight from CDG-SEZ is AF code, operated by Air Seychelles, but bookable on delta.com)
3 sign up account with Air France, then search award flight from CPT-AMS on KLM, AF website offers calendar search function. after u find seat, write down flight number and time, DON’T plug into Delta.com award multi city search segment 3 yet.
4 also use AF site to search award seat from AMS-LAX on KLM one day after ur CPT-AMS departure date due to time different or two days after, no more than 2 days! After u find seat, write down flight number and time, plug entire CPT-LAX into Delta.com award multi city search segment 3. you will see seats show up, sometimes even with long layover, but still consider as connection.
5 click search, select all flights u write down, price it, you will see 120,000 miles total in business class.
The reason I ask you to do exactly above because
1 Delta website doesn’t show or incorrectly shows AF inventory using Round Trip search
2 AF site doesn’t show award seats for CDG-SEZ since it’s operated by Air Seychelles.
3 without EF, Delta site shows award seats from CDG-SEZ(and all other locations from Europe to Africa) only if BOTH direction available, so if ur outbound is available, return is not, delta website will not show anything for both directions
4 AF site doesn’t show award from CPT-LAX directly, has to break into one by one.
5 NWA site doesn’t support KL flight from Africa to Europe on calendar.
One more to add:If you just want a simple trip, AF site maybe enough, but delta site may not show, call NWA Singapore or China to book! People are nice and no phone booking fee
with above instruction, you can do it for many others destinations such as stopover in AMS, then go to MRU, return from JNB. or stopover in CDG, then go to MRU, return or TNR, CPT, JNB. However, there is one trip you can not book on delta.com, which is open jaw return from SEZ. You can open jaw to SEZ, just not return, I guess it’s a technical problem with delta.com. well, they have too many technical problems anyway!
Now, let me explain a little bit more using website to book Intra Asia stopover+ open jaw. This time is using nwa.com(don’t know how much longer)
1 use nwa.com china or japan english site because nwa asia site still shows seat for KE and CZ.
2 select multi city award search and plug in flight one by one.
3 select flight u want, price it, you will see 20000 econ/40000 business if routing is permitted.
4 for intra Asia flight, DON’T use Delta website(even all on NW) or Delta call center to book. Delta still charges fuel surcharge for flight on CZ, but no such charge on NWA.com.
5 If you have to call, call NWA China or Singapore(both Singapore call center), they don’t charge phone ticketing fees
I hope I have made clear enough to save u guys some delta miles.
Posted by Troy under Delta, General Frequent Flyer Advice |
January 25, 2010
If you ask me this question one year ago, I would say Starwood Program, but during the past year, Hyatt improved their programs by offering free internet to all Elites and confirmed suite upgrade for 4 times per year for Diamond member in addition to club level upgrade. At the same time, SPG elite treatments declined severely in North America,member didn’t get Suite upgrade even they have suite available.
The only down side is Hyatt has few properties than Starwwod, especially international location and Spg elite treatments at international location declined not as bad as North America.
My personally advice is, if you can, get top elite status in both program and use Hyatt for domestic and SPG for international with no hyatt hotels.
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice, Hyatt Gold Passport, Starwood Hotels |
December 29, 2009
just got one BRG claim successfully approved, matching rate found on expedia.com. After matching the rate and gift check, I will pay $20 out of pocket and will earn full credit + 500 AMEX booking+1000 BMI miles for the stay.
it seems like only rate found on expedia/travelocity/orbitz will be approved since they don’t require “voucher”
expedia is running some kind of sale on their website, which offers slightly lower rate than hilton.com for many Hampton inn properties.
give a try.
BTW, it took almost a day for them to reply!
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice, Hilton |
December 16, 2009
Hotel Also had the most generous offer this year.
Intercontinental Priority Club:
They offered the biggest promotion ever during summer, you can get 1 free night for every 2 nights paid stay with max 4 free nights can be earned per account. The free night can be used at any IHG hotel, so 2 nights stay at cheap holiday inn express can get u 1 free night at IC Amsterdam. The best part is, you can use free night end of the year.
They also introduced a new redemption option-Cash and points, which you can
buy” points at discounted rate.
Hyatt Gold Passport
Hyatt is another program had the biggest promotion ever. As we all know, Hyatt had Fast free night promotion for many years, but requires payment with MasterCard. This year promotion not only available with any payment option with longer earning and redeeming period, but also count double for elite qualification.
They successfully draw lots of attention around the global. I actively participant in multiple online miles communities, Use Flyertalk as example, before this promotion, the Hyatt section only got at most half page new post per day. Now, it a lot more than one page. Also another Chinese community, I rarely see “Hyatt” word before, but with this promotion, I see word “Hyatt” almost every day!
A lot of people did phantom stay at some cheap $40++ Hyatt properties to earn free nights, some people think this is crazy. I say it’s not because
1 those cheap properties has empty room anyway, people did phantom stay only brought extra revenue to the hotel. The hotel did not even need to bother cleaning the room..
2 When they redeem the free night at higher end hotel, those hotels got paid on those “free night” room anyway, otherwise, it just another empty room
3 Also, it helps build brand loyalty, some people got diamond status and stayed at some nice Park Hyatt this year, and enjoyed the benefit. They will do it again next year.
4. Don’t assume everyone will eventually use the award nights, I even let 2 nights expired in 2008.
In addition to the promotion mentioned above, Hyatt also enhanced their program.
1 No capacity control for standard award rooms anymore
2 both Platinum and Diamond have free internet
3 Diamond got 4 confirmed Suite upgrade certificate per year.
Starwood Preferred Guest:
SPG Program also offered free night promotion in summer with restriction that free night can only be used on Fri, Sat, and Sun. They also eliminated high season award for category 5,6 hotels
To help current Gold become Platinum and current Platinum keep Platinum in 2010, SPG offered double elite qualification for current gold members and Nights Advanced for current Platinum, which your stay will count toward both 2009 and 2010.
Finally, To help platinum’s family and friends get a quick stay, SPG offered referral promotion for Platinum member, all referee will get Gold status right the way valid to Feb 2011.
They tried everything to make sure current elite member will stay with them next year.
Fairmount hotels
One thing: They offer Friend and Family rate throughout the entire year and also first 3 months in 2010. The rate is significant lower than regular sales price at some properties.
Marriott:
Marriott had big devaluation in 2008, but offered redemption rebate offer, 15% rebate for gold member and 10% for general and silver member. Other than that, Marriott also offered quarterly promotion to everyone included Free night offer. Although, the free night offer was a lot of weaker than their competitors, it’s still better than Hilton.
Personally, I am not a big fun of Marriott program due to its elite benefits. However, I do find a better value for Marriott points, which is award at lower category 1,2,3 level properties, These properties require lower amount and Elite benefit doesn’t matter at those Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, Town Suite Place properties.
Hilton:
Hilton is a exception here, when everyone else chooses to give bonus offer or points saving on redemption, they choose to increase the redemption level. I will talk about this separately.
Wyndham rewards:
Whynham rewards also had their biggest promotion ever, you can earn 10K bonus miles for three different stay at three different brands. To be honestly, if it’s not the promotion, I probably will never stay with them.
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice |
December 15, 2009
2009 is the year with lots happening for frequent flyer/guest programs, most of them had the most generous offers for miles/points and Elite Status because of bad economy. Let’s take a look what happened in 2009
American Airlines:
1 Introduced One way award for half of roundtrip cost, but took away stopovers except at AA north American international gateway city. Personally, it doesn’t affect me too much because I live in Asia and AA never allowed stopover for Non US originating or ending trip.
2 EVIP for Executive Platinum can be used to upgrade any fare.
3 Had Double Elite qualifying miles twice,
4 2 choices of Year end Elite gift for EXP member having more than 125,000 Elite Qualifying miles
5 Had triple miles promotion for BOS-LAX/SFO/SAN and double miles for member is New York Tri-State Resident.
BMI Diamond Club:
Despite the rumor on LH takeover and change the program to LH miles & more, the BD still runs the program as of now and just added some extra benefit such as Family account like British airways has so now you can have 8 family member under one family account and miles can be transferred online instantly. Also people under 18 can also join the BMI program with family account now.
British Airways
British Airways introduced the craziest mileage credit card signup offer ever, 100,000 if u spends 2K in first three months. Also, if u spend more than 30K on the card per year, you will get a BOGO free award certificate on BA flights. The card also earn 1.25 miles per dollar.
Personally, I don’t like to use BA miles on BA flight, taxes are by way to high. Using BA miles on single partner award is a better option. A business class seat on Lan from
anywhere within South America only cost u 50K and you can have up to 4 stopovers.
Continental Airline
1 Joined Star Alliance in October
2 Had Double Elite Qualifying 2 times
3 had Miles Marathon Promotion
Changes for upcoming 2010
1 Will have reciprocal upgrade agreement with United.
2 Introduces system wide upgrade certificate valid for any fares, member who have more than 100K Elite Qualifying miles will earn 4 certificates per year.
3 Introduces a new Elite Level- Presidential Platinum, member is invited based on spending, and current level is 30,000 USD per year.
4 Introduces new Lifetime status- 4 million flown miles will earn lifetime Presidential Platinum status, that’s lots lots of flying.
I feel some day eventually UA and CO will become one airline.
Delta:
1 had lots of crazy promotion for its member due to Continental’s departure.
2 1 Double MQM promotion
3 many stackable doubles miles promotion for Amex card holder and some new route.
4 Delta and NWA merged
Changes for upcoming 2010
Delta introduces Diamond Level, a level above current platinum; the level requires 125,000 MQM per year to get. However, benefits are not great at all other than higher priority for upgrade, 125% bonus miles and no fee to change award ticket.
Also, for past years, people complaint about Delta award tickets, I have to say, it’s getting worse now, and they have the worst online booking system and come up with any random number of required miles. Without help of expert flyer, it is extremely hard for people to get a seat on popular route with lowest amount of miles.
However, If you use miles correctly, Delta is the only US airline still allow one stopover and one open on award ticket.
Also, I think Delta need to re consider their “Upgrade certificate” next year for their top elite members since almost all their competitor offers useful certificate.
United Airlines:
1 Had DEQM promotion twice
2 gave additional year end gift for people who had more than 125,000 EQM
3 Had another DEQM, which is stackable with year end DEQM promotion for Australia resident to respond Delta launched LAX-SYD route.
4 Also had BOS-West coast triple miles promotion
Changes for upcoming 2010
Will have reciprocal upgrade agreement with continental. I also believe UA MAY drop minimum fare class requirement for their System wide upgrades as AA and CO, both have no requirement anymore.
US airways
I don’t keep track of US airway promotion, but I remember they had Double Elite qualifying miles promotion at earlier of 2009, then had another even faster track to become elite around end of 2009
I do know they had three big bonus miles promotion, which generate lots of cash flow for the airline
1 Grand Slam promotion-getting bonus for partner activities. This year is a lot generous than last year, you can up to 6 hits even from same hotel/car rental. You also get Elite Status miles once u have more than 12 hits. The max bonus you can earn is 50K.
2 50%bonus for hotel points transfer, so 20K SPG points get 37500 us airways miles
3 100% bonus when buying, gifting or sharing miles.
4 250% for X’mas shopping from selected partners. You can get 140 per dollar spend from Track it back., so only $650 can get u to Asia in Business class.
Changes for upcoming 2010
US airways just release new award chart for upcoming 2010, compared to massive increase in award level for UA and Delta last year, the changes are quite good, only few market increases, primarily Hawaii. It doesn’t affect me at all because places I want to use my US airways miles still same.
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice |
March 2, 2009
Since this is my first year as AA Executive Platinum(one world Emerald), I thought the one world alliance benefit is similar to Star alliance, but it turns out to be a lot better. When I tried to enter Admiral club at ORD when connecting from Shanghai, the agent told me I can also use Flagship lounge around K19, I was surprised when I heard that.
Later I went to oneworld website and learned that as one world Emerald, I have access to all First Class and Business Class/Frequent Flyer lounges in addition to use First Class Check in counter. Those are the benefits you don’t get as Staralliance Gold.
Still, both alliances are great and make Skyteam the weakest alliance.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, General Frequent Flyer Advice |
