I posted an article last week about the new British Airways Visa Signature Card® that is giving 100,000 Avios points. I interchangeably referred to Avios as points and miles in my post. I got a clarification email from The Mileage Company, which manages British Airways’ frequent flyer program, letting me know that Avios is not miles, but a common currency for all IAG airlines. I have corrected the post and it now refers to Avios as points. I would like to thank the Mileage company for reechoing out. They also …

When it comes to Credit Cards going wild, nothing beats a card that gives a 100,000 miles! Last year both CapitalOne and British Airways had this offer. CapitalOne repeated it a month or so ago, this year too, although not as good in it’s terms as last year. Not to be left behind, British Airways is back withs Chase British Airways Visa Signature Card®! It is once again a promotion where you can earn a 100,000 Avios.
Here are the terms:

EARN UP TO 100,000 BONUS AVIOS
    50,000 Avios after the …

As we had announced earlier on this blog, BMI has been acquired by IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia. As a pert of this acquisition, BMI will no longer be a part of Star Alliance – that membership ends April 19th. It will soon become a part of OneWorld, allowing for redemptions on OneWorld airlines like British, American, Qantas. See full announcement is attached here.
We are all of course, hoping that BMI will adopt the Avios mileage program and allow us to merge our BMI balances with …

Space Shuttle Discovery’s final resting place is going to be the Udvar Hazy Air and Space museum, just off Washington, DC’s Dulles airport (IAD). It is going to be a flown in to Washington riding piggy-back on a 747 on April 17th. It is expected to arrive early morning, as reported on WTOP. I happen to live in the flight path of one of the runways and between the flight paths of two others (IAD has four runways – three are parallel to each other and one diagonal). I am …

Lufthansa just announced it’s first route for the brand new super-jumbo – the Boeing 747-8i. The will be flying the Frankfurt – Washington Dulles (FRA – IAD) route. The flight #s are LH418 and LH419.

As luck may have it, just a few weeks before the announcement I had booked myself on LH419! That too in Business class!! My flight is in August. As Lufthansa will get their first 747-8i in a month or so, I am almost 100% certain that I will be flying the jet. The new 747-8i will …

 
Malaysian Airlines is taking the first step towards what may become a trend – ‘Child Free’ cabins for adults who don’t want their flight being disturbed by noisy kids. They have just announced that the upper deck of the A380 aircraft will be child free. Here is a link to a report on USA Today.
As a business traveler who thinks he flies too much anyways, I appreciate the idea of a child free zone. I too want to be rested on a long flights before a business meeting. On the …

In my last post I wrote about earning a minimum of 500 miles for flights taken. This prompted a question from a reader – what is this minimum miles you speak of? Well, here is the answer.
Airlines award miles for flights based on the miles flown. For flights that are very short – less than 500 miles, most airlines award at least 500 miles. This is known as minimum miles award. Different airlines have different rules as to when they would award these minimum miles. Some airlines give them to …

I have to fly US Airways every once in a while. Going in and out of Charlotte (CLT), which I do every so often, forces one to do so. One of my peeves with US Airways (amongst several others), is that when earning miles on United, I would not earn a 500 minimum miles. Dulles (IAD) to Charlotte is 321 miles. United stopped giving the 500 minimum to even it’s Elites a few years ago and only awards the actual miles earned. Continental, on the other hand always gave the …

The blogoshpere is abuzz with posts about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card’s 50,000 points offer ending tomorrow morning (April 3rd). I do not have this card – I mostly stick to cards that are affiliated to airlines or hotels directly, the the volume of posts got my curiosity. So, I read up and here is why I myself just applied for the card.
The card gives cards earns what are called ‘Chase Ultimate Rewards’ points. These are points that can be transferred to most airlines and hotels, like Amex’s Membership Rewards …

BMI, the one and only UK based Star Alliance member has been acquired by British Airways. BMI has had a tumultuous couple of years. They were first bought by Lufthansa, which bode well for those of us who love Star Alliance, but Lufthansa did not integrate it into it’s suite of airlines (they own Austrian and Swiss) and decided to sell BMI off to IAG, the group that owns British Airways and Iberia.
This is good news for British Airways, as they get additional coveted Heathrow slots and also get some …