Chase Ultimate Reward (UR) Points are extremely flexible. I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago comparing them to American Express Membership Reward Points. This post is on different options available for UR points that make them unique and Awesome!
Combining Chase UR Points
You can Transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points to another Chase UR rewards account (another Chase Card). This can be another Chase Card owned by you or spouse/domestic partner. My wife has two Chase Cards – The Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink cards and I have a Chase …

The Airline world is made up of three alliances:

Star Alliance
SkyTeam
OneWorld

Understanding the alliances and the airlines that make them up, and which airlines do not participate in an alliance, is key to maximizing miles and status. What alliances allow you to do is pick one airline per alliance and earn miles on that one airline’s frequent flier program no matter which airline in the alliance you fly. That way you can maximize miles. Airlines not only give redeemable miles but also status miles across alliance partners, so this also maximizes Elite …

Just like getting delayed, flights get cancelled – whether it be due to weather, mechanical aircraft issues or unavailability of crew. In an earlier Expert Tip (#3), I gave tips on how to potentially get compensated for delayed flights. Those tips hold equally good for cancelled flights. In this post, I give detailed steps of what to do if your flight gets cancelled, irrespective of the reason or potential compensation. Here is what you need to do:
1. Call your airline
As soon as you hear that your flight has been cancelled, …

After my last post about two divorces – Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries & Continental and Amtrak, I am happy to provide good news about a marriage – that of Southwest and AirTran. They merged recently and have taken the next step of bringing their Mileage programs together. Just like the other successful marriage of last year – United and Continental, Southwest and AirTran are still operating as separate airlines. What they have instituted is reciprocal matching of status in their programs. Now, being an Elite on either program is …

While I was not bummed losing a $25 voucher, I did miss it as this was a ‘cash’ voucher and I could have used it for anything – towards a flight, food, even a lounge day-pass. … So, when you do get stuck with a paper voucher, here are some tips: Keep it in a secure place (and if you like me, make sure you remember where your ‘safe’ place is).

Different airline have given their aircraft interesting livery for different reasons. They may add unique livery to:

Advertise – the Alliance they are a part of.
Promote – such as Alaska Airlines promoting Wildlife in Alaska or Continental promoting New York City a few years ago.
Advertise – like Southwest and the plane for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue
Show support for a home town – like US Airways has a Carolina Panthers aircraft
or just be unique.

There are many instances of airline painting their aircraft in unique schemes. Southwest has a plane painted up …

 
Southwest, AirTran, JetBlue, Ryan Air (Europe), IndiGo (India) – these are all low cost airlines that are focussed on giving cheap airfares with no frills. One of the frills they do not offer is a decent Frequent Flyer program. In some cases there is no program at all. I hence do not fly them. As I mentioned in my article on Maximizing Airline Mile earnings (Part 3 in my series on Economics of Airline Miles), if you have a goal to maximize the airline miles you earn, you should only …