View from the Wing

The only program I’ve ever been inclined to buy miles from is British Midland, because with their cash & points award chart and unfiltered access to Star Alliance first class awards those miles have an especially high value. Members can purchase up to 20,000 miles during a 12-month preiod, and until September 30th they’re offering a 10% bonus for doing so.

The current signup bonus for new members of the program is 3,000 miles.

So a new member maxing out on the purchase transaction with bonus will have 25,000 miles at a cost of ~ US$480, which along with a roughly US$340 co-pay, is enough for a one-way international three-cabin first trip between Japan, China, or South Korea and Hawaii.

Add in 16 Hertz rentals at 3400 miles apiece and you can fly international first class roundtrip from the US to Asia or Australia using the cash and points chart (co-pay: US$540, total cost probably around $1800 plus taxes, a lot of money to be sure but really quite cheap for tickets with retail prices of $10,000 to $15,000).

British Midland is also the only program outside of North America with a regular status match program. Their Gold status is especially valuable.

Sheraton is a hit or miss brand at best. In Asia many of their properties are truly outstanding. Some U.S. properties are quite nice. But especially in some of their U.S. locations outside major metropolitan areas the properties have gotten pretty run down. Outside of the Sweet Sleeper bed, which I’m quite happy with, the brand has become quite hit or miss.

Apparently Starwood is doing something about that. They’re kicking out 38 hotels, requiring all Sheratons to have lounges with breakfast and afternoon snacks (great for Platinum members who are guaranteed lounge access…!) and introducing new restaurant standards to ramp up the food and beverage offerings as well.

Sounds like progress on the horizon for what has been an inconsistent brand in North America.

I can’t imagine going to Ikea over Labor Day weekend, but they’re offering free breakfasts each morning to induce you to do so. Of course, the breakfast is usually just 99 cents as is the coffee. So trudging through the back-to-school masses over a three day weekend nets you a $1.98 savings on breakfast.

I still like crediting my Hilton hotel stays to British Midland, but there’s currently an offer of 3000 Virgin Atlantic miles per stay through October 19th at Hilton properties in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Europe, Middle East and Africa plus specific hotels in:

- New York
- Los Angeles
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington DC
- Las Vegas
- Boston
- Atlanta
- Miami
- Chicago
- Denver

(Registration required.)

Combine that with the standard Avis offer of 1000 Virgin miles per rental (even on one-day rentals, this is where I usually credit my Avis rental days absent a special promo) and the Virgin miles do add up quickly, topped off in my own case with transfers in from American Express Membership Rewards. But for folks doing points transfers remember that the Virgin award chart requires quite a few points, whereas you can redeem ANA points on Virgin flights at an often lower rate (eg transfer 63,000 Amex points — or 53,000 Starwood points which yields a 10,000 point bonus — into ANA and redeem for an Upper Class roundtrip between New York-JFK and London Heathrow) as compared to 90,000 points in Virgin’s program.

Frugal Travel Guy points to a British Midland bonus for Hertz rentals.

Hertz rentals booked here using Promotional Coupon 123631 from 20 August through 30 September 2008 earn 3400 bmi miles rather than the standard 1700 (which is easily the best standard offer to start with).

British Midland points are generally the most valuable, and they’re also the hardest to earn due to limited number of partnerships especially outside of Europe. They’re the best place to credit Hertz car rentals and Hilton hotel stays.

This summer American Express Membership Rewards added Iberia as a transfer partner in its US program.

For quite some time the oneworld alliance was a real hole in Amex transfer options. Then transfer partner Mexicana aligned itself with American (after falling out of Star Alliance, though some individual partnerships remain), and linked up with oneworld carriers. But their award chart is pretty brutal for many awards.

Now Amex has a second oneworld option in Iberia. While many of their awards are pricey, it not makes sense to compare award charts with Mexicana when looking to redeem on oneworld partners and transfer to the more advantageous program.

Wandering Aramean outlines some of the pluses and minuses in the Iberia award chart.

It’s nothing like having American or Cathay Pacfiic as a transfer partner. And the best transfers for oneworld redemption ln most cases come from Starwood, where the ratio is 1 Starwood point = 2 LAN points plus transfer bonus. But it’s a great new option to have in the arsenal.

Meanwhile, I’m curious to see how this partnership evolves and whether it lasts. There’s some likelihood that Iberia merges with British Airways. If that happens, and the program is folded into Executive Club, I think the option becomes more useful. On the other hand, British Airways has Chase as a co-branded credit card partner and Chase hasn’t been one to share partners other than Continental. All comes down to how the contracts are written, whether it’s possible to partner with Amex while also partnering with Chase. So will the option morph into a British Airways transfer option? Or will the option turn out to be short-lived? (Or will an Iberia-BA deal simply not come to fruition?) All speculation of course.

United is offering 10% off international flights in economy originating in the US when paying with Visa.

Ticket by September 30, 2008 for travel between September 9, 2008 and November 20, 2008.

Just the other day I noticed that BAnk of America’s Alaska Airlines Visa product was advertising on the site. I haven’t spoken with them, and I didn’t know it was coming, but all I can say is, “cool!”

I’m a fan of the Alaska Airlines program, their recent changes notwithstanding (just use the miles for international premium class awards on partners, the partner fee is worth it, and their miles are especially flexible given their partnerships across both oneworld and Skyteam carriers…).

And the Bank of America Visa comes with a true gem in the form of its $50 companion ticket, my personal favorite tool for traveling domestic first class cross-country (and to Hawaii even) with my wife.

I have no idea if any of that Bank of America cash apparently being spread around the internet will ever find its way into my pocket but I’m perfectly pleased to see them here nonetheless!

Randy Petersen offers US Airways a face-saving way to bring back elite bonus miles — something pretty much every other carrier still features: return the bonus miles for those elite members who carry a Barclays bank co-branded Mastercard (and, ahem, provide retro credit of the missing bonuses back to August 6th).

Given the importance of the co-branded credit card relationship (funding for the America West - US Airways merger was greased by the new credit card partner), this is certainly a plausible idea… made more so by the fact that no other carrier has followed US Airways’ lead on this one.

Certainly a constructive suggestion from the guy who brought you Save Dividend Miles.

Meanwhile, I recently suggested getting the Northwest Visa Signature card before the US Bank relationship disappears with the Northwest-Delta merger (the best current bonus is probably this one).

Certainly the US Bank-issued Northwest Visa will go away. But Randy continues his post with the suggestion to Delta and American Express that the exclusive credit relationship not crowd out the possibility of a co-branded debit card, something that Amex does not offer but the Northwest currently has through US Bank (and which they could of course offer via a different provider as well). If I’m American Express, I’m not ok with it, I like my exclusivity the way it is thank you. But it all depends on the details of the contract between Amex and Delta…

Way to keep that thinking cap on for creative ideas — perhaps the incremental revenue to Delta from Skymiles purchases associated with a co-branded debit card would provide the Skymiles program with enough revenue to reverse their fuel surcharges. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of the All Nippon Airways Mileage Club. Not that I fly ANA frequently (though I’ve flown them in first class before, have an upcoming reservation to do so again, and it’s truly lovely).

First, because for some specific redemptions such as US East Coast to Europe in business class their award chart is quite favorable, e.g. New York to London in Virgin Upper Class for 63,000 miles or Washington-Dulles to Frankfurt on Lufthansa for 68,000 miles. (And of course you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to ANA, but when actually booking your ticket do be aware that they charge much higher taxes and fees than US-based programs.)

Second, and most useful for most, is that their website lets you check award availability across the Star Alliance. You don’t have to have any miles in your account to look for award seats, you just have to have an account. Their website will show the seats being offered as awards on most Star Alliance carriers. (United, though, will sometimes refuse to book awards where their partner is actually offering the seat — one reason I buck the conventional wisdom and currently actually prefer accruing US Airways miles for non-flight activity.)

Notably absent from the All Nippon Airways Star Alliance Award website is access to Air China and Swiss. If you want to check availability of awards on Swiss, you can call your frequent flyer program of course. Or you can sign up for ExpertFlyer, a paid service. But the only way to do it online for free is via Lufthansa (and Swiss’) frequent flyer program, Miles & More. But you can’t just sign up for a Miles & More account and search Swiss availability. You actually have to have credited a flight there first. Bummer.

Turns out there’s a workaround for checking Swiss award avialability online. You can register for Jetfriends, the children’s version of Miles & More. And this gives you access to check award availability without the need for a flight first. You just have to wait for the registration welcome letter to come in the mail with your account number and PIN.

(Hat tip to this Flyertalk thread.)

Cathay Pacific is offering a bonus of 8,000 Asiamiles (for most coach booking classes; 10,000 miles for business or first) for flying roundtrip San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York to and from Hong Kong.

Registration required by November 15 for travel between October 1 and November 30, and the bonus can be earned as many times as you can fly roundtrip during the promotion period.

Hyatt is back with Faster Free Nights, among the best hotel bonus promotions ever. And this time they’re topping off with bonus points as well, which is great because Hyatt points are among the harder points to earn (few partners).

Earn a free night after every two eligible Hyatt stays at any Hyatt worldwide between September 1 and December 30, 2008. Plus, earn 2,000 bonus points after every two eligible Hyatt stays paid with your MasterCard card.

Registration is required.

Now, once upon a time a cheap Priceline stay counted as a stay for this promotion, and you could charge something minimal like a phone call to your room on your free stay and have it count as one of your two stays towards your next free stay. Ah, memories.

But many Gold Passport members still do seek out those $69 room nights near home or hotel hop a bit in order to secure free (capacity controlled) rooms at the priciest properties.

Downside to the Faster Free Nights award is that there are some restrictions on use, such as that it must be redeemed by February 28 (no banking these!) and

minimum of a three-night award stay is required for Faster Free Nights Award(s) redemption in non-resort hotels during mid-week (i.e., Monday through Thursday). One or two-night stays at non-resort hotels are available on weekends only. A weekend is generally defined as Friday through Sunday, but may vary to conform to local custom and practice in certain countries.

Frontier is increasing the number of miles for an award ticket and imposing ticketing fees, citing rising fuel cost even as oil has fallen substantially from its highs. Cutting frequent flyer program benefits usually doesn’t happen while a carrier is in bankruptcy. In general we’ve seen the opposite — print funny money (miles are a currency) while in bankruptcy and reduce the value of those miles once exited from Chapter 11. So this turns the usual expected practice on its head.

The upshot of the changes is that Frontier

will charge customers $25 per award ticket, and $75 per award ticket for flights booked within 14 days of travel.

Redeemable tickets will jump from 15,000 miles to 20,000 for a domestic round trip ticket.

More details in this Flyertalk thread.

Via Free Frequent Flyer miles, two surveys each offer 1000 Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles: here and here.

One Mile at a Time points to United service cutbacks. Those changes appear to be as follows:

Effective Sept. 2:

• 2-3 hour flights, killing biscoffs and pretzels in coach and replacing with buy on board.

Effective Oct. 1:

Increasing Buy on Board Prices

• Shelf-stable items increase from $5 to $6.

• Fresh items increase from $7 to $9.

Other meal changes:

• Eliminate free meals in coach, Dulles Departures to Europe (except Kuwait). Will offer Buy on Board.

• Three-class planes, business class gets free Buy on Board rather than separate meals (!!)

• Eliminate Second meal service on p.s. flights — replace with beverage service.

Other changes:

• Reduce flight attendant staffing to FAA minimums

These will be a real ouch to some, I can live with them (but won’t like it!), as long as the cuts don’t come to my beloved Mileage Plus program. Unfortunately, I’m still predicting that the cuts will come to Mileage Plus… (but I will love them forever if they do not.)

Haven’t decided whether to keep it, whether to change it, or whether to scrap it altogether and do something else later. But it’s an example of hwat you can do with 120,000 United miles (times two — the award is for two seats, which means two award seats were available on all flights). It features international 3-cabin first class on 5 different carriers, and 11 total flights.

Washington, DC to Tokyo — All Nippon Airways first class
Tokyo to Hong Kong — Air Japan regional 2-cabin business class

Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City — United first class

Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok — Lufthansa first class
Bangkok to Chiang Rai — Thai Airways 2-cabin business class

Chiang Rai to Bangkok — Thai Airways 2-cabin business class

Bangkok to Hong Kong — Thai Airways first class
Hong Kong to Seoul — Asiana first class

Seoul to Los Angeles — Asiana first class
Los Angeles to Denver — United 2-cabin first class
Denver to Washington, DC — United 2-cabin first class

Some observations:

Some of you will think I’m insane, 11 flights in two weeks and — depsite a couple of overnight city visits along the way — ultimately six flights to get back from Chiang Rai.

I didn’t face any Starnet filtering when putting together this itienrary, though I did face a very unhelpful agent on my first call. He told me he was checking routes and dates that he clearly wasn’t checking. In moments he told me he had checked three different routes over a period of seven weeks and found nothing available. When I asked him about specific city pairs and specific flights, he scoffed at me, telling me nothing was available and wasn’t I listening to him? Sometimes the worst Starnet filtering is incompetent and unhelpful agents. I hung up, called back, and found availability on the flights I was interested in. Intra-Asian flights are rarely blocked.

The stops on this itinerary in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Seoul are about 23 hours each, so they don’t count as stopovers but rather connections. There’s enough time to grab some nice dim sum in Hong Kong and enjoy a meal on the river in Bangkok. But the real goal of the trip is to visit Vietnam and the Golden Triangle area of Thailand near the border of Laos and Burma. I’ve never visited Vietnam, and while I’ve spent much time in Thailand I’ve never gone all the way to the North.

Tag flights are fun. There are a number of hidden or unexpected flights operated by carriers foreign to the region, and these are frequently available as awards. They’re sometimes short flights, they burn off extra hours on an aircraft and pick up some incremental revenue for that fixed aircraft (though not fixed fuel or crew) cost. Lufthansa flies routes like Bangkok-Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, as well as Singapore to Jakarta. Swiss flies Bangkok to Singapore, and provides arguably the best first class on that route now that Thai no longer offers 3-class service and thus passengers no longer get the first class ground experience in Bangkok (and Singapore regional first is fine, of course, but given the choice I’d take Swiss long-haul first class configuration).

Frugal Travel Guy outlines how he values the mileage in the various airline programs in which he participates.

He’s dead-on that British Midland’’s points are worth the most:

• Cash and points awards stretch the value of miles.

• Reasonable premiums for premium class awards. Business class is 50% more expensive than coach, first class is double.

• One-way awards at only half the price of roundtrip provide for amazing flexibility.

• Star Alliance membership means that the above features are leveraged across an amazing network of carriers, and unlike United they don’t filter out otherwise-available award seats.

And the program is rewarding for it’s elites as well, with low qualification thresholds for top tier (Gold), heavy bonuses for paid premium class fares (a Gold who has already requalified earns 625% on paid first class fares!), and top tier elites even receive complimentary premium economy seating when redeeming for coach flights on bmi metal.

But he’s terribly mistaken in valuing US Airways miles lower than the rest — lower even than Delta Skymiles nad Northwest Worldperks.

US Airways is a pain on many, many levels. I don’t like actually flying them when there are reasonable alternatives. And I would not put my flight miles into the US Airways Dividend Miles program and earn elite status with the carrier. They no longer provide elite status bonuses on flights, and they don’t award 500 miles minimum per segment any longer (and US Airways has a whole bonus of flights under 500 miles in the Northeast!). Instead, I credit flights under 500 miles to British Midland (as I do with United flights under 500 miles, since they’ve also abolished the minimum earning per segment, and British Midland awards 600 miles minimum in coach and still offers elite bonuses).

But the question is what are miles worth, not whose program should you credit flight miles to. Of course I’ll take elite bonuses on another carrier, and elite benefits from another carrier, whenever possible. And for non-flight miles, one should certainly at least consider American because as Frugal Travel Guy points out mileage earned from all sources currently counts towards lifetime elite status.

But I’d rather credit non-flight miles to US Airways than to United, and certainly credit such miles to US Airways before Continental, Northwest or Delta. US Airways is in the Star Alliance, and their miles can take you first class on Singapore, Thai, ANA, Asiana, Swiss, and Lufthansa. And whereas United uses its technology to prevent its frequent flyer members booking award seats on its partner carriers — filtering out seats that its partners are offering for redemption — US Airways has no such technology. So it’s easier to redeem Star Alliance seats using US Airways miles than it is using United miles. Plus, their award chart is competitive although in some cases a bit more expensive, for instance North America to most of Asia costs 120,000 miles in first class using Dividend Miles, just as using United Mileage Plus miles … although US Airways bills far South Asia at its higher India rates. So I’d book Washington, DC to Hong Kong using Dividend Miles, but not to Kuala Lumpur.

Sure, US Airways redemption fees are annoying. But they’re a pittance compared to the value offered by Star Alliance premium class redemptions.

Note, though, that all of the advice in Frugal Travel Guy’s post and this one is entirely contingent.

• American may stop crediting mileage from all sources towards lifetime elite status. This is a change which has been rumored for a long time, I just hope it doesn’t happen before I hit 2 million lifetime in my AAdvantage account.

• British Midland could well be taken over by Lufthansa, and its points folded into the much less generoud Miles & More program.

• US Airways could even leave Star Alliance, now that Continental is entering. Or they could figure out how to save money the same way United has, by denying its members otherwise-available award seats on partners.

• Meanwhile, Delta and Northwest and Continental have all announced serious gutting of their programs over the past couple of years (and Delta this year especially). How much lower could Delta (and a combined Delta-Northwest) possibly go? All bets are off based on future changes which could occur in the programs like American, United, and US Airways which continue to offer real value.

Personally, I accrue in United, American, US Airways… British Midland when I can (great for Hilton double dips, Hertz rentals, and Star Alliance segments under 500 miles as well as any other segments I won’t need to requalify for status). Unfortunately British Midland points are just difficult for someone based in North America to earn, without a US-based credit card partner.

I also remain a fan of Starwood Preferred Guest and American Express Membership Rewards. On a 1:1 basis I’ll accrus in the former and then the latter program before I’ll accrue in United or American. And there are several international programs which offer real value, for all the trashing it gets the Air Canada program has a non-insane award chart for Star Alliance redemptions, and All Nippon Airways has some value in its distance based chart. Cathay Pacifiic AsiaMiles can be worthwhile as well, even after last year’s increase in mileage prices. And Alaska Airlines has just a ton of partnerships, incorporating much of the best of both oneworld and Skyteam.

The general principles I use are such:

• Accrue first where the earning bonus is the greatest. I’ll take 8 Continental miles per dollar from shopping before I’ll take 3 United miles per dollar, Continental may be difficult in redemption but double mileage earning means I come out at least even if I have to spend double miles on redemption. And I’ll take 5 Thank You Network Points before I’ll take 3 United miles, but Thank You points are the subject of a different post…

• Accrue second in British Midland, and hope the current value proposition remains in place until I can redeem the miles (don’t save these points, accrue them and use them, but that advice holds for all programs more or less). This is jsut such a hidden gem of a program, so unless I get a huge value out of another program (need the miles for elite status, for instance) I want to earn bmi points.

• Accrue third where the flexibility is the greatest (the ability to transfer points into a variety of programs). Starwood, American Express Membership Rewards, and Diners Club fit the bill (in that order).

• Accrue fourth where the value of redemption is the greatest, the partners take you where you want to go, and availability is good. That’s why I prefer US Airways over Delta, Continental, and Northwest.

How do you value your miles, am I missing something in my evaluation, how should the above framework be adjusted?  Appreciate your thoughts in the comments.

Update August 19: Typo and brain freeze corrected, thanks to the first two commenters

In a continuing series diving into the details of managing credit cards and securing their frequent flyer signup bonuses, Frugal Travel Guy offers suggestions on reallocating credit limits. This can help you get more cards than you’d otherwise be eligible for, and also be a useful tool to preserve available credit while cancelling cards that would incur a fee.

He also makes some suggestions on how to handle no preset limit cards and avoid complications of those cards for your credit report and score.

Expedia is offering $10 off per night on a 2-night minimum stay when booking an Expedia Special Rate Hotel by August 31 for travel through October 31.  Use coupon code WBK10.

Not quite as lucrative as the current Orbitz discounts, however.

I was about 20 minutes late for my hair loss consultation in DC. No big deal from their end. Right into a comfortable waiting room with TV, a few minutes later my consultant talks me through hair loss issues.

She notices that on the section of their form about ‘how I heard about them’ I wrote in Delta. She acknowledged that it’s a great offer, and ‘how excited she is that even with people coming in who might not be candidates now, they’ll be telling their family and friends about it and maybe they’ll come in to learn more’. Way to keep the chin up having to talk to all these bum sales prospects! They really were nice about it.

Doctor comes in to give his pitch as well, about how important it is “to start early” :cough: and how it always frustrates him that most people wait until they’ve lost so much hair before beginning treatment, “now really is the time” :cough:

It was a soft sell, no pressure, amusing really and a rather fun way to earn 20,000 miles. We’ll just have to see whether the miles post Oh, and they give away free prescriptions for propecia, as well as free samples.

Hurry — you only have until August 25th to take advantage of the offer!