You’ll remember last week I discussed my philosophy on fuel dumping and whether or how much of the technique should be shared openly. This week I’m going to tell you a little bit about how to do it yourself. A lot of it can already be found in my posts on MilePoint. However, some could use more clarification.

Reminder: if you have complaints about how much I’m sharing, please send me an email explaining which part should be edited and what a satisfactory solution would look like. I think very carefully about what I include. A lot of this has been shared publicly elsewhere, so while I may agree to remove SOMETHING, I will not remove EVERYTHING. If you want me to make changes, you must tell me what changes are necessary.

• Part 1: Introduction to fuel dumping
• Part 2: Finding and booking a 3X
• Part 3: Variations and advanced strategy

Basics

With the rise in oil prices in recent years, many airlines have taken to adding fuel surcharges to their international fares. Some of them even make you pay the fuel surcharge when you book an award trip, claiming that the miles only cover the base fare (which is total BS, but that’s another story).

The result is that many (but not all) international fares include three components: (1) base fare, depending on the fare or booking class like L or Y for coach and Z or C for business; (2) taxes and fees imposed by governments and airports; and (3) fuel surcharges. Some airlines still include fuel surcharges in the base fare, and others may break them out only for certain routes. However, when a fuel surcharge exists, there is often the potential to dump it.

Why include fuel surcharges in the first place? I’m not entirely sure. I don’t believe it was done just to make people pay fuel surcharges on award tickets. That’s a bad customer service decision when the fees and fuel surcharge may cost more than a discount revenue ticket, and clearly some airlines (mostly U.S. airlines) manage to survive without doing it. I think a better explanation is that airlines can easily adjust the cost of a ticket by changing just the fuel surcharge that applies to many routes between two regions without adjusting the base fare for each individual route as well as the dozen or so fare classes on each flight.

When you get into this hobby, you may notice that the fuel surcharge between the U.S. and Europe is one price on PanAm, but a different price on TWA. It’s yet another price on PanAm if you are instead flying from the U.S. to Asia. It makes sense from the perspective of individual carriers trying to easily adjust fares in response to their own fuel expenses to each region even if we as consumers don’t always like the way it’s been implemented. For example, fuel surcharges haven’t really fallen much even as the price of oil has dropped significantly.

Since this is called fuel dumping, that means you can’t dump a fare without a fuel surcharge. Taxes and fees are generally fixed, so I don’t worry about them. A few special cases include the example of flights out of London, where the UK has imposed a large air passenger duty (APD) on departing flights. A way to avoid this is to originate your trip in another country but pass through London as a connection. But again, this is an example of a special case and not something I worry about.

Candidate Fares

What you should worry about is finding flights with low base fare and high fuel surcharge, generally designated as YQ (sometimes YR) in the fare construction that you can find through ITA or other fare search engines. Base fares between the U.S. and Europe may be $80 each way in winter and $120 in summer. The reason the price you see is so high is that the fuel surcharge can be $500 plus an extra $100 in taxes. Dump the fuel and fares as low as $200 between New York and Europe are not unheard of. These low base fares are called “candidate fares” and are not all that difficult to find. Just look for low total fares and check the fare construction to see how much of it is YQ. If it’s just low because the base fare is $200 each way and there’s no fuel surcharge, then this fuel dumping technique isn’t going to help you at all.

Per the comments below, I’d like to clarify that a low base fare is not critical. However, it is important that there be sufficiently large YQ (or a very effective 3X) that a fuel dump be able to lower the fare by a worthwhile amount. If the YQ is $100, it probably isn’t worth the effort.

For example, here is a fare to Rome that I’ve been researching lately. Not a terribly good candidate, but you can see that even so, YQ of $476 makes up about half the total ticket price of $985.70. For a good candidate, the YQ can be over three-quarters of the all-in price since the YQ doesn’t vary due to seasonal demand or occasional sales.

Candidate fares are easy enough to find that they often aren’t coded at all; people just post the entire fare construction with dates and airlines and flight numbers. I’m ambivalent toward this approach. On the one hand, certain valuable itineraries that can be brought to very low prices should be coded because if too many people find a working dump and succeed in booking it, the fare could disappear and the dump stop working. It may not be a Tiffany jewel just yet, but we can all agree that it’s not wise to leave rough diamonds lying around unguarded. On the other hand, no one wants to decode the question just so they can create and code an answer to it. Less would be accomplished if everything were coded.

Third Strike

The critical tool to make fuel dumping work is the “3X” or “third strike.” A normal fare might look like A-B-A. Two legs from A to B and back. A dumped fare might look like A-B-A,X-Y. The same A-B-A trip with an additional X-Y leg tacked on as part of a multi-city itinerary. However, you don’t fly X-Y. If anyone asks, you fell ill while changing a tire on the side of a road in the middle of a snowstorm because you were in a funeral procession for your recently deceased great aunt Hilda. Something came up. Because typically X-Y is in some remote part of the world that you can’t easily get to.

Of course, sometimes X-Y is nearby, and X or Y may even be the same as A or B. But it doesn’t have to be, and I think that’s where a lot of people get tripped up. Just because I am trying to dump a fare from Seattle to London does not mean that my 3X needs to originate in Seattle. The route construction for a dumped itinerary is A-B-A,X-Y and not A-B-A-Y. That comma is key. Just like in Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

[Yes, I am a huge fan of the Oxford comma. I'm a man who knows his cocktails, fare construction, and grammar. That and I get to use a microscope that can visualize individual blood cells coursing through a fish. Is it any wonder I get all the chicks? ]

Words of Caution

Of course, the airlines don’t particularly like you doing this, so if you want to get any frequent flyer miles for this it might be wise to schedule X-Y for a month after you return to A, making sure that you have enough time for the miles to post before you “miss” your 3X due to some “totally unforeseen” event. This is also why the 3X happens last. If you put it at the beginning of your itinerary and miss it, the rest of your ticket will be cancelled, too.

Finally, don’t tell anyone working for an airline or travel agency or in any remote position of authority about what you are doing. If anyone does some digging and sees that the fuel surcharge is missing and what you’ve done to achieve that, they could easily cancel your ticket and close that 3X off to everyone else in this game. So don’t whine about seat assignments. Don’t try to reschedule your flight or do a same-day change. Don’t ask about upgrades. Just accept that you are getting a steal on this flight and the miseries of being treated like a non-elite passenger in coach are part of the bargain.

I will talk about how to find a 3X and other variations on fuel dumping strategy later this week, so make sure you are proficient at using ITA before then. Check out my three-part series on using ITA if you haven’t already:

• Part 1: Introduction to using ITA
• Part 2: Advanced routing language
• Part 3: Other ITA features

The post Introduction to Fuel Dumping appeared first on Hack My Trip.

This week I’m discussing the basics of fuel dumping. Remember, I’m not going to describe any particular dumps in detail so you can go out and book it yourself immediately after you finish reading this. I’m only trying to show you how to get started in the game so that, someday, you will be able to find such a deal with some effort of your own. There are lots of things I’m leaving out along the way, to post later if I decide I should, so you may think I’ve overlooked something. Feel free to email or comment if you think it should be added now.

• Part 1: Introduction to Fuel Dumping
• Part 2: Finding and Booking a 3X
• Part 3: Variations and Advanced Strategy

Definition of a 3X

The abbreviation “3X” stands for “third strike,” meaning it is the third flight in an itinerary and you strike it by not flying. Normally missing the plane will result in the rest of the itinerary being cancelled unless you head to an agent and ask to be rebooked on a later flight. Since in this case it is the last leg, missing it has no real repercussions.

Of course, you don’t HAVE to miss the flight, but under most circumstances, you won’t be able to fly it. Generally a 3X is in some far away place. If you are flying from the U.S. to Asia, the 3X might be in Europe. Not exactly convenient. Some newbies try to book something like SEA-FRA-SEA and then dump it with SEA-PDX. Not going to work.

I’m not going to give any more geographical guidance other than warning you not to limit yourself by staying too close to home. This is an opportunity to be creative, and sometimes creativity begins with a 100 failed attempts. Still, some regions of the world do lend themselves toward being rich sources of efficient 3Xs, and you may get a sense of where to look after you read the rest of this post.

Efficient Dumps

When I say a 3X is “efficient” I mean that you save more money than you spend on the dump. Remember how I mentioned on Monday that every candidate fare has three components? Those are base fare, taxes, and fuel surcharge. You can’t do anything about base fare and taxes, so the point of the dump is to add a third flight that results in a lower fuel surcharge.

But it’s not quite that easy. Because you’re adding a flight, you have to pay the base fare and taxes on that, too. This means that a dump can be perfectly effective while being horribly inefficient. What good is dumping a $400 YQ if your 3X costs $400? Well, sometimes that can be worthwhile, but we’ll leave that until Friday…

My point is that “effectiveness” and “efficiency” have a subtle difference in meanings, and you must consider the role of each. An efficient 3X saves more money than it costs. An effective dump is one that removes a large enough portion of the YQ from the original fare to be worth the effort to find and book.

One of the easier ways to find efficient 3Xs is to search for very cheap flights, those with fares that are low enough that if they prove to be effective they will easily pay for themselves. Generally, cheap flights are short flights. And short flights tend to cluster in at least two kinds of places. I’ll leave you to figure out the rest.

Finding a 3X

For the most part, searching for a 3X involves a lot of guess and check. First you find the base fare you want to dump. Second, you figure out the YQ and all-in price. Finally, you perform a multi-city search using the candidate fare for trips 1 and 2 and the potential 3X as trip 3. Then you search and see if anything happens. There are patterns that exist, but I won’t go into them.

If the all-in fare goes down, check the fare construction as I’ve described previously and see if the YQ is actually lower. Another possibility is that the base fare is now higher because a different fare class was used, and this increase could have negated the decrease in YQ. This isn’t necessarily bad if you wanted to try to apply an upgrade that requires a minimum fare class.

[Side note: Don’t apply VIP upgrades to American Airlines flights or any other flights that require reissuing the ticket in order to process the upgrade. Your dump will be noticed, and the deal may be killed. To the best of my knowledge, United processes systemwide upgrades differently so that you can still apply for one using the online form. Obviously you should never call an agent to process an upgrade.]

You should make ample use of ITA’s “nearby airports” feature when searching for a 3X. This is one reason it can be beneficial to search for 3Xs in areas with a higher-than-normal airport density. However, remember that not all 3Xs are located in these areas and that you don’t want to overload ITA’s search engine by searching too many airports at once. It will timeout after 60 seconds, so you must strike a balance.

Specificity

Finally, be warned that 3Xs are very specific in every sense. They can be direction specific, meaning that the 3X must be booked as traveling from X to Y but not from Y to X. It also means that the fare you are trying to dump is direction specific, so that you it works only when flying from the U.S. to Europe but a different 3X is required when traveling from Europe to the U.S.

The list of conditions gets longer. A given 3X may be able to dump any candidate fare from airlines in a particular alliance, or perhaps only from one or two carriers. However, it may be flexible and work on several different city pairs within the same region. If a 3X dumps a candidate fare from SFO to LHR, it may also dump fares from LAX to LHR or from SFO to CDG. The amount dumped may vary, and sometimes it does turn out to be very specific to a particular city pair.

To convey some of this flexibility while also maintaining the code used in most online forums, a continent naming convention was introduced as follows:

• C1: North America
• C2: Europe
• C3: Asia
• C4: South America
• C5: Africa
• C6: Oceania
• C7: Antarctica

C7 doesn’t matter much for now, but we can always hold out hope…

The list basically just names regions on the map from left-to-right, top-to-bottom, starting with North America. Sometimes certain regions will get their own codes if necessary, such as C1.5 or C2.5.

Booking

I’m not going to spend much time on this because it should be obvious. In most cases, you can’t book a dumped itinerary on an airline’s own website. These itineraries generally involve multiple airlines that are not always in the same alliance, so an online travel agency (OTA) becomes necessary.

Just because it worked on ITA doesn’t mean it will work on your OTA of choice. Sometimes it will appear to work, but you will get a call or email later complaining that they couldn’t process the ticket and asking if you want to rebook it at the much higher “normal” price. If this happens, just decline. You don’t need to attract attention to what you’re doing.

There are many more OTAs out there than the big names like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

As for real travel agents, don’t bother. While it is relatively easy for a travel agent to “force” a fuel dump by constructing the ticket in a certain way, there are rules against this, and it will only lead to bad results. If you convince one to do it for you, he or she will likely get a debit memo from the airline demanding the missing YQ. And then they’ll come after you. At all times you should avoid interacting with real people in this process. Don’t talk to the airline or a travel agent about anything.

There. To all you worrywarts, I don’t this was that revelatory. You are always welcome to suggest any necessary edits.

The post Finding and Booking a 3X appeared first on Hack My Trip.

I showed you earlier today how to find and book a 3X. Here is an example of what to look for when you are testing a 3X. First, a screenshot of the candidate fare from Los Angeles to Tokyo:

As you can see, there is a very hefty fuel surcharge (YQ) of $576. Over 65% of this fare is fuel surcharges! Now let’s take a look at what happens when I apply a 3X as part of a multi-city itinerary:

The new fare is only $569.20 all-in. Note that the 3X added on $56 in base fare and another few bucks worth of taxes. But it left the base fare intact and reduced the YQ all the way to $205. I’ve just saved hundreds of dollars, getting an effective 35% discount.

Notice that I’ve erased just about every distinguishing part of those fare constructions. I didn’t give you the 3X cities or even the fare basis codes and airline of the original candidate fare. This is about as much information as I’m willing to provide. The dump exists, and that’s all I’ll tell you. Please don’t harass me for more details about it because that’s something you need to learn to do on your own.

I’ll leave you with a note of caution against sharing similar information with other people. There is a PDF circulating of a recent PowerPoint presentation someone gave on fuel dumping. I got my hands on a copy, and it references an even better dump than this one. The author seemed to be boasting and tried to be clever, erasing the airline’s name and the cities of the 3X. But he left the airline’s logo. Not the most useful piece of information if you aren’t familiar with all the obscure airlines based in developing countries, but after 15 minutes of work with Google Images cross-referenced against data from OpenFlights, I had the answer. That’s why I covered up everything in my example above. You never know what shred of a clue will lead people to the answer.

The post Example of a Good Fuel Dump appeared first on Hack My Trip.

This week I’m discussing the basics of fuel dumping. Remember, I’m not going to describe any particular dumps in detail (though I did post an example on Wednesday) so you can go out and book it yourself immediately after you finish reading this. I’m only trying to show you how to get started in the game so that, someday, you will be able to find such a deal with some effort of your own. There are lots of things I’m leaving out along the way, to post later if I decide I should, so you may think I’ve overlooked something. Feel free to email or comment if you think it should be added now.

• Part 1: Introduction to Fuel Dumping
• Part 2: Finding and Booking a 3X
• Part 3: Variations and advanced strategy

It doesn’t have to be a THIRD strike

Originally, fuel dumping was designed around the 3X because that was easy and straightforward. You would fly your normal itinerary, book an extra flight that dropped the fuel, and then never fly it. It had to be at the end because if it were anywhere else then missing it would result in the rest of the itinerary being cancelled, too.

However, those were the good ol’ days. It used to be you could book simple domestic 3Xs that you might actually use and still get a 100% dump. In fact, that was just about the time I learned how to do this, so I’m very disappointed I could never take advantage because some were very convenient for me. Such is life.

Now if you want to get creative you have to move the 3X to the beginning of the itinerary. This is called a “1X” because it comes first instead of third. But unlike a 3X, you actually have to fly the 1X. The “X” has been preserved for consistency so that everyone knows what purpose the flight serves, but it doesn’t mean you should “strike” it like a 3X.

Searching for and booking a 1X is pretty much the same as it is for a 3X, but they generally work better and are more common. Not that common, but a noticeable improvement over a 3X. Because you NEED to fly a 1X, it helps if you’re the sort of person who can plan trips months in advance. A 1X is not necessarily going to be any more convenient than a 3X, which means you have to know that you’ll just happen to be in the Middle East and available to fly a one-way trip in order to dump the YQ on a trip to Asia two months later.

You don’t have to dump just one trip

Remember how I told you that a 3X is often direction-specific? Well sometimes, but not always, X-Y can work as a 3X and Y-X can work as a 1X. That means you can book three trips at once!

• Itinerary A: (1) A-B, (2) B-A, (3) X-Y
• Itinerary B: (1) Y-X, (2) C-D, (3) D-C

If X-Y dumps the fuel as a 3X for itinerary A and Y-X dumps the fuel as a 1X for itinerary B, then you have two dumped trips as well as a more convenient way to use your 1X.

You can also book a 5X, which involves two round trips, A-B-A,C-D-C followed by the 5X at the end. Similar combinations and extensions of this strategy are out there, but it requires a bigger commitment up front.

Open jaws are your friend

If you need to fly a 1X, what better way to take advantage of it than to fill the gap in an open jaw? To remind you, an open jaw is an itinerary where you fly in or out of a different airport at either your origin or destination, e.g., (1) SFO-LHR, (2) FRA-SFO. A double open jaw is where you choose different airports at both ends, e.g., (1) SFO-LHR, (2) FRA-LAX.

Usually the rule is that the “jaw” portion of a trip must be shorter than either of the flown legs. This means they are likely to be short trips, and short trips make great 3Xs. (An open jaw is a great travel hacking strategy in general. For example, so you can fly into one European city, backpack through several countries, and then fly out of your eventual destination.)

Again, you need to plan several itineraries in advance, but if you know there is a 1X in South America, for example, you could book an open jaw itinerary to South America (and use a 3X to save some fuel) and fly that 1X while you’re there. The 1X can then be used to dump the fuel on a separate itinerary to Africa that doesn’t work well with any 3Xs.

Be creative

Hopefully you’re starting to realize just how creative you can be with your fuel dumping strategy. A 3X doesn’t work because it’s the third flight. It works for other reasons governed by fare and ticketing rules. If you can put that 3X in a different position, whether first, or fifth, or in combination with a 4X, then you have many more options available to you.

I’ve only described some of the more common examples. If you aren’t able to dump your fare using a first approach, try some others and see if you have better luck. I’ve also left out some of the tips I’ve learned about fuel dumping, such as a few things to look for in the fare rules for a candidate fare and which airlines tend to be easier to dump. Remember, the more you learn to practice finding and booking dumped itineraries on your own, the easier this will become. Don’t let yourself become too focused on the examples I provide just because I happened to spell out a few of the common ones.

Fuel dumping involves some sharing and camaraderie in the online forums, but it is ultimately an individual challenge of you against the computer, trying to find that one flight that will save you hundreds of dollars.

The post Variations and Advanced Strategy appeared first on Hack My Trip.

BryanIAH just shared a new mileage “jog” on his blog, mileagerunning.com. At 4.6 cpm, it’s not the greatest. We both admit that. But Mexico City sounds like a lot of fun to me, and you can go visit Carlos Slim’s new museum. This is one of those cases where you should be willing to pay a little more for the opportunity to visit for more than a few hours.

Although direct connections on US Airways are available, the trick here is that you’re allowed two connections in each direction, which will allow you to boost the number of miles earned significantly. Something like SEA-PHX-CLT-MEX and back. I’ll leave you to visit his blog to read the rest of the details.

Image Credit: BryanIAH at www.mileagerunning.com

Let me add a touch of suspense for those who are interested in fuel dumping. Flights to Mexico don’t generally have YQ, but they can be used in some creative routings to bring that CPM down to zero. And for those interested in accumulating US Airways Dividend miles, you can earn a 40K bonus by signing up for the US Airways credit card from Barclays, which also comes with a 5K mile discount on award travel booked on US Airways flights.

The post PNW Mileage Runs: SEA-MEX on US for 4.6 CPM appeared first on Hack My Trip.

Last weekend was one of the worst times to be away from home. Sure, I enjoyed visiting Branson and Table Rock Lake (despite what my tweets may have suggested ), but there were several excellent yet also very transient travel opportunities taking place during my absence.

Singapore Airlines Caught with Its Pants Down

While I was meeting Megan’s family, Singapore Airlines updated its computer systems and opened nearly all its flights to partner award bookings. Singapore is normally very stingy and blocks its space from other carriers. After debating for a day or so, I booked a trip for us to Singapore and Hong Kong in first class (business class return). I don’t know that we’ll be able to use it, but as a 1K I can cancel at any time with no penalty. This deal has now been “fixed” so it was good I pulled the trigger anyway.

I didn’t actually have enough miles in my MileagePlus account to buy the tickets at first, but fortunately I’ve been making an effort to pool everything in my Ultimate Rewards account with Chase. Points transferred to miles instantly, yet another reason I love my Chase Sapphire and Ink Bold cards. We even passed Chase’s infamous Springfield, MO, customer service center on our drive to Branson!

Edit: In the comments, David says that SQ availability is back. Maybe it never left? But it could also be phantom availability, which is becoming common with UA (e.g., LH first class).

American Airlines Gift Cards Bite the Dust

I also noticed while reading MilePoint (but reported first on FlyerTalk) that American Airlines gift cards will no longer be sold at Costco. I wrote about these a couple weeks ago as an easy 10% discount on all AA-operated flights. Plus, there are ways to get extra discounts like a 2% rebate if you’re an Executive member or a 9% rebate in the form of Ultimate Rewards points if you buy them with a pre-paid American Express card.

Losing a single 10% discount when several others remain isn’t the end of the world. I’m not sure it’s worth stocking up unless you have definite travel plans. My usual SODO location in Seattle is now out of stock, so the only one left is a good 30-45 minute drive away. Is that worth it to save $100-200? I’ve heard reports that some stores are consolidating them as inventory thins, so availability may fluctuate.

Korean Air Invents Plane that Flies without Fuel

Mistake fares are much less common than they used to be, as Gary reported last week. However, one of the few opportunities remaining even in an era when fat fingered fares are prevented is the miscalculation of fuel surcharges on international routes. I was able to take advantage of one last summer to visit Spain with my sister, and I remember rumors that too many mistakes on US Airways-operated flights may have hastened Spanair’s demise shortly after.

This morning it was reported in several places that Korean Air flights to Tokyo from Los Angeles were dropping their fuel surcharge if you started out with a nonstop flight on Alaska Airlines from various West Coast cities. Something like SEA-LAX on AS followed by LAX-NRT-LAX on KE. Who wants to go to Tokyo for $400?

Not surprisingly, the deal was dead almost as soon as it hit the blogs. (Just to emphasize Spanair’s incompetence, their last mistake was live for almost three days.) I haven’t examined it very closely, but this reminds me of a 1X variation of a fuel dump since simply forgetting to include the fuel surcharge wouldn’t seem to require the initial Alaska segment.

When I discussed fuel dumps several months ago, I talked about how the original form was a 3X or “third strike” because you could just skip that last segment. But you have to fly a 1X because it comes first. They are easier to find, but also more difficult to carry out. They rarely have an airport, or even a continent, in common so consider this deal a lucky break. It just goes to show how important it is to always be paying attention to your inbox or RSS feeds for the latest deals.

Star Alliance MegaDO Full in under 10 Minutes

Or something like that. Really, I was amazed it took so little time. I was fortunate to get booked on the international portion, which guaranteed me a spot on the domestic charter, too. But my flights home were delayed significantly on Sunday, meaning I didn’t get to bed until 3 AM, about 23 hours after waking up. The general booking window opened four hours later. Yeah right…

I’m glad I’m on it, and I look forward to seeing many of you for the first time this November if you’re able to go, too. Be sure to check out this thread on MilePoint if you are looking for a roommate to help split the hotel costs during the trip.

Relevant Links

Consider applying for an Ultimate Rewards credit card to earn points that can be transferred to other partners, including United, Hyatt, Marriott, and Avios. These are some of my favorite cards, and rarely do I see better earnings or redemption opportunities. I receive a referral fee if you use one of my links, and your support is greatly appreciated!

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Freedom
• Chase Ink Bold

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The post Why I Should Never Look Away from My Computer appeared first on Hack My Trip.

A few weeks ago I reviewed several online travel agency (OTA) rewards programs and concluded that Hotels.com was probably the bet choice for travelers as long as you don’t mind limiting yourself to hotel bookings. It offers a ~16% return if you stack it’s rewards program with booking portals. But there are also rewards programs that bring together a collection of smaller independent hotels.

I mention Stash Hotel Rewards because it has at least one advocate — my father, who spends two to three nights near SFO every week but can’t find a hotel he likes in the area. Keep in mind he’s an ornery guy who won’t drive more than 5 miles from the office even though the reason he’s down there is to avoid a 75-mile drive back to his home near Santa Rosa. I have tried and failed to convince him of the merits of SPG and Hyatt Gold Passport though he could easily be a top-tier elite in both programs. Clearly this frustrates me. But he has found a small hotel affiliated with Stash that stands out above the rest.

Instead of using an account number, you need to use the same email address when you book on the hotel’s website and create your account on stashrewards.com. And the points are a somewhat fixed-value currency like Southwest’s Rapid Rewards and Virgin America’s Elevate, which means it’s difficult to game the system (exact values fluctuate with demand).

You’ll earn 5 points per dollar and can redeem them at a rate of about 1.27 cents per point calculated from a fake stay I picked at random (I couldn’t find a exact number to reference). Loyalty Traveler did another review of Stash a few months ago and found a valuation of 1.5 cents per point. Since I trust Ric, I’ll go with that. It provides an effective return of 7.5% back on every stay.

With the exception of Hotels.com, 7.5% is better than most of the other OTAs I reviewed, and you can still use your Chase Sapphire Preferred or other rewards card to book the stay and earn more points. Still, we are faced with a decision between two rewards programs that offer very little room for manipulation. Hotels.com gives you 16% back at almost any hotel as long as you book through their portal; many Stash hotels are included in their search results. Stash Hotel Rewards gives you 7.5% back and only at their hotels.

The caveat is that Stash also offers many promotions to its members. If you stand a chance at earning 2X or 3X points through one of these deals, then 7.5% might become 15% or more. It’s no longer so clear who is better. But looking at my dad’s case, I doubt he will track the specials, and he might decide he wants to use his credits somewhere else where Stash doesn’t have a participating hotel. For those reasons, if my dad wants to continue staying at his favorite independent hotel, I think he should start booking through Hotels.com.

The post Is Stash Hotel Rewards a Good Deal? appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• Thanks for the kind words, Scott. Both your suggestions are ... by Jeff Low
• Thanks for chiming in, Jeff. I remember watching you speak at ... by Scottrick
• Thanks for looking into Stash, Scott, and Scott's Dad, thanks ... by Jeff Low
• No charge at Larkspur Landing. They do give you a ticket for ... by Dad
• Is there any new signup bonus for new member? Haven't seen one ... by illini
• Not for him. The company reimburses him, and he just wants ... by Scottrick

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In October, there was speculation that the American Express Platinum card would lose its partnership with American Airlines for Admirals Club access.  For some reason, American Airlines wasn’t showing up as a partner on certain areas of the American Express website.

Turns out that speculation was true, albeit a bit premature.  Many American Express Platinum card members just received e-mails that we will be losing access privileges for not just the American Airlines Admirals Clubs, but also the US Airways Clubs on March 22, 2014.

Drastically affects value of American Express Platinum Card

This is a pretty big blow to the value of the Platinum Card.  I just became Executive Platinum on American and planned to keep my American Express Platinum solely for lounge access at American Airlines clubs (and US Airways clubs that stick around).

In lieu of lounge access, American Express is offering anywhere from $200 to $500 in statement credits on American Airlines and/or US Airways from March 22, 2014 until the end of the year (in addition to the usual $200 airline fee credit).  My e-mail offered me $200:

I got my American Express Platinum card during the 100,000-point bonus early in January 2013, so my $450 fee is due around the middle of January 2014.  American Express pro-rates annual fees, so I’m guessing I would have to pay 3 months of fee in order to make it to the time period where I could purchase $200 in American Airlines gift cards.  Three months of the fee is about $113, which makes sense to pay if I get the $200 credits instantly.  From there, I’ll have to decide what to do about the American Express Platinum card and about lounge access.

The card still gets access to Delta Sky Clubs but I’m trying to slowly wean myself off Delta.  In addition, you’d still get Priority Pass Select membership which currently has US Airways Club access, though I wouldn’t be surprised if US Airways excludes Priority Pass Select members from free access just as the new United Clubs have.

The only reason to keep the American Express Platinum card would be for Centurion Lounge access, which is currently in Las Vegas and Dallas/Fort Worth airports, with locations coming to San Francisco and New York-LaGuardia.  Unfortunately, none of these are airports where I transit on most trips (weird, with 40,000 American Airlines domestic flight miles in the past 3 months, I transited DFW just once).

I just can’t justify paying a net $250/year ($450 fee minus the usual $200 airline fee credit) for SkyClub access when flying Delta and maybe transiting through airports with Centurion Lounges.

Affects Value of Citi Executive AAdvantage Mastercard

Even though I’ve started flying American Airlines, I never considered getting the Citi Executive AAdvantage Mastercard because of its $450 fee, most of it going toward Admirals Club access which I had with the American Express Platinum Card.  However, this would be the only credit card to have Admirals Club access come spring 2014.

The regular affiliate channels currently have a 30,000-mile bonus, but there is a public 60,000-mile bonus for spending $5,000 in 3 months. This 60,000-mile bonus sure takes the sting out of a $450 fee that is not waived for the first year.

The card also comes with the opportunity to spend $40,000 in a calendar year to get 10,000 Elite Qualifying Miles.  While stingier than Delta and US Airways’ spending threshold for elite miles, it’s still worth considering if I have the card.  Spending the $40,000 on a 2% cash back card like the Barclay Arrival would net $800-$880 in cash back, which could then be used for an extra trip somewhere that earns Elite Qualifying Miles (as well as Redeemable Miles).  Spending $40,000 on the Citi would net you 40,000 redeemable miles + 10,000 elite miles.

One drawback of the Citi Executive Mastercard is that it doesn’t include my favorite benefit of the regular Citi AAdvantage cards — the 10% return on miles redeemed (up to 10,000 miles back per year).  That means you’d have to carry both cards to be able to get all the benefits.

On the other hand, the Barclay US Airways Mastercard adds 10,000 Preferred Qualifying Miles to your account when you hit $25,000 in spending in a calendar year (the terms explicitly state that these elite miles are not redeemable miles).  This is a much more agreeable threshold to me, and US Airways elite miles will likely combine with American Airlines elite miles at the end of 2014 …. which reminds me, I need to get this card again before it goes away.

Consider Buying Admirals Club Membership

Buying an Admirals Club membership starts at $450/year for general members, $425/year for AAdvantage Gold, $400/year for AAdvantage Platinum, and $350/year for Executive Platinums.  There is a $50 initiation fee the first year, so the first year would cost anywhere from $400-$500. There are mileage payment options, but they are generally horrible (much lower than 1 cent per mile value).

One downside to the Citi Executive AAdvantage card is that you cannot add authorized users who in turn get Admirals Club privileges.  Before I had my own American Express Platinum, I was the authorized user on one that still got me lounge access.  It cost an additional $175 for 3 additional users, but it was worth it in my opinion.

However, if you’re an Executive Platinum who also wants your spouse to also have access when they’re not with you, it would be an additional $175 on the membership as well.

I’m curious to see when US Airways Club members will get reciprocal lounge access at Admirals Clubs, because US Airways charges less for their club memberships for certain status levels.

These prices don’t include the $50 initiation fee.  An Executive Platinum has to pay $400 for a new membership, while a US Chairman pays $375.  However, the savings are washed away if you want to add a spouse.  General members pay the same amount initially, but adding a spouse is cheaper on US Airways.

In general, I’m steering away from this option to buy Admirals Club membership, but that may change in the future.

Move to Canada?

I say this tongue heavily in cheek, just because many frequent flyer devaluations have spurred “mass relocation to Canada” (like the Premier/Medallion Qualifying Dollar exemptions for non-US residents).

Many American Express Platinum cards abroad, including those in Canada and the UK, offer Cathay Pacific’s Marco Polo Gold membership.  This is OneWorld Sapphire and would get you access to Admirals Clubs on domestic US itineraries.  Unfortunately, the benefit is only for primary cardholders, so I can’t ask a random Canadian to add me as an authorized user.

As for getting a foreign OneWorld Sapphire membership, it’s tougher than “lifetime” Star Gold with Aegean.  You’d likely save money by just buying a club membership than mileage running for miles on OneWorld partners to get lounge access.

In short … a big loss.

The value of the American Express Platinum Card will be drastically reduced come March 22nd, and the alternative options just don’t seem that enticing to me.  The $200 statement credit ($500 for some) may be a quick stop-gap measure, but the card surely isn’t worth $450/year if lounge access capabilities are severely reduced.  That said, I have some faith in American Express that they will figure something out to make up for this loss.

The post American Express Ending Lounge Access with AA/US appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• Uh, I don't see the loss. They will open more centurion ... by Andrew yvR
• I think most members will be notified on their next statement. ... by Amol
• By: American Express Platinum perde benefícios | Área de Embarque by American Express Platinum perde benefícios | Área de Embarque
• Except the new SFO lounge is in T3, not T2. by Scottrick
• Any idea why all Platinum cardholders wouldn't at least get ... by Heather L. Cannady
• the writing has always been on the wall. Chase will get UA ... by jackline

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Did you win two Global Premier Upgrades for use on United Airlines? What about some other cool prizes, like a free night at a Hyatt Place, or some drink chits?

Here are the winners of the 2013 Hack My Holiday giveaway. I will be contacting the winners and may rearrange the prizes if some people aren’t able to take advantage of them.

• Julie — Two United Global Premier Upgrades
• Vinicius — One United Regional Premier Upgrade
• Matthew — Four United drink coupons
• Christopher — One free night at a Hyatt Place
• York — Air Canada Boeing 787 scale model
• John — Old and new United GlobalFirst amenity kits

Amarillo has some pretty elaborate Christmas decorations.

The post Hack My Holiday Winners Announced… appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• Not you, no. There were others… by Scottrick
• I'm sorry if you took my comment as complaining – it wasn't ... by Jane
• Merry Christmas! I hope I am the Julie that won! by Jgg630
• Happy Holidays, Scott! I hate it when people complain about ... by Candace P
• I think you forgot to name me as a “winner” by Jane

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Megan and I took a two-week tour of Southeast Asia during our honeymoon in August/September of this year. Here’s the Trip Report Index:

• Booking the Honeymoon
• Asiana Airlines Business Class (SEA-ICN, HKG-ICN, and ICN-SEA)
• Seoul-Incheon Airport and Singapore Airlines Business Class (ICN-SIN)
• Singapore Zoo
• Singapore Airlines Business Class (SIN-DPS)
• St. Regis Bali
• Thai Airways Business Class (DPS-BKK, BKK-HKT, and HKT-HKG)
• St. Regis Bangkok
• Westin Siray Bay Phuket
• Conrad Hong Kong

When we booked this trip, we wondered if we should head straight to Bali or take the opportunity to do a long layover. After all, one of the benefits of international travel is that a layover counts as anything less than 24 hours, while you’re only allowed 4 hours on domestic layovers. Some people like Wandering Aramean have visited several cities on the same award ticket just by keeping each stop under that time limit.

On our previous trip to Singapore, we spent my birthday at the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. That was one of the highlights of our trip because we got so close to the animals, and there were view visible barriers between us. (Probably no surprise for someone trained as a biologist.) It seemed like a shame to miss a chance to see the daytime zoo the next time we passed through the city.

After arriving around 5 AM, we spent two to three hours in the SilverKris lounge taking showers, eating breakfast, and generally fiddling with the computer to figure out why it was not booting up. I was pretty sure it was a goner but really did not want to go without a connection for the next two weeks. I’ll give Megan credit, she hid her glee quite well. Eventually we passed through customs around 8 AM and hailed a taxi to the zoo, leaving our carryon bags airside at the checked luggage desk for a very reasonable cost.

I love the taxi drivers in Singapore. There’s no bull, no haggling, and they all speak English. Usually they speak it quite well, in fact, and rather than grumbling about the weather or some nonsense they want to discuss global politics and economic policy. It’s as if The Economist decided to branch out of publishing, and it certainly made the rush hour traffic pass by more quickly. Singapore isn’t that big, so we were soon at our destination, and I left the driver a nice tip as an apology for the lack of return customers so early in the morning.

While I think the Night Safari deserves a lot of credit for being so different (how many zoos do you know that open at night, when the animals are most active?) the day zoo did not disappoint. We headed straight for the tigers, which we saw pacing back and forth and climbing up and down from the river pool to their cliffside perch. It was pretty awesome, and there was no one to distract us so early in the morning. (I have a few videos, which I will try to piece together and post on YouTube eventually.)

We then passed on to see the gibbons and howler monkeys, which were made a fuss for over an hour as they were fed. We could still hear them over at the polar bear exhibit, which we were told was closed but apparently was still open for business as the school children pressed up to the glass before running away screaming when the polar bear swam up to greet them. This cycle repeated itself about every three minutes. Boy am I glad I’m not a chaperone.

I’m usually a fan of underwater animals as you don’t get to see much of that as a landlubber. Here’s a cool turtle, as well as a hippopotamus that clearly enjoyed his pool. Most hippo exhibits include a pool but not the Plexiglas window, so this was a treat.

It took all my effort to get Megan to join me in the aviary. She has a real issue with bats, and it didn’t help that the giant fruit bats were flying all over the place when we visited the Night Safari. This time they mostly stuck to the upper elevations, so they weren’t an issue. At least not for me. Megan didn’t even like being able to see them.

Personally, I think bats are awesome. Most animals are awesome. The only animal we didn’t see here was an ocelot. I dragged my friends from college to the San Diego Zoo to see an ocelot and was disappointed there, too. My life resembles Sterling Archer’s a tad too much. I love ocelots.

Lana! He remembers me!

The other cool thing about the zoo — and this is true about most of Asia — is that monkeys are everywhere. You just see them in the streets, on top of buildings, walking down the street… It’s not like in the U.S. where they MUST BE KEPT IN A CAGE because they will CLAW OUT YOUR EYES and possibly INFECT YOU WITH HORRIBLE DISEASES. At least this is how it felt when I was visiting American zoos or working at the National Institutes of Health. Seriously, I spent three months that summer worrying that every itch was the first sign of infection by simian immunodeficiency virus.

Nope, in Asia there are monkeys everywhere, and you can even get your picture taken with them if you wish! I didn’t, but there will be many amusing pictures of me getting involved in some monkey business coming up soon.

The post Honeymoon Trip Report: Singapore Zoo appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• Never ever go to zoos, animals should be free, not in jail by Jen
• Nice trip report, if I ever make it to Singapore I'll probably ... by Ben

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I’m on my last long-haul trip with United Airlines today, heading to Milan for the weekend. I originally booked the outbound from Seattle to San Francisco to Newark for roughly 1,000 extra miles over traveling to Newark non-stop (the full itinerary earns over 18,000 miles).

But I knew that first segment to San Francisco would be the worst: 678 miles on a CRJ with no first class cabin, a 5:50 AM departure, and an inter-terminal bus transfer upon arrival with less than an hour to make the connection. Adding to my disappointment, my upgrade from San Francisco to Newark did not clear, despite applying a Regional Premier Upgrade over two weeks before departure. It would be a long day in coach.

I had the option to perform a same-day change to the non-stop to Newark, which even had a first class seat available, but I stayed put. The detour through San Francisco was integral to earning the miles necessary for Premier 1K status for another year. Remember, I’m going to end the year with a margin of just 36 PQMs to spare.

Then things got interesting.

I hate that United operates regional jets on roughly 40% of its flights to San Francisco and all but one flight to Los Angeles. It’s one reason I’m leaving them for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines next year. These regional jets also tend to get overbooked. Several passengers on this morning’s flight where heading to Hawaii and had no other alternative routing. I put my name in for a VDB (voluntary denied boarding) even though the offer was for only a $150 travel certificate.

Fortunately gate agents have a lot of leeway in an oversold situation. Just because the offer at check-in was $150 does not mean I (or you) had to accept it. My discussion with the gate agent was:

• I don’t care about the travel certificate.
• I do want my PQMs in order to requalify for elite status.
• If you put me on the direct flight to Newark, I will miss my status goal.

I said I would make the change only if he could re-book me in full Y or F to ensure I could earn the 150% full-fare bonus PQMs. He could only do Y, but as a result I also moved to the front of the upgrade queue and cleared into seat 2A. I’m not sure yet if my RPU was taken from me, but I think I have a case for getting it returned. A comment was also included in my passenger record indicating the importance of receiving the fare bonus — sometimes an upgrade will clear but the passenger only receives credit for the original fare purchased regardless of what the boarding pass says.

A first class seat, a shorter trip, and still all the miles I need? I think that’s worth giving up a $150 travel voucher. The only downside is I’ll now clear Premier 1K status with over 600 miles to spare; I was kind of excited about a narrow victory.

Something else exciting happened when I boarded: The pilot came out and addressed the cabin, thanking us for flying United. With 350,000 butt-in-seat miles on United, I have never seen this happen before. Maybe twice there was an announcement on the PA beyond the usual departure info. Is it part of a broader strategy to improve customer interactions with employees? Maybe. The pilot will get a complimentary letter to 1K Voice, but unfortunately United has made its move too late to change my mind about seeking friendly skies elsewhere.

The post Upgrade Shenanigans (of My Own Design) appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• The flight I ended up on was a 757 from Seattle to Newark. The ... by Scottrick
• I would agree with Matt. Upgraded fares tend to reflect the Z ... by Scottrick
• If you flew on an RJ, wouldn't it be a Skywest captain that was ... by Akrach
• i have not found this to be the case. Recently I was rebooked ... by Matt
• I had a UA pilot LAX-JFK in October come and individually shake ... by Matt
• Well played Scott, nothing ventured nothing gained I say. But ... by Aptraveler

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Megan and I took a two-week tour of Southeast Asia during our honeymoon in August/September of this year. Here’s the Trip Report Index:

• Booking the Honeymoon
• Asiana Airlines Business Class (SEA-ICN, HKG-ICN, and ICN-SEA)
• Seoul-Incheon Airport and Singapore Airlines Business Class (ICN-SIN)
• Singapore Zoo
• Singapore Airlines Business Class (SIN-DPS)
• St. Regis Bali
• Thai Airways Business Class (DPS-BKK, BKK-HKT, and HKT-HKG)
• St. Regis Bangkok
• Westin Siray Bay Phuket
• Conrad Hong Kong

Unlike my other reviews in this trip report series, I am not lumping together our Singapore Airlines flights because they were operated on different aircraft types. The service was also markedly better on our flight to Denpasar despite the older plane, and I think it is worth providing that perspective when some readers might be considering other options.

Singapore to Denpasar is a relatively short flight, and the older Boeing 777-200 aircraft has cloth upholstered seats in a 2-3-2 configuration that do not recline to a lie-flat position (at any angle). It’s a two-cabin plan, and they are comparable to most domestic first class seats in the U.S, right down to the underseat storage. I wouldn’t worry about it too much given the short travel time. Even the 2-3-2 configuration was not an issue as several seats in the forward cabin were empty.

Just for comparison, here’s the better business class seat on Singapore’s Boeing 777-300ER for our previous flight from Seoul.

Megan and I still enjoyed the flight very much. I would compare it to a flight from the continental U.S. to Hawaii, right down to the giant TV screen I remember from my youth. (It was relatively useless since all it did was show the flight map.) The crew and passengers know they’re heading to a special destination, so even if there’s nothing explicitly stated about better service, you’re often in for a good experience.

Also keep in mind that you are flying Singapore Airlines and departing from Singapore. I love the city and the airport. It’s not hard to take a day trip during your connection, as we did to the Singapore Zoo, and the lounges are superb. Your experience will necessarily be different if you connect elsewhere. I would not want to route through Bangkok, for example, unless I had several days to visit.

We were welcomed on board by the lead flight attendant, who looked after us for most of our trip. Megan enjoyed a glass of Bollinger Champagne, while I opted for a 2009 Bordeaux from Chateau Loudenne. There was and would continue to be plenty of Champagne on this trip, and I wasn’t in the mood.

Instead of the “Book the Cook” option, which I never even looked into, we selected our meals from the menu. Megan had the roasted chicken breast and I the wok fried beef. Both were good, though perhaps a little heavy. That turned out to be a good thing because at this point our flight attendant decided to play master sommelier.

“Why, Dr. Mackenzie, why won’t you try some of your wife’s Bollinger? It’s 007’s favorite! You must have some.” And he would disappear for a moment before returning with a second glass.

Megan decided to switch from Champagne to the shiraz. “Dr. Mackenzie, you must try this shiraz and compare it to the Bordeaux. It’s simply excellent.”

Soon it was dessert time. “Would you care for any port, Dr. Mackenzie? You can’t end your meal without it.”

While all of it was, in fact, delicious, I now had four glasses arranged around me. I commented that he should open a tasting room, and our flight attendant kneeled down to eye-level and got very serious.

“The bottles are already open, and if you do not drink them, then they go to me. And I, unfortunately, am Asian and do not have the same enzyme levels that you do to enjoy and process so much alcohol. It is up to you to enjoy everything! As much as possible!”

Well, I guess we couldn’t argue with that. In my review of Asiana I mentioned that international business class is often a danger zone for wine in my experience. I should carve out an exception for Singapore Airlines. They do an excellent job, even if there is still a noticeable difference between business and first class. Cocktails are still iffy. Here’s the complete wine list if you’re interested:

• Bollinger Special Cuvee (60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, and 15% Pinot Meunier)
• 2010 Weinhaus Ress Rheingau Reisling, Germany
• 2009 Clos du Val Chardonnay, Carneros, California
• 2009 Chateau Loudenne Medoc Cru Bourgeois, Bordeaux, France
• 2010 St. Hallett Faith Shiraz, Barossa, Australia
• 2006 Dow’s Late Bottled Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal

We arrived in Denpasar fairly drunk and were glad that the St. Regis Bali arranges complimentary ground transportation and airport assistance. A porter was waiting for us at baggage claim, and while we watched for our luggage, I handed him our passports and USD $30 each to process our visas-on-arrival. (Make sure you bring US currency, in cash, when visiting Bali.) He returned quickly, grabbed our bags, and was soon walking us past all the long lines to our waiting car.

Clearly the porters have some special privileges at this airport since there seemed to be more than one line. We didn’t even go through customs and immigration — at least, our passports might have but we did not.

Our porter handed us off to the chauffer, who had cool towels, bottled water, and a box of truffles waiting at our seats. And that was just the start to our stay at one of the most amazing hotels we’ve ever visited.

The post Honeymoon Trip Report: Singapore Airlines Business Class (SIN-DPS) appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• I might get in trouble for that picture. Megan and I were both ... by Scottrick
• Awwe..She's as geeky as you! Cute! by Barry
• This beats our honeymoon flight from SIN to DPS. Our AirAsia ... by modhop

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Alaska Airlines is expanding the number of partner airlines that earn elite qualifying miles toward status with Mileage Plan. The difference between redeemable (award) miles and elite qualifying miles is that only EQMs earn status, and only award miles can be used for booking tickets.

In the past, only select partners like American and Delta earned EQMs as well as award miles when credited to Alaska’s Mileage Plan. A few international carriers such as Emirates and AeroMexico also credited toward elite status. Others such as British Airways did not. These remaining carriers will begin crediting to elite status with Mileage Plan for travel on or after January 15, 2014. All partners will now earn credit toward elite status and reduce confusion that may have existed in the past.

Existing carriers earning Award and Elite-Qualifying Miles:

• American Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• AeroMexico
• Air France
• LAN
• KLM
• Emirates

Carriers earning Award and Elite-Qualifying Miles beginning January 15:

• British Airways
• Korean Air
• Cathay Pacific
• Qantas
• Fiji Airways

I’ve written before why I think most travelers should consider Alaska’s Mileage Plan as their loyalty program of choice. Not necessarily the most frequent travelers, but certain most travelers, from the twice-a-month business traveler to Ma and Pa who only fly twice a year.

• Mileage Plan offers several key benefits that you won’t find at most other carriers:
• The ability to cancel a ticket 60 days in advance and retain the credit for a future trip (coming early 2014)
• For MVP Gold members, the ability to cancel a ticket up to day of departure (already a benefit)
• Lower status requirements, such as only 40,000 EQMs for MVP Gold if you limit your travel to Alaska Airlines
• The option to earn and redeem miles with an eclectic mix of partners, including American, Delta, British Airways, and Emirates

In fact, it’s that last point that has lead me to recommend Mileage Plan even to people who never fly on Alaska Airlines. If you live in the Southeast, for example. you might book travel on a mix of American Airlines and Delta but never have enough miles on a single carrier to earn elite status. Credit your trips on both carriers to Alaska Airlines, however, and you might earn MVP or MVP Gold. You will probably never get an upgrade on Delta (and it’s not an option on American), but the checked baggage benefits and bonus miles are better than nothing.

You do need to earn a few extra miles when you credit miles from partner carriers (25,000 with partners for MVP vs. 20,000 for travel on Alaska only), but the option to include flights with more than one airline is a big help. And now you have even more help to draw upon when trying to reach the next level in Mileage Plan.

The post Alaska Improves Already Great Loyalty Program appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• Correct, there are no lounge benefits on partner airlines, even ... by Scottrick
• Are Alaska Elites allowed to use E.g. Oneworld alliance lounges ... by Terence
• I'm not sure I understand the question. by Scottrick
• I see. So what about lounge access on new elite qualifying mile ... by Terence
• As a loyalty program for the majority of people who find it ... by Scottrick
• So Alaska Airlines is better if you're mainly flying ... by Terence

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Delta Medallion members should be interested in changes to the 2014 SkyMiles Medallion program announced today. I think it’s an actual net positive change to the program, although it may be a net negative for some people.

Here are the biggest changes:

Diamond/Platinum upgrade certificates eligible on most (almost all) fares

Delta has decided to United-ify their program to nix Systemwide Upgrades and instead have Global Upgrades and Regional Upgrades.

The former Systemwide Upgrades were useful only on Y/B/M fares internationally, which are pretty cost-prohibitive. Domestically, they were good on Y/B/M/H/Q/K fares, but when Delta introduced low-tier X/V/E fares for economy class, it silently increased the cost of K+ fares.

Platinums could get up to 4 SWUs per year and Diamonds could get 6 SWUs as one of their benefits, so while a Diamond could have 10 SWUs, they were useful only on some fares.

Instead, the new Global Upgrades and Regional Upgrades can be used on all classes except E fares.  While there is a restriction, I’ve found that E fares tend to be offered in markets where Delta needs to battle with Ultra Low Cost Carriers (like Spirit).  It’s worth noting that small restriction, but this is a HUGE POSITIVE CHANGE for Delta.

Diamond Medallion members get 2 choice benefits when they hit 125,000 Medallion Qualifying Members. Starting March 1, 2014, they can choose either 4 Global Upgrades or 8 Regional Upgrades as one of their Diamond choice benefits.

Platinum Medallion members get 1 choice benefit, and can choose 4 Regional Upgrades.  While Platinums lose out on international upgrades, it’s not as big of a loss considering the old fare requirements.

A Diamond Medallion can select 4 Regional Upgrades at 75,000 MQMs when they qualify for Platinum, and then 4 Global Upgrades at 125,000 MQMs.  While there is a reduction in the number of upgrade certificates, the loss of fare restriction makes up for this reduction.

On the other hand, mileage upgrades will face the same restrictions they do now in terms of fare class.

I achieved Platinum Medallion earlier this year but have kept away from choosing my Choice Benefit.  I have a while to select them, so I was ecstatic about the non-restricted Regional Upgrades available on March 1, until …

Loss of complimentary upgrades on JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA transcons and requirement of Diamond Global Upgrades

In my opinion, this is a net negative for members. Up until now, Delta has allowed complimentary upgrades for BusinessElite transcon flights, and it was possible for lower tier elites to be upgraded if they flew a very light load flight (like a Saturday night redeye).

What’s dumb in my opinion is that Delta will now require Global Upgrades and not Regional Upgrades for these domestic flights.  I know Delta thinks Westin bedding and flat-beds are soooooo amazing, but a 5-hour flight is not worth a Global Upgrade, especially when United allows Regional (Premier) Upgrades on their routes.  I sense a lot of people may try to route New York to the west coast via Detroit, Minneapolis, or Atlanta to keep upgrade possibilities alive.

Changes to Hawaii upgrade program

It used to require mileage or systemwide upgrades to upgrade flights between the mainland and Hawaii, even for elite members.  Beginning March 1, 2014, flights to Hawaii from Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City will be eligible for Complimentary Medallion Upgrades.

Atlanta to Honolulu, which is flown on an internationally configured aircraft, will require Global Upgrades, just like the transcon flights.

In addition, those without elite status actually see a devaluation, as Hawaii now requires Y/B/M fares to upgrade with miles.   Hawaii used to fall under the Y/B/M/H/Q/K group for mileage upgrades.

Considering what was required early, this is still a net positive change for elites, and a net negative for general members.

Additional Choice Benefit Options

Global Entry application vouchers will be added as choice benefits – 2 for Diamonds and 1 for Platinum Medallions.  These are worth $100 each, so while not necessarily a great deal, it’s still something that wasn’t offered before.

Diamond Medallions can also select 2 Tiffany & Co. premium luggage tags beginning in March as one of their benefits.  In case you don’t like the current cowbell metallic ones …

Shortened membership year

For this year, and in previous years, Delta’s membership year lasted through the end of February.  If you earned status in 2013, you would have that status immediately throughout 2014 and then through February 2015.

With Rollover Miles, this made it easy to keep an older status and use those 2 months to try to re-qualify for a higher status if possible.

Starting in 2016, the membership year will last only 1 extra month into the year, until the end of January.  When you achieve status in 2014, it’ll be good immediately throughout the end of 2015 and then only one extra month in 2016.  A net negative change, but one that matches other airlines.

Overall thoughts

I’m happy about the mostly-unrestricted upgrade certificates and think it’s a huge coup for Diamond and Platinum Medallions.

The loss of complimentary upgrades on transcontinental flights between JFK and LAX/SFO/SEA is understandable given the market, but I simply don’t understand the requirement of Global Upgrades rather than Regional Upgrades for that route.  Delta is quite arrogant about their transcon service, and I’m hoping that American’s upgraded planes in 2014, United’s allowance of Regional Upgrades on ps flights, and JetBlue Mint’s $600 advance purchase fares show them that there are other choices for consumers.

That said, Diamond Medallion is still attainable for people like me.  While United 1K will require $10,000 of spending on United tickets, Delta still allows an American Express spending waiver for the Diamond Medallion level (and Amex cards are generous in awarding MQMs through spending). You would need to earn 125,000 MQMs, but it’s still doable. You just have to deal with redeeming Skymiles.

Lastly, I think this is good news for people like me who are American Airlines Executive Platinums, who get 8 systemwide upgrades that can be used on any flight/any fare. The SWUs are a key thing that many of us are worried about losing in the merger with US Airways. This move by Delta might convince American not to devalue their systemwide upgrades.

The post Delta Medallion Program Updated with Mostly Positive Changes appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

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Megan and I took a two-week tour of Southeast Asia during our honeymoon in August/September of this year. Here’s the Trip Report Index:

• Booking the Honeymoon
• Asiana Airlines Business Class (SEA-ICN, HKG-ICN, and ICN-SEA)
• Seoul-Incheon Airport and Singapore Airlines Business Class (ICN-SIN)
• Singapore Zoo
• Singapore Airlines Business Class (SIN-DPS)
• St. Regis Bali – Part 1
• St. Regis Bali – Part 2
• Thai Airways Business Class (DPS-BKK, BKK-HKT, and HKT-HKG)
• St. Regis Bangkok
• Westin Siray Bay Phuket
• Conrad Hong Kong

What sets the St. Regis Bali apart from most resort hotels is that it that most of the property is devoted to several dozen villas. These are stand-alone buildings with their own pools, living rooms, and so on. I’ve seen beachfront resorts with no villas. Some have a couple, maybe 10 or 20 at most. But the villas at the St. Regis Bali are a defining feature. I almost forgot standard attached suites were available.

After a noise issue on our third night, the manager offer to move us to a Gardenia Villa with a private pool. All of the villas at the St. Regis Bali are stand-alone buildings and a significant upgrade from one of the standard suites or even our pool suite in the main building. That being said, they are expensive. Room rates looked to be in the $800-900 range per night during our stay and can go well over $1,000.

Upgrading from our pool suite award to a villa would have been at least $150 a night — one commentator on Monday said $200. I just didn’t think it was worth it to spend an additional $750 to $1,000 on top of the 130,000 Starpoints I already parted with. It’s not even a first world problem; it’s a 1%-er problem. Two people by themselves don’t really need a villa, though there is a certain advantage to having your own private pool surrounded by a wall.

Other Villas

I would more seriously consider a villa if I were traveling with my family. This would be the time to upgrade to one of the one- or two-bedroom Lagoon Villas, which do not have the private backyard but instead open up onto the resort’s enormous saltwater lagoon. It seemed like the perfect scenario: mom and dad can hang out at their own pool while the kids run around in the lagoon. You could even splurge on the rather expensive barbecue room service, in which a chef and your butler help you grill a surf-and-turf meal for about $100 per person.

Just a small part of the lagoon. I loved floating here at night and watching the stars beyond the trees.

One level further are the Strand Villas. These one- and two-level villas are located along the beach. Each has its own reserved beach chairs in front, unlike the mass of chairs nearer the pool for ordinary guests. But I think at this point you would be getting excessive. For that much isolation, just rent your own house. Oh, you can do that, too. The Strand Residence is available starting at $4,300 a night if you feel so inclined. (I’m not certain, but I think we saw Rupert Murdoch at breakfast on our last morning. Maybe billionaires don’t mind staying at a hotel with other guests.)

The Gardenia Villa

On with the review. Like the suite we were in before, the villa was remarkable for the great attention to detail that made it feel like a home away from home, not just another hotel room. An outer gate leads to a small entry path with fountains and vegetation before reaching the front door.

These villas have almost everything you would expect from a traditional home except for a much smaller kitchen. (There is a very small fridge, stove, and microwave off to the side near the guest bathroom.) A large round table in the foyer worked well whether to show off the daily fruit bowl or eat our room service. The living room had a couch and a couple of chairs surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the pool. I appreciated that the television disappeared into the entertainment stand since I like to keep them out of sight and out of mind when on vacation.

Due to the accommodating weather, the pool deck was perhaps even more pleasant than the living room. We had a table and chairs for dining, lounge chairs for sunbathing, a much larger and deeper pool, and a gazebo perched above it. There was even a shower next to the pool, though the hot water never seemed to work quite right. For all I know it wasn’t even connected, but it wasn’t cold, either.

Finally, our bedroom alone was nearly as large as the entire indoor space of our earlier suite. It had a vaulted ceiling with thatched roof and its own doors to the pool deck. Behind it was the bathroom, which had a much larger shower but was otherwise similar to the one before. I will say I preferred the bathroom in our pool suite much more. This is mostly because I enjoyed the wooden slats that opened to provide a view of the garden and plunge pool, opening up the space. The villa’s bathroom only has a glass window that looks at the concrete wall dividing villas, as well as a window over the bed’s headboard that can slide closed. Neither one lets in much natural light or any kind of view.

To summarize, my verdict on the villas is that they’re worthwhile, but only if you have cash to spare. You do not need one to enjoy the St. Regis Bali. If you do pick one, your choice will depend on the reason for your visit. Families should get a Lagoon Villa. Couples wanting some privacy should get a Gardenia Villa. People with more money than sense should get a Strand Villa, as they’re far from everything and just plain expensive.

Food and Drink

We really did not do much at the hotel besides eat breakfast, go to the beach, and eat dinner. My daily routine consisted of two cappuccinos, one lobster, and six pastries at breakfast, two Passiflora Mojitos and a hamburger at the beach, and a big plate of whatever unknown Balinese dish was on the menu for dinner. Everything was delicious. Food was a bit on the pricey side but not unreasonable if you compared it to Western standards. At least the fruit was free. My brother had a fascination with Chinese and Japanese grocery stores when were were growing up in the Bay Area, but Megan was introduced to several new species. Eat whatever you want because it gets replaced every day.

Probably the first of three helpings that morning.

Breakfast at Boneka was amazing. You can’t go wrong there. We did not try it for dinner but I understand it is another buffet. The King Cole Bar on the other side of the lobby was relatively empty indoors, and I felt bad for the jazz singer with no audience. But outdoors there was a pleasant view of the torches leading out to the beach. I’d go there every night to enjoy a cocktail and the tasty bar snacks.

The King Cole Bar is up and to the right. Boneka is outside the frame and to the left.

There was a torch-lighting ceremony each evening.

Downstairs is the Gourmand Deli, which seemed to have overpriced food and portions too hearty for lunch. It looked more like a fine French bistro than a deli. On the other hand, it had a very pleasant dining area surrounded by a pond and fountains. Megan and I went to visit its chocolate shop since the truffles we received upon arrival were so amazing. I recommend the hand-made ice cream bars covered in that same tasty chocolate and lots of nuts.

Megan asked why I love this awkward picture of her. Besides my wife, it has two other things I love: those cool fountains and the best ice cream bar ever!

If you go out to the grassy area near the pool suites, there are several outdoor event spaces, hammocks, and more. There is also an outdoor restaurant, Dulang, underneath some large canopies. This is where the St. Regis provided a more authentic Balinese dinner. We didn’t eat here but it’s a choice I regret since it was probably better than the dinner show at the Grand Hyatt up the road. (The show and buffet were fine; I’m just saying this was probably better.)

What’s better than a swing? A swing bed!

Out by the ocean, you can get drinks from the Vista Bar, which will also take orders and deliver simple sandwiches from the Gourmand Deli. The drinks were great and the food was okay, which is really all I want from beach food. Remember, I criticized the more elaborate lunches served at Gourmand Deli because they were excessive. There is no way you are going to build up enough of an appetite so soon after breakfast.

We had dinner on our last night at Kayaputi, the resort’s fine dining option with indoor and outdoor seating. You don’t need to dress up (don’t wear jeans…) but be prepared to pay more. Megan and I had the seven-course tasting menu, which was probably too much. We were not burning any calories lounging in the shade all day and probably would have been better off with a simple dish of fish and vegetables. If you order modestly, I think this hotel can still be an affordable option every night should you want to hear the ocean while you eat.

The daybeds outside Kayaputi.

Finally, don’t forget room service. We only ordered dinner one night, the day of our move becuase Megan was feeling ill. Apparently every red-eye flight gives her a cold. Remember I said the butler’s job is to deliver and set up such meals. We got linens, plates, a pot of tea, bread basket — everything you would need to make your room service meal feel just like you were dining at a restaurant. It was not at all like the more common experience of being hunched over your work desk because that’s the only table and chair in the room. I noticed some villas ordered room service for breakfast every morning.

Because it doesn’t really relate, I’ll cover Ubud tomorrow. You won’t want to miss this one. And then we’ll move on to the other destinations, which will require less thorough reviews.

The post Honeymoon Trip Report: St. Regis Bali, Part 2 appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• Sorry, forgot to comment on the amenity. I was only Gold at the ... by Scottrick
• Expect to pay American prices. I don't remember exactly, but I ... by Scottrick
• Great review Scott. We are headed there in May. Will likely hit ... by George
• I honeymooned there too by Ari
• Correct. I didn't mean to imply that villas were rare at other ... by Scottrick
• Small comment for future trips and those planning future trips: ... by harvson3

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PointsHound is the online online travel agency I know that lets you earn frequent flyer miles with every hotel booking and offers a guarantee you’ll still earn hotel points and status at select properties. And now that program — called Double Up — is being expanded to include even more properties affiliated with Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, and others. Wyndham Hotels and Club Carlson have also been added to the list. If you haven’t tried it yet, you can sign up and book by the end of the year to get 1,000 bonus miles (I’ll get 1,000 miles, too, for referring you).

You see, most third party bookings are excluded from hotel loyalty programs since the hotel loses so much revenue through high commissions. PointsHound lets you book these rates, too, and uses a cut of the commissions to give you some frequent flyer miles. If you only book hotels occasionally and don’t care about elite status it may not matter. PointsHound has access to the same inventory as larger players like Orbitz and Expedia and offers a low-price guarantee on these rates.

But the Double Up program is more exclusive. These hotels offer inventory through a separate back-end system with a smaller commission. PointsHound makes less money — and promises you fewer miles — but at least the reservation is treated as one made directly with the hotel. You pay on arrival and in addition to the miles you also earn points and credit toward elite status. It’s actually better than booking with the hotel. (PointsHound is working on providing access to discounted rates like AAA. It’s not perfect, but I’ve been able to find some at Starwood hotels. These only appear in the Double Up category.)

PointsHound recently created a concierge service for its frequent customers. Their partner, CheckMate, will contact you on the day of arrival to confirm your hotel loyalty account information, room preference, and other details. CheckMate then contacts the hotel to ensure everything is in order. By using CheckMate’s strength in this area to better implement the Double Up program, which takes a lot of effort to make sure you get the hotel points and status you deserve, they have been able to ramp up hotel participation dramatically.

All PointsHound users who book Double-Up eligible rates will receive an email prior to check-in asking to confirm frequent guest program info and room preferences. Confirming info in this mail (via mobile for users \already in-transit) allows us to ensure proper credit is quickly applied to eligible stays.

As a reminder, Double-Up eligible rates are marked with a Double-Up icon on the search results page and searched using the Double-Up filter on the results page.

You can read my past reviews of PointsHound above and why I think they’re one of the most innovative new travel businesses of the past year. Sign-up with PointsHound and make your first booking by December 31 to get 1,000 additional bonus miles. I’ll also get 1,000 miles for referring you.

The post Double Up Program Expands, Plus Bigger Bonus from PointsHound appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

As I plan my move away from United Airlines’ MileageMinus program, I want to make clear that leaving United doesn’t necessarily mean I am moving anywhere. There is a difference between not finding value with United and thinking I will find more value with another airline.

I think it is worth considering that we may no longer be in a time when airline status can provide greater benefits than the cost to earn. As I replied to a reader yesterday, I haven’t “hacked” any fares at all this year. I’ve only been trying to take maximize the return I get from the loyalty program.

Airline status still offers value to those who will fly anyway. Are you a frequent business traveler, Monday through Thursday, every week? I hope you include your loyalty account number on your reservations. I won’t argue with that. But what about some of us with more discretionary travel needs?

Everyone Has a Price

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have put a price on your loyalty. I would argue that’s not loyalty at all. Not to say these businesses don’t have a right to focus on their most profitable customers, but it isn’t quite the same thing. Paraphrasing Rob Johnson in the comments yesterday, to argue that you’ve spent X dollars with a company and deserve an upgrade is not very different from a fee-for-service model. Just buy a first class ticket. Loyalty is the guy who’s flown the carrier every other week despite competing fares or schedules because he feels the airline takes care of him. But I digress… The future is coming and we need to learn to adapt.

Some commenters on FlyerTalk have mentioned the idea of “dollar runs.” The idea is some people will book the most expensive fare available while traveling the shortest distance because they may have 100,000 elite qualifying miles but not anywhere close to $10,000 elite qualifying dollars. Wandering Aramean and others called this idea foolish, but I’m not so sure. Certainly it will not be common, but I imagine more than a few people will have ordinary business travel that takes them near Premier 1K (and beyond the opportunity for a credit card waiver).

And these airlines are not the only ones. JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, and Virgin America all operate fixed-value loyalty programs. Credits are earned based on spend, which means their elite status tiers also have a price. Southwest even has its own credit-card waiver program! Like United giving you the option to waive the PQD requirement if you spend $25,000 per year, Southwest lets you earn tier credits through spend on your Rapid Rewards credit card.

US Airways provides the option to outright buy elite status (for much less), but I don’t see this lasting much longer after the merger. Then again, who knows what the new American might do? We only have vague promises that the merged carrier will adopt AA’s service levels.

Benefits Can Be Purchased

I think most discretionary travelers will find they are better off paying for the a la cart upgrades or first class tickets on the longer routes where it matters rather than investing the extra time and money in mileage runs to earn elite status. Most of the time I don’t really care about an upgrade, like when flying two hours to San Francisco. I just care about flying in a real jet, not a piddly CR7. I don’t get upgraded on CR7s even as a Premier 1K. So it probably makes more sense to buy a cheaper ticket from Alaska Airlines and have my pick of San Francisco or Oakland with a better schedule and a better plane than United’s relatively dismal service on this route.

More and more it is becoming possible to simply buy the benefits you need. Extra legroom, early boarding, priority check-in, and checked baggage? Those can all be purchased or received as benefits of co-branded credit cards. About the only value still provided by elite status are in the form of:

• Bonus miles
• Better customer service
• Complimentary upgrades

Argument Against Bonus Miles

Miles can be outright purchased. Not just through the airline but through many other avenues, as well. Manufactured spending creates plenty of opportunity to buy miles more cheaply and in greater quantities than ever before. Is it worth paying an extra $1,000 (either for more expensive options on a preferred carrier or unnecessary mileage runs) just to earn a 100% bonus?

Vanilla Reloads can be used to “purchase” miles of just about any sort at a maximum price of 0.79 cents each. You could get over 125,000 miles for $1,000, more than any 100% bonus would provide. There are many other methods that are cheaper or even free — though they aren’t always as easy to implement and scale.

Customer Service Can Be Purchased

I don’t want to get bogged down with differences between individual carriers. I think United has made it harder and harder for their elite members at all levels to receive some premium level of service. Other airlines may be better, but it’s always easy to image the grass is greener.

Here’s my question: In what form does your improved customer service arrive? Remember, priority boarding and so on can be purchased separately, and I’ll get to upgrades in a bit. Remaining are things like a free drink in economy class, faster access to telephone agents, and priority consideration for standby or flight changes.

Some of these benefits are minor (drinks), some are diluted (United no longer guarantees Premier 1Ks can speak to a Premier 1K agent), and some can be purchased in another form (special consideration for premium fares). You will probably get better service as a paid first class passenger than as a elite member who was provided an upgrade. It could take longer to reach an agent, yes, but I suggest paying $50 to get into the lounge and speaking to an agent there, where the lines are shorter.

Status: Pending

What do you think? I haven’t really made a decision on this matter, but there are more reasons than ever to think that elite status with an airline isn’t worth the effort unless you’ll need to travel anyway. I originally planned to compare the merits of Alaska Airlines and American Airlines, but given recent changes to Delta’s upgrade system and an expansion of their route network in the Seattle area, I think they deserve some attention, too. I’ll have a post on each carrier next week. For now, Alaska is winning — but only because I think I might rely on award tickets for international travel.

In the meantime, tomorrow I will extend this discussion with some ideas for why I think status with a hotel loyalty program continues to be a good idea.

The post Is It Time to Abandon Airline Elite Status? appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

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Now that wedding expenses are behind me, I’m finally free to get back into the credit card game. Several card issuers have announced bigger sign-up bonuses for cards I had considered getting. Great timing! But some of these are also expiring soon. Here are a few of the better offers I’m considering along with my rationale for applying.

Alaska Airlines – 50,000 Miles

The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® from Bank of America normally has a sign-up bonus of just 25,000 miles and occasionally goes up to 40,000, so the new offer of 50,000 miles is quite impressive. Cardholders get 25,000 miles up front and another 25,000 miles after spending just $1,000 in the first 90 days. The annual fee is $75. (HT to Canadian Kilometers)

This card’s main benefit is an annual $118 companion fare (including taxes) for travel in coach. It’s a bit of a downgrade from the previous benefit that was also available in first class, but it is still something I’ve used regularly. Alaska makes it easy to use the miles, too, with two classes of saver awards that in my experience offer more availability than other carriers. You can also use them to book on carriers like Emirates, which isn’t a member of any airline alliance. Note the terms on this particular offer are more restrictive. You may end up with a lower offer.

*Bonus Mile Offer: This one-time promotion is limited to new customers opening an account in response to this offer and is valid for a limited time by invitation only. This offer is not valid for customers that have applied for this product in the last 12 months.

Lufthansa Miles & More – 50,000 Miles

The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® is normally has a sign-up bonus of just 20,000 miles but is currently offering a whopping 50,000 miles after spending $5,000 in the first 90 days. But even though this is a European carrier, the miles can be quite valuable to Americans. Once United devalues its award chart, Miles & More will require fewer miles to book first class awards on Lufthansa while also offering better availability since partners like United typically have access to fewer seats. Awards in business class to Europe are cheaper, too, with a special discount on economy class tickets for U.S. residents.

Want to go to Hawaii or take United’s p.s. service from coast-to-coast? United codes these “first class” seats as business class on a two-cabin plane for the sake of award inventory. That means you pay Lufthansa’s cheaper business class award price with access to the same saver level award availability that United offers its own customers.

Note: This limited-time offer is set to expire on Sunday, December 15. The annual fee is not waived.

Gold Delta SkyMiles Amex – 100,000 Miles

After announcing its big expansion in the Seattle market, Delta decided to go one further and try to get us all to apply for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express®. Sign-up offers tend to be around 35,000 to 50,000 miles. Unless you live in Seattle and apply by December 31. Area residents can see if they’ve been targeted, like me, for a special 100,000-mile offer.

You need to spend a total of $4,000 in six months (the first $1,000 within three months), which isn’t bad. But while that $1,000 in spend can be with anyone to get the first 50,000 miles, you need to spend $4,000 with Delta to get the extra 50,000 miles. American Express is pretty good about offering long qualification periods, and the annual fee is waived the first year. I wouldn’t normally be excited about SkyMiles, which Gary Leff rightly calls “SkyPesos,” but there is a lot you can do with 100,000 of them. I do not expect to see such an offer come around again soon. If you don’t live in Seattle, you might try updating your address in your SkyMiles account profile before checking your eligibility.

British Airways Visa Signature — 100,000 Miles

This super-sized offer from the British Airways Visa Signature® comes around about twice a year, and like the Miles & More card, I don’t want Americans to overlook the hidden value of a foreign loyalty program. British Airways’ Avios points can be redeemed for award travel on partners like Alaska Airlines and American Airlines. If you do so for domestic travel, there are no fuel surcharges unlike British Airways’ own international flights. And because Avios uses a distance-based award chart, many awards are much cheaper than if booked through Alaska or American.

Consider a short flight of 650 miles or less. These cost only 4,500 points one-way. I could visit my parents in Santa Rosa, CA, at this price or go slightly further to San Francisco or Los Angeles for only 7,500 points one-way. Readers on the East Coast have many more short flights available to them out of American Airlines’ hubs in New York and Miami. Avios is also the cheapest way to get to Hawaii if you live on the West Coast. You can book any of Alaska’s many routes to Hawaii for only 25,000 points round-trip. That means a single credit card offer can get you four award tickets to Hawaii! The biggest catch is that British Airways prices these awards by individual segment. Prices go up quickly if you make a connection, which is why I’ve focused here on examples of non-stop travel.

You earn the first 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 in 90 days (the annual fee is not waived). You’ll earn another 25,000 miles after spending $10,000 in the first year and another 25,000 miles after spending $20,000 in the first year. Take a screenshot of the offer page. I got some bull from Chase about only applying for a 50,000-mile offer. They never admitted their mistake but did send a letter offering to honor the terms and conditions I described. This offer expires on December 31.

Application Recap

Alaska Airlines Visa Signature®

Spend $1,000 in 3 months for 50,000 miles

The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard®

Spend $5,000 in 3 months for 50,000 miles

Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card

Spend $1,000 in 3 months for 50,000 miles and a total of $4,000 in 6 months to get a total of 100,000 miles

British Airways Visa Signature®

Spend $2,000 in 3 months for 50,000 miles and a total of $20,000 in 12 months to get a total of 100,000 miles

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed. This site may be compensated through some of the included links. Your support is appreciated.

The post Bigger Sign-Ups for Alaska, Lufthansa, Delta, and BA appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

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• They say they can't do anything until i get the card… What BS by shay peleg
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• That's the only number I'm aware of. I would type in something ... by Scottrick
• Anyone manage to get them to change that? by shay peleg
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I’ve been intrigued by Alaska Airlines stopover rules lately.  On the whole, their mileage program seems to be actually making enhancements, while the devaluations have been rather minor (like a price increase on standard level awards on Alaska metal).

One of the more recent enhancements has been the ability to book one-way awards on most partners (except Delta and Korean).  While this is something that’s pretty standard throughout award programs, Alaska also allows stopovers on international one-way awards.

Particularly intriguing is the Cathay Pacific award chart for flights to Africa, India, and the Middle East.  A one-way Cathay First Class ticket to Asia costs 70,000 Alaska miles.  But a one-way Cathay First ticket to Johannesburg, which allows a stopover in Hong Kong also costs 70,000 miles.  The only price difference is incremental airport taxes.

That’s a great value, but it’s not something that many people will use often.

What really caught my eye recently was that Alaska Airlines allows a stopover on domestic one-way awards on its own metal.  This isn’t anything new, but it’s still worth noting.

This policy is huge for people who live in cities along the west coast with ample Alaska Airlines service.  You could potentially combine multiple trips into a single one-way award. For example, let’s say you live in Seattle.  You have an upcoming trip to New York as well as a future one to Los Angeles.  Most programs would charge 12,500 miles for each trip, so you’d pay 25,000 miles total.

Even everyone’s favorite domestic flight program, British Airways Avios, would charge 12,500 Avios for New York/Newark to Seattle and 7,500 Avios for Seattle to Los Angeles.  You’d pay 20,000 Avios for those 2 flights.

But you could book the same Newark to Seattle flight with Alaska Airlines and make Seattle your stopover.  It just happens to be your hometown where you’ll live your life for a few months, then pick up your trip to Los Angeles in the future.  You’d pay only 12,500 miles + $5 in taxes.

It’s the same concept with awards to Hawaii.  Alaska Airlines actually flies to Hawaii from a bunch of seemingly random cities, like Sacramento, Oakland, and San Jose, in addition to Seattle, Portland, and San Diego.

An itinerary like Orlando to San Diego, stopover, then San Diego to Maui would cost 20,000 miles, the same as an Orlando to Maui or San Diego to Maui trip.  The same flights would cost 25,000 Avios (12,500 points for each leg).  A fantastic deal for anyone who lives near San Diego.

Consider the current 50,000-mile bonus on the Alaska Airlines Visa credit card. The spending requirement is $1,000, but if you spend $2500, you’ll have 52,500 miles.  That’s enough for 2 one-way awards to Hawaii (at 20,000 miles each) and 1 one-way domestic award (at 12,500 miles).

If you live in a city like Seattle, this would be good for a round-trip to Hawaii, a domestic round-trip, and 2 domestic one-ways. For example:

• Newark to Seattle (stopover at home) to Maui = 20,000 miles + $5
• Maui to Seattle (stopover at home) to San Francisco = 20,000 miles + $5
• San Francisco to Seattle (stopover at home) to Washington DC = 12,500 miles + $5

The green lines are round-trips while the red lines are one-ways.

This includes a one-way from Newark to Seattle, a round-trip between Seattle and Maui, a round-trip between Seattle and San Francisco, and a one-way from Seattle to Washington, DC. Without stopovers, that would cost 90,000 Alaska miles. By utilizing stopovers, it costs only 52,500 miles.  That’s a 42% savings in miles!  Even with Avios, it would cost 12,500 Avios x 2 for Seattle to Maui, 7,500 Avios x 2 for Seattle to San Francisco, and 12,500 Avios x 2 for Seattle to Newark/DC for a total of 65,000 Avios.

Of course, some people would rather spend the 65,000 Avios (especially since it’s fewer points with the frequent American Express transfer bonuses) and save the 52,500 Alaska miles for trips on Emirates or Cathay Pacific, but if domestic flying is more your style, this is something to consider.

The post Alaska Airlines Stopover Rule on Domestic Awards appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

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• What are the ticket change rules for Award Tickets? by miketown
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Even though airline status may no longer make sense for even the most frequent leisure traveler, I said on Wednesday I think there is still a case to be made for hotel status. Today I’ll expand on that argument.

Status Benefits Exceed the Perks of Award Stays

You could just book all your flights with miles, if they’re really so cheap to acquire. Book yourself into business or first class and get most of the benefits you might otherwise get through elite status. You also won’t have to worry about whether your upgrade will clear. You’ll get lounge access on the international flights, priority check-in, and a whole lot more.

Award redemptions match up with elite status very well, and the only major loss is the ability to change award tickets without a service fee. The value of a fee waiver depends on your booking habits, but some change a ticket a dozen times and others only once. It’s rare that your status benefits get much of a workout except to waive change fees. And paying such fees just might be worth it if by forgoing status you still save money overall.

However, when I book an award stay at a Hyatt hotel — or pretty much any hotel with which I have status — my elite benefits include a complimentary upgrade, bonus points or a welcome amenity at check-in, late check-out, and either breakfast or lounge access. Those perks are not included with just any award stay. Starwood, Hilton, and other hotels offer similar benefits to their members. In certain cases you can even get a complimentary suite upgrade on an award stay.

Hotel Benefits Are More Valuable

This is certainly a debatable point. I happen to think the benefits I’ve earned as a Hyatt Diamond, Starwood Platinum, and Hilton Gold are more valuable to me than some of the benefits I’ve received as a United Premier 1K. Other 1Ks may feel otherwise, and travelers at other tiers and at other airlines will have their own assessments. But here’s mine:

Access to a standard domestic hotel lounge is maybe $10. Often the food is not much better than a pastry and some coffee, saving me a Starbucks run. If I get a meal at a restaurant or an international lounge, then I’ll bump it up to $20.

Just last weekend I was staying at the Westin Palace in Milan, where my “continental breakfast” for two turned out to be a full buffet that retails for EUR 40 (about $55). It certainly wasn’t worth $55, but I would have paid $20. I’ve sometimes treated family or friends to breakfast using my Hyatt benefits and been able to avoid a bill even higher than the room rate!

I also regularly take advantage of early check-in and late check-out perks, even when the former isn’t officially promised. Such benefits might cost $40-100 at a resort hotel, and I do think they are worth the retail cost. Who wants to get kicked out of a hotel on Sunday morning when you don’t head home from your vacation until dinner?

Then we get to upgrades. I really value hotel upgrades. Not on every trip; I certainly don’t need a suite when I’m by myself. But when with family I like to have the extra space. The difference in retail cost between a standard room and a suite can be anywhere from $100 to $500 or more every night. My valuation probably ranges closer to $20 to $100 per night. But most importantly I get to spend more time in my suite, whereas an airline upgrade is rarely for more than a few hours.

Hotel Status Costs Less

So elite status gets you some extras, and those might be worth more at a hotel than when flying an airline. Are those extras worth the cost? Possibly.

When you take a weekend vacation, you could travel any distance but will probably always spend two nights in a hotel. Take one such trip a month, and you’re staying 24 nights in a hotel. That’s still 26 nights or 13 stays from the top tier. Well, you probably also take two longer trips of one week each. These might be international, so you fly more but stay 6 nights each. Now you have 36 nights and 14 stays, 72% of the way to your goal.

For all I know more than half of those were ineligible award tickets, particularly those international trips. Short flights, especially add up quickly in cost without contributing much to my elite status. But depending on the hotel chain you chose, your award stays still count toward elite status. If you decide to do some hotel hopping every night to count each night as a separate stay, you could already be done! If not, there are mattress runs.

Mattress Runs Are Easier, Sometimes Cheaper

Mommy Points indicated she was frustrated with mattress runs, but I think they are much more accommodating than mileage runs. She’s upset that she has to drive back and forth to check in, but I think this says more about where she chooses to live since in Seattle I can just walk down the street to six Hyatt and Starwood hotels to pick up an extra stay on my way home from work.

Rather than compare two people’s approach to mattress runs, let’s look at the time it takes to do a mileage run. I bet just getting to and from the airport takes the same amount of time for her as driving to the hotel, and it certainly takes me about two hours on either end. Then there’s all the time sitting on a plane and the likelihood I’m leaving earlier in the morning and getting back after midnight. Mattress runs, however, tend to involve only the travel time and not actually staying in the hotel. Within the U.S. you usually don’t even have to check out in person.

Mattress runs are also cheaper and easier to find. If you’re 40,000 miles short, that’s an extra $1,600 on mileage runs at a good 4 CPM that takes some searching. If you’re 14 nights short, that’s $1,400 or less at your local budget property, which is probably the same price throughout the year unless there’s a major event. I happen to live in a city where there aren’t many inexpensive candidates, but winter is more reliable and there are opportunities to check in to airport hotels during layovers. Sometimes I’ll even mattress run across the street when I’m staying at a competing brand.

Bonus Opportunities for Status and Points

Finally, hotels offer more generous bonus opportunities than airlines for earning elite status and extra points.

An airline awards miles only for your own tickets. Starwood awards credit for up to three rooms booked as part of the same reservation. Go back to the scenario where we ended up with only 36 nights for the year. What if you take the kids on one of those 6-night trips and book a second room? Now you have 42 nights. Heck, if you find a great mattress run you should book them three rooms at a time.

Book your stays at specific times to earn even more. Hotel promotions are pretty regular and often apply to most of the chain’s properties, yet you never know when an airline will offer a bonus or if it will be for a route or fare class that works for you. If you’re a Hyatt fan, figure out which hotels close their lounge on the weekends so you can get a bonus 2,500 points as an existing Diamond member. These are often popular with business travelers, so rates are often cheaper on weekends, too.

Finally, many hotel credit cards are generous in awarding elite status. This is not a good thing for the middle tiers since a card may award those benefits outright. But if you’re goal is the top tier, there are still options to earn stay and night credits toward elite status either just for having the card or for spending a certain amount. Such benefits are becoming more rare with airlines that have either eliminated the opportunity (United), impose a high annual fee (American), or otherwise offer mediocre benefits (US Airways).

Conclusion

There will always be those who say that hotel status doesn’t offer them value. Perhaps they prefer the flexibility of third-party programs like Hotels.com, unique independent properties, or just don’t want to be hamstrung by the limited number of some better brands (Hyatt is awesome, but there are only about 500 hotels). But the same criticisms could be levied against an airline. If flying in coach, they’re all pretty much the same. You’ll have to make a connection if you don’t live in a hub. And finding itineraries with your preferred carrier to visit more exotic destinations (Siem Reap, not Bangkok) isn’t necessarily any easier.

The basic message is that hotel status still offers meaningful benefits even though nearly all those benefits are things you can buy a la cart. But I think these are benefits you’ll enjoy more and would be more willing to pay for, unlike a free checked bag that you always carry on. I also like the consistent service and recognition I get as a hotel elite (Hyatt is my benchmark for customer service), and having status with two or more programs gives me a better chance I’ll find a property that fits my needs.

The post Why Hotel Elite Status Is Still a Good Deal appeared first on Hack My Trip.

        

Comments

• Another good one: Hyatt Regency Santa Clara can run $300+ on ... by Scottrick
• I didn't completely discount them. I'm presenting an argument ... by Scottrick
• I dont disagree with the fact that there are destinations where ... by jettyboy
• Gotcha. Thanks by geoff
• Agreed by clayd333
• That was kind of my point. Any loyalty program may or may not ... by Scottrick

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