American Airlines to offer one way mileage bookings

by Grant Martin on

Frequent flyer programs are infamous for adding restrictions to possible bookings. Everyone knows that the cheapest reward tier is almost never available when looking for tickets, that numerous fees and surcharges still apply after you redeem your “free” ticket and that miles just aren’t as useful as they once were.

That’s why it’s so befuddling to see one of American Airlines‘ new mileage booking benefits. The nation’s second largest carrier just announced that frequent flyers can now use miles to book one way tickets. No, this doesn’t mean “cash and miles” where you have to pay for 1/2 of your round trip ticket. Now you can simply use 12.5k miles to book a one way ticket and be done with your itinerary.

Why hasn’t this been done before? Airlines are notoriously stingy with miles, and any excuse that they can use to make you spend more miles and incur more fees is usually welcomed. Giving the passenger the flexibility to use miles or cash per leg is, well, unprecedented. And an excellent move by American Airlines, I must add. Hopefully more frequent flyers find their way to AA’s ranks because of this benefit — I know I’ll be taking advantage of it.

Alaska Airlines offers double miles for frequent flyers

by Grant Martin on

It’s never too late to jump on the bandwagon. Behind nearly every other carrier in the airline industry, Alaska Airlines recently announced that frequent flyers can now earn double elite miles on all non-promo fares.

This now means that you only need to earn 10K or 20K miles to achieve MVP or MVP Gold status respectively. Codeshare partners only need 12.5K or 25K. That’s a pretty fine deal.

Tickets must be booked after registration and flights must take place between this Wednesday, the 6th of May and June 30th. Still, that gives you almost two months to (re)qualify for status. Sneak a couple of mileage runs in over Memorial Day weekend and you’ll be rolling in the perks in no time.

Sign up at Alaska Airlines promotion page here and get your flying pants on.

American Airlines passengers: Get double elite miles

by Grant Martin on

Now that the economy is low and demand is tapering off, airlines are doing whatever they can to encourage passengers to return to flying the friendly skies. Sure, oil has come down from it’s all time high of $5000/barrel, but without passengers to fill airplanes, some equipment has to be shelved, and that’s never good for profit.

What to do? Incentivize. A deluge of fare sales including dirt cheap tickets to Barcelona, Tokyo and Moscow have all hit the charts this past week, and the few of us with the travel bug have been booking tickets like madmen.

Other promotions include American Airlines recent Double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) bonanza. You might remember that Elite miles/points, the nifty little jobbers that get you points towards Elite status are fairly hard to come by, and those that maintain status often have to do Mileage Runs to keep up their quota. But with this promotion, passengers can earn double elite points through June 15, effectively reducing the number of miles to earn Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum to 12.5, 25 and 50K respectively. Heck, I might even take a gander at that.

You can sign up for the DEQM promotion here using the code DBEQM. Check out American’s elite info here.

Earn your exit row seat, prove you can save lives

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I look at the exit row as relief. When you’re staring down a short hop from New York to Boston or a long trans-Atlantic haul, that extra space boosts everything from comfort to morale. Once upon a time, luck was enough to land you one of these treasured spaces, but the brutality of the market has made the exit row a spot for the elite, such as frequent fliers who, for some reason, weren’t able to get the upgrade to the big time. Or, they go to passengers willing to shell out a few extra dollars for several hours of privilege.

Of course, this seat comes with an obligation. You have to be ready to assist the cabin crew if all hell breaks loose. This concept used to be academic, but it only took a landing on the Hudson River to remind us just how serious this role can be.

So, could you pull the trigger? Do you have what it takes to perform under pressure?

Passengers are starting to pay more attention to the card in the seat pouch and the additional briefing from the flight attendants. Full disclosure – I was lucky enough to grab an exit row on my trip to Madrid last month, and I read the card twice. I did the same thing on the way home, thanks to the fatality-free crash at London’s City Airport.

But, that’s not enough to tell if I would have the strength and presence of mind to haul a 50 lb. door out of the way.

One extreme view is to put together a mockup of an emergency exit door and encourage people to test their skills before claiming the extra-legroom prize. I say, why stop there? If you can’t navigate an airport like O.J. Simpson, maybe you should take that middle row toward the back of the plane.

For everyone else, I propose “the gauntlet.”It would start with a sprint through the security gate – x-ray machines be damned! You have to get past several TSA workers, but they won’t be working too hard. This is your warm-up. Next, a diving roll past a Sbarro is in order, and you must pick up a slice with sausage and pepperoni along the way … but you can’t eat it until you’ve sprinted by three gates.

This is nothing, though.

After picking up and paying for a USA Today with exact change (don’t forget your receipt!), you’ll face the proposed emergency exit door mockup. Yank the hefty door out of the way, trigger a life raft and fill your life vest … at the same time. Then, show that you can put an oxygen mask on a screaming toddler while sipping (and enjoying) some airline coffee with your left hand.

If you can do all this, perhaps, you deserve your spot on the exit row. But, you still won’t earn the good wishes of the rest of us. Nothing bets having the extra legroom.

Your paltry Delta miles aren’t accepted here

by Grant Martin on

If Delta Skymiles could be equated to a currency, they would be Zimbabwean Dollars.

Over the past several months, numerous changes at the Atlanta based company have brought significant detriment to the joint Delta and Northwest frequent flyer program. These modifications range from an increase in mileage fee for economy tickets (tickets to Europe, for example, went from 50K to 60K miles,) application of fees for award bookings (up to $150,) and the reduction of benefits such as free miles redeposits and system wide upgrades.

There are plenty of small annoyances, but what all of these program changes boil down to is a change in the model in which award tickets are exchanged. Formerly, supply of award miles was lower, availability was higher and the top few passengers who earned numerous miles could spend them fairly easily.

Now, supply is higher, availability is lower and the masses all generally have access to a few scrappy seats. The very few extra that are booked are done so at excruciating costs. So as a result, the airline loses less money on award bookings and gives passengers the false sense of reward with useless miles.
No passenger is in a better perspective to observe the change than he who was a Northwest Worldperks member. Over the last six months, that customer watched his counterparts at Delta reap the benefits of numerous mileage bonus offers, virtually dumping miles into the pockets of passengers and severely diluting the mileage pool.

Meanwhile, program changes continue to cut Worldperks down to the level of Skymiles and defectors leave in droves. At a poll on the frequent flyer website Flyertalk, nearly 30% of passengers queried are leaving the conglomerate to join another airline program, another 20% are leaving at year’s end and 20% are too distraught to know what to do.

Out on the underground mileage exchanges, Delta/Northwest miles have lost their value. Most don’t even bother trying to trade, and one passenger trying to exchange Delta miles for an equal number of competitor miles was laughed at. The best offer so far? A few beverage certificates.

Other tales from the skies
Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot