Virgin Atlantic’s “big” announcement

by Jeremy Kressmann on

As Grant mentioned last week, Virgin Atlantic has been up to something. When they started sending all kinds of cryptic emails to their frequent fliers last week, our minds started to run wild. What could it be? In flight jacuzzis for upper class fliers?! New solid gold airplanes?! Personal in-seat LASERS?!

Last night, Gadling headed over to the Frank Gehry-designed IAC Building in Manhattan to find out. After all the suspense, it turns it was for the launch of a new Virgin credit card. Meh. If you’re looking to throw down enough money to wrack up one million miles you can redeem them for a trip on Virgin’s new space flights, Virgin Galactic. Think you can spend enough? Yeah, me neither.

While the announcement wasn’t as momentous as we had hoped, Virgin did manage to throw down a pretty swanky launch party, complete with free massages courtesy of Virgin’s spa partner Cowshed. You wouldn’t have to twist my arm to fly Virgin, the service is awesome. But only if somebody else was paying for my ticket – they are downright expensive. Hey Virgin, how about a ticket giveaway so we can let Gadling readers try for themselves?

And the Oscar for Best Frequent Flier Program goes to…

by Iva Skoch on

Actually, it’s not an Oscar. It’s a Freddie. Like the Oscars for motion pictures, the Freddies are the most-coveted award for frequent traveler programs.

Now celebrating its 20th year, the Freddies are the brain child of frequent flier guru, Randy Petersen, publisher of Inside Flyer and arguably the world’s most knowledgeable frequent traveler, USA Today reports. Petersen launched the awards to answer the question asked of him most often: “Hey Randy, who’s got the best frequent flier program?” Unfortunately, there is no patent answer to that question, according to Petersen. It’s different if you have 30,000 miles or 300,000 miles and if you live in Madison, Wis., or Dallas, he says. It also depends on what you intend to do with those miles. “Do you want to upgrade or go to Europe?” he asks.

The annual Freddies Awards ceremony took place in Phoenix last week. Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards took six of eight airline awards. Marriott Rewards took Program of the Year honors and dominated the hotel category with the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program, each earning 10 of the 25 hotel award. The Intercontinental Hotel Group Priority Club Rewards program also won four Freddies.

Why Freedie, you ask? The award was named for the late Sir Freddie Laker, (see photo) who pioneered discount travel across the Atlantic.

Why Is It So Hard To Use Frequent Flier Miles?

by Willy Volk on

Last year, I needed to fly to Alabama for a funeral. On the phone with the customer disservice representative, I learned I had two choices:
1.) I could fork over nearly $1000 for the round-trip (non-stop) flight.
2.) I could surrender roughly 70,000 frequent flier miles I had saved up.

Ultimately, I chose to give up the FF miles, because I was afraid Delta would confiscate them anyway during their restructuring.

Over on the Huffington Post, frustrated traveler Jason Bartholomew tells a ridiculous and shameful story (for the airlines) about trying to cash in some of his miles for a flight from JFK to Orlando. Ordering the tickets 7 months in advance, he’s told there are no frequent flier seats left for the legs he wants. Then, he’s told it’ll cost him 100,000 miles to make the flight work. Later, he learns that the airline wants to charge him to correct their error and change reservations he didn’t even make! His experience is at turns hilarious and irritating, but the screwball comedy of Kafka-esque proportions has a (somewhat) satisfying ending.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Jason, and take comfort in this: according to Consumer Affairs, the availability of seats for frequent fliers will increase throughout 2007. If you’re looking for some other tips about how to negotiate the messed-up world of frequent flier miles check out these tips:

Frequent Flyer Magazine

by Erik Olsen on

On a few occasions we’ve posted information about
frequent flier programs offering what we hope would be useful tidbits to help you navigate the oftentimes confusing
world of using and getting miles. One magazine we just came across that we urge you to take a look at is Frequent Flyer Magazine.

This month’s issue takes a look at the
Bush Administration’s proposal to double the security fee at airports and offers the first in a series of
articles that look at the 25 year history of these types of programs…something borne in the mind of one brilliant
marketing wizard and took on a life of its own. We’re a big fan of these programs. In fact, myself, I have three free
flights waiting for me on different programs ,and am just waiting for the right moment to use them…and hoping the
airlines don’t go bankrupt before I can use them!