"Up Front" Blog Entries

Following are some of Tim's recent blog posts:

• The Best Holiday Shopping Bonus Takes Off
  US Airways' new 250 percent bonus makes Christmas shopping more rewarding.
• From Delta: More Frequent Flyer Miles for Shopping
  New promotion adds 50 percent more miles for purchases at many SkyMiles partners, through January 15, 2010. Holiday shopping, anyone?
• New York Senator Wants Frequent Flyer Regulation
  Senator Chuck Schumer has asked the DOT to look into airlines' "deceptive business practices." Legislation regulating mileage programs could result.
• New From AmEx: Frequent Flyer Fees
  Pay your credit card bill late and American Express will withhold your points in the programs of Delta, JetBlue, Hilton, and Starwood. Miles can be reinstated for a $29 fee.

The FrequentFlier Forum - Hot Topics

As always, there's plenty of activity on the FrequentFlier Forum.

In the "Airline Programs" Forum, chirico asks as follows: "Hello, I am looking to find which credit card may be best to rack up miles to fly from the U.S. to Croatia." The ensuing discussion touches on the new British Airways card (with its 100,000-mile bonus), the Starwood card, and the Capital One card. Nobody said choosing a travel-rewards card would be easy!

And speaking of credit cards, in the "Credit Card Programs" Forum, the discussion of the new British Airways credit card continues, with jerrymandel wondering "Can the BA miles from that credit card be used for flights on AA on routes not served by BA? Examples: 1) Domestic AA flights 2) USA to Spain or South America or other routes."

Questions, answers, opinions? Post them to the Forum!

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Buy More AAdvantage Miles, Get More AAdvantage Miles

Through the end of December, AAdvantage members will receive an extra 2,000 miles for every 6,000 miles purchased, either for their own accounts or as gifts for others.

In addition, the normal limit of 40,000 miles purchased annually has been temporarily raised to 60,000 miles.

The predictable caveat: Unless purchased in very small quantities, or at highly discounted prices (see US Airways' current 2-for-1 offer), buying miles rarely makes financial sense.

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Earn Marriott Points for Cell Phones

Marriott Rewards members can earn 7,500 bonus points when purchasing or upgrading their cell phone and service plan at Wirefly.

Wirefly bills itself as "the Internet's #1 authorized retailer of cell phones and wireless plans." Be that as it may, the company does sell a wide range of phones and plans from all the major service providers.

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United Unveils Elite Choice Options for 2010

Elite Choice is a collection of awards for reaching various mileage and segment benchmarks, set between existing elite thresholds.

It's United's way of keeping Mileage Plus members engaged after they've reached an elite threshold but don't expect to earn enough miles to qualify for the next-higher elite tier.

So for example, Premier members as of February 1, 2010, who earned their status by flying 25,000 elite-qualifying miles (EQMs), will have a choice of 15 entries in a Hong Kong travel sweepstakes, a $50 Restaurant.com certificate, or 3,500 redeemable miles when they reach 35,000 EQMs.

When Premier or Premier Exec members reach 75,000 EQMs, they'll be rewarded with a choice of 25 sweepstakes entries, a $200 Restaurant.com certificate, 20,000 redeemable miles, four Red Carpet Club one-time passes, or the option to upgrade a friend or family member to Premier Associate status.

Any elite member who earns 125,000 EQMs will have a choice of 50 sweepstakes entries, 25,000 redeemable miles, six Red Carpet Club one-time passes, or the option to upgrade someone to Premier.

And any elite member who earns 175,000 EQMs will have a choice of 100 sweepstakes entries, a $500 Restaurant.com certificate, 25,000 redeemable miles, or the option to upgrade someone to Premier Exec status.

There's also a contest component: every month, the member with the most EQMs will receive two Systemwide Upgrades and a Premier Executive nomination; and the first 50 Elite Choice-registered Mileage Plus members to reach 250,000 EQMs will receive 50,000 redeemable miles and a 1K nomination.

Registration is required, and must be completed by September 6, 2010.

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Deal Alert from SmarterTravel.com

1) $98 United Holiday Sale Matches Southwest

It started with Southwest, and now United has jumped in to try to get your last-minute holiday airfare business. This is good news for consumers, because the competition will lower fares for this peak travel season.

United's sale fares start at $98 round-trip, and although no booking deadline has been outlined, this offer will likely expire on Thursday, December 3, when Southwest's sale ends. Travel is valid December 17 through January 3. Though there are no blackout dates, you'll want to book fares soon since the lowest fares sell out quickly.

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2) AirTran U.S. and Caribbean Sale Fares From $39 Each Way

With prices starting at $39 one-way, AirTran's latest sale offers more than 3,000 routes on sale to featured destinations in the U.S. and Caribbean.

Travel is valid through spring 2010, but the sale expires on Thursday, December 10.

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Win a Trip to "Anywhere In the World"

Enter Soma.com's "Anywhere In the World" sweepstakes by December 20 for a chance to win a trip to any city in the world for the winner and up to two friends. The prize consists of a $6,000 travel voucher, a $3,000 Soma shopping spree, and $1,000 to help defray taxes. Approximate retail value: $10,000.

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[Visit FrequentFlier.com for more travel sweepstakes.]

Feedback from the Frontlines of Travel

We welcome reader feedback on issues related to travel generally and frequent flyer programs in particular. Please use this link to submit comments.

Buying Frequent Flyer Miles

"The comment you made in [last week's] newsletter noting that purchasing miles is generally not a good deal is evidenced further down the newsletter.

"You mentioned that FTD.com is giving 30 miles on United per $1 spent - that is a much better deal than buying miles! It costs $67.25 to buy 1,000 miles on United (in the absence of any promotions). On the other hand, if you spend $67.25 at FTD.com, you get 2,010 miles! It looks like only if you buy miles in bulk (over 34,000 miles or more) is it cheaper to get the miles straight up than send flowers for miles." [Maira N.]

British Air, Heathrow, Fawlty Towers

"Hate to add to a chain, but when I read Phil B.'s response on BA I couldn't help responding. I'd have to agree on only limited points. Terminal 5 is BA's new home in London and BA doesn't charge for alcoholic beverages in coach. From there I'd have to say he's speaking from the perspective of a traditional British business class flyer. Nice if your company allows it in these challenging times. BA has always been an airline who serves premium class flyers well. Sadly, coach customers seem to be served on sufferance, and it's gotten much worse, not better as it has with some of the other airlines.

"BA's Executive Club is only good if you regularly fly Business Class or full fare tickets. If you're discount economy, you don't count. That's true from a FF point of view, it's true from the number of attendants that service coach, it's true from the attitudes of the staff. Although I don't know how many US airlines offer lounge access on Premium tickets, but I always find I have lounge access with the Star Alliance carriers (including United), even when I'm flying coach internationally. I don't know of any US airport where international luggage is not in a secure area. I agree on the flat bed seats - I've been a fan for years and I can hardly wait for UA to upgrade their 777s so I can expect the same lie flat Business class seats I get on my trips to Asia today on UA, CX and SQ.

"As for the service - spoken like a true Brit. It may occasionally be related to customer attitude, but I can attest to the service (or lack thereof) in BA coach. It's all about class - class of seating, class of the flight attendants and class of the customer.

"I confess I'm a Star Alliance flyer, primarily because I fly coach quite regularly and the Star Alliance carriers tend to treat their coach customers as though they want them to be there. To be fair, I don't mind Virgin either and they offer some advantages - but BA? In anything other than Business or First, you've got to be kidding." [Jim G.]

"Allen L. is correct [in last week's newsletter]. Why would you ever fly BA (Bad Airline)? I just landed from Hong Kong to LHR, First Class. While my complaint does not impact most fliers , OMG, the first class is like a throw back to a product of late 1980s. Narrow 21" seats, no noise cancelling headphones (I carry my own), extremely narrow aisles, standard coach size small bathrooms, etc.

"Poor, very poor attitudes at every level of BA check in through cabin attendants. And yes terrible baggage handling. Central African airports are better. I fly in SA, Jo'burg and Gaborone are pretty bad, but London BA has been terrible many years running. I stopped flying BA in 2001 for consistent bad service and tried them to compare back to back days of First Class with BA and Cathay Pacific. BA was like a box lunch, Cathay was like a white glove Banquet. BA should be ashamed to charge market rates.

"You have been warned. If you choose BA for any level of service when there is an alternative then you deserve it. Learn from our mistakes, do not fly British Airways." [Howard P.]

Award Seat Availability

"Your report in celebration of turkeys-always-in-season included:

"'Related to the issue of award availability, [Southwest's] Green expressed concern that, as a group, the airlines were issuing more frequent flyer miles than they could realistically hope to make good on if program members elected to cash in their earnings.'

"There was considerable analysis to this in the travel press as far back as the late 1980s. Your readers are treated every week to tales of woe in securing award seats as it is. It's unlikely Southwest can do much to 'expand' its mileage award program without boxing itself into a similar corner. Mileage plans, after all, are just another revenue source first and foremost.

"It's really quite amazing how far the airlines as a group have managed to play this shell-game on the public. For myself, if the revenue benefit to them in selling miles rather than seats keeps fares lower, that's good enough. With the 'legacy' carriers, however, one just never knows. And that, indeed, is their 'legacy.'" [Ed N.]

Until next week...