Last Thursday, I arrived home to find a postcard in my mailbox advertising a United promotion offering up to 40% off purchased miles until June 20, 2013. At these prices, I wouldn’t purchase tons of United miles speculatively, but if I were topping off my United MileagePlus account with a specific award redemption in mind,…
American Airlines has traditionally offered its elite members a “soft landing”, meaning that American would only drop your frequent flyer status one tier if you didn’t qualify for your current level of status during the year. For example, if you were an Executive Platinum in 2012 and only flew enough in 2012 to earn Gold…
If you’re a business traveler, the availability of direct flights from your home airport largely determines your airline preference. Being based in Minneapolis, I’m a natural Delta flyer. Like many, I’ve been frustrated with the progressive devaluation of the program, the difficulty in booking awards, and (to a lesser extent) the new revenue tiers. I had a…
If you are a Delta flyer, you have probably heard about the new revenue tiers that are being introduced for the 2014 program. In short, to earn frequent flyer status during 2014, you will have to spend a certain amount on Delta tickets. Interestingly, I haven’t received the email yet, but here is what Delta…
A few months back, I posted about Delta trialing a concept called Basic Economy, a basic economy fare that doesn’t allow you to select your seat or earn frequent flyer miles. One of my readers emailed me asking if he should be concerned about this. It appears that Delta has largely dropped the Basic Economy…
If you’re looking to get away from the winter weather, the folks at FlyerTalk found some attractive fares to Hawaii for February and March. Just searching now, I found plenty of availability in February and March for weekends. Details are on the FlyerTalk thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals/1421400-aa-dl-phx-hnl-298-ai-rt.html Edit: Now apparently available from the San Francsico area as…
Connecting between airports can get expensive quickly. I always assumed that you had to pay for your own ground transportation if you booked a flight that required an airport transfer. While researching this issue for a friend a few days ago, I found that this is not the case on Delta for some international itineraries connecting…
The internet has been rife with speculation regarding an alleged leaked memo from Delta about changes…BIG changes…that are coming to SkyMiles in the next few months. If you want to read all the speculation, feel free to peruse the 117 (and counting) pages of posts on the FlyerTalk thread or the airliners.net thread. According to the…
A few days ago, according to a Delta press release, FlyerTalk, and some other blogs, Delta introduced a product it is marketing as “Basic Economy”. This is a very restrictive coach fare that Delta is marketing between Detroit and Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Meyers, and Ft. Lauderdale. This fare is completely non-refundable, is non-changeable, and does…
The Flying Consultant 