OneWorld

Now I Understand

This weekend I traveled to Europe.  In the past, I’d read other bloggers moaning and groaning about London’s Heathrow Airport.  I never understood this as my one experience there had been fine.  Now I know that’s because my flight terminated here and I wasn’t transiting.

This weekend I transited for the first time and man, what a terrible experience!  Just so many ways this experience could be better organized.  I hope to cover that in more detail in a future post but suffice it to say that now I understand why everyone is so unhappy!

Categories: British Airways | Leave a comment

Win 200K AAdvantage Miles

2014-09-07 AA Sweepstakes

American Airlines has a new sweepstakes that starts today and runs through the end of the month.  Enter and you could win 200,000 AAdvantage miles.  You can enter once a day and if you choose to receive certain emails from American you can get up to 5 extra entries.  Click HERE for the AAdvantage shopping portal where you can sign up.

Categories: American Airlines, Contests | Leave a comment

US Airways Dividend Miles on sale

2014-09-06 US Airways Miles Sale

US Airways is well-known for selling miles at a discount. Now through September 30, 2014 they’re offering a tiered bonus when purchasing Dividend Miles. This can be a great way to top off your account if you’re just a little short of an award. Or if you want a business class ticket, you can buy 50,000 miles with a bonus of another 50,000 and, voila, you’ve got enough for that ticket. Just be sure that you can’t otherwise get the business class seat for less than the $1750 + tax price for those 100K miles!

To get the bonus, go to the US Airways website and click on the Buy Miles link. From there you’ll be prompted to log into your US Airways Dividend Miles account.

Categories: US Airways | Leave a comment

Bonus on Purchased Alaska Air Miles

Alaska_August2014_BuyBanner_Final

Now through October 14th you can earn up to a 40% bonus on purchased Alaska Air miles. The bonuses are tiered:
Buy 5,000 – 19,000 miles, get a 20% Bonus (2.29 cents apiece)
Buy 20,000 – 34,000 miles, get a 30% Bonus (2.115 cents apiece)
Buy 35,000 – 40,000 miles, get a 40% Bonus (1.96 cents apiece)

Normally Alaska miles cost 2.75 cents apiece.

Is it worth it to buy them? Not speculatively. A couple of bloggers (One Mile At A Time, The Points Guy) who publish their point valuations rate these points at 1.8 to 2 cents apiece. So if you’re going to buy them without a current purpose, buy at least 35,000 miles. But if you only need a few miles to top off an award, it may very well be worth buying even a few thousand points.

Categories: Alaska Airlines, Purchased Miles | Leave a comment

Rhine Runaway – Munich to Charlotte to Memphis

This is the final post in this series.  Other posts include:

Rhine Runaway – Booking Process
Rhine Runaway – Houston to Amsterdam
Rhine Runaway – A Short Visit to Amsterdam
Rhine Runaway – River Cruise Part I
Rhine Runaway – River Cruise Part II
Rhine Runaway – Zurich Part I
Rhine Runaway – Zurich Part II
Rhine Runaway – Zurich to Munich
Rhine Runaway – Park Hyatt Zurich

Business Class on a Lufthansa A330 is laid out in a 2x2x2 configuration with recliner seats. If you’d asked me before the trip I could have sworn I’d selected one of the middle seats since, as a solo traveler it meant I wouldn’t have to climb over anyone – or be climbed over. But I was assigned an aisle seat on the left side of the plane, 3C. My seatmate was already in place and I gathered he was a regular on the route as the flight attendants seemed to know him.

Lufthansa Business Class Amenity Kit

Lufthansa Business Class Amenity Kit

On the seat were a pillow and blanket and the amenity kit. I loved the little draw-string bag as it reminded me of a mini-beach duffel. Inside were the usual suspects: lip balm, skin creme, toothbrush & toothpaste, earplugs, eye mask and compression socks. Since this was a daytime flight I didn’t really use any of these but it was nice to have them.

As I learn to be a better blogger, one of my next steps will be to remind myself what I had to eat! As I look over the menu now I truly can’t remember what I had to eat. That tells me that it was good enough, if not memorable.  The menu read as follows:

LH 428 Menu 1

LH 428 Menu 2

LH 428 Menu 3

LH 428 Menu 4

LH 428 Menu 5

LH 428 Menu 6

Service was attentive, but not annoying. I’m one who prefers to be left alone most of the time but I often found that whenever the FAs came by my seat I truly was ready for another round of water or I did want a snack. They were very pleasant and we had no language issues at all.

The IFE had quite a good selection. Only very rarely do I go to movies in the theater at home and I can’t even remember the last time I did. I was able to catch up on a couple of movies, Saving Mr. Banks and Frozen, that I had not seen before as well as a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, a show I enjoy on occasion but don’t watch regularly.

Before too long we were touching down in Charlotte. It was my first time to use Global Entry and, wow, was that sweet! Gave the kiosk my fingerprints, it gave me a piece of paper and boom, I was through immigration! Fantabulous.

Then I had to go through security again for my connecting flight to Memphis. That’s when I noticed that I didn’t have the TSA Pre-Check logo on my ticket. (Not suprising as it was issued by Lufthansa.) I tried to talk my way into the line, stating I’d just been through Global Entry, but it was a no-go. Lesson learned – next time check in on the mobile app for the domestic portions of my flight! I’ll give that a try on my trip next month to see how it works.

Next stop was the US Airways Club. I found out, to my chagrin, that since Lufthansa and US Airways were no longer part of the same alliance, I was not allowed to use the club, even though I’d booked my tickets with US Airways miles. Once I got home I realized I could have shown my American Airlines Executive World Mastercard and gotten in, but I didn’t even think about it while I was there.

At this point I thought about trying to get on the earlier flight back to Memphis, though the agent in the club didn’t think I’d have much luck. But I hustled down to the gate only to be met with a crowd in the boarding area and a wait list. So I didn’t even approach the gate agents about trying to get on. Back to a restaurant where it was nice to see some of the hockey playoffs, even though my team (Go Predators!) wasn’t on the ice.

When it was finally time for my flight I headed to the gate and found I was in seat 1F. By this point I’d been awake about 20 hours, after a short night’s sleep, and I was grateful to have the window so I could doze off for the short flight.

But it was a fantastic trip all around and business class would not have been possible without the points. Can’t wait for my next big adventure in September!

Categories: Lufthansa, Star Alliance, US Airways | Leave a comment

Latest AA Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus

In February American Airlines introduced their Citi Executive AAdvantage credit card.  It came with a steep $450 annual fee but offered AAdmirals club access, a $200 credit after $200 in purchases as well as 100,000 miles after spending $10,000 on the card in three months.  As of today that offer is dead.

2014-07-11 ACExec-75K

But the good news is that they’ve got a new offer!  Not quite as many miles but with a lower spending requirement.  The new offer is 75,000 miles after $7,500 in spending within three months.  There’s a $100 credit after $100 in spending though the $450 annual fee is still in place.

Offer: Citi Executive/AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard

Full list of terms:

Terms and Conditions

           Terms and Conditions

 

What’s not mentioned is that these cards are churnable!  That means you can apply for and receive the card, meet the spending requirement, collect the miles, then cancel the card and start the cycle all over!  Being a little more cautious than some, I picked up two of the 100,000 mile offers.  I plan to pick up one of the 75,000 cards when it’s time for my next round of credit card applications.  There are some limitations as to how quickly you can churn these so feel free to ask if you have questions.

Thanks to View From The Wing for pointing out this offer!

 

Categories: American Airlines, Citibank, Citibank AA Executive MasterCard, Credit Card Promos, Credit Cards, OneWorld | 2 Comments

US Airways MasterCard 30% Bonus for July-August

 

I carry the Barclays US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard.  It offers some terrific benefits like a free checked bag for the card holder and up to 4 traveling companions on the same ticket, Group 1 boarding and bonus miles on US Airways purchases.  Today I received a promo where I can earn a 30% bonus on miles this summer if I spend at least $2000 during the July 1 – August 31 timeframe.  That’s really pretty easy to do, especially if you put your regular spend on this card in addition to manufacturing some spend.  Here are the offer details:

Image

 

[Edit: there are also offers for a 20% bonus but no minimum spend.]

In addition, if you use this card for purchases outside the US during this timeframe, your foreign transaction fees will be reimbursed!

There’s a max bonus of 10,000 miles for this promotion.  The miles will post 6-8 weeks after the end of the promotion, which works out to mid-to-late October.  Will you be taking advantage of this promotion?

Categories: Credit Card Promos, US Airways, US Airways MasterCard | Leave a comment

Rhine Runaway – Booking Process

Back in April 2013 some friends contacted me about joining them for a cruise down the Rhine river.  They were considering a cruise with Viking Cruises which was running a special deal: if we signed up for a 2014 cruise before 30 April 2013, we got 2-for-1 pricing.  Having never been to that part of Europe before I was on board immediately.

As I was flying from a different city from the rest of the group, I handled my own airfare.  It just so happened that in the fall of 2012 US Airways was running one of its targeted sales that offered a 100% bonus on purchased miles.  I had made two purchases of 25,000 miles (+ 25,000 bonus miles) during that sale.  I was able to buy both at the beginning and the end of the sale which split the charge over two credit card cycles for me.  The total for both purchases with taxes was ~$1800 and left me with a 100K US Airways Dividend miles balance.

Since the time I purchased those miles I’ve learned not to buy miles speculatively (without a pre-planned purpose).  But it was great to have those miles in reserve when I needed them!  I would not typically use these miles on a domestic fare (unless it was really expensive) but $1800 is a great price for a business-class ticket to Europe.

At the time I used these miles US Airways was part of the Star Alliance.  That gave me a great number of choices to get to Europe.  Our cruise departed from Amsterdam (AMS) and ended in Basel, Switzerland on a Thursday.  Not really wanting to fly back to the States for one work day, one of my friends and I decided to take an extra couple of days and take the train to Zurich (ZRH), spend a couple of days and fly home from there.

US Airways allowed one stopover of more than 24 hours OR one open jaw on an award ticket.  (An open jaw is where you fly into one city and out of another.)  My ticket would be an open jaw since I was flying into AMS and out of ZRH.

Even though I had US Airways miles, I knew that the United Airlines award search tool was MUCH better.  At the time, the US Airways search tool did not display any Star Alliance partner award flights, which made it useless if US Airways did not fly into that city.

Using the United search tool I found a one-stop flight to Amsterdam from my home in Memphis via Houston on United.  Sadly, United only flies one-cabin regional jets out of Memphis so no business class for me on the MEM-IAH leg.  But that was the only one!  In Houston I connected to a United flight that took me non-stop to Amsterdam in a flat-bed business seat.

For the return trip I had to make a couple of stops.  I originally looked only for flights with flat-bed seats.  This led to a complicated itinerary with two stops in Europe before landing in Chicago where I would have taken another one-cabin regional jet home – and I didn’t land until quite late.  After I booked this ticket I began to think more about the route I was taking and started looking for alternatives.  I eventually settled on a Lufthansa flight to Munich (MUC), connecting to another Lufthansa flight to Charlotte and then a US Airways flight back to Memphis that got me home several hours earlier than the trip I’d originally booked.

I called US Airways and changed the flights.  There was a $150 fee because I’m not an elite US Airways member but I’d decided it was worth it.

My flight from ZRH to MUC was on one of Lufthana’s CityLine planes, meaning a short flight in a regional jet.  But since I had a business class ticket, I had an empty seat beside me and that was fine for the short flight.

I connected to one of Lufthansa’s Airbus A340-600s for the flight to Charlotte.  I’d originally avoided this plane since it only has angle-flat seats in business class but I later realized that since this was a daytime flight, I probably wouldn’t be sleeping much anyway – and indeed I did not.

My flight from Charlotte to Memphis was also on a Canadair regional jet that featured a first class section.

Flights for this route. Map courtesy of gcmap.com

Flights for this route.
Map courtesy of gcmap.com

So that’s the “how” I booked the trip.  Next up: the actual flight to Amsterdam.

Categories: Award Travel, Europe, Lufthansa, Star Alliance, United, US Airways | Leave a comment

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