A handful of clients have contacted Award Expert this week requesting help “maximizing” AA awards prior to the devaluation on March 22, 2016. I don’t mean the couples trying to get to Bangkok on Cathay Pacific or families booking...
Two A380 First Class Flights for 40K AA Miles
AA is devaluing its award chart on March 22, 2016 but you’ve still got a week left to take advantage of the old chart. For 40K miles you can experience two of the world’s finest first class products on...
Final Hours to Book Aeroplan Awards Before Next Devaluation
With five hours left before closing time at midnight ET, this is your last chance to take advantage of the current Aeroplan redemption chart before new rates kick in tomorrow. If you’re going to Europe in the next year...
American Airlines Finally Guts Award Chart
I’ve been predicting it for months…years actually…and the time has finally come: AA announced a huge devaluation of its AAdvantage award chart today. The only question has been how bad it would be and for those who like premium...
Air Berlin Business Class Award Space on New Routes to Boston, Dallas, San Francisco
Air Berlin has announced three new longhaul routes to North America from its Dusseldorf hub; Dallas, San Francisco, and Boston. The new longhaul routes will commence next spring and feature fully lie-flat seats in business class. Schedules have been...
American Airlines Plays Another Dirty Trick On Us
American Airlines recently cut off the ability to redeem AAdvantage miles for travel on Hawaiian Airlines between the mainland and Hawaii. That was an unfortunate loss, considering Hawaiian Airlines was a dependable source of premium cabin award space, but...
Saudia Award Space Now Bookable on Delta.com
Saudia, formerly Saudi Arabian Airlines, is the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a member of SkyTeam. Many are quick to dismiss Saudia because it is a dry airline, but I’ve flown Saudia four times and give...
Here’s How to Smartly Use Your Lufthansa Miles
So, here’s the story of how I saved my family trip and even scored a business class seat using my Lufthansa Miles & More points. If you don’t want to read the background, skip down to the Use Lufthansa...
Korean Air Awards Suddenly Become Much More Attainable
Korean Air offers a treasure trove of first class award availability to Seoul and beyond and is not too stingy in releasing business and economy class award space either. Up until now, booking has required Chase Ultimate Rewards points...
Are Held Award Tickets Really Guaranteed?
For a full-timer award booker, the most valuable tool any airline loyalty program can offer is the ability to hold a ticket prior to booking. Few things are for more frustrating than finding ideal award space, alerting the client,...
Can You Book Cuba Award Travel with American Airlines Miles?
I wrote with some glee about the change in U.S. policy toward Cuba and what this meant for travel. Since that December 2014 announcement, more diplomatic breakthroughs have occurred, including the recent re-opening of the Cuban Embassy in Washington...
Delta Goes All-In on Dynamic Award Pricing in 2016
Just in from Delta Air Lines, a number of upcoming changes to the SkyMiles program, including a confirmed move to more aggressive dynamic award pricing. Let’s start with the bad news– Dynamic Award Pricing Accelerates for Travel in June...
Delta Responds: Mixed Cabin Rewards Remain…Sort Of
Lucky noted (from a post by René) a disturbing change to the wording of delta.com yesterday — it appeared that without notice Delta eliminated mixed-cabin awards, which would have signalled another elephantine Skymiles devaluation. I reached out to Delta and was...
Fly to Europe in a 44-Seat Business Jet Using Your Miles!
SAS launched service between Houston and Stavanger, Norway last summer using a 44-seat jet featuring an all-business class configuration. Operated by PrivatAir on behalf of SAS, the flight operates six times per week and features an outdated “angle lie-flat” business...
How to Search for Award Space on the New ANA Website
ANA has released a redesigned website featuring a brand new award search tool to coincide with its launch of a region-based award chart. There are both positive and negative changes we will unpack below. The positive No more tricking...
RIP US Airways Dividend Miles: I Feel Like I Just Lost An Old Friend
US Airways Dividend Miles is dead. May she rest in peace. I will not say it has been an unproductive week, but I have spent a great deal of time around the deathbed of Dividend Miles this week, trying...
How to Outsmart Delta’s Broken Website and Save Miles
Delta Air Lines unceremoniously removed its Skymiles award charts from delta.com last month, taking with it the accountability inherent in such charts. The only justification Delta offered was, “We’ve launched the new Award calendar which offers an easier search for...
Last Week of United Airlines Star Alliance Award Sale!
When United devalued MileagePlus last year, it introduced a bifurcated award chart that charged a premium for first and business class flights on partner metal as opposed to on United’s own planes. An example — business class to Europe...
Delta Secretly Changes SkyMiles Terms and Conditions
With a series of radically customer-unfriendly moves, Delta Air Lines has become our favorite punching bag of late and the hits just keep on coming. Today, Delta updated the terms and conditions of the SkyMiles program to remove all...
Delta Air Lines Worldwide Skymiles Award Charts
Delta Air Lines pulled a fast one on us when it removed Skymiles award charts on Friday without notice, taking with it any accountability to passengers to its erratic online pricing engine and also striking at the very core of...
