The consultants United Airlines hires to provide strategic advice on loyalty innovation and how to increase profit must have a pretty easy job…watch Delta, then copy. Once again, United has mimicked Delta in increasing elite status thresholds for 2016...
Chinese Tourist Visas Now Valid for 10 Years
President Obama is in Asia this week at APEC and the headline has been the climate change deal he announced with China…but wait, there’s more! Of particular interest to travelers is another deal cut with China to extend visas...
United Airlines’ Veterans Day Video
Not exactly a day of celebration here in Germany, but yesterday was Veterans Day (or Armistice Day as I prefer to call it), marking the end of the World War I and a day in the USA to remember...
Great Deals with November 2014 Flying Blue Promo Awards
I have highlighted the value of Air France/KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards on many occasions, and after several months of rather mediocre sales, November offers a number of discounted awards worth considering. Air France/KLM tends to release a lot of saver space to its own...
Photo Tour of American Express Centurion Lounge at SFO
I met my brother for dinner at the newest American Express Centurion Lounge last night at San Francisco International Airport. This fourth U.S. AMEX lounge is great – a welcome addition to Terminal 3 at SFO and a great...
FAQs: American Express Centurion Lounge in SFO Now Open
American Express has opened its fourth U.S. Centurion Lounge today, this one at San Francisco International – I intend to visit it later today and post pictures tomorrow, but for now here is some helpful info on the new...
A Trip After A Trip
I’m out of Africa – mission accomplished. That was more than a week ago. But rather than recovering at home from a 4-week trip to Africa, I never even got back to Germany: from Cape Town, Heidi and I...
Gambling With Status – Predicting the Future With American Airlines And Nailing It
If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here. Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com. If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram, add us today. Background about last year’s EXP challenge and the value of Executive Platinum status with...
BREAKING – No more Hyatt Diamond Challenges
If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here. Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com. If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram, add us today. All Good Things Must End I have been able to confirm with Hyatt that...
Another Costly Travel Screw-Up: Yellow Fever Vaccinations
I think my last big travel mistake was missing the bus by one minute and having to pay an outrageous taxi fee to travel 50km from central Reykjavik to Keflavik International Airport in Iceland. There have been small mistakes, of course,...
Bad News for Aeroplan with Stricter Routing Rules
The news just keeps getting worse for Aeroplan members. Lucky wrote a post entitled Aeroplan Improving Routing Rules — No More MPM! a couple days ago and my heart sank immediately when reading it — I knew the news could...
Stopovers Still Permitted on Delta Skymiles Awards…For Now
When Delta’s latest IT update eliminated the ability to include stopovers on award trips, most assumed the worst…Delta had stealthy devalued its program again with no notice. Turns out the news is not quite as bad after Delta clarified today...
The Hunt for a Competent American Airlines Agent
Earlier today I posted the following about booking Etihad Airways award space with American Airlines– American Airlines Cannot Book Etihad Award Space…Again Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is a wonderful American Airlines AAdvantage partner, offering excellent premium cabin award space...
United Reports Strong Q3 Profit
United Airlines reported a healthy third-quarter profit today of $1.1 billion, a record and also a 99% increase from last year. Here’s some of the specifics: United’s consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) increased 3.9 percent in...
New United Airlines Premier Status Tracking Website
United Airlines has introduced a nifty new website for tracking MileagePlus status: nothing revolutionary, but knowing how much you have to spend to attain or maintain elite status is now very transparent. Here’s the website and watch this one...
United Airlines, Hertz Partnership Adds Elite Benefits to MileagePlus
United Airlines and Hertz have announced a new partnership in which MileagePlus elite members will receive elite status in Hertz’s Gold Plus Rewards program and more miles for Hertz rentals. Discounts and Bonus Miles with Hertz Hertz is already...
5 Things to Know About the Latest Lufthansa Strike
Lufthansa pilots are striking again over proposed cuts to a lucrative early retirement program and will continue until 23:59 CET tonight. While the 35-hour strike was originally planned only to affect regional traffic within Europe, longhaul pilots have joined...
LOT Polish Airlines Award Space Bookable on united.com
LOT Polish Airlines is back after a long hiatus on united.com. The Polish flag carrier operates a fleet of 787s to North American gateways including Chicago, New York JFK, and Toronto and award space in both business and economy...
The Zimbabwe Haircut
Four years ago I wrote a post entitled, “Haircuts when traveling” and I really meant what I wrote…one of my favorite things to do while traveling internationally is to get a haircut and I have now patronized barber shops...
Frequent Traveler University $250 Hyatt Gift Card Giveaway
Frequent Traveler University (FTU) is coming 05-07 December 2014 to Washington, DC and I will be speaking on a variety of travel-related topics. This is going to be a huge event with a speaker list including some of the indstury’s...
