Until recently, earning Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles hasn’t been easy for anyone living in the United States. The only ways to do so has been to credit Star Alliance flights to your Turkish Airlines Smiles & Miles account or through Marriott Hotel + Air packages. Now we have another way.
Delta Air Lines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A350becoming the first North American operator of Airbus’ new long-haul aircraft, and on August 5, the airplane was flown from the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France to Delta’s main hub in Atlanta. The aircraft is the first one to feature Delta’s new Premium Select cabin (premium economy), as well as their new Delta One Suite with a fully flat bed, a full-height sliding privacy door, and customizable ambient light. The airline’s goal is to offer an entirely new travel experience on ultra-long-haul flights.
Chase continues to make it more difficult to get approved for new credit cards and earns large sums of points with sign up bonuses. By now, many are familiar with the 5/24 rule, in which Chase will automatically reject applications for most of their cards if you have opened five or more new credit card accounts with any bank within the last 24 months.
Now, Chase has come out with a new rule, targeted at the Sapphire family of cards. There are three cards in the Sapphire family: the no annual fee Sapphire card, Sapphire Preferred, and Sapphire Reserve. Here are the new rules per a memo sent to Chase bankers:
It’s hard to believe it has already been a year since Chase announced the release of the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. This card and its promotional 100,000-point sign-up bonus sent shockwaves around the travel blogosphere.
For those who signed up for the card or are thinking about getting it, you may be wondering if it’s worth the hefty $450 annual fee. Let’s take a look.
Hurricane Harvey has done unimaginable damage to Houston and the surrounding areas. It’s the wettest tropical storm ever recorded in the contiguous United States, dumping more than 40 inches of rain in just four days. Storm damages are estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.
Malaysia Airlines made a pretty big announcement in late July regarding the 10 Boeing 737 MAX 10 it ordered during the last Paris Air Show. The aircraft, due to be delivered in 2021, even though it is a narrow-body medium-haul plane, will feature lie-flat seats with direct aisle access in business class, replacing Malaysia’s traditional recliner seats and making it a great new business class product to try out!
Travelers who are also country counters always look for ways to maximize their travel time and visit more than one place per trip. Although traveling longer is the most obvious answer, sometimes traveling smarter also does the trick. Knowing special routings and which frequent-flyer miles to use where can help you maximize that time on the ground.
Sometimes the best value for miles is not the most obvious one. And in the case of redeeming miles to fly on Delta, the answer may come from a totally different loyalty program. You can actually spend fewer miles by redeeming Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points for some Delta flights than it costs to redeem SkyMiles.
When you collect points and miles you do it for the value, not for the mere pleasure of accumulating millions of them–although there is certainly some excitement when you see them piling up. I still remember how thrilled I was to accrue my first 30,000 miles. But I was even more excited to make my first redemption for a round-trip flight to South East Asia with the return flying Thai and Lufthansa first class. This was a ticket worth a few thousand dollars in value. The economy round trip-ticket would have easily run $1,200.
When Mariott and SPG merged last year we wrote about the new opportunities the merger created. First Marriott quickly installed a policy allowing members of either program to convert their points back and forth at a ratio of one SPG point to three Marriott points.
SPG points are one of the most valuable currencies in the travel rewards game, with the ability to transfer to over 30 airline partners providing a great deal of flexibility. And if you transfer increments of 20K SPG points to airline partners, you receive a 5K mile bonus, effectively making SPG points worth 1.25 airline miles of your choice. But you can do even better than that. We will show how you can get more than 1.25 miles per point and get a free hotel stay.
Chase recently sent out a survey to selected cardholders to gauge opinions on several potential negative changes that could be made to the Ultimate Rewards program and its associated credit cards. While no changes are imminent, this survey could give us some insight into what may occur in the future. Since program devaluations are a constant source of risk in the travel rewards game, it helps to consider which opportunities currently provide outsized value that may be ripe for devaluation.
The Citi Prestige credit card is one of my top cards. In fact, I always use it for booking flights, but it is also great for a few other reasons! Here’s why I love the Citi Prestige.
Last month, American Express Membership Rewards program restored its point transfer ratio to 1-to-1 for both partner Avios programs: British Airways and Iberia. With a 250-200 conversion for British Airways and a 5-4 conversion for Iberia, transfer ratios left a lot to be desired previously. Shortly after, a new promotion sweetened the deal even further. Amex began offering a 40-percent bonus on all Avios transfers through September 17.
One of the greatest –if not the greatest –credit card benefits is the 4th Night Free perk exclusively with the Citi Prestige® Card. Today we’ll do a deep dive into what it is and how to use it.
World leaders tend to argue about everything, but they have worked out a lot of issues to make sure that most of our flights go smoothly. The International Civil Aviation Association (ICAO) recognizes five Freedoms of the Air that make modern commercial aviation possible. Since all countries are protective of their borders and revenues, international treaties had to be put in place to ensure that airlines can fly freely anywhere in the world
Lately American Express has been offering some great authorized user and spending bonuses for several of their cards. Many of these bonuses are targeted, but it might be worth calling American Express to see if you can get the promotion applied to your account. Below I will go into detail about the authorized user and spending bonuses that have been popping up so you know what to be on the lookout for!
If you are an international traveler who frequents the United States border, you may already have applied for Global Entry in order to expedite your border-crossing experience. If you haven’t heard of Global Entry, it is a program directed by US Customs and Border Protection which offers more efficient border crossing for low-risk trusted travelers through the use of Global Entry kiosks at certain airports.
Bank of America periodically increases the sign-up bonus on its Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard®, and this year is no different with a possible total of 90K miles available on from this card. However, this is a multi-tiered bonus that has several requirements in order to earn the full amount. While the deal is being advertised as a 90K miles offer, it is really a 75K offer with a possible 15K anniversary bonus. We will detail the requirements to earn each increment of this bonus and then discuss some good uses of Virgin Atlantic miles.
If you’re looking to maximize your hard-earned airline miles by booking trips to multiple cities, or even countries, United MileagePlus is one of the best programs to do just that. The program allows for a longer stop in a city on the way to your destination, dubbed the Excursionist Perk, which lets passengers book a free one-way flight within a round-trip. Essentially, you can book three flights for the price of two if you do it correctly. A stop can be as short as 24 hours and as long as the calendar allows you to book.
Say you’re planning a trip to a country for which you have a valid visa, but then you realize something: by the time you depart, your passport will have expired, but your visa will not have. What can you do?
