Yesterday I wrote about what Amex's portfolio of Starwood credit cards will look like going forward. In addition to the current two cards they issue, in August we'll see the introduction of the new Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Luxury Card,…
While Icelandair and Azores Airlines are from very different islands in terms of climates, they operate similar business models. Both airlines offer passengers the opportunity to fly between North America and mainland Europe with a stop at their hub…
A few months back both Delta and United updated their policies when it comes to emotional support animals. Airlines have seen a huge spike in the number of passengers traveling with emotional support animals, and they’re starting to crack down on this.…
Korean Air SkyPass has a great program for using miles for premium cabin awards. They often make 2-4 first class award seats available in advance, fly to more U.S. destinations than any other Asian carrier, and have an excellent first class product.…
IHG Rewards Club has just introduced their latest bonus on purchased points, valid through May 31, 2018. Through this offer, IHG Rewards Club is offering up to an 80% bonus on purchased points -- you get a 40% bonus when you buy at least 5,000 points,…
With a meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un potentially imminent (though highly subject to change), there are lots of things that have to be worked out. The leaders haven't yet agreed on where they'll meet, though clearly the place they choose…
In mid-February I first wrote about how Daily Getaways will be returning this year. For those of you not familiar, Daily Getaways is a promotion, sponsored by the US Travel Association, which has been offered annually since 2011 to encourage US tourism.…
Most major, full service airlines around the world operate a ‘hub and spoke’ route network model. This means that on most of their flights, you will be flying either to or from one of their hubs. You might be lucky enough to have a direct flight, especially…
United has had a long running promotion where you can earn a pile of miles for each Hertz rental car you book via the United website. I think it started in 2015 and has been repeatedly extended pretty much ever since. Apparently it's a good deal for…
As part of the changes happening to the Marriott & Starwood loyalty programs in August, we're also seeing both American Express and Chase introduce new co-branded credit cards. We first learned the basics of this last December, though we now have more…
While I fly American all the time, this was my first time flying one of their 787-9s, and for that matter my first time flying one of their planes with B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seats (they also have these on select 777-200s), which are different than…
There are so many things that I find interesting about the way in which Marriott is designing their new loyalty program. One of the things I find most surprising is the timing of the transition, and how Marriott is creating this new program as of August…
A few days ago I shared the details of Hilton's upcoming promotion. Specifically, between May 1 and August 31, 2018, Hilton Honors will offer double base points on all stays. With this promotion you’ll earn: -- 10 Honors bonus points for stays at most…
This doesn't really come as much of a surprise, but I find it to be an interesting development nonetheless. As Alaska's takeover of Virgin America is being finalized (Virgin America will officially cease to exist as a brand starting next week), I've…
I've written in the past about Amex Offers, which is a program available on American Express cards that lets you earn bonus points and save money on purchases with select retailers. Earlier in the year we saw Chase trial something similar on select cards,…
There are many areas in life where I feel like I'm really lucky, and end up having fewer problems than others do. Then there are areas where I feel like I consistently have problems when others don't. Specifically, I'm talking about rental cars and taxis.…
While I fly American all the time, this was my first time flying one of their 787-9s, and for that matter my first time flying one of their planes with B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seats (they also have these on select 777-200s), which are different than…
Introduction: Swiping Left On TAAG Angola Review: Star Alliance First Class Lounge LAX Review: Lufthansa First Class A340 Los Angeles To Munich Review: Lufthansa New First Class Lounge Munich Airport Review: TAAG Angola First Class 777 Lisbon To Luanda…
I arrived from Luanda early in the morning, then spent the day at the Marriott Sao Paulo Airport napping and working, and then at 4PM headed back to the airport for my 10:30PM flight to Los Angeles. While I've flown to & from Sao Paulo Guarulhos Airport…
By the time we boarded the plane it was 1AM, so we were well over two hours behind schedule. Since we were departing from a remote stand, we boarded via air stairs through door L2. There I was pointed left into the first class cabin. While the previous…
Our layover in Luanda was scheduled to be 4hr45min, as we were arriving from Lisbon at 6:30PM and departing for Sao Paulo at 11:15PM. Luanda Airport doesn't have any jet bridges, so from the remote stand we were driven to the terminal in a separate first…
I met up with two friends in Lisbon, and after a good night of sleep we left for Lisbon Airport at around 7:45AM, for our 10AM flight to Luanda. We had a friendly Uber driver from Angola, who couldn't wrap his head around the fact that we were flying…
A Southwest 737-700 suffered an uncontained engine failure on Tuesday, requiring an emergency landing in Philadelphia. Flight 1380 was flying between New York and Dallas with 143 passengers and five crew members when the incident occurred. While the…
Last year I needed to fly from Johannesburg to London. I considered using miles to fly Etihad business class, but decided to try and find something more interesting and exotic. Searching availability using LifeMiles, there was an option to fly Ethiopian…
You guys have asked a lot of great questions regarding Marriott's new loyalty program, which will be rolled out in August. I'm working on getting answers to all of these questions. In some cases I thought I had the answer but am now realizing that the…
I'm a fan of Air Canada, especially as far as North American airlines go. They've done a great job improving some of their premium services to a degree we haven't seen from another North American airline. A majority of their longhaul fleet, including…
Yesterday I shared the full details of Marriott's new loyalty program, which is coming in August. As you could tell based on the post, the new program greatly exceeded my expectations, and was pretty close to being the best case scenario, as far as I'm…
In mid-February I first wrote about how Daily Getaways will be returning this year. For those of you not familiar, Daily Getaways is a promotion, sponsored by the US Travel Association, that has been offered annually since 2011 to encourage US tourism.…
Update: It appears as if those who earned SPG Gold through the Amex Platinum won’t be receiving Marriott Platinum status. I’m working on confirming at the moment who exactly does earn SPG Platinum status, so stay tuned. Yesterday we learned…
Yesterday we learned the full details of Marriott's new loyalty program, launching in August. There are so many aspects of this program that I find interesting, so I'm tackling them one-by-one in a series of posts. In this post I wanted to look at Marriott's…
Between April 15 and May 31, 2018, American is offering a 25% bonus when you convert select hotel points into AAdvantage miles. The bonus can be used for multiple hotel partners, and bonus miles should post to your AAdvantage account within seven business…
The wait is finally over -- today we're learning the details of Marriott's new loyalty program! Marriott's takeover of Starwood closed in September 2016, and I was impressed that from day one they offered reciprocal points transfers and status matching,…
