Forum Buzz: Alitalia’s 25% sale and goodbye Alitalia Japan, Hello Alitalia Russia?

For the past 24 hours, this thread on FlyerTalk has been buzzing with excitement about Alitalia's most recent discount code that gave a flat $315.30 discount off any flight booked up until 10/26/12 on Alitalia's Japanese website.

For several days, the US, Italian, German, British, Canadian, and Spanish Alitalia websites have been running a promotion that gives a 25% discount on flights booked using the e-Coupon code SPECIAL:

This was a nice upgrade from the 15% off promotion that Alitalia offered in September--covered in Mile Value's first Forum Buzz post.

More enticingly, the version of the promotion offered on Alitalia's

Los Angeles Meet Up for MileValue Readers

To everyone in LA:

Long-time reader Mark proposed dinner on Friday, September 7 at 8:00 PM, and I accepted.

I suggested an authentic Mexican restaurant in the 90006 zip code. It has chicken mole (read this word in Spanish, not English) and mezcal margaritas to die for.

Contact me if you want to join us, and I'll give you the name and address of the restaurant.

Krakow, Poland Bleg

I just arrived in Krakow for about 72 hours with hotel reservations but no real plan or guidebook. Any tips on what to do, see, or eat would be greatly appreciated.

Mistake Fare: LAX to Lima for $238 r/t

Right now on taca.com, you can get a roundtrip from LAX to Lima for $238. This appears to be good from September through November. Peru is one of my favorite countries in the world. Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Amazon Rainforest, world's deepest canyon, incredible history, gastronomy, great beaches, and on and on and on.

If you want to book, book now. This fare will disappear any moment. I just booked a two week trip for $238!

See the flyertalk thread here.

British Airways Lounge in Tampa

A small lounge with delicious finger sandwiches and hummus from Jordan.

Meet Up Page Added

I've added a new page to the top of milevalue.com: Meet Up. It's designed to increase the community nature of MileValue by facilitating meeting me in person socially or to talk shop.

Where This Site is Going

By the end of next week, I will have valued Delta, US Airways, United, American, British Airways, and Southwest's miles, points, credits, and Avios.

Valuations won't stop there with in depth looks at Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, JetBlue, Korean Air, and Hawaiian Airlines still to come.

I'll also fully analyze the American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards programs.

These valuations and in-depth looks at the programs, in and of themselves, will hopefully provide great value to my readers. But I think the biggest value will be the next step.

Comments Are Always Welcome

Hey guys, I love comments. Any time you have experience or knowledge about a subject, please share it with the rest of us. Any time you have a question, ask it. I, or another reader, probably have the answer.

I try to reply to each comment.

To encourage commenters, there is a new doo-dad on the right side of the page listing who the top commenters are from this point on.