There is Still Award Space for Thanksgiving Trips Home
November 25, 2014
If you've somehow made it until two days before Thanksgiving without booking a flight and would like to book one, there is award space available.
What? You were expecting a picture of the other turkey?
United,Trick,Award Booking,Anatomy of an Award
Two Tricks I Used on My Last Award Booking
November 18, 2014
As you read this, I'm 35,000 feet up on my way to Medellin, Colombia.
I was in Tucson over the weekend for a tennis tournament, and I didn't have any exit flight booked. I really wanted to return to Colombia because I had enjoyed Bogota so much and heard even better things about Medellin, but award space didn't appear to be available for a Monday departure from Tucson to Medellin.
I used two tricks and a little bit of creativity to come up with a Saver award, save myself $75 in fees, and give myself a chance to hang
Delta Improves Award Searches Dramatically
November 17, 2014
An actual improvement to delta.com!
Previously, you could search award space one month at a time with a calendar on delta.com, but that calendar only took into account award space on Delta flights. Because much of the Saver award space available to people with Delta miles is available on partner airlines, that meant that in practice, you really had to search delta.com one day at a time to get the full picture.
United,Award Booking,Air Canada
Gold Mine Award Space to Europe for Summer 2015
November 4, 2014
United miles are the best to Europe, though the routes with gold mine award space for Summer 2015 might surprise you. For Summer 2014, I wrote Route from the US to Europe via Canada for Better Award Space, and I decided to check back in on some of our old favorite routes to see if they were again gold mines for 2015.
The answer is a resounding yes.
Virgin Atlantic,Delta,Award Booking
Virgin Atlantic Opens Up Lots of Last Minute Award Space in Upper Class
September 25, 2014
Virgin Atlantic is a London-based airline that serves or has plans to serve 12 American airports. Virgin Atlantic releases a ton of award space in Upper Class between the United States and Europe in the last days and weeks before departure.
Detroit begins 6/1/15, Atlanta begins 10/27/14You can book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class with Delta miles.
Virgin Atlantic,Delta,Award Booking
New Virgin Atlantic Routes, Best Use SkyMiles?
September 17, 2014
I recently received an email about changes to the Virgin Atlantic route network.
Virgin Atlantic is a London-based carrier that is not a member of any of the three major alliances, but does have a partnership with Delta.
Using 125,000 Delta miles for a roundtrip in Upper Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Europe is a fantastic use of SkyMiles.
Virgin Atlantic Upper Class MarketingI checked a few of the Virgin Atlantic routes for award space for May 2015 and found award space nearly every day on one route
Five Under-Priced Awards on the American Airlines Chart
September 8, 2014
Yesterday's post on the Coolest Thing You Can Do with 60,000 Miles was a hit, so I thought I'd follow up with how you can create your own THINK BIG itineraries with miles.
The basic premise of that post was connecting far-flung regions into a single trip by taking advantage of under-priced awards between the regions.
More Cathay Pacific Flights = More Cathay Pacific Space
September 1, 2014
Cathay Pacific is a Hong Kong-based member of oneworld with a mind-blowing First Class and a top-notch business class.
Cathay Pacific First Class BedCathay Pacific flies from six North American cities to Hong Kong (and from there to the rest of the world), plus Boston to Hong Kong starts in May 2015.
from gcmap.comCathay Pacific flies 777s between the United States and Hong Kong, which have only six First Class seats.
US Airways Now Pricing Awards as Sum of One Ways
August 14, 2014
US Airways is now pricing roundtrip awards as the sum of two one ways.
Amazing Business Class Award Space for Four People to Europe
August 12, 2014
Until late last year, getting to Europe in business class was much easier than it has been lately, especially for traveling parties of three or more. In December of last year, Austrian Airlines stopped releasing business class award space until about three months before departure. This made advance business class award redemptions for larger parties much more difficult.
In the past I've booked families of four to Europe and even to the Middle East on Austrian Airlines, and it is a very solid and comfortable flat bed business class product.