I’ve been focusing on Starbucks elite status this year. As a Gold elite, their lastest fast-track to status (for purchasing a Verismo system) is another devaluation to their program:

Amtrak is offering a 30% bonus on purchased points from now until December 31st.  This brings the cost of 650 points, bought in increments of 500 plus bonus, to $13.75, or 2.12 cents per point.

While Amtrak adjusted the prices for its awards upwards in April, Northeast Regional coach awards still run a mere 4k points (or about $84.62 under this sale) and offer last-seat availability.  A last minute revenue ticket can easily run more:

While booking with Avios is another good-value for short haul flights, capacity-controlled award inventory can be problematic:

From now until December 31st, AA is offering bonus miles on mile purchases.  Additionally, the normal 40k/year cap has been lifted to 60k miles.  Miles cost $29.5625/1k (inclusive of taxes) for purchases of 6k miles or more, plus a $35 processing fee on the entire transaction.

The bonus system is tiered.

As to best amortize the $35 transaction fee, purchasing 60k miles for $1808.75 yields 90k miles, yielding a cost of 2.01cpm.

So I just went to check-in for my flight on American Airlines tomorrow.  While I’ve had mystery errors during check-in with United (particularly since 3/3), this is a first for AA:

The EXP desk says the reservation is fine (unlike those United experiences), so tomorrow probably won’t be nearly the adventure it could be.

One Mile at a Time and View from the Wing both note that the 25% off sale that I discussed yesterday is applicable to itineraries originating the United States, not just London.  As a US-originating roundtrip is far simpler than the alternatives, it’s worth examining whether this sale has any value for flights to the UK.

For comparison, a simple AA-ticketed and operated JFK-LHR flight runs 50k miles (in business class) and $2.50.  A quick glance at upcoming award availability turned up a BA-operated flight for comparison.  Thanks to BA fuel surcharges, the award has fuel surcharges baked into its cost of $435.20.

For comparison, the same award is bookable from British Airways and falls under the 25% off sale:

Based on yesterday’s analysis, booking now saves me about $75 in terms of Avios points at my cost of acquisition.  Even under optimistic assumptions about the cost of acquiring AAdvantage miles by credit card spending, there’s a gap of $245 ($225 versus $470) in acquisition costs.

This example shows the rub of the situation:  British Airways imposes asymmetric fuel surcharges for flights on the same route.  For the JFK-LHR flight, BA’s taxes and “fees” breakdown as follows:

In comparison, the total for LHR-JFK is $110.93 higher (due to UK Air Passenger Duty), but the fuel surcharge is $160.74 lower (despite eastbound flights being shorter and presumably having less fuel burn).

For eastbound flights, Avios, even under this promotion, is not a bargain if there are comparable AA-operated itineraries available.  For westbound flights, Avios is relatively competitive when considering the cost of acquisition, especially under this sale.

View from the Wing that Avios is offering a 6 day sale for 25% off points needed for award bookings originating from London.  The upcoming 30% transfer bonus from Membership Rewards starting December 3rd doesn’t quite coincide with the promotion.

The fuel surcharges for awards haven’t been reduced, so it’s important to determine whether this promotion makes sense (from the consumer-side).  As I’m US-based, my inclination is to book a one-way ex-London (to satisfy the promotion) and book an award with AA/UA to Europe.  With more careful planning, a full-fledged roundtrip booked under the promotion could be nested within a roundtrip award (or revenue trip) booked elsewhere.

As a justification for why one might pay for British Airways’ fuel surcharges on an award, there’s currently no saver business or first class availability on AA metal across the Atlantic at least without AA.com getting more creative than it currently knows how to be.  The taxes and fees of a standard award for LHR-JFK one-way on AA metal currently run $282.80 in a premium cabin.

British Airways metal offers far more plentiful premium cabin space.  Picking a random date to book a business class award on LHR-JFK, I turned up two different prices, one with AA and one with BA:

With a 20k point price disparity, the BA-booked award is a clear winner between the two.  The $269.10 in “fees” above and beyond a standard AA-ticketed and operated award is less than ideal, but the point disparity can largely justify it.  I can routinely earn Avios points at 0.75cpp (paying a small processing fee to charge my rent to my BA Visa) but I currently earn AA miles at 1.54cpm (by flying; if I had the AAdvantage cards, I could similarly run my rent through them to achieve 0.94cpm).  This brings the implicit cost of the miles for these awards to $225 and $770 (or $470 with an AAdvantage card), covering the difference in “fees.”

A LHR-SFO one-way booking in business class tells a similar story.

The BA-operated fuel surcharge across both carriers widens to about $301.  The gap in the implicit costs between AA-ticketed and operated and BA-ticketed and operated narrows to  an optimistic $188.75 to a realistic $488.75 ($281.25 versus $770/$470).

As I lack status with British Airways, the redeposit fee of 40 USD deters me from speculatively booking to my heart’s content (as I might with AA/UA awards), but this promotion leaves in inclined to firm up my plans more quickly than I would otherwise.

US CBP recently entered into a partnership with the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to permit Global Entry members (as well as NEXUS/Sentri members with GE) to use Australia’s electronic passport gates.

While I’m obviously 16 years of age, my 7 year old passport is showing its age… by lacking the RFID chip necessary to use the electronic gates.

United is offering 20% off the redemption cost of coach bookings made between now and November 15th to Europe for travel dates between January 15th, 2013 and March 13, 2013.  This brings the total for a US-Europe roundtrip to 48k miles from 60k miles.  The offer is restricted to United-operated flights and applicable to one-way tickets.

American’s off-peak period to Europe runs between October 15th and May 15th annually, bringing the total mileage cost down from 30k miles for a coach one-way to 20k miles.  Rather usefully, the off-peak price is applicable to British Airways-operated flights as well.  BA flights still carry the customary British Airways fuel surcharges, so an “award” with BA transatlantic segments could easily run as much as an outright revenue ticket.

US Airways offers its own off-peak awards for US Airways metal for itineraries between January 15th and February 28th.  In addition to their discount coach roundtrips for 35k miles, US Airways offers business class roundtrips for 60k miles.  While coach inventory seems plentiful, business class is a bit more disappointing:

The next leg of my business trip adventure involved a single night at the Sheraton La Jolla.

While property is visible from La Jolla Village Drive, its actual driveway is on a side street with minimal markings.

Like a few other Sheratons that I have stayed at, guest rooms were scattered among a few standalone buildings.

Most, but not quite all, of the doors to the right were “enhanced” rooms.  As an SPG Gold member, I received an “upgrade” to one of the rooms on the right with a view of the pool.

While my room was comfortable, I couldn’t help but shake that dated feel when contrasted with Westin.

In a rare business trip, I found myself spending 3 nights at the Westin Pasadena.

As I was checking in at 11AM, having made my way from the first flight in from New York, I did not have especially high expectations for my room.  The front desk found me a high floor room, 921.

At the door, I tried my keycard.  Nothing.  Figuring my swiping technique was somehow lacking, I tried a few more times.  Nothing.  To see if the lock was even powered, I swiped a Starbucks card.  Still nothing.

Thoroughly confused, I went back to the front desk.  The apologetic front desk clerk realized that I was actually supposed to be in room 912 and that the rate card was incorrectly marked for 921. My return to the 9th floor was far less eventful.

Lately, I’ve been noticing that I’ve been spoiled by the decor of Westins.  I’m perfectly willing to admit that it could just be an elaborate marketing gimmick (or success, for that matter), but the rooms at Sheratons lately have felt much more… tired.

Before I find myself taking back everything I said about Westin, the white balance of my camera was off.

While I didn’t choose the hotel, Starwood’s current Better by the Night promotion, offering triple points on 3+ night stays, worked out nicely.  Ordinarily, I’m much more stay rather than night-driven, as I tend to make only brief stops in locations and to try to maximize stay-based bonuses (and progress towards elite status).

I’ve started a listing of the best options for purchasing points outright.  While these are only occasionally a good value, the option to buy points can often be useful in topping up  an account for a specific award redemption.

Club Carlson is offering a 50% bonus on points purchases from now through November 10th, 2012.  As points are normally priced at $7 per 1k points, this brings the cost to $4.67 per 1k points.  Club Carlson imposes a 40k points per year purchase cap (or under this promotion, effectively 60k points).

Carlson’s top-tier properties normally run 50k points.  While there have been far cheaper ways of obtaining 50k points historically, purchasing points can be cheaper than paying the nightly room rate.  For one night in Paris, July 12th-13th room rates for the Radisson properties are hovering around $410+.  In comparison, buying 50k points would cost $233.33 under this promotion.

Club Carlson offers additional redemption options in the form of transfers to airlines.

• 2k points to 250 airline miles (8:1)
• 50k points to 8k airline miles (6.25:1)
• 100k points to 18k airline miles (5.56:1)

United is currently running a tiered bonus scheme for transfers from hotel programs to Mileage Plus through November 30th:

• Transfer in 5k miles: 1k bonus.
• Transfer in 10k miles: 2.5k bonus
• Transfer in 25k miles: 5k bonus
• Transfer in 50k miles: 15k bonus

While Loyalty Traveler discusses converting Carlson Points to United Miles en masse to take advantage of this.  Buying 60k points (for $280) for an account with orphaned (6k or more) Carlson points in it can be a viable option as well.  The combined 66k balance converts to 10k United miles hitting the 2.5k bonus tier.

Ordinarily, United charges $37.625/1k to buy miles directly.  This scheme, primed with a small amount of orphaned Club Carlson points, brings the cost down to about 2.24cpm.

Last weekend was an adventure, to put it mildly. I was visiting San Jose on a $233 United fare that I had booked back in June, out Saturday and back Sunday night.

Standing in line at LGA to board, I ran into another FlyerTalker who I met on the $120 NYC-PDX fare.   While I mostly napped on my LGA-DEN leg, I ended up getting asked by my seatmate about what she could do in San Jose… for 6 hours while waiting for her flight back.   Under most normal circumstances, this question would puzzle someone; but I apparently have a “FlyerTalk vibe,” so there was no confusion about what was going on.

Saturday night, I get an email from United telling me my Monday morning CLE-LGA flight is cancelled, beginning my string of flight cancellations up until Wednesday morning.  Placed on a map, my various reroutes gave impressive coverage from a single, SJC-NYC one-way trip.

Due to automatic rebookings, it’s very likely I overlooked a few flights:

1. Morning SJC-LAX flight, connecting to UA1001, LAX-EWR.  UA1001 cancels at 8AM.
2. Rebooked at SJC to AA, AA1922 to AA746, SJC-DFW-LGA.  AA746 cancels at 9:30AM.
3. Rebooked AA1530, SJC-ORD, then connecting to AA392, ORD-LGA, on Tuesday.  While I was eating lunch, AA392 got cancelled 2 days in advance.
4. At the ORD Admirals Club, I got rebooked on AA366 for Wednesday.  I ultimately move it to AA398, the 6AM Wednesday departure, over the phone.  It got cancelled Tuesday morning.
5. I got rebooked on AA2488, ORD-BOS, ultimately  moving onto the earlier departure, AA1184, on Tuesday.

As this itinerary ultimately left me with two overnights in Chicago, I wound up staying at the aloft Chicago O’Hare (which is identical to past alofts I have visited) for 4k SPG points and then the Sheraton Chicago O’Hare on a 2.8k/$45 cash and points rate.  I booked a two room suite, which is uncommon for a basic points redemption.  Check-in required prompting to receive internet for free ($9.95/nt otherwise) as my Gold amenity.

My one and only complaint with the room itself was its proximity to the elevators.

Otherwise, I had exactly what I was promised, a two-room suite.

As I was staying on a weeknight, the hotel was charging about $210/nt for prepaid, nonrefundable rates and $249/nt for flexible rates.  In comparison, using the cost of replacement for the points, my nightly rate was approximately $123/nt and fully flexible (cancel by 6PM on the day of arrival).

Nonetheless, as ill-advised as flying into a hurricane might be, buying a walk-up fare on American Sunday morning for ~$480 would have cost about as much as my two nights in Chicago, a one-way car rental from Boston, gas, and tolls ultimately did for my return to New York.

SPG is currently running a 20% off promotion on purchased SPG points, bringing the cost down to $28 per 1k points.  SPG limits accounts to purchasing 20k points per year.  The promotion ends November 30th, 2012.

If tied to particular redemption plans, buying points can capture value.

• My night at the Sheraton London Heathrow was a Cat 2 weekend redemption for 3k points, saving $100 (3.3cpp).
• My stay at the Sheraton Brussels Airport was a Cat 4 cash and points redemption for 4k points and $60, saving $180 net–from a normal $240 nightly room rate (4.5cpp).
• Loyalty Traveler demonstrates value in purchasing points to stay at the Westin Resort and Spa, Ka’anapali.   Similarly, there is value for the other Starwood properties (4.83cpp as an outright award for the Sheraton and 2.99cpp for cash and points at the Westin Resort Villas):

Even in “low-value” territory close to the 2.8cpp price, award bookings can offer flexibility that the lowest rates don’t carry.

I am exceedingly late to the party announcing double redeemable and elite qualifying miles on American Airlines as an apology for recent operational performance troubles, but here goes.

For everyone, AA is offering:

• Double EQMs between November 1st and December 31st.
• Double RDMs between November  16th and November 26th.

For elites, the double RDM window spans the entirety of November and December.

The promotion requires registration by December 31st with code AATHX and is good on all ticketed itineraries, even those purchased before November 1st.  Double miles (whether elite or redeemable) are restricted to AA marketed and operated flights.

Try as I might to not look a gift horse in the mouth, the extra EQM do little to convince me to hop on a few more AA planes than I already was going to.  (The redeemable miles, on the other hand…)

American Airlines has been offering significantly discounted first class fares lately.  Last month, The Points Guy advertised this as a great deal that had all the appearances of ending quickly. To put this into perspective, consider flying from JFK to SFO on January 18th.

The “First Special” fare on AA85 (operated by a two-cabin 767-300 with international business class seats) is being sold for $442 one-way, a premium of $274 over the cheapest available coach fare.  ITA offers us a glimpse into where AA stands amongst other carriers:

Jetblue does not offer a first class cabin and Alaska’s nonstops on this route are coach codeshares operated by American and Delta.

Excluding American from the picture, the closest we come is Delta with a connection.  For a nonstop, this is an outlandishly low fare.  ITA indicates that the $442 price is based on the SA14ERP1 fare code.  ExpertFlyer gets confused by this code, but ITA exposes the full (and correct) fare rules:

``` Flight Restrictions: AND - FOR TRAVEL ON/AFTER 08JAN 13 AND ON/BEFORE 01APR 13 THE FARE COMPONENT MUST NOT BE ON ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING AA FLIGHTS 1 THROUGH 4 AA FLIGHT 10 AA FLIGHT 12 AA FLIGHTS 15 THROUGH 17 AA FLIGHT 18 AA FLIGHT 19 AA FLIGHT 21 AA FLIGHT 22 AA FLIGHT 30 AA FLIGHT 32 AA FLIGHTS 33 THROUGH 34 AA FLIGHT 40 AA FLIGHT 59 AA FLIGHTS 117 THROUGH 118 AA FLIGHT 133 AA FLIGHT 177 AA FLIGHT 178 AA FLIGHT 180 AA FLIGHT 181 AA FLIGHT 185 AA FLIGHT 201 AA FLIGHT 252 AA FLIGHT 277 AA FLIGHT 299 AA FLIGHT 1520.

Application:

ECONOMY FARE WITH AN INSTANT ONE-CLASS UPGRADE AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE TO FIRST/BUSINESS. APPLICATION CLASS OF SERVICE THESE FARES APPLY FOR ECONOMY CLASS SERVICE. CAPACITY LIMITATIONS SEATS ARE LIMITED BOTH ECONOMY AND FIRST CLASS BOOKING INVENTORIES MUST BE AVAILABLE AT TIME OF BOOKING. THESE FARES PERMIT A ONE-CLASS UPGRADE AT THE TIME OF BOOKING. ```

The excluded flight numbers involve domestically-operated, three-cabin aircraft.   Further, this leads to some odd quirks for last minute bookings.  If I wanted to get on an AA plane bound for SFO in 14 hours, the price gap narrows:

Discount first class is a mere $159 above discount coach.  Without Executive Platinum status (or with a companion), I would need to spend six 500 mile stickers (at a cost of $30/each if bought outright) and still gamble on the upgrade.  FlyerTalk is in an uproar, but the whole situation feels reminiscent of Alaska Airlines’ approach to pricing first class:  Sell it at a sane price and wind up with more revenues.

This year, I’m going to spend roughly $4k to earn about 110k EQMs on American (~3.63cpm).  If I were simply out to requalify for Executive Platinum (since the EXP desk adds considerable value above and beyond upgrades) with minimal flying, I could book these fares and qualify on EQP (at 1.5x the flight distance) by flying about 67k miles at a cost of $11.4k or so.  It’s not a bargain, but it’s a far lower price premium than normally exists for purchased first class.

As a follow-up to last month’s 100% bonus on shared miles, US Airways is now offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles to the general public.

US is charging $37.625 per 1k miles (inclusive of taxes), bringing the total cost for 100k miles to $1881.25.