The best award redemptions are often the most boring. I truly do make every effort to use my miles for aspirational business and first class redemptions that I would never otherwise be willing to pay for out-of-pocket. But lately,...
No Voluntary Downgrades On Emirates Award Tickets
Mixed cabin awards are a tricky proposition when it comes to Emirates Skywards bookings. As counterintuitive as it sounds, you may end up paying more for business class than first class. Mixed Cabin Emirates Skywards Bookings Can Be Pricey...
United No Longer Publishes Star Alliance Award Chart
United Airlines has removed its Star Alliance award chart from its website. Are prices on partner awards about to go up further? While chatting with a United spokesperson about the changes to earning on partner flights, she volunteered that...
American AAdvantage Bolsters European Award Travel
American Airlines AAdvantage has re-designated Morocco from Africa to Europe, a move that will be an objective net positive for most AAdvantage members. You’ll now have more options for using your miles to travel between North America and Europe...
Alaska Airlines Violates Our Trust…Again
Overnight, Alaska made two substantial changes to its MileagePlan program, resulting in many partner awards pricing significantly higher today than yesterday. I’ll say it bluntly: Alaska Airlines violated our trust once again and should be ashamed of itself. As...
Singapore Award Space Blocking On Alaska Airlines
You can now redeem Alaska MileagePlan miles for worldwide travel on Singapore Airlines. How does award space access compare to Singapore’s other partners and Singapore’s own KrisFlyer program? After announcing a partnership in 2017, Alaska MileagePlan members can finally...
The Elusive Future Of Dynamic Partner Award Pricing On United
Keep calm. United Airlines is not engaging in dynamic pricing of partner awards. However, it seems all but inevitable that day will come. It’s all about the award chart… One Mile at a Time noted language on united.com yesterday...
Cathay Pacific Awards On AA.com = Very Bad News
Cathay Pacific flight awards are now easily bookable on aa.com using miles. What could be the downside? A big one, as it turns out. Cathay Pacific awards have always been bookable using your American Airlines miles. In the past,...
Sometimes The Best Use Of Miles Is For The Cheap Seats
121Pilot, a commercial airline pilot and frequent contributor to Live and Let’s Fly, offers his thoughts on why economy class redemptions can make so much sense. As an airline pilot I have access to free travel on the airline...
EL AL Foreshadows A Horrible, Valueless Airline Loyalty Program
EL AL Israel Airlines is moving from the absurd to the insane…and without advance notice. EL AL either has a very high self-esteem or considers its Matmid loyalty customers to be a bunch of suckers. Redemption values have been...
How To Waste Your Alaska Miles: Aer Lingus Edition
You can now use your Alaska Airlines miles to book award travel on Aer Lingus. But on most days you shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t. We’ve waited a year, but Alaska finally Notice the variable pricing. Prices ranges from 60K-280K...
Big Problems Booking Lufthansa First Class Awards With United Airlines
15 May 2019 UPDATE: United has resolved this issue. The United Airlines award search tool is currently broken when it comes to first class awards on Lufthansa. At the moment, there is not a fix for it. See below...
Book Cathay Pacific First Class For 14K Chase Points
You can sample the luxurious Cathay Pacific first class lounges in Hong Kong and get a taste for Cathay Pacific’s acclaimed first class product for only 14K Chase points. That’s a value worth considering if you’re in the area....
Why The Value Of Your AA Miles Just Increased
American Airlines miles are now more valuable than they were last week…all thanks to a small modification to arcane routing rules on one partner airline. Put simply, AA has a general rule that you cannot transit “third regions” when making...
An Unattractive Alaska Mileage Plan Redemption Becomes Even More Unattractive
Prices are going up for economy class award redemptions on Icelandair using Alaska Airlines’ miles. Put another way, a poor value will become an even poorer value. Alaska has many superb partners in its Mileage Plan program. It also...
Book Delta Awards With Virgin Atlantic, Not Delta
It merits mentioning just what an incredible deal your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles are when redeeming on nonstop Delta flights, particularly in business class. We are in an odd era in which an airline charges significantly more miles...
ANA Award Space Blocked For United MileagePlus Members
Add ANA to the list of United MileagePlus Star Alliance partners that are currently not bookable using your United miles. This fix, however, will hopefully be quicker than the other partner award problems still present. Last night, All Nippon...
1-Day-Sale: Up To 40% Off United Awards To Tahiti
United Airlines is offering up to 40% off springtime award tickets to Tahiti for MileagePlus members. Depending upon your MileagePlus status, you can pay anywhere from 42K-49K round-trip for a trip to Tahiti in economy class. Taxes/fees will run...
Still No Fix For Key Partner Award Redemptions With United MileagePlus
Last month I noted that United is blocking partner award space on Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, and TAP Air Portugal. The problem has not been resolved. United still blames technical issues on the partner side for this problem and...
Lufthansa Spares Most Valuable US Award In Latest Miles & More Devaluation
Yesterday, Lufthansa announced an upcoming devaluation of its Miles & More award chart. Thankfully, the most valuable award for U.S. travelers was spared. Old award chart New award chart International longhaul awards are not a particularly good deal on...