Tagging Miles

A look back at 2017 – travel and predictions

By 2 Comments





This time of year its nice to do a little navel gazing and take a look back at 2017. 

A Look Back at 2017 Travel

For me, 2017 was a drastically different year of travel than any of the previous 5 years. Just take a look at my travel map (courtesy of gcmap.com):

A look back at 2017 travel, courtesy of gcmap.com

A look back at 2017 travel, courtesy of gcmap.com

By the numbers:

  • 110,953 miles flown — this is much less than 2016 or 2015!
  • 11 Countries visited (12 including the US)
  • 2 New Countries (Malaysia and Laos)
  • 21 Southwest Flights – That companion pass has been very valuable for us!
  • 2 JetBlue Mint flights (and newly minted Mosaic status)

While the map certainly tells the story of leveraging Southwest Flights, but doesn’t really speak to the “why.”

Largely this year’s focus for travel was on important people and events. Nearly every single personal trip I made was focused on seeing specific people, while some were even focused on people and events. In past years, my focus was more on a new country, or a new place to see, a new airline product to fly. This year my wife and I threw that out of the window–with the exception of our annual trip to Bali.

This year we also had the chance to attend Oktoberfest–with a big group of friends which made the trip so much better! Later this week we’ll be driving up to Sydney, to ring in the new year–a bucket list item.

We also got to see tons of friends, for which I was even willing to sacrifice comfort and fly Southwest to make it happen. 

A note on Southwest: I realize I’ve got a reputation for flying in premium cabins. Flying Southwest was certainly humbling compared. That said, the value of the companion pass is hard to counter. Nearly every flight my wife and I took, we compared it to American, where we have top tier status–and a decent chance of an upgrade–in every single case, Southwest was cheaper when you are only paying for 1 person plus the September 11th fee on the second. Its hard to argue with that math.

2017 Predictions

Like many, I made some predictions for the year ahead in the miles, points, travel, credit card and reselling worlds. 

Doctor of Credit did an assessment of his and others–and I’m appreciative that he included mine. He only covered a subset, and lets just say that I didn’t rate terribly well with only 2/4 rated. I guess I’ve got some work toward becoming the next Nostradamus! 

A couple of highlights:

Reselling – Amazon has found new ways to counter counterfeiters however they haven’t been rolling them out to all of us third party resellers just yet. We’ve seen varying ebbs and flows of category and brand restrictions, some popping up literally over night. Overall though, online and retail arbitragers dodged the bullet this year. Even better, I think the consensus is that the restrictions and some of the other things in the works are actually working to counter counterfeiters.

Loyalty – I think I was pretty much entirely wrong here. Alaska’s award chart is largely intact–I suspect because of the Virgin America merger. Marriott-SPG has made small announcements, but they haven’t yet figured out how to combine systems, so I think all parties are happy for the time being. There’s been no new level of award redemption, however American has continued to make us question whether they ever release award space… But there’s always the opportunity to redeem 10,000 Delta SkyMiles for a bottle of Krug!

Wrapping Up

Overall, 2017 has been a different year for me. I’ve seen parts of the US that I had long been neglecting. Some of those parts, I’ve returned back to multiple times this year because they are so awesome. This year is also perhaps the first year that I’ve seen more friends either in their home areas or my own, rather than running into them in airports or the other side of the world. 

For me, what 2017 boils down to, is that there are so many different ways to make travel work for you. There are so many different priorities that travel can help you to actualize. That’s the key. Fulfillment, not copious amounts of Krug served on EVA Air, or flying the Emirates A380 in First Class. Unless of course that is fulfillment (it was for me a few years ago!).

Honest Airline Slogans, US Airline Consolidation, Get Points for Southwest’s Snafu

By 1 Comment

The Weekly Travel News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

weekly travel news

Tagging Miles:

 

Receive points for Last Week’s Southwest Reservation System Issue

By 6 Comments

I’m not sure how widely known last week’s Southwest Reservation System Issue was, but I did happen to see random mentions about it on twitter. Thinking back to the flight my wife and I took on Sunday where folks were saving seats rows away with their bags, I do recall the A List section of the boarding line seemed pretty thin. My wife even commented that she got a worse boarding number than me with no status (hah!), and when she boarded between A and B, that her A List status didn’t even show. Luckily the gate agent was amenable.

Last Week’s Southwest Reservation System Issue

The Points Guy reported that Southwest had an issue with their reservation system: 

“As a result, A-List and A-List Preferred members have had to manually check in 24 hours in advance of their flight, resulting in B and C boarding positions. Southwest has since sent out an email to its elite members”

Even worse, it appears that status has been removed from future reservations as well. So, check your reservations!

Points for Last Week’s Southwest Reservation System Issue

As I mentioned, my wife experienced this issue. At the time, we didn’t really know that it was so widespread. Just figured with Southwest’s Reservation System Upgrade that there was some gremlin. Learning that it was more widespread, we probably should have called and asked nicely for something. But we didn’t — only so much time in the day. 

Much to my wife’s surprise, last night she received the below e-mail, coming with it, 1,500 Rapid Rewards points that count toward status!

Southwest Reservation System Issue

Its not a lot of points, but it is certainly a nice tangible gesture. 

Did you experience any issues with Southwest last weekend? Did you receive a similar e-mail? 

Can you save a seat on Southwest?

By 11 Comments

This past weekend, my wife and I flew southwest down to Orlando for ResellingDO 5. On the flight home we saw a curious sight: bags were left on a couple of seats. It made me ask the question – can you save a seat on Southwest?

save a seat on southwest

Southwest’s policy

Logically, I turned to Twitter to ask Southwest. I was surprised with their response:
 
 save a seat on southwest
 
It seems like a reasonable thing for Southwest to do – that is, having no policy on the matter. I could see how enforcing such a policy could become contentious.
 
In my mind though, there shouldn’t be a need for a policy because people should have follow standard etiquette and be considerate. Taking the entire 3rd row on one side of the aircraft seems pretty inconsiderate and downright selfish to me.
 
Some folks on twitter weighed in:
 
save a seat on southwest
 
There is also the security aspect. For all intents and purposes, these bags were left unattended. A reasonable person might assume that the owners of these bags are onboard, but I have seen people deboard aircraft before. Yes, these bags were likely screened by TSA’s finest, but it still gives me pause to see unattended bags.

More details on the folks that saved the seats

It was not truly apparent upon boarding, but I will share what I think happened. When I boarded as A52, I saw row 1 ABC and DEF filled (well, DEF had 2 people but one looked like a gentleman of size, so giving him the benefit of the doubt that he purchased a second seat). I observed folks seated in row 2 ABC passing things back and forth with row 1, and there were interactions with row 3. Row 3 ABC was where bags were left. What I can surmise from this, is that ~4 members of the family pre-boarded, and saved seats for the remainder of the family. This took up 12 seats in the first 3 rows. 

I think Susan said it best:

save a seat on southwest

So, can you save a seat on Southwest?

The answer to this is simple, per Southwest, there is no policy for or against this practice. 
 
But I would offer that the question really is: Should you save a seat on Southwest? What about an entire row when not a single seat is occupied in that row? I would say no.  
 
To me, I might be more understanding if folks are trying to save seats further back in the aircraft, but seeing row 3 reserved (and I boarded as A52) seems incredibly inconsiderate. 
 
What do you think? Is saving an entire row on Southwest ok?

Earn 8,000 bonus miles from Airline Shopping Portals!

By Leave a Comment

It is back to school season, and so it is yet another opportunity to earn extra miles through airline shopping portals! I’ve written a bunch about the power of shopping portals, and how you can increase your miles and points balances through shopping portals. This is a great opportunity to do just that, thanks to American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines.

Delta SkyMiles Shopping 

Delta is unfortunately the least rewarding, requiring up to $350 spend to earn 1,000 miles, that’s only slightly more than 2x.

airline shopping portals

 

AAdvantage eShopping 

American Airlines is offering up to 2,000 bonus miles for shopping now through 18 August. Total spend is only $500, so you’re essentially getting an extra 4x miles if you get to that level.

airline shopping portals

 

Rapid Rewards Mall

Southwest is only slightly less rewarding, offering 2,000 after $550 spend, which is slightly less than 4x.

airline shopping portals

MileagePlus Shopping

United is the most rewarding offering 3,000 miles after $600 spend, or  5x.

airline shopping portals

Final Thoughts – Earn 8,000 bonus miles from Airline Shopping Portals

While 8,000 bonus miles is not a ton, every little bit helps toward accruing enough miles to redeem for awards. More importantly, shopping portals are in general a great way to keep miles balances active too, and with these bonuses, you get a little extra bang for your buck. 

Dual Door Deplaning, British Airways’ IT Outage, Losing Global Entry, Tons of Southwest!

By Leave a Comment

The Weekly Travel News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

  • Last weekend British Airways became the latest airline to have a colossal IT failure. Seth Miller for Runway Girl Network covers some of the compounding mis-steps that BA made during that outage.
  • Southwest and reportedly Alaska are testing out dual door deplaning. It’s a great idea. I wish it were feasible everywhere.
  • Two business travellers, one with status, one with out. Ed calls it: The Hunger Games. I think that’s a pretty good approximation.
  • A fellow blogger got his Global Entry revoked, and you’ll never guess why. I personally find it appalling.

Miles, Points, Cashback:

Tagging Miles:

Southwest’s New Seat

By 3 Comments

Lately I’m flying Southwest more than I ever imagined. At least I’ve been able to avoid Seat 28B. It comes down to a different value of time. But I’m impressed with Southwest’s New Seat.

I was rather impressed though with my most recent flight though, which was on their new 737-800.

Southwest 737-800

You see, despite flying more than half a dozen Southwest flights this year, this was my first time flying on Southwest’s newest seat developed by B/E Aerospace. Cranky Flier wrote about these seats in 2015. Here’s what the seat looks like:

Southwest's new Seat 

The seat is an improvement and not. 

Southwest’s New Seat – Improvements

The seat has adjustable headrests. Headrests! The new American Airlines and legacy US Airways economy seats don’t even have headrests. I find them to be that little bit of comfort when you’re in the back of the plane–or in Southwest’s case, that means, behind the cockpit.

Also enhanced is the way Southwest has moved around the seat pocket.

Southwest New Seat

Its perhaps a bit tougher to see, but the literature is actually above the tray table, much like we see on Lufthansa’s regional flights. There’s an added webbing area below the tray table for personal items which I think is a much better approach. 

Southwest’s new seat lacks cushion!

Unfortunately, while Southwest did show some Luv for our necks and heads, they showed none for our behinds or backs. This seat is downright uncomfortable. The seat bottom felt like there was very little cushion at all and was uncomfortable before we even reached cruising altitude. The seat felt reasonable firm to start with, but for a 3 hour plus flight, it became downright uncomfortable far too quickly. 

While I didn’t look around, I didn’t notice any power or USB ports obviously placed either. 

Final Thoughts

I love seeing that Southwest now has headrests, I just wish it didn’t come at the cost of similar amounts of cushioning in the seat bottom.  Overall though, I think the seat is a positive move for Southwest. Headrests are good, and the movement of the literature storage helps to make the seat feel more roomy. It might not be much, but its that little bit more that is helpful. 

 

The Southwest Saga 2017, 2017 Predictions, 2016 Navel Gazing

By Leave a Comment

The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

The Southwest Saga 2017:

Miles and Points:

Tagging Miles:

 

Amazing SPG Transfer Opportunity, or is it?

By 1 Comment

There has been much ink spilled on the amazing SPG Transfer opportunity to Virgin America, and onward to Alaska to get a whopping 1:1.652 transfer ratio by the end.
 
Well, on Wednesday, the option to transfer to Virgin America at a 1:1 rate seemed to have gone down. The Twittersphere went crazy. Bloggers had killed another deal!
 
Then the following Thursday morning, the option returned.

Why jumping in on this Amazing SPG Transfer Opportunity

My valuation of SPG points have increased significantly over the past few years. I’ve only stayed at a handful of SPG properties, but I’ve been a credit card holder for years, and in fact, my SPG Business AMEX is my first go to, for my reselling business. In fact, I actually used points for my recent stay at the Westin Playa Conchal and can’t wait to return!
 
In the past year, SPG points have proved exceptionally valuable. 
 
Case 1: Time sensitive promotions to be ready to jump on
Earlier in the year, they were the best opportunity to transfer to Virgin America to participate JetBlue’s rather incredible points balance match  – lets say you had a single point in your Virgin America account, transferring 40,000 SPG points to Virgin America would net you 50,000 Virgin America points + 75,000 JetBlue points for a ratio of 1:3.125.
 
Case 2: Transfer SPG to Marriott
Also, rather popular this year, is the fact that as part of the Marriott-Starwood merger, you can now transfer SPG points to Marriott Rewards, at a ratio of 1:3.
 
You can further leverage Marriott vacation packages both 7 night and an even more attractive 5 night option. 
 
The key here is that you get 7 nights, for example, in a Category 1-5 Hotel, and 100,000 points transferred to the airline of your choice (perhaps Alaska Air?) for 250,000 points… essentially you are paying an average of 21.4k Marriott Points, and you get to “convert” 100,000 points to 100,000 Alaska miles at a 1:1 ratio. So, while you might not get 65% more miles, you get a stay and get to “wash” your miles into a variety of currencies. 
 

Conclusion

I’m not trying to say that one option is better than any other option. Rather, I want to highlight the fact that what one or more individuals call an “Awesome Deal” may not necessarily be an Awesome Deal for you. The fact of the matter is, at this stage in the game, a deal is incredibly personal. Even the JetBlue match of Virgin America balance, is not a meaningful deal for someone in some areas of the US (and even less a deal for non US readers). Every situation is different, and I think we all need to acknowledge that, and as Matt said recently, we need to be open to saying that we DGAF.

Southwest Companion Pass and Corporate Responsibility

By 22 Comments

Today we learn of news of Southwest’s changes to the Southwest Companion Pass, and how the needed 110,000 Rapid Rewards points are calculated, or rather, what points count, and what points do not count. I can’t say that this surprises me. While many would like to blame Bloggers for killing the deal, I would rather ask the question of Corporate Responsibility. 

Lets accept the fact that many bloggers blogged about the Southwest Companion Pass and the different ways you can get it. I won’t even bother to link to such posts because they were a dime a dozen. It was a great deal, it really was. But lets look at the others side:

Timing

Ok, so, lets think like a Southwest Rapid Rewards program executive. I’m seeing tons of different posts about how people can get the Southwest Companion Pass without flying my airline. I need to put a stop to this! 

I’m thinking that if such an executive were to believe this, that they would’ve made either (1) a no-notice change, or (2) an announcement now and change to come, right?

No, instead, they choose to make the changes at the start of the new year. While this is probably logical, in that, it doesn’t hurt Southwest by leaving the door open until 1 January, it probably hurt others.

Lets look at a few data points:

I did a single search and here’s what I got:

Southwest Corporate Responsibility

Ok, that’s not necessarily the point I was getting at, but, let me play things out further.

For example, Deals We Like blogged about how you can buy Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points at 50% off, and then transfer them to Marriott (getting 3 Marriott Rewards Points per 1 SPG point), and then get a Marriott Points and Hotel Vacation package, including getting 100,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points.

And Deals we Like is not the only one who blogged about it! Many discussed the idea of buying points specifically for the purposes of getting the Southwest Companion Pass.

Getting to Corporate Responsibility

What I’m getting at is the fact that anyone at Southwest that saw how much press their Companion Pass was getting, would similarly see the different ways that one could accrue sufficient points to get that Companion Pass. It seems to me that it is very irresponsible of Southwest to make a change on 1 January, when in fact many people would have already made significant purchases in order to have sufficient points for the new year.

So while we many will argue that Bloggers kill deals.  But, on that logic, if the airlines and hotel companies are reading these blogs, then shouldn’t they be responsible too? Sure, kill a deal. But have some Corporate Responsibility. Don’t leave a deal out there until just before everyone wants to jump on it. Southwest likely didn’t gain anything by waiting. SPG-Marriott probably got a ton. Chase maybe even some, but Southwest, the primary offender in this case, got nothing. Whereas, they could’ve probably saved many people some angst by announcing significantly earlier.

What do you think? Should Southwest get some of the blame here?

Note: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. The owners of this website may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links and advertisements posted on this website. For more information, please see our Legal Notice.