Tagging Miles

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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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?

Are Southwest Points worthwhile, with a Chase Sapphire Reserve?

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A friend of mine MilesWhip pointed out to me a rather significant development with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. He pointed out that Southwest Points are no longer valuable if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve. While I don’t fly Southwest often, I do fly Southwest a few times a year.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Reserve, courtesy of ThePointsGuy.

Why do I say this? Because, if you go based on the argument that Southwest Points are worth roughly 1.5 cents per point, and you can book travel via the Ultimate Rewards Travel (over the phone), with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you get 1.5 cents per dollar. In other words, you get the same value, however, going through Ultimate Rewards, you can still earn Southwest Points on your flight.

So lets break this down to the options once you have Chase Ultimate Rewards points:

  • You could transfer points to Southwest and then book awards at roughly 1.5 cents of value, and earn nothing for your travel.
  • You could use Ultimate Rewards Travel and book flights on Southwest for 1.5 cents per point, and earn Southwest Points for your travel.
  • You could transfer your ultimate rewards points to United and fly Lufthansa First Class. Ok… maybe not that.

And if you have a Southwest Companion Pass, fear not, booking through Ultimate Rewards Travel is no problem. Book your ticket, then call up Southwest and add in the companion pass. Simple as that.

Conclusion

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve, transferring Ultimate Rewards to Southwest doesn’t make sense. You can actually earn more by booking through Ultimate Rewards.

Cuba’s hot now, is Pacific travel the next thing? Plus more on the Chase Sapphire Reserve!

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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:

Miles and Points:

  • Doctor of Credit has even more intel on the Chase Sapphire Reserve!
  • Miles to Memories has a new cheaper way to get 5x at Office Depot. I’m also part of the Travel Hacking 101 group that this came out of – if you’re not in that group, you should be.
  • United has long been known for having very relaxed routing rules. Unfortunately, as One Mile at a Time reports, this appears to be changing. Things are still a little murky, and, rules are usually enforced via IT, and well, we know, IT is hard. More to come, but, at a minimum, book any awards you know about, before October 6!
  • Travel Codex has a guide on searching for award travel on Air France.
  • Gary has a great post on Korean Air SkyPass.

Tagging Miles:

What is left In North America post-British Airways 4,500 avios award?

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roadstocompanionpass

Last week, I asserted that British Airways taking award the 4,500 Avios point award in North America was not the end of the world.

I may have been shortsighted. For my  personal travel patterns, this change sucks, but it isn’t the end of the world for me. But, my travel patterns aren’t yours.

Reader Jessica rightly stated that for some, this can be a big hit. I still personally believe that no award chart change or devaluation should be the end of the world, as, your mileage account is not your retirement account (believe me the past few months have seen the market issue big hits in that regard!). That said, Jessica makes a very valid point, in that this change will hurt some-perhaps many-more than others.

So what alternatives exist?

For those who can and do Manufacture Spend, hopefully you weren’t hurt by the demise of RedBird, but as long as you can still MS, then you just scale up (unless of course your chosen method can’t scale further), then you need to open the aperture. The Saverocity Forums level 2 have great options here.

For those that don’t MS as much

Credit card sign ups, I don’t often advocate them, but right now the Chase British Airways card has a 50k offer after $2k spend, and if you can do more, $20k spend will get you a total of 100k Avios points. That’s a lot of spending, but it is even more points. Even at 7,500 points per award, that at least extends your options.

Look at other programs

American Airlines AAdvantage saver awards, I think are 12.5k for contiguous North America.

Southwest, as reader Horace commented, could be an option. You can also get 2 Chase Southwest cards for 106k points after meeting minimum spend and spending another $4k doesn’t seem all that hard for organic spend. Just make sure you don’t earn the bonuses until January, then you get 2 years with a Companion Pass.

As an aside, last year, I got a Southwest Companion Pass without a single credit card application, but that isn’t for everyone.

You could open the aperture even more, let’s say you like Ultimate Rewards Points (and don’t we all love getting 5x points!), well they transfer to United Airlines Mileage Plus for 10-12.5k Saver in the contiguous North America. Or transfer to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer, for again 12.5k saver awards.

Wrapping Up

So while British Airways takes away a great award, there a handful of other “cheap” options, none as inexpensive as the 4,500 avios point award. That doesn’t take away the sting of British Airways’s decision to remove the 4,500 avios point award. But hopefully these alternatives at least show where the proverbial goal posts now stand.

Southwest, British Airways, and Tax Day – April Woes

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Current Southwest Livery

I’m not sure why, but it seems like April is a popular time for devaluations to go into effect this year; worse yet, this is the week! So, just a few reminders for you:

Southwest introduces “dynamic pricing” beginning 17 April 

Kenny over at Miles4More wrote up a good post about the murkyness that was Southwest’s announcement. I think either way you look at it, this change is going to be for the worse, so if you have Southwest Rapid Rewards points, and have even the tiniest inkling that you may be traveling somewhere through the end of their schedule, book now. Southwest doesn’t charge any cancellation fees, so you really have nothing to lose. I still stick to my belief that this could hurt Southwest more than its customers.

British Airways Executive Club devaluation kicks in 28 April

This one will hurt. Gary at View From the Wing has a good overview of the changes. This hurts those that want to use Avios points for premium awards most. British Airways is putting in a 4th “tier” aka Premium Economy. Essentially, Economy will be priced as x (lets say 50k points, which is the highest I think), Premium Economy will then double that (100k points), Business will triple the cost of economy (150k points), and First Class will be quadruple the cost of economy (200k points). So if you had an designs to fly Aer Lingus from Boston to Dublin, or other Avios sweet spots – book before 28 April.

Friendly reminder: Wednesday, 15 April is tax day

Yeah, I figured I’d throw all the bad stuff in one post, so, don’t forget to do your taxes, if you haven’t already done them.

Could Southwest’s pending devaluation hurt it more than us?

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Southwest Rapid Rewards Program Updates

Historically,  Southwest has had more simple frequent flyer programs. Back under Rapid Rewards 1.0 they kept it so simple you only needed credits, which had no linkage to fare prices, segments, or distance flown. Rapid Rewards 2.0 and 2.1 still stuck with a simple approach of fixed earning values and fixed redemptions-just with 3 tiers/levels.

The part that seemed to work best for Rapid Rewards 2.0 was that the required points automatically increased as Southwest tweaked fares upward. So for Business Select redemption, you’d need 120 points per dollar, for an Anytime redemption, 100 points per dollar, and for a Wanna Get Away fare, you’d need 60 70 points per dollar of the fare. Here’s Southwest’s original example:

Source: http://reservefirstclass.com/airline/southwest/

Source: http://reservefirstclass.com/airline/southwest/

Looking toward Southwest’s Rapid Rewards 2.2

Its been reported that there will be further details that will be made available by Southwest on 19 February, so yes, this is pure speculation, but as you’ll see in a moment, I’m not speculating about particular city pairs, so much as potential impacts to the greater program.

I would offer that Southwest’s simple frequent flyer program concepts were not just easy for flyers but also saved on Southwest’s own overhead. By moving to dynamic pricing, could Southwest actually be shooting themselves in the foot? Could this move leave more loopholes for travel hackers to find, and open Southwest to mistake good deal fares redemptions like other airlines have endured with their more complex programs? I think so. In fact, I think Southwest would have been better to have just increased the required points per redemption, its simple, its easy, and it aligns to Southwest’s general messaging – you know what you’re going to get with Southwest. I would argue that with dynamic pricing, you won’t know what you’ll get.

So to summarize: This change, based on what we know now, is not good for consumers, and it may very well end up not being good for Southwest itself. The silver lining, could be for those of us that look for good deals, and some of folks who probably know the program better than Southwest themselves. In short: Simple is best for everyone, dynamic could backfire.

What do you think? Will this impending change open up a whole new can of worms for Southwest?

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