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:

British Airways: I am not a Robot!

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For anyone who uses the British Airways Search Tool to search for award travel on OneWorld Alliance Airlines, you may be familiar with this sight:

British Airways

Now, if you use the British Airways search tool too much, you’ll see this so often that you may just start to wonder if you may actually be a robot. 

But, we all know:

British Airways, we are not robots! We are just travel hackers!

British Airways Gate 365 Shopping Portal

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There isn’t much chatter about the British Airways Gate 365 Shopping Portal, but there should be. Long time readers know that I’m a huge fan of shopping portals, because they allow you to get even more value from purchases you are already making. It should come as no surprise that British Airways Gate 365 portal has some nice finds.

About the British Airways Gate 365 Shopping Portal

British Airways officially renamed their eStore to Gate 365 in November of 2013, so it has been around for a while, but their US stores are somewhat limited. It does however have an excellent selection on the UK version of the site. Focusing on the US Gate 365 site, they highlight a few stores that are their “Most Popular” – and some are nice options to see:

Most Popular British Airways Gate 365 Stores

Most Popular British Airways Gate 365 Stores

I’m sure some don’t look terribly exciting, but on average Gate 365 is double or better most of the popular stores:

  • Best Buy, Ebay – 1x
  • Walmart, Target – 3x
  • Macy’s – 5x
  • L.L, Bean – 4x (quadruple other airline portals)

Wrapping Up

While none of the offers are the type that would spur me to start looking at a store for personal or reselling purposes, it is nice to see that Avios points an option to earn via British Airways Gate 365. Besides, it is always good to have alternative options when you’re shopping online. Even better, Gate 365 is showing up when you search for the best cashback at Cashback Monitor, one of my favorite reselling tools.

Have you made a purchase through Gate 365? Please share your experiences in the comments.

Saverocity Observation Deck 2015 Award Nominees – Part 2

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Last week, Joe from As the Joe Flies, Joe Cortez, and I convened to award the Saverocity Observation Deck 2015 End of Year Awards. Of course, this was a light hearted, and eggnog filled event. The actual podcast will be published in the near future, however we wanted to share the nominees ahead of time.

This post dovetailes with As the Joe Flies’ post on the Saverocity Observation Deck 2015 Award Nominees – Part 1, so definitely take a read there too.

Saverocity Observation Deck 2015 Award Nominees: Category 4 – The Deal of the Year

Discover’s 10x for Apple Pay

This is perhaps one of the most talked about promotions of the year. In fact, I even bought an iPhone to take advantage of it. The deal is this, you load your Discover card (which you hopefully have double cash back on, which makes it even better) into Apple Pay, then you go into your favorite stores, like Staples, Office Depot, Walgreens, and others, and pay via Apple Pay, and you get at least 10% cashback.

American Airlines’ $400 Mistake Business Class Fare to China

Earlier in the year, American Airlines had a mistake business class fare to China. Many took advantage of it, including Greg the Frequent Miler, who this year seems to be frequently flying. It was an absolutely awesome deal, because you could still upgrade to First, as many did. Of course, for those who just held their reservation, many found that American unilaterally cancelled it, although some were able to social engineer their way to a confirmed seat. Overall though, $400 for a business class trip to China is a huge deal.

American Express (AMEX) Offers

I think everyone would agree, this year was yet another great year of AMEX Offers. We also saw some of 2014’s innovations, including Offersbot, and SyncAssist get throttled by twitter. Regardless, there were some great offers, including $200 off a $1000 Virgin Atlantic purchase, $25 off a $200 Newegg purchase, as well as offers for Best Buy, Staples, and so many more.

Target Prepaid RedBird

I think many would agree, the Target RedBird was an amazing twist of fate. Here we were coming off of losses of Vanilla Reloads, and American Express and Target partner for this wonderful new pre-paid card, that for the first few months even allows credit card loads. Forget Visa Gift Cards! Go straight to Target, collect your points! Unfortunately, in the course of less than a year, the Target RedBird moved from the best thing since sliced bread, to requiring pin-based debit reloading (a la Visa Gift Cards), then going to cash only. RedBird’s death hurt many, new and old, but, it helped so many more.

Saverocity Observation Deck 2015 Award Nominees: Category 5 – Worst Move by a Loyalty Program

Hyatt Offering Easy Diamond Status to the World

This doesn’t take much explanation. Earlier this month, on the heels of the news that Marriott was buying Starwood, Hyatt saw the opportunity to get some of the high value, ultra loyal elites from Starwood Preferred Guest. Who could blame them? Well, it turns out, many current Hyatt Diamonds. Some current Diamonds reached out, requesting the match or some level of understanding, since they weren’t quite requalified, only to get a cold no in response.

Delta Award Charts Disappearing

Generally transparency is good, lack of transparency is bad. Well, Delta Airlines decided to side toward being less transparent. Earlier this year, they removed their award charts, leaving mile and point enthusiasts to guess whether they are getting saver space or not. We think there are 5 levels, last I heard, but, I’m not sure if anyone has anything more definitive than what Wandering Aramean has.

American Airlines’ AAdvantage Program going Revenue Based

Many dreaded this move, but the fact is that they made the move, following everyone United and Delta, and to a lesser extent Southwest, and probably others. The result wasn’t as bad as many feared, but it was still pretty bad. Some of the impacts include significant award chart changes–hitting premium cabins most–and the eventual revenue based earning sometime in 2016. If you want to fly to Southeast Asia in First Class, you may be needing 3 credit card sign-up bonuses, for example.

Marriott buying Starwood

We mentioned this earlier with the Hyatt nominee, but, Marriott has announced that it will buy Starwood Hotels, and with it, the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program. Many SPG loyalists are up in arms. Even non-SPG elites are up in arms. SPG points are some of the most–if not the most–valuable transferrable points in the community. Marriott buying up the program doesn’t bode well for the amazing value of SPG points.

British Airways removing 4,500 Avios point redemption in North America

I have to be candid here. I initially wrote that this was not the end of the world. A few readers (to their credit), made it pretty clear that I may very well have had my head where the sun does not normally shine. They weren’t wrong. Many people leveraged the 4,500 Avios point redemption for short award flights (such as DC to New York, for example). It was a fantastic deal. Certainly a sweet spot in British Airways distance based award chart. This was a pretty big hit to many folks.

So what do you think? Please leave your votes for each of the categories and comment if you think we missed anything.

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.

Review: British Airways Terraces Lounge – Boston Logan Airport

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  • Introduction: A Last Minute Singapore F1 Weekend
  • Review: British Airways Terraces Lounge – Boston Logan Airport
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Boston to Hong Kong – Business Class – 777-300ER
  • Review: Cathay Pacific “The Wing” Lounge – Hong Kong International Airport
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Hong Kong to Singapore – Business Class – A330
  • Review: W Singapore – Sentosa Cove
  • Exploring Sentosa Island
  • Review: Marriott Singapore Tang Plaza
  • Wandering Singapore before and after the Singapore Formula 1 Night Grand Prix
  • Review: Skyview Lounge – Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Singapore to Hong Kong – Business Class – A330
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Hong Kong to Chicago – First Class – 777-300ER
  • Conclusion: Last Minute Singapore F1 Weekend

Our US Airways operated flight arrived into Terminal B, so we had about a 10-20 minute walk through the terminal and then crossing over a parking lot to get to Terminal E. The Check in area at Terminal E was pretty expansive, and security was quick, given that it was nearly 11pm.

We were giving lounge passes to the British Airways Terraces Lounge is one level below the concourse, to get there, it’s a left turn right after security, walk a hundred yards or so and take an elevator down, then walk another hundred yards or so once on the lower level.

The irony of the wifi password…

Once we checked into the lounge, we were invited to turn right towards the First Class section, a courtesy since we are both OneWorld Emeralds. The lounge had a small assortment of food, including fruit:

Sandwiches:

Cookies:

They also had some pita chips and hummus:

On another counter they had coffee, liquor, wine, and refrigerators with beer, water, juice and soda.

There was also some candy:

There was plenty of seating in the lounge, and a decent amount of power outlets, both the US and the UK varieties.

About 1:10am, the attendant announced that boarding had commenced for our Cathay Pacific Flight, so we made our way back upstairs, and cued up to board.

Conclusion:

Overall, the British Airways lounge was more than sufficient for our needs. It had consistent wifi, sufficient power outlets (although I will note, we ended up breaking out a power strip to charge all of our devices, since we had a brand new iPhone6 to play with), and the food was ok, given that we’d be served more substantial offerings onboard.

Manufactured Spending woes, The Phonetic Alphabet, British Airways’ #avgeek obsession with 747

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Note: We’re short this week, in advance of the holiday, primarily due to workload in my full time job. Sorry!

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

  • From Airways News, Japan Airlines will return to Dallas Fort Worth. I see this making sense on a number of levels, especially with OneWorld partner American Airlines based there.
  • Gary Leff likes the Phonetic (although he calls it Zulu) Alphabet. Being a licensed ship captain, I learned to love the phonetic alphabet early in life, because anytime I got on the radio, I had to be ready to use it. So I share his frustration with “Jellybean” instead of “Juliet”, or “Apple” instead of “Alpha.”

Miles and Points

#AvGeek

  • British Airways’ love affair with the 747 –– at least someone is still keeping the Queen of the Skies in, well, the sky!
  • Wasn’t sure how to catalog this one, but Republic Airways continues to have issues with its pilots. It’s really not surprising, regional airline pilots are hard to come by, becoming a regional airline pilot is expensive, yet Republic (and probably other regionals) can’t pay wages that support paying for the expense of being a pilot. Republic and others point to the mainline carriers (Delta, American, United), but, regardless of who is at blame, it will hurt many.
  • Last but not least, check out this video that Scott Mayerowitz and the Associated Press put together:

Great Award Availability on British Airways to London around Christmas and New Years!

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A little birdie was kind enough to share that British Airways has loaded the 777 (and thus increased award space) for the Austin-London-Heathrow route.

The first reference I could find about the upgauging of Austin-London from a 787-8 to a 777 was Routes Online, in fact, posted back in October, however from a quick look, I couldn’t figure out when the 777 starts flying. But I do see significantly more award availability than I’m used to seeing, for example in November and December. Take a look at December – January, searching for 6 Business seats:

At least 6 business class award seats in December/January

At least 6 business class award seats in December/January

And, because some might call me a diva, lets take a look at First Class award availability:

4 First Class Award seats December-January from Austin to London!

4 First Class Award seats December-January from Austin to London!

It looks like space is widely available in Business, and alittle less so for First in November as well, but I won’t bore you with more screenshots — now’s your chance to grab that Christmas trip to Europe! My recommendation: Make sure you visit a Christmas Market!

So, are you going to jump on this?

H/T: A little Birdie

 

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.

How travel will make you wise

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British Airways (BA) A319

On a recent trip overseas, I had the chance to read British Airways’ in flight magazine: BusinessLife. It’s one of those few magazines I’ll pick up and read nearly cover to cover on a sub-2 hour flight, and I usually pick up a tidbit here or there.

The particular article that jumped out at me was on page 46, Time to Wise Up, by Ashley Potter. Ms. Potter referencing an interview with Professor Hari Tsoukas, of the Warwick Business School:

Tsoukas cites the example of Admiral Thad Allen, the US National Incident Commander of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010–and formerly the Commandant of the US Coast Guard. When asked whether he used a ‘template’ from his previous experience of dealing with oil spills, he answered: Yes and no.”

“The ‘yes’ component reveals his experience of handling similar incidents in the past,” says Tsoukas. “But he also notes that every incident is different and its uniqueness must be grasped – hence the ‘no’ part of the answer.” (emphasis mine)

This resonated to me at the time, but as I will sometimes do, I set aside the article and find myself focused on something else. Well, I just happened to listen to the latest Saverocity Observation Deck Podcast, the unscripted, post FT4RL2 in Charlotte one. Well, about halfway through, the discussion turned to problems folks encounter when traveling, and how they resolve things. I think (please correct me if I’m wrong), Dan, from Points with a Crew, commented that folks that travel a lot, invariably run into issues. “One of the things about traveling more often, I think you’re right, we’re all kind’ve really savvy…. the more that you travel, the more that you’ll run into something… but having experience, and planning that something will go wrong, and how you recover from it.” Another speaker (Shawn of Miles To Memories), commented about his son is no longer a liability during issues, and is starting to understand how to recover from problems.

Its interesting, because when you think about it, traveling, you’ll invariably run into an issue, a flight gets cancelled, you get sick onboard a flight, you find yourself in a foreign country and a service you had requested didn’t show, or a multitude of other things. Not every experience is going to be the same, but you can usually put enough pieces together from your experiences, to say “well, this is sort’ve like that time in Bangkok,” and so you start by associating the similarities of your current situation to past experiences, almost as Admiral Allen says, as a ‘template’, then realize those unique items that are different, and figure out a resolution.

So what’s my point?

Not to borrow an over-used phrase, but travel is a great educator. While past performance is no indication of future events, it does inform the your actions. By traveling, you’re availing yourself to more experiences–good and sometimes bad–thus providing yourself more ‘templates’ to liken similarities too, and yet, also gives you a greater resource of experiences to interpret and respond to the uniqueness of each experience.

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