Chase is discontinuing their Ultimate Rewards points transfer with Korean Air suddenly. We could speculate as to why but the and result is Chase is losing a valuable transfer partner. Korean Air Skypass is known for its more difficult redemption process but they did have some good sweet spots on their award chart when you [...]
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Book your United MileagePlus awards before devalution
On November 1, 2017 United Airlines are making adjustments to their MileagePlus award charts. Many prices in terms of miles are going up. Soon it will cost more MileagePlus miles to redeem for flights between certain regions. You can find the details from United here. Most of these negative changes are for premium cabin awards. [...]
Focus on Earning Transferable Points
A question we get quite often: "Which miles should I earn?" Our response is usually: "What are your travel goals?" -- just as vague as the question asked. The aim is to get the person thinking first about what they want to do and then earn points towards that goal. If the answer is "Europe [...]
Why do airlines offer flights using miles?
Airlines offer tickets for miles instead of real money for many reasons. Marketing, Loyalty, Expiring inventory, and Demand are all reasons award seats exist. We take a look at each reason below. Marketing: In order for airlines to compete they need to offer seats for miles instead of cash. If not they can only compete [...]
Korean Air Award Redemption Sweet Spots: Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong
We recently discovered a way to save on the cash portion of Korean Air award tickets booked with Korean Air miles! It turns out that Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Hong Kong do not have fuel charges added to the fares. This is great because that means they are not collected on award tickets either! The [...]
Delta Skymiles Devalution Work Around is DEAD
In our previous post we mentioned that adding a Delta-operated flight segment to an award ticket containing partner airlines would trigger the cheaper mileage prices. It appears that Delta has fixed it and the deal is dead. Congrats to those who were able to book before the loophole was closed! Need help with your Delta [...]
Delta Skymiles Devalution Work Around
Update: This deal is dead. See our new post here. This past week Delta Skymiles performed a stealth devaluation. Long ago Delta decided to remove their Skymiles price award charts from their website. This was attempt to hide any price increases--such as the one they did last week. Fortunately we were smart enough to save [...]
Use miles and points first then money as a last resort!
Those of us who have been in the miles and points "game" or "hobby" for a long time and have amassed large balances in our miles and points accounts can sometimes struggle to spend them. We all have/had visions of the "perfect redemption" sometimes with very specific flights, routes, aircraft, even specific seats in mind. [...]
British Airways Avios: MUCH cheaper to book American Domestic USA First Class!
American Airlines recently changed their fare coding for award tickets. To most people this will make no difference in how they redeem their miles. Expect those who have or earn British Airways Avios! British Airways' Avios program is distance based. They charge points for flights based on how for each individual flight segment is. This [...]
Frequent Traveler Tip: Always have 2 bank accounts with debit cards!
Traveling frequently (especially international) comes with its challenges. Money should not be one of them! Here in the USA you are usually fine with 1 bank ATM/Debit and a credit card. Most places accept cards for payment and even expect it these days! Carrying a $20 note doesn't hurt. When traveling internationally you will find [...]