Steerpike

Your comments are appreciated.

I do have a question about American Airlines and BA. They are now both part of the same program 'OneWorld', and when I was looking on AA's website for award travel, some BA flights showed up, but not many. Can I get better/different options by directly logging into BA's website and searching for award travel there? This has always been an area of confusion for me - how to use my AA miles on other airlines.

tonrob

Unfortunately aa.com is a crappy place to search for many partner awards as it doesn't show all of them. Funnily enough, and buggy as it can be, ba.com is a better award search engine under most circumstances. Any award options you see available in ba.com should be bookable by calling AA (using AA miles and at AA prices, of course). Even ba.com misses things, however, so some like to cross-check using the Qantas site. There are still some you have to search on the carrier's own site, such as Etihad awards.

Make sure the AA agent doesn't charge a phone booking fee for an award that their website was unable to display.

toopie28

So I have a question.

I purchase a ticket with my avios miles in june FOR Xmas. BA. LAX-LHR return.

I called and made sure that IF I cancelled, I would get my money (taxes) back and also points but would have to pay a penalty. Which was confirmed.

Well now they are claiming that I will lose all my points - is this a new thing, do you know?

Olly_

Did you part pay with Avios?

toopie28

Paid all with avios. Biz class.

Just called in again today and spoke to another rep.

She said I would get all points back and just have to pay 55 + 25 (80 bucks).

I should have taken down that reps name yesterday who didn't have a clue.

Thanks!

Olly_

I think you can cancel online and save the $25 service fee, although I'm guessing it's too late now!

tonrob

Correct.

tonrob

This is a big benefit for those who shop at Amazon. Jet Blue is offering 3 points per $ spent for clicking via a Jet Blue link found here.

This is especially good as Amazon historically doesn't do good deals with shopping portals.

You can sweeten the deal of course by loading your Amazon account with Amazon gift cards purchased at a discount, or at an office supply store using a Chase INK card that gives 5x UR points/$ spent.

tonrob

By signing up for a 2-week trial of a digital version of a German newspaper.

Details here:

Miles & More Members: Get 999 Miles For Free, Or 60,000 Miles With A Bit Of Effort - Lufthansa Flyer

Act by 8th December.

Use Google Chrome to translate the newspaper's sign-up pages if needed.

petitefrancaise

would you go for the 60k miles for the 2 economy flights.

I'm thinking about summer 2017 when son starts college in Holland...

tonrob

A cheaper route to 60K points would be spending $10K on the Barclays Lufthansa card. Or $9,001 if you get the 999 free miles from the newspaper offer! You also get 2 business class lounge passes with the card.

Edit: Would definitely not go down the newspaper route in economy, especially with Lufthansa fuel surcharges to add in. There are enough cheap cash deals to Europe these days in economy I wouldn't consider buying miles for that.

tonrob

Details on the airlines that Delta will status match/do preferential status challenges.

Delta Will Status Match a Lot More Airlines - View from the Wing

tonrob

Bonus points again at Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts (think Holiday Inn etc.) in Q1:

Earn at Least 30,000 Points With IHG Q1 Accelerate Promotion

tonrob

You couldn't make it up. One of the sky's best bargains is no longer:

Aer Lingus Doesn't Understand How A Distance Based Award Chart Works - One Mile at a Time

lansbury

If you collect Alaska Airline miles you can now do so on Condor flights.

https://newsroom.alaskaair.com/2017-...20_MP||_Condor

So far you can only earn Alaska miles on Condor, redemption for Condor tickets is TBA.