Triangle Trip

Following up to my previous post regarding depreciation of airline mile, I am sure you have seen tons of posts about which is the best credit card to earn airline miles or hotel points or getting cash back. Since 2006, airlines have adjusted blackout dates, limited the number of seats available for redemption and increased the number of miles required for a free ticket. Furthermore, most airlines are charging customers for ticket redemption. For example, I had to pay $150 plus 60,000 miles to redeem a ticket on Delta with less than a week advance booking. If you use the old method of one penny (USD 0.01 per mile), my ticket cost me $750 ($150 + $600). In addition, I had to pay for taxes and fuel surcharge. Despite the fact that my ticket was a last minute purchase and would have been around the same price, I don’t think airline miles are as valuable compared to hotel point.

Hotels unlike airlines have relaxed their redemption policies. Many hotels have adjusted their redemption requirements for 2009. Starwood never had blackout dates which makes them one of the best hotel programs. Marriott recently jumped on the same bandwagon by eliminating blackout dates. Since January 2009, hotels have been on a promotion spree and issuing bonus points to loyal customers. Starwood and Hyatt properties have multiple generous bonus offers that goes on to mid-April. Hotels also have generous cancellation policies. Here are the promotions:  Hyatt and Starwood. Most hotels allow you to book a room and cancel on the same day before 6PM without any penalties. Airlines however charges you a fee to redeposit miles.

If you are a frequent travel to international destinations like myself, hotel points will come in very handy. Most American hotels in international destinations are clean compared to local hotel chains – i.e., Thistle in the UK can be great if it’s new or a hole in the wall if it’s in an old building. American hotels are also consistent with service and generally cost more. Redeeming hotel points at international destinations gives you the best bang for the buck. You can always find a cheap fare to London (i.e., American and United has $200 round trip fares almost every week) but you will rarely find a hotel deal at a Marriott or Hyatt in central London.

In summary, we recommend banking hotel points which is going up in value vs. banking airline miles that is facing inflation pressure. The more airline miles you have with an airline, the more money you will end up spending on them.

I was the first person on the plane and noticed there were quit a few pillows and blankets in overhead bins. I also heard the flight attendants making multiple announcements telling passengers to help themselves to the pillows and blankets. After 3/4 of the plane have boarded and we were running out of overhead space, I saw flight attendants rearranging the bags in the overhead bins. I noticed pillows and blankets were taking up half of one bin. The flight attendant was walking around offering pillows and blankets to passengers and there were no takers.

With all the airlines nickle and diming passengers on the smallest stuff, they failed to see that pillows and blankets is an area they should can cost and may make passengers happier. I am not sure how much of the budget goes to pillows and blankets but I am sure there’s a cost. Airlines have to buy the pillows and blankets then clean them on every flight. I’m sure passengers would give up free blankets and pillows in exchange for a can of soda vs a tiny cup filled with ice.

Pillows and blankets takes up overhead space. Experienced and business travelers will not use pillows or blankets as they’re usually prepared. I saw 10% of the plane with the neck pillows which I am not sure if they work. Other travelers who needs pillows and blankets can easily use their jackets. If you don’t have a jacket because you heading to Hawaii and coming from a warm place like southern California? Well, that’s too bad. You should always travel with a light jacket.

Airlines can get rid of pillows and blankets to save money or use the proceeds to offer better services. Why offer a service to customers when only 10% would value or even use it? If the airline believes the the 10% of passengers would like the pillows and blankets, they can sell it to those passengers to make more money and pass the cost savings to other customers like me who never use it. Perhaps US Scare has got it right for once. USAir began charging for pillows and blankets back in Feburary 2009. I am sure US-Scare’s pillows and blankets annoucement did not get too much slack compared to charging $1 for coffee and $2 for a soda.

I have been getting tons of emails from all airlines about mileage promotions. Most recently I received an email from American telling me a 33% discount if I bought 1,000+ miles. Here’s the link in case some are interested.

Buying AA Miles

If you look at the offer, it’s really not worth it. The asking price for 1,000 is $27.50 — that is $0.275 per mile when the airline industry standard is $0.01 per mile. Furthermore, airlines are applying more fees when you use your miles to redeem for flights.

If you are serious about purchasing miles, ghetto Delta has a better deal. Here’s the link if you’re interested. To create confusion and masking the actual cost, Delta is asking for $59.13 for 2,000 + 2,000 free bonus miles. If you do the math, it’s $0.147 per mile – as 50% savings compared to AA.

Buy Skymiles

United is the most expensive out of the big three airlines. UAL wants $67.25 for 1,000 miles. In addition, UAL also wants to charge you a $35 service fee. I could understand that Delta & American may be higher because points.com is processing the mileage purchase for you but UAL seem to be doing the mileage fulfillment themselves.

Buy UAL miles

Are these airlines serious? Do they think people would actually pay for airline miles when they are depreciating them? I will have a follow up post on what you should do with your miles in a few days.