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 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.

Most United Premier members from 2008 who didn’t qualified for 2009 Premier levels probably received an email from United asking for the following:

• $350 to be a Premier Associate (a sellout scheme created by United)
• If you fly 7,000 actual miles within 90 days, UAL will promote you to Premier
• If you fly 15,000 actual miles within 90 days, UAL will promote you to Premier Exec

As a frequent flyer, I believe you can achieve status if you just go about your business. Paying for status is not a best practice. If you read enough of our posts, you will see tons of ways to get status quick and tips to improve your travel experience.

I have the following gripes with UAL’s most recent pitch to pimp out status:

1. Premier Associate is purely a desparation to get more money from passengers. $350 for 90 days is not a good deal. I believe you can get a Premier Associate membership for $400 that can last a calendar year.
2. The latest pitch to extract $350 from 2008 Premier members devalues the Premier status. It is a kick in the face to the 2009 Premier members who have truly earned their status by flying on UAL in 2008. Essentially what UAL is saying is:  15,000 miles + $350 in present terms = flying 50,000 in 2008 which could have been worth $10,000 as you were on the plane at least 25 times at around $400 a ticket.
3. United also tries to sell you seats in the Premier zone when you check-in which is a “sell out” move. Now they are trying to make you pay for “bonus” miles when you check-in to speed up your qualification.

I have over 700,000 actual flight miles on UAL. The recent tactics  implemented by UAL not only devalues everyone’s status, it also makes me ashamed to be affiliated with them.

What’s next for UAL?  … charging me for the floatation cushion on a 1970s aircraft?