Mileage redemption tips

Travel rewards can be an excellent way to save money when you use miles and points correctly. The average credit card rewards point is worth one cent. But some cards, such as business rewards credit cards, offer more bang for your buck. With these suggestions, your rewards points can be worth at least twice the value. Let’s take a look to see how.

Got an AAdvantage credit card issued by Citibank or Barclays? Then you may be entitled to book American award flights for fewer miles.

I’m not a fan of flash sales. If a company discounts its product or otherwise adds value to a purchase, then it should allow sufficient time for the offer to be widely communicated, thoughtfully considered, and calmly acted on. “Snooze you lose” has always struck me as disrespectful and a bit nasty.

Hard on the heels of its sale on domestic award flights, United is discounting award travel to Asia as well.

Fly between Los Angeles and selected other cities for as few as 5,000 Delta miles each way in coach, 9,500 miles each way in Comfort+.

Although the timing won’t be much help for would-be summer travelers, this United award sale for fall travel has a lot to recommend it.

With no published award-price charts to refer to, members of Delta’s SkyMiles program don’t know when award prices are higher or lower than normal. That’s because there is no baseline to use as a reference point. There is no normal. Or rather, normal is whatever Delta chooses to publish as the price for an award ticket on a particular flight.

Looking to escape the wintry weather blighting much of the U.S.? Maybe it’s time to change hemispheres.

With Marriott’s pending acquisition of Starwood, there’s reason to expect that as the former goes, so will go the latter.

Since its unannounced implementation on a Friday evening last February—strategically timed to avoid public notice and minimize media scrutiny—Delta’s policy of not publishing award charts has been a source of consumer frustration and outrage.

IHG Rewards today released its latest list of PointBreaks hotels that are available for booking for just 5,000 points per night.

Just a week after Hilton announced decidedly benign changes to its award pricing, Hyatt is doing the same.

IHG Rewards members can make their points go farther when redeeming for award stays at 21 hotels in Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

In an industry that often seems intent on treating its customers with callous disregard, Alaska Airlines enjoys an enviable reputation for doing the opposite. Much of that acclaim is due to its loyalty program, Mileage Plan, which among other features boasts an outsized roster of airline partners available for earning and redeeming miles.

Got United miles? If so, this newly announced sale on award flights means those miles will be worth more for many flights.

With revenue-based earning and high-priced awards, it’s not easy to get good value from Delta’s SkyMiles program. Periodic award sales, like this one, offer a welcome opportunity to tilt the value equation back in favor of the consumer.

Delta award discounts are becoming so frequent, if not exactly regular, that SkyMiles members may be left wondering which are the “normal” prices: the discounted rates, or the non-discounted rates. With the almost certain prospect of more award sales to come, it certainly makes ponying up the normal award price seem like an unnecessary extravagance.

Yesterday, Delta’s lowest-priced business-class award ticket for travel between the U.S. and India was 70,000 miles each way. Today, it’s 97,500 miles. That’s an increase of 39 percent. Talk about inflation! And, adding insult to injury, the price increase was made with no notice to SkyMiles members.

Today, at 11:00 local time, United Airlines’ last in-service B747, tail number 8418, will make its final passenger flight from San Francisco to Honolulu. That particular B747 was added to United’s fleet in 1999. As is the fate of most retired commercial planes, its final resting place will be the so-called airline graveyard in the Mojave Desert.

United Airlines hasn’t exactly been killing it when it comes to generating loyalty and respect. Passengers unceremoniously bumped from flights. Dodgy Wi-Fi. A loyalty program that often seems to consciously emulate the worst features of American and Delta’s.