Windbag Miles

One of the more popular posts I wrote this year was about the best non-first class way to fly across the country… although, let’s be honest: most of us try to avoid flying transcon in any seat that doesn’t convert to a bed. For whatever reason, the transcon product I’ve most wanted to try isContinue reading “Irrationally excited about American Airlines A321T First Class”

In general, I consider IHG points to be worth around a half a cent, although there are times when you can get significantly more than that. So far, the most value I’ve been able to wring was around a full cent at the Intercontinental Amsterdam (50,000 points vs ~$500 in cash), although that’s a prettyContinue reading “The best value I’ve ever received from IHG points (at the Indigo Milan)”

In the past few weeks, I’ve been focusing much more heavily on the “burn” side of the “earn and burn” mantra. Part of that involved cashing out the remainder of my Hilton Honors balance on a couple nights at Hilton’s new Curio property in Rome, which looks really nice. It isn’t cheap (76,000 – 80,000Continue reading “Hilton Honors is irritating (AKA Schrödinger’s hotel room paradox (AKA if Delta ran a hotel loyalty program))”

I’ve always liked Aeroplan. Maybe it’s the very reasonable transatlantic award rates, or the fact that the French person who says “Aeroplan” when you call their customer service number pronounces it “Ahh-yey-roh-plohn.” But this week they really tried to do their best to outdo another round of stealth Delta devaluations en route to becoming theContinue reading “An Aeropain in my ass: phantom Air New Zealand space and ridiculous change fee policies on Aeroplan. (Spoiler alert: this is really all Air New Zealand’s fault, but Aeroplan is still annoying sometimes.)”

A while back I wrote a post about how much I like Amex’s new habit of offering increased referral bonuses on many of their cards. If you’re over counting your credit inquiries, it’s a good way to wring some extra bonus points out of Amex cards you’ve had before by trading referrals with your partnerContinue reading “By the way, Amex has a good referral offer on the Delta Gold card right now”

One Mile at a Time had an article today about Air Canada’s new ultra-exclusive business class lounge, which notably only lets you in if you’re on a paid ticket. In the comments section, there’s a reasonable debate about whether or not this is okay. The argument for it is that they have major space constraintsContinue reading “Please Lord (who I don’t believe in), please let me be on a flight with this guy so I can fart in his face.”

There are two types of people: those who yearn to someday fly in Emirates first class, and those who can’t wait to tell you that it’s overrated, that the seats are actually pretty narrow, and that ________’s first class is like way WAY better. I’m happy to report that in late 2018, I will transitionContinue reading “Emirates first class booked! Just in time for me to be bummed it won’t be on one of the new 777s.”

In general, I try to stay out of the business of ragging on other points and miles blogs. There are a handful of blogs that I actively hate (and, to be honest, sometimes hate-read), but I don’t go out of my way to talk about them. In general, the bigger the blog, the trendier itContinue reading “Your points & miles guide to The Points Guy’s points & miles guide to Rome.”

Sky Miles are probably the worst of the Big Three airlines’ miles to collect. Sure United and American aren’t so great themselves, but Delta devalues Sky Miles so often and so suddenly that it’s entirely conceivable that they’ll be completely worthless in a matter of months. As I’ve written about before, one of my biggerContinue reading “I said I wasn’t going to apply for any more Sky Miles cards… but Delta’s pretty mailer reeled me right back in.”

The other night, I wrote a very profane rant about Flying Blue’s devaluation, mostly taking issue with the infuriating rhetorical gymnastics required to pitch it as a positive change. About 10 minutes after posting it, I realized it may have gone too far, so I pulled it down. I think people who subscribe to theContinue reading “Enjoy these graphics I made to accompany an outrageously profane article about Flying Blue that I deleted.”