Greetings from lovely Rio De Janeiro where the only thing better than the beaches are the drinks. Just kidding, coming at you live today under the weather with food poisoning, in rain soaked New York. Weekends are the perfect time to travel and before you jet off, here are the most important stories of the day…
New Star Alliance Search Tool For Free Flights..
If you’re not familiar with Star Alliance, it’s one of the three largest groups of airlines, comprised by partners United, Lufthansa, Singapore, ANA, Avianca, South African, Copa and more. Since you can use miles from one of these airlines on virtually any other airline in the list, it’s nice to be able to see about space for that long awaited free ticket on the very best carriers without complicated searches on different sites. Fortunately, Copa has launched a search tool which shows availability on almost every Star Alliance airline, including many hard to find partners like Singapore. Basically, if you’ve been looking to use your miles on Singapore, Lufthansa, ANA or any other top Star Alliance carrier, you can search easily now without signing up for an account. EASY! Search HERE. Once you find space, you book with the miles you have from whichever Star Alliance airline you collect from…
British Airways FINALLY Going For Wifi…
In a day where some airlines offer wifi fast enough to stream Netflix, you wonder how it’s humanly possible for another airline to survive without offering any wifi at all. British Airways is finally jumping in the game, bringing wifi to more than 100 long haul aircraft, a few AerLingus jets and a few more Iberia long haul aircraft. The airline will be installing GoGo’s new 2kU internet, regarded as one of the best in the game. The catch? They won’t begin trial installations until 2017, with completion anticipated for 2019, when it will inevitably be the slowest option on offer. It’s better than nothing!
Delta Punishing One Way Ticket Buyers…
Travelers buy one way tickets for a variety of reasons and since Delta is determined to squeeze every last cent out of you fairly or not, they’re going after one way tickets. On direct routes, buying one way tickets will see a spike in price, whereas round trips will stay around current levels. This is a low blow cash grab affecting a large majority of the travel population. Assuming no difference in price, I often buy one way tickets, even on round trips, to save hassle if I only need to change half. More details HERE.
American Offering Targeted Elite Status For Credit Card Spending…
The travel reward credit card world is as cut throat as it gets. Since there are cards out there which offer flexible points you can transfer to any airline, it’s hard for airlines to push their card, with points you can only use on one airline. As such, we’re seeing new opportunities for value and in this instance, we’re seeing American Airlines credit card holders being targeted for elite status of at least Gold, just for spending a certain regular amount, around $1000 per month for a few months. Status extended through 2017. Pretty cool….
