First time here? Check out the site's "greatest hits" or read a random post from the archives. Feel free to ask a question, and consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!

A Swiss company has come up with an interesting alternative for spending your frequent flyer miles. Loylogic is pitching a redemption system they call Loypay. If a frequent flyer program adopts the Loypay system, then you use your points toward the purchase of products.

The innovation kicks in when you see how points are valued. The system assumes that you will use some combination of cash and points to buy the item, but the proportion is up to you. The points are valued on a sliding scale, inversely proportional to the amount of cash you’re kicking in. Visuals will help. Here’s what it looks like, in buying a hypothetical iPod.

If you use a lot of points, and very little cash, the points are valued very little. The opposite holds true as well: If you use a lot of cash, and just a few points, then you get a lot of value for those points. Here, I roughly aimed to knock $100 off using miles, which generated a solid cents-per-mile value.

You can take it even further on a cents-per-mile basis if you only cash in a very tiny number of miles. Only cashing in a single mile? You’ll get $5.04 for that mile, according to the example.

This sounds like a good feature to have in a loyalty program. (Remember, though, that these examples are using hypothetical miles from an imaginary account. It would be up to the program that implements such a sliding scale to determine the value.)

The program is thusfar being testing by Etihad Airways of the United Arab Emirates. The airline is offering things like rafting trips, hotel stays, newspaper subscriptions, etc., using the Loypay system. Value of a mile starts at around 1 cent, and goes up as you are willing to spend more cash.

It seems the real benefit would be for users with small balances, with no hopes of getting a 25,000 mile award or the like. But it’s an interesting twist.

More like the long-haul edition… Round ‘em up!:

Airports feeling more like the post office
It’s not because of the lines. It’s the signs reading “WANTED” with photos of criminals. But airports won’t display run-of-the-mill criminals. Oh no. They’ll feature wanted-posters for terrorists. But honestly, why limit the posters to terrorists? Why not seek out a whole range of wanted criminals? After all, will Osama really be catching the 10:30 flight to Pittsburgh?

Free jetBlue tickets
Buy a ticket to London on Eos Airlines, get a free ticket on jetBlue. Membership in jetBlue’s True Blue frequent flyer program required. (Via the Cranky Flier)

Halfway to a free ticket on Southwest
Register by January 31, 2007 for Southwest Rapid Rewards and get 8 credits, halfway to a free flight. The promo is aimed at the Washington, DC market but seems to be open to anyone. (Via View from the Wing)

The War on Margarine proceeds apace
Loews Hotels are banning transfats, phasing in various bans over the coming months. No margarine will be used their kitchens, or available for your morning toast. Will a foie gras ban follow?

What’s in a name?
Brazilian airline Varig, a shell of its former self, is renaming itself “Nordeste.” Will they remain in Star Alliance? Will anyone care?

Speaking of Brazil…
It’s both a good day and a bad day for the pilots of the Embraer jet that survived the mid-air collision over the Brazilian jungle. They were finally allowed to leave Brazil and head home to the United States, where they were held (but not under arrest) since the incident over two months ago. However, they’ve been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the accident and have promised to return to Brazil for the trial. Blaming the pilots for the failures of the air traffic control system appears to be the Brazilian government’s m.o. Shame on them. For near-daily updates on this affair, Joe Sharkey’s blog is the place to go.

EU expands “borderless” travel
The European Union is expanding the number of countries that fall under the Schengen Treaty’s rules for travel between states. Under Schengen rules, you don’t need to undergo passport controls when you move between participating countries. If you’re flying in from outside the Schengen zone, you’ll be fully screened. Of EU members, only the UK, Ireland, and Cyprus will NOT participate in Schengen. Non-EU members Iceland and Norway participate; Switzerland joins next year.

Helicopter service to Newark Airport
US Helicopter is adding Newark to its roster of airports served from the heliport in downtown Manhattan. Service begins at $159 each way, with a scheduled flight time of 8 minutes.

Richard Branson calls for electric tugs at airports
As part of its re-entry into the Chicago market, Virgin Atlantic called for O’Hare Airport to employ electric tugs, to pull planes from the gate to the runway. Doing so would apparently cut aircraft emissions on the ground by 18%. Da Mayor is intrigued…

Looking to boost revenue, jetBlue is planning to roll out a new set of items for sale in the cabin. While you’ll still get a free blanket and pillow, if you want a nicer one, you can pay $5.

Same plan for headsets. The basic model is free, while the nicer version will cost $1 more. I’m sure it’s not a Bose, Shure, or Sennheiser, but still.

The danger, of course, is that the quality of the free, basic models will gradually go down, in an effort to make the sale for the upgraded version. But at the end of the day, the airline is still offering these basics for free, unlike the low-cost carriers in Europe. (And heck, headsets cost money on most US carriers these days…)

No image of the new equipment, unfortunately, but some specific information about United Airlines’ next-generation first-class seat (or “suite,” as they call it). (UPDATE: See here for image of new seat.) The new seats will be installed on 3-class widebody planes, which primarily fly internationally but occasionally show up on domestic flights.

But don’t expect to sit in one of these seats anytime soon: The first installations will be “live” in the 4th quarter of 2007.

Here are some details, from an in-house release:

* The United First Suite reclines to multiple angles or serves as a fully flat 6-foot, 6-inch long bed which fulfills requests by customers for more privacy and a versatile area to work or relax.

* The suite also provides a cutting-edge entertainment system, with an individual 15.4-inch widescreen flat panel monitor and an on-demand digital video and music system that offers multiple selections of movies, TV programs and video games.

* Customers will have their choice of 50 channels of XM-branded audio delivering more than 3,000 songs and a jukebox to create customized playlists. Both the entertainment system navigation controls and content will be offered in several languages.

The suites also provide:
* a 110-volt universal plug for laptop power, compatible with power outlets for 145 countries;

* a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port to charge personal electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants, cell phones and digital cameras;

* multiple stowage compartments to accommodate a laptop bag and other personal items;

* noise-canceling headphones; and

* an Apple iPod connector that enables customers to play their own music and video content through the suite’s entertainment system, as well as recharge the iPod unit.

So we know the length, but not the width of the new seats.

No details either on any service changes (e.g., meals, wine) to accompany the improved equipment.

If anyone is willing to share photos of the prototype seats, which were apparently debuted in-house earlier this week, I’ll be happy to post them. (anonymity assured…)

If you’re interested in accompanying someone through security or meeting someone at the gate at Detroit or Dallas-Fort Worth, there’s breaking news:

The Transportation Security Administration is testing whether it can ease a post-9/11 policy that bars people from meeting relatives and friends at airports as they come off flights.

A test program at Dallas/Fort Worth and Detroit airports could pave the way for other airports to allow non-travelers through checkpoints to meet passengers or shop at stores and restaurants.

“There are a lot of airports that would like people without boarding passes to have access to concessions,” said Michael Conway, a spokesman for Detroit Metro Airport, which starts its test next week. Dallas’ test started last week.

Glad to hear that airport concessions are the key consideration. But as long as all visitors are adequately screened, this is a welcome customer-friendly move. (It also effectively suggests that the TSA brass agrees with Christopher Soghoian that the boarding pass and ID check are effectively useless.)

I don’t think too many people will take advantage of it, frankly, but it’s nice to know the option is there and that the regulations are up for periodic re-evaluation. Now if only they’d reconsider the ban on beverages…

Cheryl in Victoria, BC writes:

Which is a more advantageous way to collect frequent flyer miles: with a credit card that credits points to a specific one of the three top air alliances or with a credit card that uses a travel agent to book flights on any airline? I live in British Columbia and usually fly to
the USA.

First off, kudos for thinking in terms ofalliances, and not just airlines. Many people forget that you can cash in your miles on airline partners. But to your real question:

You ask about the tradeoffs between two kinds of miles-earning credit cards. In reality, there are three kinds of miles-earning credit cards out there which earn three different kinds of points: Single-airline points, transferable points, and proprietary points. Let’s run through the pros and cons of each.

1. Cards with Single-Airline Points
This is the “traditional” miles-earning card, issued by a bank with an airline partner. In general, one dollar charged to such a card earns one mile deposited into your frequent flyer account with that airline. So if you have a Citibank AAdvantage card, your purchases earn miles in the American Airlines AAdvantage program. Every month, the bank transfers the miles over, and those miles fall under the rules of the airline.

This has a few advantages, but also disadvantages. Assuming you have an existing relationship with the airline, your credit card will be one of several earning sources. Combine your spending with flights, hotels, car rentals, and the thousands of other ways to earn miles, and the miles can really add up. The cards often offer sign-up bonuses that can boost your balance to the point you’re nearly at a free ticket. If you are looking to build up your existing airline-linked frequent flyer account, and you charge a lot on your credit card, this kind of card is probably your best bet.

At the same time, though, you’re trapped by the rules of the program you’re collecting those miles with. It’s not always easy to get free tickets to the places you want, when you want, since seats are limited. Planning ahead is necessary. (See here for some tips.)

Plus, airline cards generally come with a fee. If you don’t charge heavily, you shouldn’t bother In fact, if you don’t charge a lot every month, you’re probably better off with a cash-back card (Fidelity Investments offers a good one that refunds 1.5% of purchases.)

2. Cards with Transferable Points
Other cards collect points in an account that’s not attached to airlines, but that you can convert into “regular” airline miles. American Express Membership Rewards and Diners Club are the most famous examples, though the cards linked to some hotel programs like Starwood (link below) are definitely worthy of your consideration.

The way it works: You collect points, and you transfer the points into one of several possible airlines, hotels, or other affinity programs.

The benefit is that you have some flexibility as to where you put your miles. If you manage multiple frequent flyer accounts, perhaps in separate alliances, this might be your best option. Need 5000 miles in British Airways AND in United? Top them both up with a transfer. There are sometimes “bonuses” here too.

The downside: Point conversion rates aren’t always 1:1, and you can only transfer miles at certain thresholds, e.g., 5000 points at a time. Not all airlines participate, or participate at the same conversion rate. An annual fee is typical.

Bottom line: These programs are a great compromise, offering you a range of options.

3. Cards with Proprietary Points
In the United States, you’ve probably seen David Spade hawking CapitalOne’s “No Hassle” reward cards. That’s one of several such cards, but the principle is generally the same: Your purchases accrue points, issued by the card-issuing bank. The points aren’t transferable, and they’re not linked to an airline. You can’t use them to upgrade your flight, or to top up an account that’s just short of a free ticket. Your points are tied to the bank.

What’s appealing about this last option is that customers have a choice in how they redeem their points, within the bank’s rules. You effectively convert your points to cash and buy a ticket with the airline you want, using those points — as long as you use the bank’s in-house travel agent. Another benefit is that those tickets actually earn conventional frequent flyer miles in the airline’s program, once you actually fly with the ticket.

However, in most cases, these cards are a bad deal, and you should stay away. The reason: The value of your miles is based on the cash value of the ticket, and thus is always capped. Take the CapitalOne program’s rules, for example:

The number of miles required by the Cardholder for travel redemption will depend on the cost of the itinerary chosen by the Cardholder at the time of redemption. The mileage requirement is as follows: 15,000 miles are required for tickets up to $150; 35,000 miles are required for tickets from $150.01 up to $350; 60,000 miles are required for tickets from $350.01 up to $600. For tickets over $600 in value, the required number of miles will be determined by multiplying the cost of the ticket times 100 (ex. $768 ticket requires 76,800 miles).

So the maximum value of your points is 1 cent each. While this is marginally acceptable, you can get more value if you took real cash rebates, or if you had received traditional frequent flyer miles. (A first or business class ticket from North America to Australia, using traditional miles, could get you 10 cents/mile, easily.)

So: What kind of card is the best?
If you want miles, but you want those miles to be worth more than one cent each, you should stick to a card that like #1 or #2. Since I’ve been lucky (or skilled?) at getting a lot more bang for the buck mile, I stick with cards that give me real frequent flyer miles. But it’s a little bit of a gamble. If you prefer the flexibility of booking with any airline, skip the “reward points” game entirely, and demand the cold comfort of a cash refund.

Related:
- The value of frequent flyer miles
- Reader mail: Can I use credit card miles to upgrade a ticket?
- Miles or Buy: Pay Cash or Cash in Miles (frequent flyer mile tutorial)
- Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card (affiliate)

Traveling to and from Britain? The taxman is calling, and your tickets are about to get more expensive.

The UK government will double the air passenger duty for flights departing the UK, effective February. For short flights, the estimated effect on the total price of a ticket is a 7% net increase. For long-haul flights, the tax goes up £20 (~US$40) for economy class and £40 in business class. Ouch.

The monies are supposed to go toward reducing the environmental effects of air travel, according to the public statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. All well and good, but how exactly will the UK government be doing that? Are the added revenues going into a research fund, or into the general budget?

Update: As the Global Traveller astutely notes, this could lead some savvy tax-dodgers to book short-haul flights from the UK to mainland Europe, where they then board their (less-taxed) long-haul flight. If enough people sacrifice nonstop convenience for cash savings, then this could lead to an increase in takeoffs and landings, thereby backfiring against the stated environmentalist goal. Business travelers probably would suck it up and pay the tax, but leisure travelers might hop over to Amsterdam, Paris, or Frankfurt…

Tim Winship recommends Restaurant.com dining certificates as a good way to cash in your United Airlines Mileage Plus account. I respectfully disagree.

Redeem 1,000 Mileage Plus miles for a $25 dining certificate through Restaurant.com to squeeze a solid 2.5¢ in value from every mile. Or get 5¢ per mile by cashing in 2,000 miles for four $25 certificates.

Why would I object to these rates? After all, I’ve said before that anything over 1.7 cents/mile is solid value.

The problem: Tim is ignoring the actual market price of Restaurant.com gift certificates, and focusing on their face value.

No one pays face value for these certs, so you shouldn’t use that price as a reference point.

Restaurant.com’s standard deal lets you buy $25 certificates for $10. Often it’s less, as little as $5 if you have a promo code (they have them regularly). Even taking the higher price of $10 for a certificate, 1000 miles gets you 1 cent per dollar. If you’re using a promo code, that rate only goes down.

In fact, while we’re at it, here’s a promo code: take 50% Off with code 73515, through December 10, 2006.

Using 1000 miles for something worth only $5 isn’t good value. Unless of course you’ve got so many miles you don’t know what to do with them.

Related:

- Restaurant.com - $25 gift certificates for $10 or less (affiliate)
- The value of frequent flyer miles

Not all travel advice published on the web is good advice. And with year-end pressure from editors to come up with “best-of/worst-of” year-end lists, there are bound to be some bad ideas coming down the pike.

Take James Wysong’s “25 Tips for a Better Flight,” for example. Mostly okay, but the tips related to dealing with other people’s rowdy children made me cringe. In particular:

Bring dollar bills, and if the kid behind you starts kicking your seat, bribe him with money to stop. Tell him that if he can keep from kicking your seat for the remainder of the flight, he’ll get $5. Works like a charm.

What the hell kind of message does this send to these kids, or their parents?? That bad behavior isn’t punished, it’s rewarded. In fact, it’s incentivized. Hey kids, kick harder, they’re not paying you yet!

Take it to the next level: Why stop with kids? Why not start bribing adults to move their seat forward if they’re reclining?

Or turn it around: If this keeps up, passengers can make a mint by threatening to recline, talk, belch, fart, get drunk, get amorous, or otherwise be unpleasant flying companions. Maybe start printing up cards with a menu of options for your flying compatriots:

- For the person behind you, you can charge $20 for not reclining ($30 if you see they have a laptop.)
- For the person adjacent to you, $40 buys them the armrest.
- Want quiet? $30. Not willing to pay? Well, then: Check out these photos of my nephew!

No thanks. I’m not going to endorse that road to escalation.

If the kid behind you is kicking your seat, talk to the kid first and ask him/her to stop. If that fails, try the parents. If you can’t charm the family, threaten to raise the issue with a flight attendant. Then carry out the threat. Ask that the offenders be moved, or that you be given an equivalent or better seat. If there are no alternative seats, ask for the purser and discuss the options, including a threat of having the family met by security upon arrival. But don’t reward bad behavior.

When I first saw heard that Kentucky Fried Chicken had installed an 87,000-square-foot cartoon image of Colonel Sanders in the Nevada desert, so that the happy ol’ colonel could be seen from airplanes (or space), I thought it was a hoax.

It’s not.

The image is a huge tile mosaic placed near Rachel, Nevada, due east of Area 51.

I haven’t seen it from the sky, and it’s not (yet) visible on Google Maps or Google Earth. But even if you DID see it, would it really make you want to eat fried chicken?

Considering that there aren’t any KFCs at your altitude when you see the ad, the colonel’s face may just breed resentment that your airline isn’t feeding you.

Upgraded: French-sounding names
All-business class startup airline Elysair, who will fly from Newark to Paris-Orly, decided at the last minute to change its name to “L’Avion.” (”The airplane” in French.) Why the change? It sounded more French. I guess this explains why, as recently as last week, their website was so… comment dit-on… crappy. Service, in the same vein as Maxjet, Eos, and Silverjet, allegedly begins December 27, but the newly-minted website isn’t ready to accept reservations yet…

Downgraded: British Airways
The apparent murder of a former Russian spy with polonium 210 has been big news. (FYI, though fingers are pointing toward Russia, the element isn’t necessarily weaponized. While small amounts are found in cigarettes, you can, in fact, buy some for $69 on the internet.) On top of it all, three British Airways planes have tested positive for the radioactive element. Affected: 221 flights, carrying 33,000 passengers and coming into contact with 3,000 airline employees on the ground or in the air. British health authorities say there’s no health risk, but I sure wouldn’t be thrilled to find my flight on the list. Click here to see if you flew on one of the flights, from the BA site.
UPDATE: BA has pulled the flight information from its website, stating that there was no health risk, so presumably there’s no longer a need to let people know if they were among the 30,000. Tsk tsk. No worries: The Seattle Times has the list.

Downgraded: Kids on Alaska Airlines
As of November 1, Alaska Airlines has stopped selling children’s fares at a 33% discount.

Upgraded: Competition between Chicago and New York
Delta is increasing service between New York area airports and Chicago, in a big way, including a “shuttle-style” service from LaGuardia. This comes as jetBlue starts up JFK-O’Hare service in the new year. That means American, United, Delta, jetBlue, and ATA all fly between the two cities. Viva competition!

Upgraded: Fake boarding pass guy’s freedom
The Indiana University graduate student who posted a fake boarding pass generator for Northwest Airlines (to prove a point about how easy it is to create such a pass, and how the boarding pass/id checks at airport security are pointless) is freed.

Upgraded: Shorter waits for toilets onboard China Southern Airlines
Pee first, fly later. The airline is asking passengers to use the bathrooms before takeoff, since each inflight flush burns as much as a liter of fuel. Yikes!

Travelers to (or residents of) Scotland may be able to save some money on their dining. Since March 2006, PriceYourMeal.com has been auctioning off lunch and dinner at restaurants in Glasgow.

Auctioning meals isn’t entirely new, but it’s usually been limited to gift certificates. (Several years ago, my wife and I won an eBay auction for a gift certificate to Charlie Trotter’s restaurant in Chicago. Saved around $150 on that meal. Whoo!)

PriceYourMeal takes it a step further, by letting you bid for a set number of diners’ meals, or for a specific menu. Sometimes wine or drinks are included. The company also offers “buy-it-now” options to prepay a meal at a discount to the menu price.

Occasionally, hotel-sponsored dinner/room/breakfast packages appear, like a “Ramada Jarvis - Hangover January Party and room” package in Gourock (£50.00 starting bid).

80 restaurants participate in Glasgow, with Edinburgh coming online this month. London is next, with the goal to cover all major UK cities.