Ellen PhillipsJune commences with our traditional travel advice, this summer featuring how to best use frequent-flyer miles, how to pack your bags for more clothes and fewer wrinkles, the airlines that employ the best features for coach – or the ubiquitous “cattle car” class – and the least obvious and highly-secure ways to keep valuables and money safe while traveling. With these tips under your belt, here’s hoping you travel more comfortably, safer, cheaper (or, maybe, even free), and ready to change clothes without using the travel iron.
With regards to frequent-mileage flyers, the horizon isn’t as bright as in the past. Many airlines, such as the Delta SkyMiles program, no longer has customary prices for award travel. Upon entering Delta’s online booking tool, some may find to their dismay that a round-trip domestic ticket now costs 45,000 miles or more, well beyond its traditional 25,000-mile rate. Bummer! Today’s column features those fortunate readers who not only are planning a nice jet ride to a, hopefully, fantastic vacation but, also, possess a nice frequent-flyer total to get less expensive fares. The best surprises in the Top Three airlines, according to Bottom Line Personal:
American AAdvantage – Beginning this past March, American cut back on some of its saving graces, fee-wise, but now offers a few perks the company really doesn’t advertise. For example, domestic flights of 500 miles of less now cost program flyers a lowly 7,500 miles each way rather than the standard domestic rate of 12,500 miles. If travelers prefer to vacation in Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean, American only charges the 15,000 each way, again a reduction from its previous 17, 500 miles. In fact, if we fly American to the latter countries during off-season months (September 7th – November 14th, plus January 16th -June 14th for Central America), the fare drops to 12,500 miles. Additionally, if some of us already have or are thinking of getting a Citi AAdvantage credit card, more “free” miles are yours for the taking. Its Platinum Select MasterCard gives two miles for every dollar spent with the airlines, plus one miles per dollar on all other expenditures, plus 50,000 bonus miles for charging $3K in the first three months. Even better, the $90 annual fee is waived the first year. A last perk is card holders qualify for discounts of 5,000 to 7,500 miles when redeeming miles for round-trip economy or 1st class tickets to certain US and Canadian destinations.
Delta SkyMiles – Although Delta no longer publishes awards price schedules for its SkyMiles program, it still contains some occasional bargains for awards travelers. Mid-week (Tuesday-Thursday) flights tend to be lower miles than at other times during the week/weekend. Bottom Line’s illustration shows what a difference a day makes: a Wednesday flight from Boston to Miami is 25,000 miles, but the same journey on the weekend is 45,000 miles. Look for more short-hop flights, too. A number of these short-distance jaunts (economy ticket, of course) are available for just 5,000 miles each leg (i.e. certain flights between LA and San Francisco or Cincinnati and Memphis).
United MileagePlus – Do watch for route specials to maximize awards savings with the third of the Big Three U.S. carriers. Read the emails from the MileagePlus program to discover these opportunities; they may be priced at (yes) below 5,000 miles. Also, trips of less than 700 miles each way are priced at only 10,000 miles per leg. Examples include flights between Boston and Detroit or Chicago and Washington D.C. – each not qualifying for American’s short hop rate of 500 miles but fitting perfectly within United’s 700-mile limitation.
Contact Ellen Phillips at consumerwatch@timesfreepress.com.