Jaunted

Frequent Flyer Miles / British Airways / Frequent Flyer Programs / Oneworld / Avios / Britain Travel / Europe Travel / Loyalty Programs / → All Tags

From British Airways Miles to Avios Points: Breaking It Down

This month means more than just the beginning of holiday travel season; it also marks the beginning of a new era at British Aiways with the re-branding of their frequent flyer program to "Avios." Say cheers to the former loyalty program managed by AirMiles on November 16th.

Basically, BA Miles used to be managed through AirMiles who has done the re-branding. BA is just using the program as a "currency" to redeem flights and hotels. This shift is to align with the frequent flyer programs of its joint venture partner, Iberia, and mirror other Oneworld partner airline programs. Executive Club is sticking around and its members will be accruing Avios points instead of BA Miles. Don't worry, if you have heaps of points in Executive Club, you won't loose them.

The move to Avios is not just a name change, but the program claims to make earning points and higher status levels, as well as redeeming points for flights and upgrades, far easier. Let's see if they're right.

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Frequent Flyer Miles / Loyalty Programs / Virgin Australia / Virgin / Velocity Rewards / Business Class Travel / → All Tags

A Gold Star for Virgin Australia's Frequent Flyer Status Match

One of the old Virgin Blue Velocity Gold cards

Virgin Australia, the airline formerly known as Virgin Blue, not only changed their name back in May, but flipped the flying game in Australia.

More recently, the Aussie airline upped the ante competing with Qantas by offering a Velocity Frequent Flyer status match for other airline's frequent flyer programs. With a simple email and proof of your current status with a competing program, Virgin bellied up to the bar and automatically (not to mention quickly) upgraded any member to the corresponding status in Velocity.

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American Airlines / Airline News / Frequent Flyer Miles / Loyalty Programs / → All Tags

American Airlines Wants to Hand Out More AAdvantage Miles, But It'll Cost You

One of the latest ways airlines are reaching into our wallets is by enticing us with future options for free travel. We all love our hard earned frequent flyer miles—and the airlines know this—so they’re quick to offer a few extra thousand for a little bit extra cash. Airlines like Continental have been doing this for some time, but this week American Airlines jumped into the game. Previously they’d only offered this service at the airport, but now you can pay extra from the comfort of your living room thanks to Mileage Multiplier.

Available on either domestic or international flights at check-in, American Airlines will sell you a little bit of a bonus depending on the length of your flight. It’s going to cost you around three cents for every mile flown, and there’s even a 7.5% sales tax to sweeten the deal. So your flight from Chicago to Dallas would normally earn you around 800 AAdvantage miles, but now with a little infusion of plastic money you could score double miles for $24 or triple miles for $48. As you can see it would get pretty pricey if you’re headed to Madrid. Triple miles on this route out of JFK would cost around $230—oof.

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Wine Travel / Virgin America / Virgin / Travel Deals / Frequent Flyer Miles / Loyalty Programs / eleVAte / → All Tags

No Cheap 'Plonk' in Virgin’s New Wine Club

You know we like to report on boozing it up in the air with our in-flight cocktail of the month, but now we’ve actually found out about a program that makes boozing on the ground get you up in the air faster.

Virgin America is launching a new Virgin Wines Club that not only scores members mix-and-match cases of interesting vino, but also earns them extra Elevate frequent flier points. Because as Virgin tells us, “Life’s too short for boring wine.”

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Clear / Airport Security / Loyalty Programs / SPG / → All Tags

Starwood Lessens The Blow for Its SPG Members Who Bought Clear

As the rest of Clear's members continue to worry about their refunds now that the "registered traveler" service has crapped out, Starwood Hotels' Starwood Preferred Guests members can breathe a little easier. That's because the loyalty program is offering 10,000 SPG points for any SPG member who signed up for Clear through the three-month free trial offer the program extended to its members.

Here's the official letter from SPG:

If you’re an SPG® member who purchased a subscription to Clear after accepting the SPG three-month free trial offer, we would like to credit your account with 10,000 Starpoints® for this unforeseen inconvenience. Please fax proof of your purchase (your Clear receipt or a credit card statement with the Clear/Verified Identity Pass, Inc. charge) along with your SPG number to 519-633-5865 before July 30, 2009 to receive your Starpoints. We will verify your Clear enrollment was processed through the Starwood Preferred Guest promotional site, then credit the Starpoints within 7 business days from receipt of eligible proof.

Remember: This is for SPG members who signed up for Clear through the three-month free trial offer. Coincidentally, we signed up for Clear through this exact offer but since there were no Clear stations near us to complete the in-person portion of the application, we never actually bought a Clear card. (We did get an email saying that all our information has been purged from their system.)

In the meantime, regular old Clear "suckers" can visit FlyClear.com for questions about their membership and refunds.

Related Stories:
· Clear Card Ceases Operations, And We Saw It Coming [Jaunted]
· Starwood Preferred Guests Get Clear Cards for Christmas [HotelChatter]