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British Airways Prepares for American with New Rewards and Upgraded Lounges

We always get suspicious when airlines start talking about giving customers "more control" and "more choice," since that usually means downgrading reward tiers and charging for things that used to come for free. Getting to choose whether to have food on a long flight or pay for checked baggage has never left us feeling particularly empowered. Nowadays pretty much any airline policy change is enough to get us nervous, and that's particularly true whenever they start to tinker with loyalty programs and elite status.

So naturally we've been anticipating with dread the details of how the American Airlines/British Airways/Iberia merger will affect their frequent flyer programs. So far so good, with the announcement coming out over the weekend that BA is increasing the miles that you get for Discount Economy tickets, from 25% to 100%. BA miles are also now good for AA upgrades, and vice versa. And the airline is even promising to upgrade some of their Executive Lounges.

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Southwest Airlines / Airline Miles / Frequent Fliers / Mileage Programs / United / American Airlines / Frequent Flyer Programs / → All Tags

Southwest Hopes To Fill Seats By Offering Double Rewards Credits

We all know that airline travel has been down due to the economic situation, and when you combine that with the fall travel season things become very slow. That’s why a few airlines have searched through their marketing box and have pulled out the double frequent flyer miles promotion. American Airlines and United have announced that they’ll be providing double elite-qualifying miles through the middle of December. Those are the miles that get you airline status, and fancy upgrades, but won’t help you add to your frequent flier piggy bank for that dream vacation.

Southwest Airlines usually isn’t a follower of such trends as they kind of pride themselves on going their own way, but they too are now offering a fall travel rewards promotion. It's not a true double Rapid Rewards bonus, because their business select passengers won’t get the full bonus. However, we never spring for business anyway, so we’ll be happy enjoying one bonus credit for one-way trips and two bonus credits for round-trip flights.

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Airline Miles / Frequent Fliers / Mileage Programs / American Airlines / → All Tags

American Now Allows AAdvantage Miles for One-Way Trips

American Airlines has just introduced One-Way Flex Rewards to their AAdvantage rewards program which will allow fliers to trade in miles for one-way trips.

Maybe you're planning to fly one way and drive the other. Or you just don't have a return date in mind. Whatever your reasons, now you can save miles by using a One-Way Flex Award starting at just 12,500 miles for travel within the continental U.S.

The AAdvantage program is also allowing its members to combine their MileSAAver rewards and their AAnytime rewards to fly First Class to their destination and Economy for the return. Or however, you want to mix it up.

Like most mileage programs, the rules are confusing and we're always skeptical of such new changes. However, American has revamped their website to make it easier to book rewards travel and you can see a demo of that here. So far, we're intrigued but it always seems as if we never have enough miles to book the trips that we really want. Sigh. We'll keep waiting.

Related Stories:
· American introduces one-way mileage award [Travel Weekly]

Airline Miles / Frequent Fliers / Chris Guillebeau / Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Why We Want This Guy On Our Next Flight

Chris Guillebeau is the founder of artofnonconformity.com, a social media Web site and he was recently profiled in the NY Times about his quest to visit every single country before he turns 35. (He's 30 now.)

He's already visited 100 countries as part of an earlier quest and he's working his way through the rest of the world using his own expenses. He has no sponsorships (yet) and he's not depending on the kindness of Twitterers.

As you can imagine he's racked up a boatload of airline miles (also applying for 13 credit cards with mileage incentives helped him along) and here's why we hope he is on the next domestic flight that we take.

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Mileage Runs / Business Travel / Airlines / Frequent Fliers / → All Tags

One Last Chance To Go Platinum

Your office may be empty this week, but at least some of your well-traveled colleagues may not be chilling at home. The end of the year is serious business for frequent fliers, who'll stop at nothing to secure their status for the coming year. And now that we live in the age of the airline fee, clocking silver, gold or platinum is more important than ever: Most card-carrying road dogs are exempt from checked baggage charges. (They also sometimes get a special security checkpoint lane, free upgrades and other niceties.)

The LA Times attempted to illuminate the sometimes shadowy world of mileage runners this weekend, with an article by an airline geek who has:

Flown from Charlotte to Amsterdam and stayed just long enough to visit a coffee shop and see some Van Goghs.

Included is the mandatory mention of FlyerTalk.com, which maintains a lively forum on mileage running deals riddled with airline lingo even we need a cheat sheet to decode. But isn't it a little ridiculous to spend hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours flying just to get a gold star from your preferred carrier? It goes way beyond just saving on some baggage fees, says the Times:

I am upgraded to first class about half the time I fly.

Related Stories:
· Hi, I'm a Frequent-flier Addict [LAT, via]
· Running for Miles [Jaunted]

[Photo: Caveman 92223]