On another note, other changes effective today are as follows:
1. Reservations may be held for up to 24 hours before payment.
2. Cancellations are allowed within 24 hours of booking as long as that booking is before 7 days before the flight.
3. Passengers must be promptly notified of delays of 30 minutes or more.

Reading into this promotion more carefully, the best deal obviously is the 50k in business as Business Class tickets usually run in the 3-4k+ range.  A coach ticket at 30k points for ~$1000, so purely on a point value basis the Business class ticket is a better deal.  Don’t want to go to Japan?  You can also purchase other tickets from Japan to elsewhere in Asia.  Just make sure you give yourself a few hours (or a day) between flights just in case your first plane is late.

This is only really good for those based in the USA.

I’m used to seeing credit card promotions offering between 10-30k miles for signing up for a branded credit card.  Although generous, you can’t really redeem them for much.  At most, you might be able to redeem a round trip domestic coach ticket.  However, once in a while a great deal comes around.

British Airways and Chase have teamed up to offer an incredible deal.  You receive 100,000 British Airways miles for signing up to the British Airways Signature Visa and spending $2000 within 90 days.  According to their partner award chart, 100,000 miles on British Airways gets you your choice of the following:

2 RT tickets to Asia from LA/SF/NY on Cathay Pacific in Coach

-OR-

1 RT ticket to Asia from LA/SF/NY on Cathay Pacific in Business Class

-OR-

4 RT US Domestic airline tickets on American Airlines.

2 RT flights to Asia are worth about 1200, 1 Business Class ticket is worth about 3,500, and 4 domestic RT tickets probably are worth in the ballpark of about 1200.  There are more options available based on the One World alliance.

Now you COULD use the British Airways miles for flights on British Airways planes, but the fuel surcharges British Airways levies on award tickets are horrendous…typically 400-500 dollar range, more if you’re in Business Class.  If you use the miles on Cathay Pacific, you’re looking at about 1-200 in taxes.

So for about $75 out of pocket plus about 200 in opportunity costs (assuming you use the 2%  rebate Schwab card) for a Business Class round trip flight to Asia from any Cathay Pacific gateway (NY, SF, or LA).

Good deal, no?

US Airways is currently having a promotion awarding double miles for all miles purchased.  Normally I don’t recommend purchasing miles because the purchase rate on miles is abysmal and availability of award seats can be spotty.  However, with the benefit of this promotion the value proposition changes greatly.  While that doesn’t do much for inherent nature of limited availability on award tickets; it does become possible to get a real cheap business class ticket if you have some flexibility in your departure/return dates and routing.  Remember, the key for any award ticket is to be FLEXIBLE.

A roundtrip USA-North Asia (and vice versa) ticket using US Airways miles on a Star Alliance carrier is currently 90k miles + tax.  Currently each mile costs $0.0275 and due to the promotion, the cost is cut in half.  The offer is limited to the first 50,000 miles purchased (which can net you a maximum of 100,000 miles).  So the math for a RT Asia ticket is as follows:

(90,000*.0275)/2= $1237.50 plus sales tax and ticketing taxes for a Business class ticket from the USA to the aforementioned countries!  Normally a business class ticket to Asia would go for about $3000!

Now, if your desired destination is another country in the Southern Asia Pacific region, you can fly into Hong Kong, Taipei, or Macau and fly elsewhere using a low cost carrier such as Air Asia or Tiger Airways.

If you want to fly into Europe, the mileage cost is 100k miles or (100,000*.0275)/2= $1375+taxes.

Now while using miles to purchase a coach ticket is a waste, using this promotion to snag a premium class award ticket makes this promotion a steal.  Essentially to fly to Asia, you’re only paying a few hundred in premium for a round trip ticket to fly business versus a paid coach ticket.  The premium –for me– is well worth it.   My jetlag is reduced because I can actually lay out and sleep and add to the fact that I probably can drink my body weight in champagne and scotch makes this a steal.

Here is a link to the current award chart to see if you can find any other deals.

Enjoy the champagne and don’t forget to write me postcards

Take the megabus from SF/OAK/SJ to LA. If you book far enough out, tickets can be had for 1 dollar each way.

Then follow the directions HERE, to get a free hotel room for 1 night. If you wish to stay for the entire weekend, bring a friend and switch rooms the second night. It’s not a 4* hotel, but what do you expect for FREE?

Total cost 3 dollars per person.

Who says I can’t travel cheaply?

From SFO-LAX the advance purchase requirement is 3 days, so that means you can leave on Friday and spend the weekend at your destination. Total cost is 99 RT.

Average Fare per Person – 234.80 USD
Fare Alert: Nonrefundable fare. Change fee associated with fare.
Carrier Flight
# Departing Arriving Aircraft
Type Cabin AAdvantage
Flight
Miles Meals Travel
Time
City Date & Time City Date & Time

MALEV HUNGARIAN 623 DUB
Dublin Nov 25, 2007
07:30 AM BUD
Budapest Nov 25, 2007
11:25 AM 737 Business
N/A 25 hr
0 min

MALEV HUNGARIAN 80 BUD
Budapest Nov 25, 2007
11:30 PM BKK
Bangkok Nov 26, 2007
03:30 PM 767 Business
N/A
Alert: Overnight flight or connection.

MALEV HUNGARIAN 81 BKK
Bangkok Dec 04, 2007
12:30 AM BUD
Budapest Dec 04, 2007
06:10 AM 767 Business
N/A 27 hr
50 min

MALEV HUNGARIAN 622 BUD
Budapest Dec 04, 2007
07:15 PM DUB
Dublin Dec 04, 2007
09:20 PM 737 Business
N/A
Alert: Overnight flight or connection.

Oh yes, Happy Thanksgiving.
**************
Here’s a coupon code for Virgin America.  25% off!

Save 25% off your next Virgin America flight.
And the one after that. And the one after that. And the one after that.

To take advantage of this special offer, just book before December 7, 2007 for travel through March 19, 2008*. Your savings will be applied to our already low Main Cabin fares. And best of all, there is no limit to the number of 25% off tickets you can buy during this period.

Click on the Redeem button or enter this promo code when you book your travel online at www.virginamerica.com:

ELEVATE25
**************

Well this is a fun one….

With one connection each way, it’s $252 all in. AA operates DFW-GUA on a 738 and MIA-GUA on the AB6.

Since this is an MPM fare (don’t know how much though… can someone else look it up?) routing is wide open… great for both mileage- and segment-runners.

One can upgrade a Q fare to Latin America…. good use of the glut of VIPs

Other rules:
-6 day adv
-$100 change fee
-Sun stay OR 3 day min from departure date (though ITA is pricing out with 1 day).
-….and yes, it’s bookable now on AA.com

I haven’t taken a look at it, but using the 24hr connection rule for int’l flights, one can visit all sorts of places and take all 763/772 domestic flights.

So overall, this is a pretty decent MR/SR in itself (esp since EXPs get FL access )

Here’s where it gets interesting… combine with the AA25X promo, fly LAX-ORD-DFW-GUA-vv twice for $290ai. What you get for each flight:

-~7800 EQM
-~7800 EXP/PLT bonus
-12,500 AA25X bonus (prorated)
=================
= ~1.04cpm (+ FL access + domestic widebodies)

How do you like them apples!?

Visit Guatemala twice for a total of $504 and you get a little bit over 60k miles.  That’s enough for a free RT ticket to Asia.

$302 + $121 taxes & fees = $423 per person

Use the following link to book:Orbitz – The faster, easier way to find the trip you want.

Here are the booking details:

1 traveler, round-trip

Hurry! Today is the last day to buy at this price Details

3 Who’s traveling?

Each traveler’s name must match the name on his/her government-issued photo ID.
Airlines do not allow passengers to transfer tickets or to change names on tickets.
Thu, Nov 8 US Airways 44
operated by AMERICA WEST DBA US AIRWAYS
Depart: 5:30pm
Arrive: 6:55pm Washington, DC (DCA)
Charlotte, NC (CLT)

2 stops Economy 1hr 25min Airbus A320 View seats

Change planes. Time between flights: 1hr 0min

US Airways 732
Depart: 7:55pm
Arrive: 8:40am Charlotte, NC (CLT)
London, United Kingdom (LGW)

Economy 7hr 45min Airbus A333 View seats

Change Airline. Time between flights: 7hr 55min

British Airways 6928
operated by GB Airways
Depart: 4:35pm
Arrive: 7:50pm London, United Kingdom (LGW)
Fez, Morocco (FEZ)

Economy 3hr 15min Airbus A320 View seats
Total duration: 21hr 20min

This is an overnight flight.

Choose this return
Return
Tue, Nov 13 British Airways 6929
operated by GB Airways
Depart: 7:45pm
Arrive: 11:00pm Fez, Morocco (FEZ)
London, United Kingdom (LGW)

2 stops Economy 3hr 15min Airbus A320 View seats

Change Airline. Time between flights: 12hr 40min

US Airways 733
Depart: 11:40am
Arrive: 3:50pm London, United Kingdom (LGW)
Charlotte, NC (CLT)

Economy 9hr 10min Airbus A333 View seats

Change planes. Time between flights: 1hr 55min

US Airways 756
Depart: 5:45pm
Arrive: 7:03pm Charlotte, NC (CLT)
Washington, DC (DCA)

Economy 1hr 18min Boeing 737 View seats
Total duration: 28hr 18min

This is an overnight flight.

Available for 10 dollars more for the weekends.

Bookable on