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Here it is: the most exciting latest news of Frequent Flyer Programs!

This section provides you regularly with the latest news from the Frequent Flyer Programs. However, a complete news service would be far too exhaustive and of little use to you. That's why we always select the most important news which we consider to respond best to the needs of our customers.

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Written by Ravindra Bhagwanani on . Posted in News

It might be a strange manner to celebrate its birthday: On May 01, 43 years after having launched its – and as such the first ever – Frequent Flyer program, American Airlines will start to use the program as weapon of its distribution strategy – copying something that has widely been practiced in the hospitality industry since ever: In order to earn AAdvantage miles and status points for American Airlines flights, one needs to book directly through American Airlines or through “preferred” travel agencies, unless your company also participates in the Corporate Loyalty Program AAdvantage Business or has any corporate agreement with American Airlines. The list of preferred agencies will change every six months and is determined in function of the share of NDC bookings the agency realises with American Airlines. These New Distribution Capabilities allow agencies notably to sell ancillary services. It looks though that this restriction can be circumvented by simply crediting miles to one of American’s numerous partner programs.

Written by Ravindra Bhagwanani on . Posted in News

On June 01, Etihad will revamp its Etihad Guest program, implementing a range of improvements and downgrades, making it difficult to judge in general about the changes. Whether you are better off or not really depends on how you use the program. The most surprising change is though certainly that tier members will no longer have automatic access to lounges, but need to select that benefit (=trade off against other benefits) as part of their new choice benefits. Some award flights become cheaper, including in Business Class, but you should definitely avoid changing your plans: Refunding award flights will cost you at least 25% of the miles used, but goes up to 75% if you do so within 7 days of travel. You should also note that you will need a flight activity every 18 months (including on partners) rather than any program activity as until now in order to keep your miles alive.

Written by Ravindra Bhagwanani on . Posted in News

Given the current tendency of program devaluations, we had to fear the worst when ANA announced an adjustment of award levels in its ANA Mileage Club as of April 18 both for ANA and partner airlines flights, after not having touched the award levels for many years. After all, the program is one of the more rewarding ones in Star Alliance. But things turned out to be not so catastrophic. Most changes apply to long-haul flights in Business and First Class only, but most remain at reasonable levels. The strongest hit of 50% concerns flights between Europe and the Middle East or Africa. And the best value of the program is definitely still with Economy Class flights to Oceania, running, for example, at only 75,000 and 80,000 miles roundtrip from North America and Europe respectively.

Written by Ravindra Bhagwanani on . Posted in News

The main issue with Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club are certainly not the award levels as such (although they got a bit too expensive in Business Class as well), but the horrendous surcharges on award tickets, which basically kill the attractiveness of the program. As such, the current promotion for a 50% reduction on the mileage portion of all Virgin Atlantic award flights to the US is nice and should be used if possible, but doesn’t address the main issue of the program. Flights under this offer need to be booked by March 20 and travel needs to be completed by June 30.

Written by Ravindra Bhagwanani on . Posted in News

Finnair has now acomplished the shift of its program Finnair Plus to the Avios currency, used notably as well by British Airways and Qatar Airways. While the free transfer of points between Finnair Plus and other Avios-based programs will still take a couple of weeks to be put in place, it is now time to start to use the program in a more flexible manner. This obviously applies to Finnair flights, where you need to consider whether you are better off with the accrual rate of 6 miles/EUR under the Finnair Plus program or the traditional distance-based approach of partner programs. But the same logic is valid for non-air activities: While you get, as example for such optimisation potential, 500 miles for all rentals with Sixt in the Qatar Airways program, Finnair Plus members get either 350 or 700 miles depending on the car category. And once you are ready to redeem, you need to check which award model lets you get your desired flight for the cheapest price and move your points accordingly. For instance, redeeming an Economy roundtrip flight between Helsinki and Paris on Finnair would cost 26,000 Avios to a Finnair Plus member, but “only” between 22,000 and 23,000 for members of the programs of British Airways, Iberia or Qatar Airways.