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Using Delta SkyMiles To Book an Aerolineas Argentinas Award: A Tale of Phone Agent Roulette

April 8, 2013

Even before Aerolineas Argentinas became an official member of SkyTeam in September 2012, it entered into a partnership with Delta last May that entitled Delta SkyMiles members to earn miles on Aerolineas flights and to redeem their SkyMiles for flights on Argentina’s national airline as well. During his recent month-long stay in Argentina, TPG Managing [...]

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SRQ: Which Should Be My Primary Skyteam Airline, Delta or Korean?

February 17, 2013

TPG reader Eric is putting together a new Skyteam mileage strategy based on upcoming travel and the credit cards he currently has, and is wondering which would be a better choice to be his primary airline frequent flyer program, Delta or Korean Air. Here’s his question: “SkyTeam is the only alliance within which I don’t [...]

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Travel Tuesday Top 10: Ways to Redeem Delta SkyMiles

December 18, 2012

If my predictions about changes to Delta’s SkyMiles program in 2013 come true, it’s time to start putting those miles to use on award tickets before it’s too late. Luckily, by taking advantage of some of the lesser-known redemptions (and not necessarily what Delta.com shows you), SkyMiles can be pretty valuable, and there are plenty [...]

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Delta to Purchase 49% Stake in Virgin Atlantic, SkyTeam Addition Imminent?

December 11, 2012

The NY Times reported today that Delta is going to acquire a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic, acquiring Singapore Airlines’ stake that they’ve long been trying to sell due to dismal returns. Apparently, Delta and Sinagpore found a price that works for both of them – $360 million, which is a huge loss for Singapore [...]

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Cheap Flights to Moscow: From $357 TOTAL Roundtrip from Baltimore, NY from $452

December 4, 2012

Delta and their SkyTeam partners are running some incredible fares to Russia. There are plenty of dates Baltimore to Moscow (via JFK) on Delta for $357.84 total roundtrip, including all taxes and fees! The trip nets 10,322 Medallion Qualifying Miles, or just about 3.5 cents a piece, which is definitely mileage run worthy. However, Russia [...]

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Saturday Recap: Triple JetBlue Points, Marriott Seasonal Awards, Amex Discounts, New Airline Alliance Members

November 24, 2012

Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week: Triple JetBlue True Blue Points For Rest of Year For travel now through December 31, 2012, register to earn triple True Blue points on all JetBlue flights booked on JetBlue.com and completed by the end of the year. You usually earn 3 [...]

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My Chicago Seminars Presentation: Transferrable Points Programs and Credit Card Bonus Categories

October 15, 2012

Another year, another great Chicago Seminars! I had a fantastic time in Elk Grove, Illinois (about 20 minutes from O’Hare) meeting and greeting tons of other highly engaged (and slightly obsessed) frequent flyer and points hounds. My talk was on transferrable points programs and credit card bonus categories. In it I covered the big three: [...]

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Flight Review: China Eastern Business Class LAX-Shanghai

July 19, 2012

Earlier this week, TPG Managing Editor Eric winged his way from LAX to Shanghai aboard China Eastern Airlines business class. Here’s his review of the experience. Before flying them on Monday, the only thing I knew about China Eastern Airlines was that it is a member of SkyTeam, and that it’s based in Shanghai. I [...]

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Destination of the Week: Cape Town, South Africa

July 13, 2012

Though much of its history has been plagued by hardship and controversy, in the wake of its World Cup hosting success (and a star turn on The Bachelor), South Africa has quickly become one of the top jetsetting destinations in the world. That’s why for our Destination of the Week, we’d like to take you [...]

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Tuesday Travel Top 10: How to Use Miles for the Best First Class Products

May 8, 2012

On Friday, CNN published a list of the best first class cabins in the sky with contenders from all over the world. Interestingly enough, no US airline made the list. But what good is a list of amazing first class cabins if you don’t know how you can fly in one of them without paying [...]

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(Video) Sunday Reader Question: Which Airlines Have The Highest Fuel Surcharges?

March 4, 2012

TPG reader Andrew asks a question about fuel surcharges, a topic that’s a top priority for budget-minded miles users: “I am going to transfer  Starwood points to an airline (or a couple airlines) within a year. I’d like to transfer them to frequent flyer plans that do not charge fuel surcharges, or at least ones [...]

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Sunday Reader Question: What If My Work Travel Doesn’t Mesh With My Personal Points Strategy?

February 5, 2012

TPG reader Jen writes: I recently started a job where I take business trips to various countries in Africa. The good news is that I get to fly business, accrue serious miles for free and get Delta Diamond status. The bad news is that per company regulations we must fly an American carrier. Pretty much [...]

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Sunday Reader Question: How to Maximize Miles When Flying on Airline Partners and Codeshares?

November 6, 2011

TPG reader Rosemary writes: Something that has confused me for awhile now is how to make certain I am earning 100% of mileage points for one airline when actually flying on a codeshare flight and a different airline’s metal. How does this work exactly? As long as I sign up with a mileage number for [...]

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Amazing Deal Alert- Super Cheap Skyteam Flights to Europe (As Low as $250 Total Roundtrip)

October 10, 2011

Airline booking engines are notoriously buggy and sometimes they err in the favor of consumers and mis-price flights. Over the years, I’ve hopped on many of these fares (like the $149 Stockholm/Copenhagen bonanza earlier this year) and I’ve never had an issue with Delta/Skyteam honoring them. Well, per this Flyertalk thread, KLM.com is currently pricing [...]

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Virgin Atlantic to Join an Alliance Soon

September 21, 2011

In a recent interview with Forbes magazine , Sir Richard Branson stated that Virgin would be joining an alliance in the near future. As a London based carrier, they’d obviously be competing with British Airways, so Oneworld is out – but that leaves Star Alliance and Skyteam. On one hand Star Alliance makes a lot [...]

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Flight Review: KLM International Business Class

September 10, 2011

For my summer trip to Spain and Mauritius, I used 120,000 Delta miles to fly business class on a mix of Air Europa, Air Mauritius and Air France. However, on my last day in Mauritius, I saw KLM open up a bunch of award space so I decided to route through Amsterdam instead, because it [...]

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KLM 747 Economy Comfort Review

April 4, 2011

I’ve flown international First, Business and Economy many times in my life, but I’ve never done premium economy. I’ve been meaning to check it out, but I’ve never really been presented with the option to purchase it, since I usually fly on cheap international coach (mileage run) fares or redeem my miles for premium cabins. [...]

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Upcoming Skyteam Additions: Saudi Arabian, Middle Eastern, Garuda and Aerolineas Argentinas

January 11, 2011

If you haven’t been keeping up to date with the alliances, Skyteam has announced several new additions to their alliance. While it will take a while for these airlines to get fully integrated, you could see award redemptions starting to happen within the next year. From a points perspective, it only strengthens the value of [...]

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Problems Using Delta Skymiles for Skyteam Partner Awards

January 3, 2011

Delta Skymiles are among the hardest frequent flyer miles to use. Their online award engine is egregiously broken and there are multiple a la carte tiers which can jack your award ticket up exponentially. As a Delta Diamond and having redeemed millions of Skymiles, I’ve learned how to finesse the system to get low-level awards. [...]

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New Delta Routes: Boston and Miami to London

November 10, 2010

More routes= more choices when it comes time to redeem those hard earned miles. Starting March 27, 2011, Delta will operate daily flights from Boston and Miami to London (Heathrow) operated by 767 aircraft with full-lie flat seating in business class. Skyteam already has BOS-CDG and MIA-FCO, so these will compliment the European route network [...]

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10 Tips on Using Delta SkyMiles

October 28, 2010

As a Delta Platinum and SkyMiles connoisseur, I thought I’d give some advice on how to best use your “hard earned” SkyMiles. 1) Don’t let the Delta award calendar do the thinking for you. The online search engine is broken – period. Even if it shows “low” awards they often price at crazy levels. The [...]

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