air canada makes another change to its elite program

received in my inbox on thursday was air canada's latest changes to its program. in general, most aren't good changes. the official link is here and the permanent flyertalk thread is here.  we knew these wouldn't be good by how their spokesman started off the official thread on flyertalk:

so here are the changes:

1) increase in the number of minimum flight segments/miles required for air canada altitude status (neutral)

• prestige 25k: 12,500 AQM or 12 AQS
• elite 35k: 17,500 AQM or 17 AQS
• elite 50k: 25,000 AQM or 25 AQS
• elite 75k: 37,500 AQM or 37 AQS
• super elite 100k: 50,000 AQM or 47 AQS

this does not change the total number of miles or segments that are required to achieve status, just the minimum number of segments or miles flown on air canada metal. this makes sense from their part -- they want to reward increased spending and travel on their airline as opposed to their alliance members'.

compared to united and delta, which requires a minimum spend amount per year on their metal (usually to the tune of ten cents per qualifying mile required on their tickets or their metal), this is probably more generous.

2) 500 mile minimum removed (negative)
for travel beginning march 2015, the minimum mileage amount will no longer be 500 for flex and higher fares, 250 for international tango fares, and 125 for domestic tango fares.

but they justify the additional cost between tango and flex fares by the non-mile benefits that flex fares offer. but one has to wonder about this. a tango fare between YVR and YYJ on november 18 (currently) is $87 all in. a flex fare for the same day is $195. the only difference (besides free seat selection) is the change fees. flex saves you $75 if you choose to change on the day of travel, or $25 if you change before that.

it's a bit silly for air canada to say that people are willing to pay more for flex on a route like that for the additional benefits. as an aside, with the new changes, you will earn roughly 45 miles on this particular route's flex fare. if you paid tango, you'll earn roughly 11. both are eligible as a qualifying segment, however.

3) eupgrade changes for business class upgrades
they're going up. before and after pics:

current

future

as a super elite flying 100,000 miles, you can earn up to 70 eupgrades this year. as a e50 flying 50,000 miles, you can earn up to 40 eupgrades. so under the new proposed scheme, if you book the lowest flex fare to asia, you won't be able to upgrade to business class. (once upon a time, you could use your two special upgrade certificates as an e35k, but that's now gone).

on top of this, the copay is still present for transatlantic and transpacific flights for all but super elite members.

4) e35ks can no longer select star gold lounge benefits (negative)
this, of course, was expected. i think last year was just a transition year to remove the e35k level. i wouldn't be surprised if they removed the level altogether for the following year.

Altitude Elite^™ 35K members will no longer have the option to choose complimentary access to International Maple Leaf^™ Lounges and Star Alliance Business Lounges as part of their Select Privileges. Instead, members will be able to select a 50% discount on any Maple Leaf Club membership. (bolding mine)

what a generous selection option! hopefully, that particular selection category is filled with much more useless options than this 50% discount option.

5) more access to preferred seats (neutral)
this is complimentary for e50k and above for domestic and transborder fares, and 50% off for international fares. the seats aren't premium economy. they don't have more leg room. there are no additional benefits to these seats except that they are closer to the front of the plane. this is really a non-benefit to begin with.

6) flight rewards for premium economy (neutral)
they're allowing you to book premium economy fares with aeroplan points. this is not unexpected.

7) removal of fuel surcharges (positive)
elite members will no longer have to pay the fuel surcharges for air canada operated domestic and transborder classic reward flights. for the most part, this saves the member $29 per booking (that's what i've found anyway. keep in mind that there isn't regularly a fuel surcharge on revenue tickets as those are included in the base fare already. but when you book a reward flight, it magically uncouples and you get hit with a fuel surcharge. so this change is actually just a move towards fairness.

super elites will no longer have to pay any fuel surcharges for air canada operate flights. this is a major benefit as some fuel surcharges can be worth hundreds of dollars.

8) limit on number of super elite benefits (negative)
my brother, a super elite member, really used the priority rewards. this was where you could book any economy seat on an air canada-operated flight for anyone else using classic flight reward levels as long as there was a revenue seat available. they have now limited this to 10.

the company representative said that only 5% of altitude members will feel this change. well of course it only affects 5% of altitude members because the benefit wasn't available to 100% of altitude members to begin with. i wonder how many super elite members this will affect? probably more than just 5%.

also, the number of eupgrade nominees for super elite benefits will decrease to 1. this means that you can only upgrade one other person who is not actually traveling with you where as you could have done more in the past.

conclusion
my traveling plans are increasing this year, especially in my first year out of residency. i was debating between moving to either air canada or united as my primary frequent flyer program, and i think i might be heading more in the direction of united.

• the majority of my transborder flights are on united now to avoid the air canada 50% AQM
• air canada international tango fares still earn 100% on united
• i will get access to premium economy on united
• i might be able to access the unlimited domestic upgrades for united flight
• as a non-american based elite, i would be exempt from the minimum spend requirements for united

i also wonder whether they will backtrack and soften the blow, but it sounds like they won't be doing this. 

westjet tweaks its program -- it's now a bit more competitive

westjet recently announced its latest improvements to its rewards program. i would definitely say its an improvement to its current program in that it rewards users for increased travel. it becomes a frequent flyer program rather than a rebate program.

until october 29. 2014, members earn 1% back in westjet dollars on the first $1,500 spent in a year, and then 2.5% back on everything after that. note that taxes and surcharges are not included.

after october 29, 2014, they are introducing new tiers:

the minimum earn remains the same, but on amounts after $1,500 a year, the earning rate increases from 2.5% to 3%. after $4,000 a year, it increases to 5%. again, taxes and surcharges are not included.

milestone awards

the milestone for getting a bonus $35 westjet dollar voucher remains the same -- it is awarded after $1,500 in spending. however, in the old program, one would get an additional $25 for every $1,500 spent after that. these are gone in the new program. at 5% of each dollar spent, each $1,500 increment would yield $37.50 above what one would have earned if they were to have just gotten 2.5% back under the old program. therefore, this new scheme, even without the milestone bonuses, is a good thing for consumers. and one does not need to actually hit the individual $1,500 thresholds to get the bonus (i.e., it's not all or nothing).

the companion flights remain the same. after spending just $4,000 a year, you can get a free companion flight anywhere westjet flies. this can potentially be quite a value. (in the old program, the first companion flight was awarded after $4,500 a year in spending).

flight benefits

in trying to copy most of the legacy airline frequent flyer programs, westjet introduces flight benefits. now that westjet has started to charge for its first bag, silver and gold status now have extra value. it's like what star gold (and previously, what star silver) does for the star alliance member carriers.

there's no way to get unlimited lounge access, even after having spent $6,000 a year on westjet flights. but you are able to get priority boarding and security at the highest level.

overall analysis
without a doubt, this is a better deal than what they used to offer. i also appreciate that unlike air canada's aeroplan or american airlines' aadvantage (where you could credit your westjet flights to), you get the equivalent of cash. you don't have to hunt for award space. you don't have to take flights at inconvenient times just to use your miles. you can use them whenever you want.

i like that they reward people who fly more with their airline. it shows the frequent flyer that the airline understands how important frequent and repeat flyers are. the little perks such as advanced boarding are helpful so that a frequent flyer will never be forced to gate check their carry-on luggage in an effort to avoid the check-in fee.

i like how all flights count towards "status" in an equal sense. lowest fares will earn lower westjet dollars, but it still counts in a real way when trying to achieve the next tier. unlike air canada, domestic tango fares (which are typically $65 + tax less than their flex fares) will only fetch you 25% of the status miles, and it is only by paying the flex fare will you get all the miles that you've actually flown. it just feels more fair.

i still think there is room for improvement. partner airlines don't count (unless it's a westjet flight number). the flight benefits are not applicable to partners. you're also limited to the few routes that westjet flies, and there is more to this world than canada.

but i don't want to focus on those small details. in reality, i think this is an excellent step that westjet has taken.

50% bonus aeroplan miles on flights

in their new promotion, you can get 50% more aeroplan miles for 100% of their world. it's a great promotion, i think, where all flights and all booking classes are eligible provided it's on an air canada flight.

• register by 31, 2014;
• book between september 2 and october 31, 2014; and 
• fly between october 1, 2014 and april 30, 2015

it's only valid on new bookings. i personally think this is a very generous promotion.

intercontinental hotel group announces "into the nights"

the IHG group announced their new "into the nights prom." this is very similar to last year's the big win promo. in both of these promos, personalized offers are given, and if you complete enough offers, a large reward is offered.

this year, register here between september 4, 2014 and december 31, 2014 for your individualized offers. my offers this round were as follows:

• 8,800 points for 6 staying 6 nights
• 100 points for taking their short survey
• 5,600 points for booking 3 stays on the IHG app
• 4,800 points for 2 holiday inn hotel stays
• unsure if this means we need two different holiday inn hotels or two holiday in stays all together
• 2,000 points for booking one stay using the bonus points package plus breakfast
• 28,700 points or two free nights for completing 4/5 offers
• i can't find anywhere what "two free nights" really means. does this mean two free nights at any hotel (i.e., hotels that normally cost 50,000 points per night), or does it mean that the total number of points earned is enough to redeem for two nights (i.e., at hotels that normally cost 15,000 points per night).

last time, i ended up staying at a holiday inn right beside my house in order to get over 100,000 points. the amount that i spent was less than the value of the points that i earned in the bonus, so it was worthwhile for me.

this time, in order to get 41,200 points, i would need to book at least three nights.

• do the survey
• two holiday inn stay booked via the IHG app
• one IHG hotel stay with a bonus point package booked by the IHG app

if the two free nights really is for any two nights at an intercontinental hotel, then i'd be willing to play this game. so let's see if they can clarify this for me soon.

air miles gold and onyx -- a quick review

recently, air miles came out with a new top tier above their current gold level.

air miles gold
requirements:

• 1,000 air miles earned throughout the calendar year. they no longer stipulate a 5-partner minimum

benefit:

air miles onyx
requirement

• 6,000 air miles earned throughout the calendar year

benefits:

the analysis of the benefits:
priority call centre: 
i remember being a gold member for many years in row, and i never really made use of the priority call center. i can't imagine the priority call center would be any more helpful now than it was back then.

the merchandise:
this is certainly not the best choice for rewards. i took a quick look at what was available:

• a garmin nuvi 2557 LMT north american edition gps system can be purchased at amazon.ca for $189.95, or $212.744 after tax. or, you could redeem 2300 air miles. this would give each air mile a value of 9.25 cents.
• an electrolux access T8 bagless canister vacuum can be purchased at bestbuy.ca for $249.99, or $279.99 after tax. or, you could redeem 2400 air miles. this would give each air mile a value of 11.67 cents.
• a nikon coolpix s6800 digital camera can be purchased at bestbuy.ca for $199.99, or $223.99 after tax. or, you could redeem 2050 air miles as a gold member (regularly 2450 as a regular member). this would give each air mile a value of 10.93 cents
• there are currently no onyx specials that are specifically for onyx members

i can't imagine the "special order" rewards to be of a better value than what they currently offer.

flights:
these are typically the best value, even for non-elite members. for economy flights, these are usually better than aeroplan as availability is often much better. for a dummy booking between vancouver and calgary next month shows this:

air miles

same flights on westjet

for the same flight, you can spend 1500 air miles to save $223.65. this makes each air mile worth 14.91 cents. (of note, they recently increased their redemption rates -- it used to only cost 1200 air miles during the high season).

currently, for air miles gold and onyx members, you can save 30% and 40%, respectively on air canada and westjet flights on certain routes between september 9, 2014 and december 14, 2014. vancouver to calgary is one of those routes. if you were a gold or onyx member, you'd only need to spend 1050 or 900 airmiles, respectively. this makes each air mile worth 21.3 cents and 24.85 cents, respectively.

these sales used to be available to regular members in the past too, but it looks like it's only reserved for gold and onyx members now.

overall:
if you're willing to use your air miles only for flights, then the jump leap to gold may be worth it. it may not, however, be worth it to jump for onyx as the incremental value achieved over gold is too small given the huge leap in qualification requirements from regular gold status.

25 free air miles with sobey's

in june 2013, sobey's, an aeroplan partner, acquired safeway, an air miles partner. back in june, sobey's and aeroplan announced that for its non-ontario stores, their partnership would end on september 11, 2014.

what i didn't see at the time was that sobey's would now be partnering with air miles, a partnership that safeway has had for quite some time now. and until september 11, 2014, you can get 25 free air miles by simply linking your sobey's account with air miles account.

sobey's hasn't been a major part of my life in british columbia -- they don't really have a good presence here in vancouver (i don't know if you can earn points at IGA, which is owned by sobey's). but, i did have a card hanging around from when i lived in calgary. and so now, i'm going to find myself with 25 free air miles.

as a side note, you get 1 club sobey's point for every dollar spent, and 14 club sobey's points is equal to 1 air mile. this is a better proposition than safeway's $20 spend for 1 air mile.

links from the web: what hotels have to offer, vancouver airport efficiency, loosing hotel bibles, air france and ebola

1) view from the wing summarizes some interesting points on a publicly available document that details what holiday in express hotels must offer. back in december, he did the same for best western hotels.

2) vancouver airport is canada's most efficient airport according to the ATRS global airport benchmarking report. while it sounds nice, it doesn't actually mean much for the consumer. it simply compares output (number of aircraft movements and passengers, non-flight revenues) to the input (number of full time employees and outsourced services. in reality, it is more a measure of cost efficiency rather than efficiencies for the traveler. in america, atlanta and oklahoma rank top in airports with more and less than 15 million passengers, respectively.

3) guests staying in travelodges in the uk will no longer have access to free bibles. "the company decided that having a Christian book in rooms did not reflect the country's 'multicultural society.'" i just remembered those bibles as one of the only books you were allowed to (and encouraged to) steal.

4) air france flight crews have petitioned against flights to ebola-stricken african countries. one of the things the airline says is that they screen the temperature of all passengers. and while that is fine, i wonder how effective this is when the incubation period, according to the ever so trustworthy wikipedia, averages 8-10 days. then again, i'm not really an infectious disease or community medicine specialist. 

expedia foils my hawaii best price guarantee

one of my favorite travel tricks was to use the expedia best price guarantee. if you find an identical room (with identical conditions) offered on another american website in american dollars, they will refund the difference and give you a $50 travel credit. furthermore, you can use that $50 dollar travel credit on a room that you know in advance will qualify for the best price guarantee, and apply for the best price guarantee based on the pre-travel credit price. in effect, you've saved $50 off the price of your hotel night and will receive another $50 credit. on top of this, the purchases still qualified for the 4.8% rebate that bigcrumbs offered.

over the years, i've done this at least 23 times in the last three years, based on the number of used best rate guarantee coupons are in my account. the number is probably higher because sometimes, when they can't issue you a new coupon, they just re-activate an old coupon so that you can use it again.

what i've normally done ...
my typical hotel that i stay at is the waikiki sand villa hotel. it normally prices out to be $102.57 all in on the website, but typically hits $123.08 all in. so under normal circumstances, i would be able to use a best price guarantee coupon on the expedia price of $123, then get an additional $21 refunded from expedia, and then receive another $50 best price guarantee for some time in the future.

but this is how they've changed things ...
it's all about the wording, sadly. when you book on the expedia site, this is what it says:

when you book on the hotel website, this is what they say: 

in this case, expedia now takes the same room booking and guarantees a 4th or 5th floor. for the same price, you could get a smoking room on the 2nd or 3rd floor, which suggests to me that the 2nd and 3rd floor are smoking floors, but i don't actually know that for sure.

anyway, i only noticed this change after i had submitted my best price guarantee claim, and only after it was rejected:

Your itinerary shows the room description as "Located on the 4th to 5th floor in the main tower with views of Diamond Head volcano, mountains, or city" while "www.sandvillahotel.com" is showing "Rooms are located on the 2nd - 5th floors, excluding corner units". The price is reasonable to be higher for a room located on the higher floor and ahs views of Diamond Head volcano, mountains, or city. Due to this, we are declining your Best Price Guarantee claim.

what do i do now?
i guess all good things must come to an end. it looks like for the rest of my hawaii adventures in the future, i'll have to use up the remaining best price guarantee coupons that i have and then switch to other hotel websites.

• great canadian rebates offers a 4.0% rebate on hotels booked through expedia.ca
• expedia.ca charges in canadian funds, meaning fewer currency conversion charges
• great canadian rebates also offers a 4.5% rebate on hotels booked through hotels.com (which uses canadian currency)
• hotels.com offers its own 10% rebate program via hotelrewards, which is stackable with great canadian rebates 

thanks for the fun ride, though!

store credit cards aren't always bad ...

sometimes, i spend a lot of time in my head justifying the cards that i have. normally, my pattern is as such:

• i keep all of my gas/dining/grocery/entertainment expenses on my scotiabank gold american express card for the 4% cash back return. 
• i keep all of my non-amex purchases, or non-gas/dining/grocery/entertainment expenses on my MBNA card for the 2% cash back return. (no longer available)
• i keep all of my foreign transactions on my sears financial mastercard for the 1% back in sears purchases and 0% foreign exchange fees.

given the decline of sears and all of the store closures, and how hard it was to redeem points without physical stores, i was contemplating switching to the amazon.ca rewards visa also offered by chase. like the sears card, it also has no foreign exchange fees, offers 1% cash back, and 2% cash back on amazon.ca purchases.

but there's something to be said about store credit cards and how helpful they can be. i was walking through sears today (it's right beside my work). it's one of the numerous stores closing down. everything was outlet pricing in an attempt to clear out the store. and on top of that, there was an additional 10% off if you were a sears card holder.

sears certainly isn't the only one to give a discount when using their credit card in store.

• target's red card gives you back 5% on target purchases when it's linked to any debit card.
• hbc financial's mastercard gives you bonus points for purchases, but it's not uncommon to have 10% savings especially for hbc card holders
• note: typically $1 spent on the card = 2 point, and 40 points = 1 air mile if you choose to redeem for airmiles, 2,000 points = $10 hbc gift cards. this works out to about a 1% return
• macy's credit card in america offers star rewards. the more you spend per year at macy's, the more you spend, the more mailings and 25% off vouchers you get per year. however, it feels like every weekend i'm there, they have an additional 10% off for macy's credit card holders.
• in seattle, they readily allow canadians to apply, most likely because of all of the traffic from vancouver. this works best if you make a purchase, get the discount, and before even leaving the till, pay off the credit card with american cash.
• banana republic, the gap, nordstrom's and many more all have similar cards but are not open to canadians.

so this is all to say that sometimes, focusing on that 4% return from amex is not the best deal. sometimes, paying via debit or store credit is worth thinking about too. in the end, if you can save 10% off in store on top of other discounts, that surely outweighs the 2-4% return you get from your regular credit cards. and i have yet to find any mileage based reward card that would offer a 10% return on spendings.

sears financial gets to stay in my wallet just a little while longer. at least until the store that's right beside my workplace closes its doors for good.

links from the web -- US News' rankings of hotel and airline programs, airmiles onyx, united app changes, american frequent flyer non-changes

1) gary from view from the wing breaks analyzes the results of the US News' rankings of hotel and airline points programs. i agreed that they are flawed, and he takes a look at the actual score breakdown. for both, it seems like the majority of the points go directly to domestic travel, how large the domestic network is, and how big their presence is in various american cities. it says little about upgrades and bonus perks, amenities, the ability to earn top tier, etc. i think it's important to look at the finer details of how they come up with these rankings. some people buy into these rankings, and i'd hate for people to be misled.

2) airmiles announces a new level in their earnings program as reported on flyertalk. the official website from airmiles is here. to reach this new level, one requires 6,000 airmiles a year. i find it hard to even get myself excited about reaching airmiles gold. when i was airmiles gold, i didn't really take advantage of the 40-50% off reward miles for flights because they were only between odd destinations (prince george to regina, for example), or were only valid for times in the very near future (e.g., how often does one begin to plan a trip to europe 3-4 weeks before actual expected departure date?). i'll probably do a more thorough review in a bit.

3) despite delta and united transitioning to a revenue based frequent flyer program, american airlines has noted that it will not make that transition yet. they still have to merge their programs first, which is expected to start sometime in 2015.

4) united is set to start allowing passengers to check in and scan their travel documents using their mobile app. i've downloaded the latest update but haven't had time to try this out. as someone who definitely flies internationally on united, this is something that would help me to avoid the kiosks at airports.

multiple aeroplan bonuses -- summer 2014 edition

aeroplan has multiple bonuses right now, all of which started early july. all of these require you to enter your aeroplan number to register. these are only for redeemable miles, not for status miles. these are valid only on new bookings. i've ranked the current promos (in my opinion) and listed them below.

1) 2,000 - 5,000 bonus miles per international round trip. register by august 26, 2014, and travel until october 31, 2014. these are valid for any round trip between the following city pairs:

these are only valid on non-stop air canada operated flights (i.e., no codeshares). tango flights are eligible, which makes up for the loss of redeemable miles now that most flights have tango fares and pricing. however, if you're trying to maximize the number of status miles because you're struggling to maintain status, you're probably either booking code shares on non-air canada metal or crediting miles towards other frequent flyer programs. in these cases, this promo will not be helpful.

2) double redeemable miles for select domestic round trips (or two one-way trips). register by august 29, 2014 and fly by october 31, 2014. there are many city pairs listed, but here is a small sampling:

note that these aren't generally large distances covered and the double miles are specifically for geographical area covered. so double miles on a trip from victoria to vancouver would yield a very generous bonus of 125 miles round trip assuming a tango fare. still, something is better than nothing.

3) 2,500 bonus miles to switzerland. register by september 12, and fly between august 1, 2014 and april 30, 2015

4) up to 30,000 bonus miles to london, england. register and book by august 24, 2014 and fly by september 30, 2014. in economy class (tango fares are eligible), you will receive 7,500 points per round trip.

united's new safety video

i fly a lot of united airlines flights despite being a canadian because i know i will get 100% status miles with them. so whenever i board, i am always confronted with their safety video. the old video is located here. one of the things that used to irritate me so much was the two asian flight attendants in the video, one at the beginning and one at the end, who would bow when doing their greeting. it felt like it was playing into a stereotype, and it also suggested that the air crew provided an certain level of deference which has certainly not been my experience on united.

united recently aired a new safety video located here. there's a wiki about it here. it's new, it's different, and it at least tries to make the standard safety video interesting. that's a change i like!

20% bonus petro-points when linking bcaa membership

despite having lost sears as a transfer partner, i still really like the petro-points program because of what it can mean in terms of cathay pacific's asia miles. remember that 10 petro-points = 1 asia mile. also remember that for general in-store spending (including gift cards), you get 20 petro-points per dollar spent.

during my hiatus, they teamed up with the british columbia automobile association (bcaa, affiliated with caa/aaa). if you login to your petro-points account and enter your bcaa number, you will get 20% more petro-points. so whereas buying a $50 starbucks card would previously earn 1000 petro-points (or 100 asia miles), it will now earn 1200 petro-points (or 120 asia miles).

 

it's nothing huge, but every little bit counts. and it would be a shame to not be earning these extra points if one were a bcaa member anyway.

free 100 aeroplan points

in my inbox on july 21, aeroplan is soon to be launching a new text message service. like with the airmiles program, if you provide your mobile phone number, they will text you various offers from their sponsors. with the airmiles program, i've seen texts giving out 25 free airmiles for simply visiting a marlin travel agency, for example.

if you sign up before september 15, 2014, you will get 100 aeroplan points for free and an entry to win 50,000 aeroplan points. simply text your aeroplan number to 27767 and confirm. data/text fees may apply.

this is an excellent way to keep your aeroplan account active if you're struggling to meet the one-transaction-per-year rule.

asiana club's mileage redemptions aren't too bad

i use asiana's asiana club as my star alliance frequent flyer program of choice. i do this because it makes star gold status easily attainable at 40,000 miles over two years. most frequent flyer programs offer star gold status at 50,000 miles per year. the downside is that the benefits pretty much stop at star gold status. but if the alternative is star silver, or worse, nothing, then i'd rather take this.

it's often said that the cost of award redemption on asiana is quite high. it's harder to earn miles on (i.e., lack of generous bonus miles for top tier members compared to the american based programs), and the redemption options themselves are quite pricey.

they used to have a distance based award chart for star alliance partners, but this has now changed to zones as of june 5, 2014. i was browsing through the potential options and found that some are actually quite good for a north american traveler.

• trips to hawaii cost 35,000 in economy and just 55,000 in business (compared to 45,000 and 80,000 on air canada, respectively).
• trips to northeast asia and southeast asia in business class are 120,000 and 135,000 miles, respectively (compared to 150,000 and 155,000 miles on air canada, respectively)
• trips to europe are 50,000 and 80,000 in economy and business class, respectively (compared to 60,000-75,000 and 90,000-105,000 miles on air canada, respectively)

on top of these slight savings, there are incredible opportunities for stopovers with asiana. the rules, as per their website, state that you may have up to 8 segments in your entire itinerary (e.g., YVR-SIN via LAX and HKG count as 4 segments). you are also allowed to have up to 7 stopovers greater than 24 hours. the old rules stated that you could only have one stopover per country, which greatly limited the utility of the stopover rule. however, that rule appears to have disappeared.

other benefits include 50% miles for one-way trips, and, as of june 5, 2014, the ability to book some reward flights online.

it makes me feel better that the miles that i've accumulated for the sake of star alliance status aren't going to be of a poor value after all!

and back from a hiatus: no longer a pivot visa user, changes to the sears mastercard

i'm back from a hiatus. this was the royal college exam year for me, and so who knew that it would take this much effort to pass an exam? but it's over and done now, with only good results. as of this summer, i'll be my own independent physician in practice.

there are a few things that i noticed in the last couple of months (among many). but some of the unique propositions that i've written about have changed for me.

1) pivot visa by petro canada is now too hard to use
i've had to stop using this because of the inability to buy reloadable cards. i've tried to use my scotia bank gold american express (4% cash back at gas stations), and invariably, the attendants would turn me down. common reasons were: "oh, our machine is broken today" (some people might push the issue, but i don't), "oh, let me call our authorization centre ... oh, we are still on hold ...", and probably the most truthful, "we don't accept credit cards for those kinds of purchases." i respect that.

but because i can't reload the card anymore using the american express, there is no longer any value in keeping the reloadable visa card. i've paid $10 to buy the card and $59.95 for the annual option, but luckily, i was able to more than break even.

2) sears and petro-canada are no longer partners
i logged into my petro-points account recently and found out that sears points and petro-points are no longer transferable.

it kind of makes sense given sears' difficulty in canada. i don't normally care for sears points except that i have their sears financial no-forex, no-fee mastercard. it was an amazing opportunity where $1 spent on the card earned 12 petro-canada points, which could then be turned into 1.2 asia miles. i have yet to find a card that is this generous. but sadly, it's no longer an option. had i known, i would have transferred my points out before the deadline, but i missed the announcement. if there was an announcement.

given the difficulty in redeeming sears points in store (namely because the stores are disappearing quickly), i think the best recommendation for no-forex, no-fee cards is now the chase amazon 1% cash back card. the original discussion was here, but is now in need of an update.

an update on zidisha.org: how it didn't work out for me

last year, i heard about the website zidisha.org. i wrote about it last may. briefly, this is a microfinance and lending site, similar to kiva.org. the difference between zidisha and kiva is that you can charge interest. for the most part, the interest that i had charged (~3-4% per person) was collected simply to cover the currency risk.

my loans:

case #1: grace
grace is a 47 year old kenyan who sells second hand clothes. there were multiple lenders for this person, with interest rates ranging from 0% to 5.00%. i had given her $50 and had asked for 4%, which i thought was fair. if i were an american who dealt primarily with american currency, i would probably have asked for less.

and so, as i kind of do with many things with work life starts to ramp up, i left it on the backburner. i didn't check in on it for 5-6 months. i figured that at 17 months, there would be quite a significant repayment rate, similar to kiva.org.

but there were no payments. there was a vague mention about giving birth in august and needing a hospital stay, and having the loan re-scheduled. that comment was posted on august 17. and yes, she may have had a child, and yes, she may have had serious complications with the pregnancy. and yes, i could possibly have more empathy. but to hear nothing in the last 6 months is kind of bad form. i kinda feel ... scammed.

and she has repaid nothing.

okay, okay, so maybe she one off. so let's go to case #2.

case #2: cira
so cira is a woman from senegal who works as an office assistant by day, and sells clothing and jewelry by night. she took out a loan for $756 and had a repayment term of 63 months. i don't recall it being 63 months, because i wouldn't sign up for repayments over 5 years -- i wonder if it might have changed, and i have been known to overlook things so i'll assume it's my mistake. i gave her $50 and a 3.5% interest rate. i used a lower interest rate because she already had a successful loan on zidisha.

so things were initially going well, with her 63-month loan. i didn't check back for six months, and she was paying things on time, it looked like. until she posted something on her loan page:

which, roughly translated through google translate, meant that she had a bad client who didn't pay her but that it would be a temporary problem because she has all these other clients who are still paying her. so the problem, as of september 4, 2014, was going to be temporary. and then look at what's happened:

and almost 6 months later, not a word. again, not a very good feeling. i have gotten back $2.33 so far on this loan.

conclusion
i think i gave it a fair try by trying out two different loans. and it's not that they were late with their payments or that they tried really hard until they couldn't do it anymore. these loans appear to have failed abysmally. i'm not really expecting that things will turn out well.

so i think that these two loans will end my participation with zidisha at this time. i'll keep the account open to see if any more repayments happen, but i don't think their model thus far has worked as well as kiva.org.

as an aside, i have made 37 loans via kiva.org. 35 of these have been fully repaid. one is still repaying as per the original repayment time frame. only one has defaulted (although she paid back nearly 50% of the loan).

brunei extravaganza: part 2: ord-hkg, ua business class, medical emergencies

this is a continuation of my semi-trip report. the first part was located here.

ua895: chicago to singapore (15 hrs 55 mins)
i've flown business class on united only once before. this was on their old 747s back in 2008 which didn't have a full recline. i took the opportunity to quickly take a pic of the seats as we were boarding.

business class seats

video screen with foot rest

they also passed out their tin amenity kits. they had different ones for all their hubs. my neighbor got the cleveland kit, which i kind of wanted simply because united will be de-hubbing cleveland in the near future.

their seats are in a 2x4x2 configuration. half the seats face forward, the other half face backward. i was facing forward and sitting in an aisle seat. there was an 81 year old Chinese woman who was sitting facing me across the aisle. it was awkward because i was likely the only other person in the entire business class cabin who was also asian. she only spoke mandarin, and my mandarin was awful. i can only imagine how much she wanted to just be able to talk to someone else on the flight, especially when the majority of the announcements, flight crew, and passengers were english speaking. i will admit that i was kind of annoyed that every time my eyes were open, she would try to initiate conversation. i kind of just wanted to enjoy the business class product.

the business hard and soft product
i will have to admit that the hard product (i.e., the physical seat itself and its features) were excellent. it was a fully lay flat, non-angled seat that was wide enough to let me lay down and not feel constricted. the entertainment console was easy to use, the hand control unit was intuitive enough to use. possibly the only thing that would have been nice would have been to have a bit more of a barrier between myself and my neighbor, but even that was ok for me. i felt bad for my seat mate who was sitting at the window -- she had to climb over me in order to use the washrooms.

the soft product (i.e., the service aspect) was friendly and efficient. it was full in first class and business class, and half full in economy class. i wonder if things would have been different if it were a completely full flight. there was a bit less emphasis on presentation of the staff and the meals (compared with the very uniform appearance of the asian airlines, which i really appreciate). and of course, compared to economy, the soft product was much better.

meal times
once airborne, we were served a lunch option. there were four choices, and i chose the cod and vegetable ratatouille. it was very nice.

jumbo prawn and salad

 

cod ratatouille

at the midway point in the flight, they offered a light snack consisting of a chicken and wonton dumpling noodle soup. the pieces all kind of stuck together, but i don't know what else they could have done with it.

mid flight snack

a few hours before landing, we were offered a small breakfast. i chose the egg option. breakfast was served at around 4pm hong kong time -- i always wonder why they don't serve the meal that would best match the local time where they are at.

brekkie

medical emergencies in the air
midway through the flight, somewhere over the pacific ocean, there was an announcement that there was a medical emergency. i know that in the past, i said that i wouldn't help out because i felt that i wouldn't be a very good doctor. but there was an initial call out for someone with a medical background. i waited for a few minutes and overheard the flight attendants talking.

"there's a radiologist in first class," one of them said, "but he says that it's been a while for him." which is true because the last time he probably did any general medicine was likely in his first year of residency. "and no one's identified themselves in the back." and then i felt guilty, and then i volunteered myself.

luckily, it was a case of an elderly lady who likely had heart burn (her medication was in her checked bag, and she herself was delayed and separated from her baggage for over 24 hours) and anxiety. but there were a few things i noted:

• the stethoscope was not very useful at all. it worked in that you could hear your finger tapping on the diaphragm, but you couldn't hear breath sounds or heart sounds
• their blood pressure cuff required two hands to operate ... so you would need a third hand to either feel the pulse or hold the stethoscope
• the only medications they carry are heavy duty medications for people who have gone into cardiac arrest, as well as aspirin. but they don't carry anything else
• there is a helpful ground-link communication with a doctor to also help guide the staff if necessary. but i never got to talk to them
• they want to see your identification and proof that you are a doctor. it makes sense from a liability standpoint as united absorbs all the potential liability (or so they said -- i wish i had taken the actual copy of the agreement with me). i guess they want to make sure i'm actually a doctor. luckily, i had my badge with me.

she turned out fine. no body bag was necessary when we deplaned from hong kong 8 hours later. except for waking me up while i was asleep to let me know that the passenger may have had some wine with her dinner, i never heard from the crew or united airlines about that again.

my reward was not having to make an emergency landing, and thus delaying my arrival into hong kong (and thus singapore) by a few hours.

touching down in hong kong, after 16 hours in the air, was the sweetest feeling ever.

brunei extravaganza: part 1 -- exiting london, global entry strategies, and secondary searches

i had the chance to actually travel the itinerary that i booked and wrote about, heading from london, ontario to singapore, and then back again to vancouver. i see these trip reports all the time. i didn't have the foresight to actually take enough pictures to make it trip-report worthy, but i figured that i might as well post the pictures anyway.

this will be broken into parts.

part 1: yxu-ord, ord-hkg-sin

yxu-ord
i had to book a cab to head from the london hotel to the airport. in london, you can either go by the regular metered cabs or the chartered cabs. the chartered cabs run based on zones and are easier to get. they are also the only ones that are allowed to pick up passengers from the airport. the driver assured me that the rates are roughly the same except it's less stressful to be charged based on zones because you weren't constantly worried about the lights. i didn't really care -- i spent $50 to get to my hotel, and i spent another $50 to get to the airport.

london airport is a cute, small airport. it is reminiscent of the old brunei international airport where all the boarding gates share the same seating area. the check-in counter for united was manned by air canada. united runs the crj's between london and chicago twice daily, and these planes don't have business class. for that matter, air canada typically runs non-business class planes between the two cities. so when i walked into the premier check in lane, it felt a bit odd, especially since there was a long line for the economy lane.

the flight boarded quickly and left on time. it was uneventful. there was no need to take a picture of an economy class seat.

ord (5 hour layover)
typically traveling from either calgary or vancouver, i've become used to the pre-clearance facilities. in chicago, i ended up clearing US immigration there. i used my global entry access, but because i was carrying food (granola bars, lots of nuts), i checked yes to the question where they asked if i had any food with me. tip: their computer system cannot differentiate between you checking yes to food versus livestock, and i think firearms. and it was very clear that the border agent didn't know the system either. he kept asking why i checked "yes" to having livestock with me. i kept telling him that i answered yes only to food but he didn't believe me.

it was the very first time in my adult life that they sent me to secondary. which consisted of an x-ray. where they indeed found my granola bars that i kept for airplane snacks. and they let me keep it.

if i were to have done it all over again, i would have just stood in the regular line because at 7am, the lines aren't all that long. and i don't think i would have been sent to secondary.

i had to exit the secure zone, transfer terminals, and re-clear security. i went to the united lounge in concourse C (of terminal 1) while i waited for the flight. i honestly wished that i could have went to a different airline lounge, but the terminal was pretty much a united-only zone. so no luck.

flight ua895 began boarding on time, and left on time. next post: my 16 hour journey to hong kong.

an important rule of award travel: check back frequently for new availability

the most important rule, of course, is when you don't like the answer you're getting, you should hang up and try your call again. because more often than not, the agent isn't very clear on the rules themselves. or they are overly hopeful that the system will passively work out the kinks to your reservation without any further encouragement.

the scenario
i had booked an aeroplan award to asia. the itinerary at the time was:
london, ontario to chicago (yxu-ord) on united (ua), economy
chicago to singapore on united, business class (with same-plane stop in hong kong)

on the return, i had:
singapore to hong kong on singapore airlines, economy class
hong kong to beijing on air china, economy class
beijing to vancouver on on air canada, business class

i paid 125,000 miles and $323 in taxes for that ticket.

what made me think about changing my flights
my dad was playing around with some of his award tickets, and he said that he had lucked out and found business class space for his air canada award flight. because he had paid for a business class redemption, they were able to upgrade him on the same flight for free.

i was telling this to my friend over dinner one night, and he said that i should keep on checking back. he said that business class space opens up over time and that i should keep on looking for business class space on the return. "you already paid for it," he reminds me.

and so approximately two weeks before my departure date, i took another look. and then i found this for the return:
singapore to osaka on singapore airlines, business class
osaka to seoul on asiana, business class
seoul to vancouver on air canada, business class

the times were a bit different, and it let me eliminate the need for a hotel in singapore on my return. and i was okay with that.

on making changes, and on following the golden rules:
i immediately called aeroplan, and they were able to protect space and make the change for me. i paid an additional $102 in taxes and $94.50 in change fees. it didn't change over right away. they said "ticketing" needed to confirm it. they didn't call me back like they were supposed to. apparently, they were just sitting on it. for a whole week. and the award space was showing up as gone. so i called back to make confirm what had happened. the second rule happens even after you book your flight or make changes: keep checking to make sure they actually made the changes. just because you give them your credit card and just because you lose the points in your account, it isn't a guarantee that they book the tickets. you would think that it is, but it isn't.

and the agent, on wednesday (departure date for the award was sunday), kept telling me to wait a few more days. "ticketing" would work it out by then. she found award space on a different routing, all in business class, but less convenient timing, and she asked if i wanted to switch to that one instead. she couldn't guarantee me that the same problem that happened with my original change wouldn't happen again. so then i chose to employ the first golden rule in a different form: keep asking for a manager until you get one. i think i ended up saying, "thanks, can i please speak with your manager?" five times in tandem until she finally relented. the manager came. and then it was fixed.

the value per aeroplan point went up!
so what happens to the overall value of the award? initially, i had calculated an award value of 4.13 cents per aeroplan point redeemed. for an additional $196.50 in taxes, i got a fully business class itinerary. the asking price was $6530 on united's website using similar airlines. i paid out $519.50 in taxes and change fees for my "free ticket", so really, i saved $6,010.50. because i spent 125,000 points, each point was then calculated to be worth 4.81 cents per mile. a slightly better valuation.

if you think that business class tickets are overpriced, you may choose to value it at 75% of the revenue ticket cost. in this case, my overall rate of return drops to 3.60 cents per mile. still not too bad.

lessons learned:

1. check back frequently to see if more business class reward space opens up
2. check back frequently to make sure that your tickets are actually booked if changes need to be made
3. managers tend to have more power in getting things done than the first person you speak with on the phone

links from the web: 10 free airmiles, 100 free hyatt points, aeroplan decreasing earnings on united flights

1) taken from smart canucks, you can fill in this 5-question survey re: transportation options in the greater toronto area for 10 airmiles. this is limited to the first 12,000 respondents. it's easy and probably not intended for everyone to do, but i couldn't say no to a freebie. the direct link is here.

2) from view from the wing, hyatt is offering a free 100 points to celebrate chinese new year. the direct link is here. it's good until february 15, 2014.

3) canadian kilometers notes that aeroplan has now decreased the number of miles earned on united flights. united flights used to earn at least 100% across all fare classes, but effective april 1, 2014, the cheapest fares go down to 50%. on the upside, those who are willing to spend money on the more expensive classes and products (including business and first) will receive higher earning rates. the net impact for me: future possibilities of earning status on air canada just became that much harder. the most important thing is that asiana doesn't follow suit. at the time of writing, so far, they haven't.

50% bonus base miles on all american airlines and us airways flights until march 2, 2014

everyone knows that american and us airways are merging. we know that us airways is maintaining its own frequent flyer program before merging with american. we know that until march 1, us airways will exit the star alliance on march 30, 2014 and then join the oneworld alliance on march 31, 2014. at some later date, the programs will be merged into the american program. it's a unique proposition because this means that effectively, all star alliance miles can be credited towards a oneworld program.

in my e-mail, i received an offer from american airlines. for every us airways flight that you credit towards the aadvantage program, you will receive a 50% bonus on the base mileage (or minimum mileage, if applicable). this is only for flights operated by us airways and its subsidiaries. it is also good for flights marketed by american airlines but operated by us airways. registration prior to march 2, 2014 is required. the bonus is applicable for flights taken between january 13, 2014 and march 2, 2014. so it's best to register anyway just in case.

on the us airways website, there is a reciprocal offer for crediting american airline operated flights to the us dividend mileage program. same terms and conditions. registration is required and can be done so here.

what this means is that until march 2, 2014, when flying on either of these carriers, you get a 50% bonus. i think it's a great deal if:

• you currently have no status and will likely not achieve status for the year
• you currently have star alliance status and have enough travel planned to be able to safely divert some star alliance miles into the aadvantage
• you do not receive much of a elite bonus when flying us airways

i probably won't be taking advantage of this offer given that none of my destinations are really us airways destinations. also, i always cut it close when qualifying for star gold status with asiana airlines, so i can't really afford to lose out on any of those extra qualifying miles. despite that, i'm sure that this promo will be helpful for some.

so i bought my way to starwood platinum status last year ...

last year, despite a car accident washington state, i decided to run for platinum status with starwood. i had planned an 8-stay mattress run between seattle and portland but that was cut short after just two nights. so i was left with a 6 night deficit.

i called the sheraton portland airport the monday of my accident to tell them that i wouldn't be able to make it in that night. given that it wasn't a prepaid rate, they were kind enough to cancel the reservation without penalty despite being past the cancellation period. i called the four points by sheraton portland east to ask if i could cancel my award stay for the following day, despite being past the cancellation deadline. they kindly agreed to refund me the points as well.

however, a few days later, i realized that the four points had charged me a $135 no show rate while giving me a stay credit at the same time for it. i called in to the office and it was eventually all sorted out. i was certain that they'd also reverse the stay credit, but they didn't.

so i was in this odd position of only needing 5 extra stay credits in the month of december to earn platinum status. and i decided to go for it.

total cost:

• i stayed at various hotels within my own cities (vancouver and calgary). i did not include the cost of time, nor did i include the cost of "embarrassment."
• each paid hotel night cost roughly $130 on average after taxes. i had one category 3 hotel stay at 7,000 points. i stayed six nights (thus six stays) in total just in case they decided to reverse that extra stay credit (which they didn't end up doing). because i get a 2% rebate on my no-fee mbna mastercard, the cash portion went down to $637. 
• when redeeming for category 2 hotels, you can easily get a 3 cent per point return. therefore, 7,000 points is equal to $210.
• total cost: $847.
• i also took into consideration the fact that throughout the year, i split up numerous trips into multiple stays (e.g., two different hotels over the weekend instead of staying all throughout).

utility of the mattress run:

• two of those nights were for date night purposes with the +1. by staying in downtown calgary one night, we went out for drinks without having to worry about the $60 cab fare home. we enjoyed the free breakfast in the lounge which i would value at $10 each. we also enjoyed the free evening appetizers which i would value at $5 each. total value for that night out was $90.

benefits:

• i was one night away from their 2013 third trimester promo bonus (double points, and 2,500 points until december 15). so for two of my nights, i got 492 double points and 2,500 bonus points, for a total of 2,992 points.
• all of my extra stays were either sheraton or westins. as a gold member, i received 250 points for each stay except for my last one, where i opted for a movie instead (valued at $16.79). if we value the movie at 500 points, that means that i received 1,750 points.
• all of my stays received a base 3 starpoints per dollar spent before taxes. i received 1,755 starpoints.
• i think i received an extra 118 starpoints out of error. but i honestly am not motivated enough to go through all my statements to confirm.
• in total, i received 6,497 points, which would be equal to $195.

future quantifiable benefits:

• i expect that i will have 25 stays in the 2014 year, at a 1:1 ratio between hotels that offer a 250 point platinum amenity bonus or 500 point amenity bonus. this is an additional 125 to 250 bonus points compared to the gold amenity. thus, i expect to earn 187.5 extra point being average per stay. this works out to 4,687 extra platinum points this year. that's worth $140.
• there is guaranteed internet access as a platinum. in america, despite having my mobile internet hospot from walmart, hotel wifi is generally faster and more convenient. as a gold member, you can have free internet in exchange for your gold amenity. for westin and sheraton, this is worth 250 points. therefore, for my 12 westin/sheraton stays a year, i will get the equivalent of 3,000 points. this is worth $90. (the rest of my stays are at four points, where they have free wifi for everyone).
• as a platinum, i'll have access to continental breakfast for two as one of my amenity choices, which i don't value very much because i'm not a continental breakfast kind of guy. therefore, i'd take the points instead.
• as a platinum, i have access to the sheraton club lounges where available. sometimes there are great free hot food options during evening hours (sheraton eau claire calgary), usually, it's just free morning breakfast for two. my AAA rate usually gives me free breakfast at the sheratons that i stay at anyway, so this isn't really a benefit to me. the free beverages (i save on buying coffee for two) is probably $5 a night. at 12 sheraton nights a year, that's worth $60.
• total quantifiable benefit: $290, possibly more if i stay at a sheraton that doesn't give me free breakfast with the AAA rate.

qualitative benefits:

• upgrades to best available room, including suites. however, upon check in to the sheraton bellevue just now, they simply put me on a club floor. it's really nothing fancy.
• access to the platinum concierge service, which i apparently can't use unless i'm overseas.
• access to the platinum call center.

total analysis:
i spent $847. i had $90 in savings, i got back $195 in points, and $290 in other quantifiable benefits. this equates to a $272 investment for a year of platinum. it's not as much as my mileage run 3 years ago that earned me star gold status with asiana airlines. the quantifiable benefits of star gold status were clearly worth it. however, we will see whether the qualitative benefits of starwood platinum status is worth it.