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.
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