Tag Archives: Alaska Airlines

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Bad use of AS $99 Companion Ticket & Codeshare AA / AS Booking with Citi Thank You Points

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Good morning from rainy San Francisco.  I hope you all had a great (sunny) weekend.  Since I was stuck inside most of the weekend, I did some travel planning (I do that anyway even if the weather is great).  I booked a quick weekend trip to Portland in mid May and I even found Alaska Airlines saver award space for the return flight from PDX to SFO at a convenient time (not 6 or 7am).  After calling British Airways several times and finally getting through after hearing the busy dial tone 5+ times, I booked the return flight using British Airways Avios.  It was not the greatest redemption ever, but I had British Airways Avios to burn.

For the outbound flight from SFO to PDX, I searched on Google Flights and found a few decent flight times and prices.  Since I am traveling with my roommate, I needed to get 2 tickets.  I have access to a few Alaska Airlines $99 companion ticket codes (the codes are transferrable and can be booked by anyone).  Here is the standard price for 2 one way tickets:

SFO-PDX AS No Companion Ticket

And here is the price with the $99 Alaska Airlines companion ticket.  As you can see, the price with the companion ticket is 43 cents higher than booking the flights without the companion ticket.  I decided to save the companion ticket for a future flight and researched other flight options.

SFO-PDX AS Companion Ticket Continue reading →

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2016 New Years Resolutions: Blog, Travel & Life

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Good morning everyone.  It is now January 2 and I am sure half of the New Years Resolutions are already broken.  I’m not sure if reading about anyone else’s New Years Resolutions is better than making/breaking your own, but we will give it a shot in this blog post.  “Experts” say that writing down your resolutions will increase the likelihood of them happening, so I’m sure typing them and sharing them with the world will make them practically guaranteed.  For simplicity, I divided my resolutions into 3 sections: blog, travel, and life.  Enjoy :)

Blog Resolutions

In 2015, I had almost 1.2 million total page views.  Divide that by 12 months and you get 100,000 total page views per month.  Divide that by 30 days and you get 3,333 total page views per day.  My goal for 2016 is to average 5,000 total page views per day, which would be 150,000 total page views per month, and 1.8 million total page views in 2016.  Achievable?  Definitely!  It will only take a few more blog posts per month.  I consistently tell myself to write 1 blog post per day, but that is too ambitious at times.  I will go with 5 blog posts per week and see what happens.  I will continue to answer as many reader comments, questions, and emails as possible and hopefully redesign the site’s appearance and enhance the mobile layout.

2015 Site Stats Summary

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Travel Predictions for 2016 Part 1: Airlines and Hotels

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Update: Travel Predictions for 2016 Part 2: Credit Cards and MS is now live!

Good morning everyone, happy New Years Eve!  To prove how smart or dumb I am, I wanted to make a few predictions for 2016.  In Part 1, I will share my thoughts and predictions about airlines and hotels.  In Part 2, I will share my thoughts and predictions about credit cards and MS.  If you strongly agree or disagree with any of my thoughts or predictions, please leave a comment below and we will see who is right next year.  Without any further ado, let’s make some guesses!

Airlines

Southwest – Southwest points used to be worth 1.67 CPP, then they were worth 1.43 CPP, now with route variability, I have no idea how much Southwest points are worth.  I wish Southwest points would be worth a fixed amount, maybe 1.5 CPP for all flights.  I hope Southwest continues to announce new routes, especially a few routes from the West Coast to Hawaii.  Lastly, for the last several year, credit card sign up bonus points have counted toward the Southwest Companion Pass.  I think this might change in 2016.

American – after the devaluation goes into effect, I hope award space improves considerably (it can’t get much worse).  I hope American gets rid of the close-in booking fee for booking award flights within 3 weeks of travel.  I also hope that Citi adds the ability to transfer Citi Thank You Points into American Airlines miles.  I hope Citi Prestige Credit Card holders retain the ability to book American and AA codeshare flights for 1.6 CPP.

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*Updated* List of British Airways Avios Routes from the Bay Area (SFO, OAK, and SJC)

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(Hat Tip to Tym2Trvl on Twitter)

Good morning everyone.  British Airways made an announcement overnight that they would be eliminating the 4,500 Avios award band for all award travel on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.  The lowest Avios award band for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines will be 7,500 Avios starting on February 2, 2016.  All other Avios award bands for travel on all other Avios partners remain the same.

British Airways Changes Feb 2 2016

Here is the *modified* British Airways Avios award chart for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.  The original award chart is still valid for all other Avios award bands.  The original post (showing 4,500 Avios flights and US Airways award flights is here).

a blue and white map with a plane and yellow arrow

In this post, I will show you all the non-stop flights from San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK), and San Jose (SJC) that you can book with British Airways Avios.  Dan’s Deals has details for several other airports here.  I have broken up all the flights into the various Avios bands, starting with the shortest distance.  Note: Alaska Airlines and Aer Lingus can be booked with British Airways Avios, but you will have to call British Airways to book the award ticket.  Please read Book British Airways Avios Award Tickets for more information.   Continue reading →