Tag Archives: British Airways

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My 2025 Travel Predictions Midyear Review: Hits, Misses & Lots of Wild Guesses

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. As we approach the midpoint of the year, I thought it would be a good time to check in on My Overly Ambitious 2025 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card PredictionsCorrect predictions are in green, incorrect predictions are in red, and half correct predictions are in orange.  Without further ado, here is my midyear review for my 2025 predictions:

Airline Predictions:

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
    • No, these “convert travel funds to airline miles” have not returned yet in 2025.
  • Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
    • No, but I am still optimistic that we will see this happen before the end of the year.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
    • No, not yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen in the next few months.
  • British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
    • No, the redemption prices have not changed for American Airlines or Alaska Airlines.
  • Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
    • No, but the rumored super-duper-ultra-premium AMEX Delta credit card could have this benefit (link).
  • JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
    • Yes! With the United Airlines and JetBlue “Blue Sky” partnership, you can redeem JetBlue points on United Airlines and vice versa (link).
  • United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.
    • Yes! You can pool United Airlines miles, but they can only be used for United and United Express flights, not Star Alliance partners (link).

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PSA: Finnair Avios Refund Took 6-7 Weeks After Award Ticket Cancellation

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Long story short, I booked a Finnair Avios award ticket on October 22, 2024, for travel in Summer 2025, but I needed to cancel the trip.  I’ve cancelled British Airways Avios award tickets in the past and the process to get the refunded Avios was almost instant.  Unfortunately, that is not the case with Finnair.  Finnair’s website quoted 1-3 weeks, but in my case, it took 6-7 weeks for the Finnair Avios to be refunded and for me to receive a refund of the taxes / fees (minus the 50 Euro cancellation fee).  In this post, I will document the cancellation process and timeline.

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My Overly Ambitious 2025 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

Good morning everyone, happy Sunday!  Not to be deterred by my abysmal 2024 results (How Right (& Wrong) were my 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?), 2025 is a fresh year and the year all most some a few of my predictions will come true.  Without further ado, here are my predictions for 2025:

My 2025 Airline Predictions:

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
  • Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
  • British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
  • Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
  • JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
  • Southwest Airlines will do a status match once they start selling seat assignments.
  • United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.

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How Right (& Wrong) were my 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?

Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I know it is a few days before the end of the year, so technically, all of these predictions could come true, but I am going to call it now.  At the beginning of the year, I wrote My Overly Ambitious 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  The original predictions are in black, correct predictions are in green, and incorrect predictions are in red.  Without further ado, here are the results of my predictions for 2024:

My 2024 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will introduce a “family pooling” benefit for miles or travel credit. – Technically, Alaska Airlines doesn’t allow “family pooling”, but it is possible (right now) to move miles into a single account.  If someone in your family has a Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card, you can transfer Hawaiian Airlines Miles between accounts for free and move those miles to and from your Alaska Airlines account for free.  Read this post for step by step instructions.
  • American Airlines will allow Web Special awards to be changed online (currently, they can only be cancelled). – Nope, you cannot make changes to American Airlines Web Special awards.
  • British Airways will add another airline (besides Finnair) to the Avios family. – Nope, Qatar and Finnair were the most recent additions to the Avios family.
  • Delta will change their 15% SkyMiles discount for Delta credit cards holders. – Nope, the 15% discount for credit card holders hasn’t changed.
  • United will allow you to combine multiple travel bank funds and future flight credits for the same reservation. – Nope, it is not possible to combine travel bank funds and future flight credits for a single United Airlines reservation.

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Midyear Review: My 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I recently watched a Frequent Miler On The Air Podcast episode on YouTube where Greg and Nick reviewed their 2024 predictions, so I figured it would be fun to review My Overly Ambitious 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  The original predictions are in black, correct predictions are in green, and incorrect predictions are in red.  Without further ado, here are my predictions for 2024:

My 2024 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will introduce a “family pooling” benefit for miles or travel credit. – Nope, but Southwest Airlines Wanna Get Away Plus fares do offer Transferable Flight Credit that can be used for other Rapid Rewards members.
  • American Airlines will allow Web Special awards to be changed online (currently, they can only be cancelled). – Nope, not yet, but I haven’t booked any AA Web Special awards recently.
  • British Airways will add another airline (besides Finnair) to the Avios family. – Nope, not yet, Qatar and Finnair were the most recent additions.
  • Delta will change their 15% SkyMiles discount for Delta credit cards holders. – Nope, not yet, I haven’t booked many Delta awards this year.
  • United will allow you to combine multiple travel bank funds and future flight credits for the same reservation. – Nope, not yet, I confirmed this a few days ago when I purchased a United Airlines flight.

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