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Euro =1 / USD =.85 time to head to Europe

DaninMCI Uncategorized , , , , , ,

My wife and I have a trip planned to France in February. We’ve had it booked since last Spring so that we can take advantage of some good Winter US Airways Dividend miles reward rates. Since I booked it I’ve watched as the Euro has weakened against the dollar now down to about 1=.85 which is really going to help on shopping and eating I hope. We already have our hotels booked on mostly points but I hope this will really help. It actually may encourage us to shop more than usual and help the Euro. We’ll see.

Anyway this is a good time to go. KLM and several other airlines are running some really good deals on travel right now. It also seems that Delta and United have been doing a little price battle as well. I can’t say now will be the cheapest but it ain’t bad. Much better than a couple years ago.

usd euro Google Search

Earning the Chase British Airways Visa Card “Travel Together” benefit. Is it hackable?

DaninMCI Uncategorized , , , , , ,

British Airways Visa Credit Card Chase.com

One of the best “sounding” benefits associated with the BA Chase Visa Signature card is the “Travel Together” ticket. Basically if you spend $30,000 on this card you earn this benefit. On the surface it sounds great. Here is what Chase says about it:

DOUBLE THE VALUE OF YOUR AVIOS*

Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on your British Airways Visa Signature card, you will earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years. Redeem your Avios for one reward seat for yourself and use your Travel Together Ticket to bring a companion in the same cabin even first class (taxes, fees and carrier charges apply). For more details, visit ba.com/TravelTogetherTicket

The problem is the fine print. They start to give some clues with the “taxes, fees and carrier charges apply”. They might just as well say you’ll actually have to pay for the ticket.

My wife and I have earned this on our cards but I doubt I will ever use it. It can be an OK benefit if you plan to spend money anyway. Basically for the cost of taxes and fees on a business award ticket you could buy a coach ticket. So it’s like buying an upgrade.

Here is some additional wording from British Airways:

BA Chase Redemption Voucher for a Companion

This voucher entitles you to book an extra seat for a companion to accompany you when travelling on British Airways (operated by Comair Limited) flights in South Africa. Your companion will have to be booked in the same cabin as you. All you will have to pay is the taxes, fees and charges for you and your companion’s ticket. Your voucher must be exchanged for a ticket and outbound travel must be taken before the expiry date on the voucher.

But that’s not all………………..

Here are the detailed T&C:

Redemption Voucher for a Companion Terms & Conditions

Earning a Redemption Voucher for a companion

  • You are only eligible to receive a Travel Together Ticket (“Voucher”) for a companion if you are a member of the BA Executive Club and are the main account holder within a BA/Chase Credit Card account (a “Member”).
  • Additional cardmembers to the main Credit Card account are not eligible to receive a voucher. Any amount spent on any supplementary Credit Card(s) of the main Credit Card account will count towards the main account holder’s Spend Target.
  • To be entitled to receive a voucher, the Member must have reached the required Spend Target within a 12 month period starting each year on January 1 and ending on December 31 (the “Twelve Month Period”) For the avoidance of doubt, if a customer opens a Credit Card account on any date following January 1 then they must have reached their Spend Target by December 31 of that year to be awarded a voucher.
  • The qualifying Spend Target of the BA/Chase Credit Card is 30,000 USD (the “Spend Target”). Qualifying spend does not include cash withdrawals, interest, balance transfers and fees.
  • Only one voucher can be earned in any Twelve Month Period. If the Member reaches their Spend Target within the Twelve Month Period then further spend will not accumulate towards another voucher. Members can begin earning towards their next voucher at the beginning of the next Twelve Month Period.
  • When the Member has reached the Spend Target an e-voucher (“Travel Together Ticket”) will automatically be added to their BA Executive Club account. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. The e-voucher will be valid from the date on which it appears on the Member’s Executive Club account and will be valid for 24 months.

Using the travel together ticket

  • The Travel Together Ticket (voucher) allows the main BA/Chase account holder, when making a return flight booking using Avios, to book another seat on the exact same journey for a companion without having to pay the Avios flight price for that Companion. Taxes, airline, government, or other separately charged fees and charges must be paid by Member redeeming the voucher and is payable at time of booking.
  • The voucher will be issued in the name of the main BA/Chase Credit card account holder, who must travel on any voucher.
  • The voucher may only be used for bookings, which are strictly subject to availability and BA offers no guarantee that Members will be able to book for a Companion on any specific flight.
  • A Member who has two valid vouchers on their account has the option to redeem both of them simultaneously on one flight booking, the Avios flight price must be paid for the Member and an additional individual in order than 2 Companions can travel on that booking.

Rules and Restrictions

  • The voucher can only be used for travel on reward flights listed in the Executive Club Redemption table operated by BA, in any cabin class, as long as the Member has sufficient Avios to complete the booking for their desired journey.
  • All travel must originate in and return to the US.
  • The voucher cannot be redeemed for travel with BA’s franchisees, code share partners or oneworld Alliance members.
  • The voucher must be booked online at ba.com.
  • The Member and their Companions must travel together at all times and therefore must be booked onto the same flight and cabin class when travelling using a voucher.
  • Bookings for Companions must be made at the same time as the Member makes their booking.
  • Companions do not have to be named within a BA Executive Club Household Account. Members can choose to take anyone as a Companion on their redemption voucher booking.
  • Outbound travel must take place before the expiry date stated on the voucher, however inbound travel may take place after the expiry date.
  • The voucher is non-extendable, non-transferable and have no cash value. No Avios or other frequent traveller programme miles or points may be earned on the voucher.
  • Once travel using the redemption voucher (s) has been booked, name changes are not allowed.
  • If travel using a voucher  is cancelled within 24 hours of departure, the voucher will not be re-issued to the Member’s Executive Club account.
  • If travel using a voucher is cancelled more than 24 hours before departure then the voucher will be re-issued to the Member’s Executive Club account for the remainder of its original validity period.
  • BA reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions at any given time. Any amendments made to these Terms and Conditions will not affect the validity of any voucher  which have already been issued.
  • The voucher  cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or promotion, including Priority Reward (Gold Executive Club membership benefit). For more information on Priority Reward please visit ba.com.
  • Any use of the voucher and/or use of Avios must be in accordance with the BA Executive Club Terms and Conditions.
  • Members and their Companion(s) will be carried by BA in accordance with its notice and Conditions of Contract (as stated on each ticket) and its general conditions of carriage for passengers and baggage (copies available on request).
  • Members must remain eligible for this promotion at the time of travel. BA and Chase reserve the right to withdraw any vouchers in the event that the Member is in breach of the terms of the BA/Chase Credit Card or the BA Executive Club Terms and Conditions.
  • Offer subject to availability and may be withdrawn at any time. Additional significant restrictions may apply.

I highlighted the important parts. Basically you have to redeem it on a round trip from the US only which nearly all flights go through London LHR with a few exceptions for Open Skies and London City service. So not only do you have high airport fees and taxes but you have to pay the super high BA fuel surcharges (YQ) so that free ticket will cost arouind $1,000 in many cases. I’ve spent a lot of time researching and the experts seems to agree there is no way to fuel dump this. The closest I can find is that it is cheaper to book two one way awards in and out of LHR but that doesn’t work with the “together ticket” as it must be round trip originating and ending in the US. .

I love my BA Avios card and many of the benefits but this is my least favorite feature.

By the way I do not earn any commission from credit cards on this site so this is just opinion and based on personal experience.

BA award reservations accessible from other Oneworld sites. AKA: Use the Camel Back Cutoff

DaninMCI Uncategorized

Ongoing British Airways Award tips series:

One question I got recently was a person who was booking a complex set of flights using British Airways Avios. He was booking US Air and American metal flights but had issues with checked bag fees, seat assignments, etc. It is very hard to get US Air phone agents to change your frequent flyer number on BA award tickets. AA phone agents seem more willing but calling them is about like going to the dentist (not fun).

This has been covered by many bloggers and posts but a couple tricks on this. You can manage BA award tickets and get your US or AA number assigned to these so you can take advantage of elite status or credit card status many times.

First option is to go to Finnair’s website. Select your country and language

finnair booking

Then it will let you enter your BA reservation info.

finnair booking 2

Once you complete that it will let you update your details

using the finnair booking 3button on the bottom. You will just use the drop down to enter the frequent flyer program of choice. Save it and it “should” produce an eticket number that you can then use on US or AA website to manage seats, etc. It “should” also recognize your elite status.

Some reports of this site giving an error in recent months so your results may vary as it’s not a perfect science.

Another option is the Royal Jordanian trick I like to call the Camel Back Cutoff after one of my favorite Leave it to Beaver episodes. Go to that booking site and you’ll find:

Royal Jordanian

Enter the BA confirmation number and passenger last name.  It “should” pull up your traveler info.

Just click on the “update” red button.

Royal Jord update contact

Update your information with the Oneworld program you want to to use and you “should” be able to access it through that carrier website and manage your booking, seats, etc.

All of this works most of the time with most reservations.

Another trick that has been mentioned is during the BA booking process, you are asked to provide the travelers name and details. Your Avios number is auto filled, but you can remove it or delete is which assigns no frequent flier number attached to the reservation.

Once you finish the booking on BA, you can log into your AA account, and go to “My Trips”. You “should” be able to pull up the reservation with the date and flight number. Now you will be able to add your AA number to the reservation, and you are done. Normally your Avios number would be there and it would be “greyed” out so that you can’t change it. By removing it at the initial time of booking, you allow yourself the option to manually add your Aadvantage number through AA. I haven’t tried this method but I would assume it works with US Air for now as well.

As a disclaimer your results may vary. How you do the booking, who is on the booking, etc. will effect this. I’ve had luck doing it on some reservations and I prefer the Finnair approach personally but I had trouble with it working 100% of the time lately as well. Even Wally and Eddie had trouble on the Camel back cutoff and ended up having to use Eddie’s non-rewards credit card. Ward was NOT happy about losing those airline miles let me tell you.

Quick tip. Save 10% on British Airways bookings

DaninMCI Travel, Uncategorized , , ,

Little known benefit still remains in 2015 for Chase BA card holders.

You can save 10% on purchased tickets through the BA.Com/Chase10 link.

Some details:

10% off when you book through ba.com/Chase10:

  • discount is off the total cost of the fare (including taxes, fees, and carrier charges)
  • choose from any of British Airways 180 worldwide destinations or OpenSkies from NY to Paris.
  • travel in any cabin — World Traveller, World Traveller Plus, Club World, First, Eco, Prem Plus, Biz Bed
  • book up to eight friends and family members travelling on the same flight

This offer has been around for at least 2 years and should go through at least 12-31-15 according to BA. I’m not sure how great it is compared to other OTA deals but hey 10% might help. The big challenge is they must be on BA operated flights from what I understand.

CliQbait launch 1-1-2015

DaninMCI Uncategorized

Launching this new site to add entertainment, value, travel opinions and hopefully deals to the internet. Now let’s see where the journey takes us from New Years Day 2015. We can only improve from zero I guess.