Monthly Archives: August 2012

Understanding the Icelandair and Alaska Airlines partnership to book cost-effective flights within the US/Hawaii/Alaska in First Class and coach

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It’s quite simple, actually! Just like US Airways and United Airlines are partners, Iceland’s flag airline, Icelandair, and United States’ seventh largest airline and a major operator to Hawaii, Alaska Airlines are airline partners with reciprocal frequent flyer benefits.

At this time, you can buy Icelandair miles at a very attractive price and redeem them for flights on Alaska Airlines at a very low rate compared to US carrier’s mileage award levels.

Let’s take a quick look on how this works:

1) Join Icelandair’s frequent flyer program, Saga Club (free of charge)

2) Once a member, log-in and purchase Saga Club frequent flyer miles. If you do so by September 28, 2012 you earn a free 20% bonus on top of the miles you purchase.

3) Amount of Saga Club miles required to book Alaska Airlines awards listed on this page. Basically, 20,000 roundtrip for coach, 30,000 roundtrip for First Class.

4) Verify Saver award availability online via Alaska Airlines directly. Disregard the amount of miles Alaska Airlines list since that is for their own customers, not Icelandair’s Saga members, but be sure it is Saver availability, because that is the only thing Icelandair sees! NOTE: If you have specific dates in mind, you might want to do this first.

I’ll be definitely getting my hands on some Saga miles to cover 2 or 3 trips to Hawaii in First Class since this is an amazing deal!

-Kinglobjaw

United’s Club in Houston (IAH) E concourse a nice one!

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Just finishing up my 6 hour stay at United’s ‘E’ club at the Houston Intercontinental/Bush (IAH) airport. This is one of the few domestic membership clubs that offers a shower for all customers. The snacks are identical to other United Club locations’ offerings in terms of snacks and beverages.

This United Club has plenty of seating options as it offers two floors. The first floor offers a full bar and snacks area along with seating and reservations agents ready to assist with bookings. The second floor has more cubicles and less seating but seems to be sort of a “quiet area” within the club. The 2nd floor also offers shower facilities with private bathrooms.

Check out a few shots I took,

Tasteful decor and comfy couches

More seating and the bar/snacks area

Great views of the tarmac and runway for the aviation enthusiast. Unfortunately, United is all you will see on this side of the airport!

If you have some spare time at the Houston IAH airport, it is definitely worth the walk over to the ‘E’ concourse. The ‘E’ concourse itself beats all the other facilities at this airport!

-Kinglobjaw

Un-confirmed update regarding the 4 United miles to fly First Class to Hong Kong fare mistake

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The other evening I was reading up on FlyerTalks.com’s mega-thread regarding this fare mistake and aside from the various “armchair laywers” and “moral compasses” attacking eachother, a single post caught my attention.

A poster, who apparently has a friend at United Airlines indicated discussions between United and the DOT are ongoing. However, the poster also mentioned those who booked over the phone have a strong chance having their tickets honored. Those who booked online (like myself)- the chances of online tickets being honored are less likely, but a voucher is now also under discussion.

That said, nothing has been finalized yet, and the DOT may very well “force” United to honor this mistake, just like they enforced Korean Airlines a few months earlier to honor their own $300 First Class from Palau, Koror to Los Angeles, CA fare mistake!

For now, I can only remind everyone who purchased a ticket and who already has not done so- file a DOT complain against United Airlines. Link here: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/escomplaint/es.cfm

 

-Kinglobjaw