Latest news

Fifth-Freedom Flights – AIR003

  Matt discusses the pros & cons of fifth-freedom flights, Singapore Airlines round-the-world award tickets, a Virgin Australia Gold status shortcut, the latest frequent flyer news, and more.   Episode contents: 0:48 – Fortnightly news round-up 5:07 – Discussion on fifth-freedom flights 18:32 – Virgin Australia Pilot Gold status shortcut 22:32 – Ask Matt: How … Continued

26 Jan 2019 AFF on Air (blubrry)

Virgin Australia Gold Status Shortcut

Virgin Australia is offering a handy shortcut to Velocity Gold status, thanks to a new promotion. As part of its “Fly Freedom and Get Gold” offer, Virgin Australia Accelerate members can nominate someone for Pilot Gold Velocity membership by booking just one round-trip Freedom flight. This offer is available to members of Virgin Australia’s Accelerate … Continued

26 Jan 2019 Virgin Australia

Velocity’s New “Refer a Friend” Promo

Velocity Frequent Flyer members can earn up to 20,000 Velocity points thanks to a new promotion from Virgin Australia. The “refer and be rewarded” promotion encourages Velocity members to sign friends and family members up for the Velocity Frequent Flyer program by offering an incentive for each new registration. It’s an interesting promotion, although it … Continued

25 Jan 2019 Virgin Australia

Qantas Loyalty: In it for the long term?

With 28,000 status credits under their belt, Ruth Bayley has earned more than double the status credits needed to achieve lifetime Gold status with Qantas Frequent Flyer. This member has been a Platinum frequent flyer with Qantas for 13 years and a top-tier Platinum One customer for 3 years. But, due to unfortunate circumstances, this member … Continued

24 Jan 2019 Qantas

Warning: LifeMiles Upgrading its Website

The Avianca LifeMiles website and booking engine will be offline for almost a week as the Colombian frequent flyer program upgrades its systems. The scheduled LifeMiles outage is from Friday 1 February to Tuesday 5 February 2019, Colombian time. This means you’ll be unable to make any new award bookings or access your LifeMiles account … Continued

23 Jan 2019 Avianca

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus Redemption Guide

Note: Thai Airways is making significant changes to its Royal Orchid Plus program from 1 October 2019. Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus is a frequent flyer program that’s often overlooked. While it does have some limitations, there are some great sweet spots for Australian travellers. And, if you have an Amex Membership Rewards account, you … Continued

22 Jan 2019 Other Airlines Points Inspiration

Free Qantas Vouchers for Switching Flights

Qantas is now offering customers free flight vouchers in exchange for switching to a different flight time. The “Qantas Flight Switch” offers are being made to selected customers by SMS text message or email. The invitations to switch to an earlier or later flight are generally being received within a week of the flight’s departure … Continued

21 Jan 2019 Qantas

SPG, Marriott Loyalty Programs Merge as Marriott Bonvoy

The Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards programs will combine under a new brand from next month. On 13 February 2019, the three programs will merge to become the “Marriott Bonvoy” loyalty program. This will be the final step in the ongoing merger of Starwood and Marriott. The Starwood Preferred Guest, Ritz-Carlton … Continued

20 Jan 2019 Marriott Bonvoy

Royal Brunei Launching Brisbane Flights

Update (10 May 2019): The launch of this service has been pushed back to 10 July 2019. Royal Brunei Airlines will launch direct flights from Brisbane to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, from 11 June 2019. The 4x weekly services will be operated by narrow-body Airbus A320neo aircraft. Royal Brunei already flies daily … Continued

20 Jan 2019 Other Airlines

Airline Jargon: What is a Long Sell?

Ever tried to book a frequent flyer redemption ticket, only to be told there’s no award availability? If you’ve ever tried to redeem your frequent flyer points for a flight, you probably answered “yes”! It will often be the case that there’s indeed no award availability on the flight you want. But sometimes the availability … Continued

19 Jan 2019 Planning & Booking

Why You Shouldn’t Book Flights with Mileage Brokers

We all love to get a great deal on Business and First Class flights. There are plenty of legitimate ways to save money on flights, for example by taking advantage of airline sales or redeeming your own frequent flyer points. But some deals are, in fact, too good to be true. You may have come … Continued

18 Jan 2019 Planning & Booking

The Business Class Flight from Hell

An unlucky AFF member experienced the “flight from hell” last week upon returning home from Singapore. A culmination of unfortunate circumstances, including a disruptive passenger, made the flight especially unpleasant for those on board. pgsdiver was a Business class passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Sydney last Friday, along with his wife and … Continued

17 Jan 2019 In Flight