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I was on ABC World News Tonight this evening talking about when to buy airline tickets in order to ge the cheapest fare. The segment was keyed off of the Cheapair.com study on when airfares are cheapest and their soundbite is that you should buy domestic airfares 54 days prior to travel. Usually these studies are pretty bad, telling you to wait until midnight on a Tuesday night. This one is actually pretty good, it’s just more nuanced than the 54 day soundbite suggests. Why 54 Days Out Is Not a Silver Bullet It isn’t as simple as waiting until 54 days prior to departure to buy, and reading through what Cheapair’s data actually says they’d agree with me. But there are simple tips on how and when to get the best deal on airfare.…

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News and notes from around the interweb: Sixt car rental is offering 1000 Lufthansa Miles & More miles for taking their emails. (HT: Greg L.) News on the SAS EuroBonus program revamp is out. A better way to design airport bathroom stalls? Garuda Indonesia is expected to join Skyteam this week (Wednesday), the alliance that includes Delta. This may create some interesting redemption opportunities for Skymiles. Garuda flies to Amsterdam, and several cities in Australia. There may be additional opportunities to route via Asia to Australia, and possibly to combine with Virgin Australia on a single award ticket (US – Australia – Bali on Virgin Australia, then Indonesia to North Asia and connect on a third carrier to the US on the return). We’ll see how Delta’s pricing engines treat all of this. Vienna airport…

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The Washingtpn Post travel section has a piece on a reporter who ‘secret shopped’ an innovative travel agency. Perhaps the time I spent last week in Charleston at a Conde’ Nast Traveler gathering of their ‘World’s Top Travel Specialists’ (I’m fortunate that my award booking service has been included in that list that now hovers around 140 people since 2010) that I’m especially attuned to interesting travel agent business models. The traditional travel agent is, more or less, dead — you don’t generally ring up an agency to book airfare any longer (although Cranky Flier‘s Cranky Concierge service will do it). You book on Orbitz, Expedia, or the airline’s website directly. Or you search your airfare on Hipmunk or Kayak. Something has been lost in the process, there’s little guidance on things like connecting times…

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US Airways is back with another buy miles bonus through March 26. When you go to the purchase miles offer, you have to verify your account details. Then you’ll see the bonus your account is eligible for. My account was offered a 100% bonus: Another account I checked received a 75% bonus offer: Still a third account was offered a 50% bonus: I understand that some will receive a 25% bonus as well. Is This a Good Deal? If You Have a US Airways Credit Card, Should You Buy? US Airways ran — both targeted and non-targeted — versions of the 100% purchase miles or share miles bonus for most of 2013. This airline has been the single most aggressive in selling miles, and at a price point lower than most other carriers offer their…

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After my post about really good award availability flying American’s JFK-Los Angeles flight, MJ On Travel went about making a booking and he shares a really useful tip. American AAdvantage charges 65,000 miles roundtrip for JFK – Los Angeles (or San Francisco) in three-cabin first class, a premium over the 50,000 miles they’d charge for roundtrip business class. British Airways would charge 75,000 Avios for that same itinerary, since they charge 2x the economy price for business class and 3x the economy price for first class. On the other hand, US Airways Dividend Miles charges just 50,000 miles roundtrip for three-cabin first class on these routes — the same price that they charge for roundtrip business class. I’ve been using this to great effect for years. I have several Hollywood-types among the clients of my…

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Just a few days ago I wrote about Turkish Airlines offering 1000 free miles for profile updates, and reminded that Turkish Airlines is a Star Alliance member (United partner) that offers status matches to the Star Alliance Gold level [so free lounge access when flying United even domestically], an easy status re-qualification, and some interesting award chart possibilities. So I was concerned yesterday when I received an e-mail update about upcoming changes to the program — which are very non-specific but offer clues to changes I’m not going to like. They promise more saver award availability, and changing pricing on one way awards and companion awards (awards booked in conjunction with a paid ticket). Currently there’s an award chart for Turkish Airlines redemptions, and a separate chart for Star Alliance redemptions. They’re going to just…

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I’m a huge fan of American’s new Airbus A321 three-cabin service between New York JFK and Los Angeles, and expanding to New York JFK and San Francisco. I crawled around the plane before it began service, while it was touring up in New York. And I flew the inaugural commercial flight in January. It’s an outstanding product, with a business class seat that matches or exceeds what Delta is offering (the seat is very similar to United’s, but brand new, and with better inflight entertainment). And it’s the only true first class cabin on the route. That’s 1×1 seating, each seat is both an aisle and a window, they’ve taken a seat very similar to their new international business class seat that I think is the best seat across the Atlantic currently and are using…

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This is from three years ago, and I’ve shared it before, but it never gets old: You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!

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