Dear Reader,
Remember those “You are about to witness a crime” TV commercials for travelers checks? The chicanery those continental crooks used against innocents abroad?
One trick that comes to mind unfolded in an airport departure lounge. It starred a bad guy with a big suitcase. He’d walk up next to some unsuspecting traveler whose attaché case was just standing there on the ground next to him.
The big case would be placed casually, so the victim didn’t notice, over the smaller case.
Presto.
The big case would eat the little case.
The big case had no bottom, the ad pointed out. And it was hollow – save for a pair of pincers. When the big case was lifted back up its handle closed those pincers, which grabbed the smaller case snugly hidden inside.
Such crimes were brilliant, and mostly thought up by very bright folks in an ad agency in New York. They were an education. They certainly convinced us that Europe was a scary place for travelers silly enough to leave home without travelers checks.
License to print money.
A friend was curious back then as to how the issuers made money from travelers checks – after all, the commission was so generously small. He asked a colleague, a travelers check exec. The answer came back by way of a question:
“Do you have one in your wallet?”
“Sure,” my friend said, “doesn’t everyone?”
Like most travelers back in those days he always had at least one travelers check left over when he got back home. Prudently, he kept it for a rainy day. After all, that little piece of paper was pure peace of mind. It would remain there ready to be converted to cash whenever he needed it (and it was far safer than cash whenever he didn’t).
But here’s the thing: that piece of paper/peace of mind in his wallet was also a license.
A license – to the issuers – to print money.
At any given time, there were so many people with so many leftover travelers checks in their wallets – left there for months, maybe years, on end – that the issuers enjoyed a massive float. Countless millions of dollars lent at zero interest by loyal, trusting customers.
This was no crime. It was all perfectly legal. A fine quid pro quo.
How many frequent flyer miles
do you have in your ‘wallet’ right now?
Frequent flyer miles began their life as a quid pro quo. You scratch our back, said the airline, we’ll scratch yours. Royalties for loyalty. Quite possibly, as a legacy of your loyalty, you have – so to speak – a wallet full of miles, or a purse full of points, a fanny pack full of FFMs.
If so, that suits the airlines. And my latest Special Report, Airline Miles to Europe, may well suit you. I think you just might find it useful (and risk-free) reading.
It is also useful and risk-free reading for anyone who has no miles accumulated – just has plans to visit Europe in the near future. Because the Special Report shows how you can pick up miles as deftly as that man with the big, bottomless suitcase. No resorting to larceny, though – you simply buy them with the issuer’s blessing. Miles you can then use to buy a seat, a much better seat at a much better price than you’d buy with money. Ah, the weird and wonderful ways of airlines.
Yes, I’d like to examine risk-free Airline Miles to Europe
Airline Miles to Europe is especially timely, given The Scary Thing about unredeemed frequent flyer miles – scarier even than the wily tricks Eurofelons get up to in the wildest imaginings of New York ad folk.
What is The Scary Thing?
It’s not that points are seemingly irredeemable for air travel. Your frustrating flyer miles are far more redeemable than you may think. Indeed, at times they may represent for you a license to print money. Legally. Airline Miles to Europe debunks the airline serving myths that surround mileage programs, discouraging redemption.
So what is The Scary Thing?
Well, six years ago Harpers magazine reported that there were enough outstanding frequent-flyer miles to equal 42,500 round-trips to the Sun. Three years ago, The Economist magazine calculated that the total value of the unredeemed miles with all the airlines was more than that of all the dollar bills in circulation.
Which begs the question: With oil prices delivering their double whammy to airlines – higher fuel prices, fewer passengers – will airlines start finding ways to devalue their massive liability, or more to the point (if you have lots) your massive asset?
It’s an irksome question. A $100 travelers check is always going to pay $100. And even though you know $100 tomorrow won’t be worth the same as $100 today, you do remain assured that your trust and loyalty will always be repaid at full face value, and at a moment’s notice. Will airlines find a way to make each of your points worth a lot less tomorrow than they are today? Is that the scary thing?
Nope.
The Scary Thing is that they have already found a way.
And, scarier still, some have started doing it.
Yes, I’d like to examine risk-free Airline Miles to Europe
The Great Frequent Flyer Heist
Qantas is one of the world’s most financially efficient airlines and (for the time being) one of Australia’s most trusted brands. Quite the pioneer, Qantas introduced Business Class.
The Flying Kangaroo is more loved by Australians than beer. Aussies traditionally have felt more at home on a Qantas jet than, well, at home.
So how does Qantas repay this trust and loyalty to the 1 in 4 Australians who have frequent flyer miles, and who so far have put up with the frustration of trying to redeem them? With a “program that is now bigger and better than ever,” it claims, together with a promise that “for the first time, you’ll be able to book any available seat on any… Qantas flight… more than 3 million seats each month to over 140 destinations in 38 countries.”
What’s the catch?
The cost.
It is six, seven, eight, nine, ten (I could keep going) times the price of their old – now “Classic” – awards. As one Aussie posted in recent days on an online forum: “At least the classic awards are staying, but for how long?… I think an enhancement will come soon removing classic awards due to the ‘overwhelming popularity of the new Any Seat awards.’ ”
Cynicism begot by cynicism…
“This is the most cynical exercise I have ever seen by Qantas,” writes another forum member, “If this is the best (they) can do then I am pleased I held my Amex points in reserve. I will now transfer them to another airline where they buy significantly more. Goodbye Qantas!”
Delta and Air Canada had already adopted it.
You are about to witness – sorry, you are witnessing a crime:
Airlines making frequent flyer miles disappear as instantly as an attaché case in an old travelers check commercial.
This is bad news for the naïve.
But no such bad news for the informed.
The informed get inoculated against naïveté.
With know-how.
Yes, I’d like to examine risk-free Airline Miles to Europe
Planning a trip to Europe?
Learn Fast How to Redeem Points
For All They Are Worth
The second in my series of Special Reports, Airline Miles to Europe, comprises seven chapters, or Flight Plans, each featuring ten strategies or tips.
In the first Flight Plan you will be introduced to Working with Mileage Programs 101. You will learn, for instance, the wisdom of keeping miles in multiple accounts; how to calculate – simply – the per mile value for award tickets and upgrades; how to multiply your options with the right credit cards… and a lot more.
Flight Plan 2 focuses on Business Class Upgrades. Along with my ten best strategies or tips, you’ll discover also the Five Best Airlines for Business Class Upgrades, and the Five Worst. They are valuable lists. They show how different one airline can be to another.
Flight Plan 3 deals with Business Class Award Tickets. By knowing the loopholes to exploit, you place yourself among the lucky few who will fly in comfort to Europe in an award seat.
Flight Plan 4 is all about achieving and maintaining Elite Status. Here’s where you find out, among other things, which airlines offer short-cut programs – unpublicized and not even posted on their websites – for elite wannabes. And which are the best credit cards for elite status.
Flight Plan 5, First Class Upgrades, is a primer for the primest prize of all. It’s not easy to get into First Class on points; I can offer no magic wand. But I can suggest ways to get leverage. This chapter tells you all I know about this most elusive of upgrades.
And what about First Class Award Tickets? See Flight Plan 6. Here I exploit Star Alliance miles to get First Class for less. It’s a 100,000-mile seat that’s a better buy than some airlines’ Business Class awards. And the seat itself is so comfortable, the deal is even more attractive. This Flight Plan – like each of the others – features the ten best strategies or tips all my research work has uncovered.
The final Flight Plan, number 7, offers more Advanced Know-How for those keen to work the big discrepancies and loopholes that exist in the airline loyalty business, but not keen to do the work crucial to discovering them.
That’s my job.
So, Airline Miles to Europe is a payload of insight and insider knowledge. The digging done over 14 years for our monthly newsletter, First Class Flyer, has revealed a bedrock of underlying, enduring principles. Over seventy in all, these tenets provide a solid foundation of understanding on which to base your overall mileage-investment strategy.
If that’s a bold promise, remember it comes tempered with the basic question you’ll want to ask yourself:
‘Will Airline Miles to Europe tell me anything new?’
Well, I have published it to do that and more: To tell you what few know – what I doubt anyone else knows in total – and to tell it to you in a way you can use on your next trip to Europe.
But intention hardly answers your question, it simply underlines it:
‘Will Airline Miles to Europe tell me anything new?’
There’s only one way to find out. To encourage you to take it, I guarantee you will risk nothing. Buy the report, and if you don’t learn enough to make flying to Europe an affordable pleasure (perhaps even a bargain)… I will instantly refund your money, no questions asked.
No hurdles, no hassles, no runaround, no reneging, no risk: just email me or call me – details below in the P.S. – and I will give your money back instantly. Happy customers are my only future. For that reason, there is a 90-day guarantee.
Yes, I’d like to examine risk-free Airline Miles to Europe
Why not get around now to begin cashing in on your mileage entitlements in the best way possible – by acting now and buying Airline Miles to Europe?
Remember, this report is all about you getting back what is rightfully yours… what’s owed to you by way of the loyalty you’ve shown to airlines, or else getting your money back from me should you not be completely satisfied.
Thanks for you time.
See you up front,
Matthew J. Bennett
Publisher
Mr.Upgrade [at] firstclassflyer.com.
P.S. If I’ve left out even a single, significant Business Class airfare strategy to Europe that you know about, I will personally pay you 10,000 miles free if it’s worth publishing. Just call me directly after you’ve read my special report—(831) 644-7777 rings on my desk, or email me at Mr.Upgrade [at] firstclassflyer.com. Examine risk-free.
