NEW MEMBERSHIP REWARDS PARTNER. Got a big bank of American Express Membership Rewards points that you are aching to redeem? You’ve got a new option: British Airways Executive Club recently became the 17th participating frequent flyer plan in Membership Rewards. BA flies to 150 destinations worldwide from ATL via its daily flight to London.
NEW ARRIVALS TAX IN ARGENTINA. Effective immediately, all U.S. citizens arriving at Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport must pay a one-time “reciprocity fee” of USD $131.00 upon arrival. Why? Because that’s the amount the U.S. charges Argentines applying for entry into the U.S. (Several other South American countries such as Chile, Brazil and Bolivia already require such fees.) While the fee might make travelers wince, the Argentine government stands to pull in a cool $52 million from the 400,000 or so Americans that arrive each year.
DELTA DOWN UNDER. Now that Delta’s the largest airline in the world, it’s beefing up its presence in Australia. To do so, it’s teamed up with Virgin Blue in a code share deal on flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. SkyMiles members can also earn SkyMiles on V Australia (another Virgin carrier) transpacific flights. Delta’s BusinessElite customers, Platinum, Gold and Diamond Medallion members and Sky Club members also gain complimentary access to Virgin Blue lounges at airports throughout Australia NOTE: Your TICKET editor was recently in Australia and is happy to report that Virgin Blue is a class act…much more efficient and highly regarded than QANTAS. If you’d like to see V Australia’s business class seats, check out the last few second of this VIDEO of its seats from the National Business Travel Assoc. Convention last summer.
FLY FROM HERE TO THERE ON WHO? In one of the more interesting USA Today articles we’ve read in a while, columnist Ben Mutzabaugh presents the whole concept of “fifth freedom” routes where foreign carriers fly from U.S. cities to countries where they are NOT based. For example, you can fly on Korean Air between LA and Sao Paulo. Or from Las Vegas to Vancouver on Philippines Air. From New York to Toronto on LAN, or from Newark to Brussels on India’s super luxe Jet Airways. Definitely worth the read!
Don’t Forget! BOOK ALL YOUR ONLINE TRAVEL VIA LINKS FROM THE TICKET!
airtran.com | delta.com | Hotwire
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