Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attemped Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.  The attempt was stopped when passengers and crew put out the device that suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was trying to light-up under a blanket while seated in his seat.

Wall Street Journal and others were also reporting Obama administration’s response to the incident:

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama said the administration is doing everything in its power to keep fliers safe and thwart potential terrorist threats.

“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Mr. Obama said in remarks from the Kaneohe Marine Base, near where he is vacationing in Hawaii.

It’s good to remember that flying is still extraordinarily safe  by any statistic.  Here’s an excellent post by Nate Silver on the odds of airborne terror.

That means there has been one terrorist incident per 11,569,297,667 miles flown. This distance is equivalent to 1,459,664 trips around the diameter of the Earth, 24,218 round trips to the Moon, or two round trips to Neptune.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why Was Abdulmutallab Flying? (powerlineblog.com)
• Alleged Terrorst Known but Not Considered a Threat (abcnews.go.com)
• Meet Jasper Schuringa, Flight 253 Hero (dave-lucas.blogspot.com)

Associated Press and other news agencies are reporting that some 44 people were hurt when American Airlines flight 331 from Washington DC and connecting through Miami overshot the runway while landing in heavy rain.  Here the American Airlines statement about the accident — according to AA the Boieng 737-800 aircraft had 148 passengers and crew of six.

Anyone who believes they have family members or friends aboard Flight 331 may contact American Airlines at the following toll-free numbers: (800) 245-0999 for calls originating in the United States; (800) 872-2881 for calls originating in Jamaica.

Airfarewatchblog has comprehensive table of all various fees that airlines charge their customers for redeeming “free tickets” using frequent flyer miles.  This table is limited to US based carriers, so it doesn’t address the likes of British Airways whose award tickets can have hundreds and hundreds dollars in fees.  The fees for major American carriers are very similar, but it’s always good to know the rules of your main program(s).  For changes and or cancellations any change imposed by airline can used as the get out of jail free card.

The stock of Brazilian airline Tam rose sharply yesterday after they announced a plan to IPO the Multiplus SA frequent flyer business.  TAM has been signing deals with gas station chain, Walmart and credit card companies to offer member of Multiplus Fidelidade program to collect miles in new ways.  According to a Bloomberg article:

Multiplus’s business is “totally different” from the airline operations and offers investors lower risk, “strong” cash generation and low capital needs, Libano Miranda Barroso, Tam’s chief financial officer and interim chief executive, said last month.

This shows how frequent flyer and other rewards programs are really huge business on their own right and less and less tied to the business of selling seats on flights.  Miles and points have become an alternate currency with high risk of airlines devaluing them at any time unilaterally.

American Airlines sweepstakes offers 30,000 Aadvantage miles and 60 BlackBerry smartphones as prizes for creating or updating a profile on AA.com.  Completed profile means automatic flight status notifications for all your flights.  You can find the promo at www.aa.com/promo. 300,00 airline miles could mean 3 business class tickets to Europe, but as you know small part of your soul is lost everytime you’ll give out personal information in exchange for sweepstakes.

American carriers have been changing the frequent flyer program rules over the past few years and now miles in most programs expire after 18 months if there is no qualifying activity.  Now similar rules have been adopted by the Australian flagship airline Qantas.  Per standard airline operating procedure they are putting a positive spin on the changes in a comment to daily newspaper Australian:

We are basically providing a program that drives stronger member engagement to Qantas and its partners…

13,500 members of British Airways cabin crew union Unite has voted overwhelmingly to go on strike for 12 days over the holidays.  The resulting cancellations coudl affect more than 1,000,000 passengers over the Christmas/ holidays travel season reports Britiss daily Telegraph on their web site.

British Airlines is promising full refunds if flights are cancelled, but not until the actual cancellation takes place, which makes it very difficult for anyone with non-refundable fares to make alternate travel plans even if they can find seats on other flights.  Those with fully refundable fares can and obviously should start making new plans.

In the past airlines have occasionally given miles as gesture of goodwill to passengers affected by strikes.  Furthermore this compensation has sometimes been higher for business and first class passengers or elite members of the frequent flyer program.  This means that those brazen enough can try to profit from the expected strike by buying fully refundable premium class tickets with intention of never flying.  If strikes goes on as planned, then wait and hope for extra compensation (miles) beyond full refund, if strike is averted it’s possible to cancel the tickets regardless.  If you don’t moral problems with strategy like this, then it’s best to really read the fine print on your fare rules.

Good luck for the innocent frequent and in-frequent flyers caught in the potential mess.

Citibank is offering American Airlines miles for getting a new credit card and spending $750 within first 4 months and annual fee waived for 12 months.  There are 2 different cards to choose from — a Visa consumer cards and Visa business card.

Until recently it’s been possible to get the bonus miles again and again by churning the cards (i.e. cancelling old accounts and applying for new cards), but recently Citibank has instituted a limit of 2 applications within 60 days.  So it should be possible to apply for both of these cards for 60,000 American Airlines Aadvantage miles, but rules can change unexpectedly.  Also note that some bonus miles offers by Citicard are now limited to new customers, who haven’t had Aadvantage miles earning credit card by Citibank before.  However this specific offer doesn’t have that limitation and promises the miles for “new Citi® / AAdvantage® accounts.”

With credit card applications it’s also good to take a screen shot of the web page detailing the offer, so in case of any problems there will be proof of the miles earned and fees not due.

Burger King has a holiday web promo for sending holiday greeting cards for $1 each.  However each card contains an actual $1 bill inside, which means that it’s possible to get free miles/ points by using your favorite credit card.  However promo has limit of 99 cards per order and you have to type in the address separetely for each card.  So earnings potential is limited and even getting the 99 miles does take time.

Unfortunately the U.S. Mint is supposedly cracking down on a very lucrative points earning scheme. Technically each individual is allowed to order $500 worth of US Dollar coins. Why would you want such coinage rattling around in your pockets? Well you probably don’t, but the U.S. Mint wants these coins in circulation, and allows you to order through their website via points-earning credit cards. The best part? Well that would be the free shipping of course.

Reports of individuals being able to order between $5,000 and $800,000 worth of these coins in order to gain the points have been floating around the web for some time. One individual was quoted by the WSJ as saying he just had the UPS delivery man put the package of coins directly in the boot of his vehicle, and then drove straight to the bank to deposit.

Now however, the U.S. Mint has become wise to the practice, and has vowed to more strictly enforce the $500 limit. It is also reportedly speaking with Credit Card companies to not allow purchases from the Mint to be eligible for points. How well will they be able to do this? The better question is why would they bother doing this? Their stated goal is to get these coins into circulation as fast as possible. These coins last longer than dollar bills, and thus save them money. What is the harm in some clever folks also benefiting from this?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Frequent fliers turn dollar coins into easy miles (gadling.com)
• Free Money From The U.S. Mint: Scheme, Scam, Or Gamble? [U.s. Mint] (consumerist.com)
• U.S. Helps Frequent Fliers Make a Mint (online.wsj.com)