Top posts – United’s “Great Dane”, Southwest’s devaluation, Delta’s new award chart and more!

If it’s the weekend, it must mean that it’s time for a recap of the top posts for the week here at Points With a Crew.  For those of you who have been following along with every post, well, first of all – thanks a ton!  But otherwise, check out what you might have missed:

• The big news of the week was a super sale (nicknamed “The Great Dane”) on United’s website – first class roundtrip transatlantic tickets for as low as $85. The fare sale was only good for a matter of hours, but not before probably thousands of people got in on the action.  Later in the day, United announced that they would not honor the fares.  Tempers seem to be rising on both sides of the issue, and the armchair lawyers and moralists are out on both sides of the issue. Personally, I’m fine with either side – if you feel it’s an outrage and want to file a complaint with the DOT to “force” United to honor the fares, that’s fine – if you feel like it’s an “obvious” mistake and a complaint is not called for, that’s fine by me as well.  Here are the latest updates that I’ve seen – at this point those that filed US DOT complaints are waiting for a ruling – from what I’ve seen, anyone with tickets for travel this past weekend have NOT been allowed to fly.
• If you’re interested in so-called “mistake fares” – here’s 4 things you’re doing that will make you MISS the next mistake fare, as well as 5 things you can do to NOT miss the next great sale.

• Southwest Airlines announced in a letter that they will be changing the way Rapid Rewards points are redeemed.  Currently they are worth a flat 70 points / $1 on fares (or… are they?), but on April 17th that will change – here is the first announcement as well as some additional speculation on what that might mean.  There’s also a Facebook page I’ve seen called “Where’s the Luv” complaining about the changes
• Last week, Delta suddenly pulled down their award chart, but luckily I copied down the information a few weeks ago! 😀 So if you’re looking for the Delta award chart, here it is!

• AirAsia had announced a few months ago the introduction of the AirAsia ASEAN pass, which allowed travel to 10 Southeast Asian countries for a flat monthly fee.  It was supposed to go live in January, but has now finally been introduced.  I think that there is some situational value there, depending on your travel, but it’s not the slam-dunk that it might have been.
• Take a look at Singapore’s new premium economy class – which is being rolled out on several routes over the course of the next few months.  It looks pretty good, especially compared with what counts as “premium economy” in the US 🙂

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