Who’s “happy to reinvent [the cause] to suit whatever argument it may be making at a given time?”

Here’s some interesting stories, news and notes from around the travel world lately:

• Mile Value shares an interesting strategy about how you can purchase Avianca LifeMiles at a discount in order to get a business class flight from the US to Europe for about $1000.  Since business class flights are often more (and sometimes MUCH more!) than that, this can be a pretty good deal if you’re regularly traveling between the US and Europe.  Personally, I try to fly for FREE when I go (here’s our upcoming Europe itinerary)
• Travel is Free shares a list of 8 non-US-based sweet spot routes.  My favorite is North Asia to Oceania, which is only 15,000 United miles in economy or 25,000 in business class.

These 7500 mile, 15 hour flights are only 15K miles in Economy or 25K in business class!

• View from the Wing is usually a great read, and here’s an interesting analysis from him about whether you have lounge access on arrival, departure, or both.  To nobody’s surprise, usually the answer is “it depends” 🙂
• Just Another Points Traveler talks about United’s “Plan B” awards, which is a type of award that originated in Continental Airlines before the merger.  It can be hard to find an agent that knows what it is, much less how to book it, but the basic idea is that you get confirmed Economy seats and then are wait listed into business class.
• If you follow travel news much, you’ve probably heard about the spat between the US “Big 3” airlines (American, Delta, United) and the Middle East “Big 3” (Emirates, Etihad and Qatar).  Emirates recently released a response to the subsidy claim report, and the Wandering Aramean shares an analysis.  My favorite quote was “Delta evidently is happy to reinvent the alleged cause of the flight cancellation to suit whatever argument it may be making at a given time.”