Now would be a good time to redeem your BA miles

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5: Flight delays and gate changes…oh the joys of travelling.

One of my friends sarcastically “thanked” Delta on Facebook this week “for a free tour of the Atlanta airport”.

My friend went to gate E07, but was then told to go to A28, then A12, and back to A28 for a delayed departure.

I can relate completely after my last trip through Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Air Canada.

Air Canada proceeded to move our gate three times, only to end up where we were originally scheduled to depart. Our flight was delayed twice, something not uncommon on that day as travellers on 36 of the 100 flights were also going to have to wait longer to leave.

I asked a group of flight attendants who were seated next to us at our second gate about all the delays, and there response was “that’s about normal.”

I checked flightstats.com and they were right. Air Canada’s on-time record at Pearson is appalling.

Checking the stats for August 3, 51 per cent of the flights departing from Toronto were delayed.

Mind you, Air Canada’s overall on-time record across all its flights was not much better – just 58 per cent.

Of the 58 flights which were delayed on Wednesday in Toronto (as of press time), 25 were of the 45 minutes or longer variety.

On the day I travelled through Toronto they were allowing those passengers with the longer delays to use their boarding pass for $10 off at Starbucks or at an eatery.

The clerk would then mark on the boarding pass that it had been used for $10 so it couldn’t be used again — not sure what they did with people who were using their mobile device as their boarding card.

Free Internet on Delta  

During the month of August you can get free Internet on all of Delta’s flights in the US through its GoGo Inflight service.

It’s being sponsored by Coca-Cola and you need to use the promo code DIETCOKEGOGO

Normally Gogo charges $4.95 to $12.95 for an Internet flight pass (depending on long the trip takes) for any Wi-Fi enabled device or $4.95 to $7.95 per flight on any mobile device.

For those people who do a lot of travelling, Gogo offers an unlimited plan of $39.95 per month, which is also good on all partner airlines (Air Canada, Air Tran, Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, Frontier, United, US Airways and Virgin America).

You can check out the company’s website at www.gogoair.com.

British Airways deal

If you have racked up some frequent flyer miles with BA, now would be a good time to redeem them. The airline is having a 50 per cent deal.

I’m not a member of BA’s programme but several of my colleagues are and they received an e-mail informing them that if they book a reward flight by August 12, they will need 50 per cent fewer BA miles.

The deal is only good for World Traveller, World Traveller Plus, Euro Traveller or Club Europe class tickets.

Go to www.britishairways.com to get more details if you did not get an e-mail informing you of the deal.

Continental and Best Western 

You can earn 500 ‘bonus’ Continental OnePass miles per $100 spent at Best Western.

You’ll have to purchase Travel Cards from Continental in increments of $100 to use at the hotel on Continental’s website.

You will also have to join Best western’s Rewards programme and select Continental as your preference to have your miles earning preference.

You will not only earn your regular OnePass miles for each stay, but you’ll earn the bonus ones as well.

If you prefer or like Best Western, it is an easy way to rack up a few extra thousand bonus miles on an extended stay there.

You have to buy the cards by August 31.

The short link to the promo is http://bit.ly/o1UQe0.

Alamo’s ‘hot deal’

Alamo rental car company is offering $35 off its weekly rate if you reserve by August 9 for rentals between August 15 to September 26.

It’s valid for rentals of an economy through fullsize car at participating locations in the US and Canada.

The short link to the deal http://bit.ly/ozVwsV.