Welcome to The Morning Shave for Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Flying Blue’s promo awards for February offer Europe flights starting at 18,750 miles. ITA Airways is leaving SkyTeam for Lufthansa Group (and eventually the Star Alliance). And Alaska Airlines is launching new nonstop service to Japan and Korea. Visit BaldThoughts.com/tms to read all the stories.
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The Morning Shave
China’s Magical “Ice City” Draws Visitors From All Over the World.
When looking for places to travel, I love finding unique experiences like this “Ice City” to explore. This annual event has been happening in China since 1985, but you’ll have to brave temperatures as low as -40* to experience it for yourself. The event starts around Christmas and is open through mid-February each year.
Book flights to Europe starting at 18,750 miles: Check out Flying Blue’s February Promo Rewards.
One of the best ways to fly to Europe on the cheap is with Flying Blue promo rewards. Each month, this loyalty program for Air France and KLM offers discount award flights between various cities in the U.S. and Europe. In February, you can book flights for as low as 18,750 miles each way in Economy. Best of all, Flying Blue is a transfer partner of most bank loyalty programs, so it’s fairly easy to earn bunches of these points.
ITA Airways Leaves SkyTeam, Begins Lufthansa Group Integration.
As of February 3rd, you can earn and redeem Lufthansa Group Miles and More on flights with ITA Airways. However, the airline won’t be fully integrated into the Star Alliance until 2026. This means that you won’t be able to earn and redeem miles on Star Alliance members or receive reciprocal benefits through that alliance for another year.
Alaska Airlines plans new nonstop flights to Japan, Korea in $1 billion postmerger profit push.
With its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines now has access to wide-body planes that it can use for these long-haul flights. The airline is launching new nonstop flights from Seattle to Tokyo and Seoul in 2025. It will also launch a new premium credit card to encourage big spenders to earn and redeem miles through its loyalty program. For travel inspiration in Japan, listen to our Japan podcast episodes.
It Just Got Harder to Access Delta’s Sky Club Lounges — Here’s Why.
We’ve known about these changes for a while, but most of us tend to ignore (or mentally deny) them until they’re upon us. Effective February 1st, Delta and Amex Platinum cardholders have limited access to Delta Sky Club lounges each year. While most of us don’t travel enough to reach the cap, heavy travelers will reach these limits fairly quickly. Are you planning on keeping these cards with the devaluation in benefits?
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