Quick Path to Free Premium Awards and Upgrades Through British Airways Credit Card Promotion (oneworld): Get 100,000 Points with British Airways Visa Signature Card: It now offers 50,000 BA Avios points if you spend $2,000 within the first three months of getting the card, 25,000 more points if you charge $10,000 within the first year, and 25,000 more points if you charge $20,000 within the first year. See link here for more information.

My Take: 100,000 points gets you a free Business Class ticket to London from anywhere in the U.S.; or two upgrades to First Class; or four to five upgrades to Business Class. Do keep in mind that BA’s taxes on awards for international tickets can be high.

Hawaiian Airlines New Premium Economy: On June 1 Hawaiian introduces its version of Premium Economy, called Extra Comfort, offering five more inches of leg-room on long-haul A330 flights. Includes priority boarding and free in-seat entertainment. Booking starts in January 2014. See link here for more information.

My Take: This is just Premium Economy Lite. For more details, see FCF March issue.

American’s New Upgrade Option: (oneworld) Taking its cue from a number of other international airlines, AA is now accepting “offers” for an upgrade up to six days before departure—meaning you tell the airline how much you would like to spend and it will decide whether to take it or leave it. See link here for more information.

My Take: Six days out was often a good mileage-award travel window, meaning that now we might see fewer mileage upgrades and award seats since AA can try to sell them to the highest bidder. Certainly not for the person who values premium travel, as leaving upgrades to chance is not recommended.

Delta Changes Mileage Program Again (SkyTeam): Within days of United’s mileage program changes, Delta posted a new mileage chart—its second mileage chart change this year. Delta now has three different 2014 mileage-amount windows: now to Feb. 1, Feb. 1 to May 31, and from June 1 on. See link here for more information.

My Take: How crazy is this? One of the worst programs continues downhill.

Alaska Mileage Program Changes: As of Jan. 14, 2014, Alaska is increasing some domestic mileage amounts for economy and First Class. See link here for more information.

My Take: The news is good. The program changes are not huge and they’re not for partner travel, just on Alaska.