Monthly Archives for November 2004.
Lodging.com has introduced a reward program that credits 4% back for prepaid hotel bookings on the site. The credits can be used towards future hotel bookings on the site once a balance exceeds $10. This might be particularly useful for folks who book travel for others and are able to use prepaid channels.
MBNA is offering the standard 500 Amtrak Guest Rewards points for signup plus a $50 Amtrak travel certificate. Offer appears to expire January 31, 2005.
The Northwest Visa comes with a 10,000 mile signup offer. Northwest’s Fly Free Faster Second Chance bonus which runs through February 15th will award 5,000 miles for signing up for the Visa and completing two partner activities such as Mileage Mall purchases (minimum $25) or hotel stays or car rentals. Registration is required. If you register by December 31st in the Mile-Zilla promotion and get the card by January 31st, you’ll get another 1,000 miles. So your Northwest Visa signup by January 31st will net 16,000 miles. Plus you’re on your way to additional miles in the Mile-Zilla promotion with 40 credits. Ten more credits yields an additional 500 bonus miles, and can be earned by signing up for My NWA Info (5 points, but don’t do it until you’ve registered for Mile-Zilla!) and crediting…
From 9am Eastern on November 18th to 9am Eastern on November 20th, the W Silicon Valley is available for $48 on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night stays between November 19th and January 2nd. Call 877-WHOTELS and mention rate plan UNWRAP.
American is pulling pillows from its MD80 aircraft and redeploying them to other aircraft flying longer routes. They think they can save a six-figure amount in cleaning costs by not hunting down pillows on their MD80 aircraft. The usual silly explanation is given, however: “It will streamline our cabin service,” Hat tip to Today in the Sky.
USAirways is offering up to 20,000 bonus miles that count towards elite status for booking tickets on its website. The offer requires tickets to be purchased and flown between November 16, 2004 and February 16, 2005. Registration is required.The offer is ostensibly to ‘celebrate the 20th anniversary’ of the USAirways mileage program. From their email: Celebrating 20 years of Dividend Miles: 1984 Piedmont Airlines Frequent Flyer Bonus Program was born. 1985 USAir unveiled the Frequent Traveler Program and launched the co-branded credit card. 1989 Piedmont Airlines is integrated into USAir. 1997 USAir became US Airways and the program is re-launched as Dividend Miles. Chairman’s Preferred status is created. 2004 US Airways joined the Star Alliance™ network with access to over 770 destinations in 133 countries.
Northwest has announced changes to elite qualification for 2005 and changes to its award charts as well. Business class flights from the U.S. to Europe are going from 80,000 to 100,000 miles roundtrip. Oddly, first class to Europe remains 100,000 miles roundtrip. Flights to Asia in business class are going from 90,000 miles to 120,000 miles. First class is going from 120,000 miles to 160,000 miles. Travel to Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific (such as French Polynesia) is going from 80k/110k/140k for coach/business/first class all the way to 100k/150k/200k. The above changes are huge devaluations of the Worldperks programs from my point of view. I just redeemed an American Airlines 145,000 mile first class award to French Polynesia and Australia using Air Tahiti Nui and Qantas. The same destinations on Northwest would cost…
I saw this the other day and didn’t get around to posting. Now NotiFlyer has beaten me to the punch! Amtrak is adding a new top tier elite level to their Guest Rewards program.Guest Rewards members who earn 10,000 points or more annually will be admitted to the new “Select Plus” level, beginning March 1, 2005. Benefits include a 50-percent bonus points on all rail travel, unlimited access to ClubAcela, Metropolitan, and First Class lounges, single-class upgrades available 48 hours in advance, and companion coach vouchers. This is a good move because the existing Select tier elite level is quite easy to reach and has been devalued slightly through limited club access as a result of having too many members.
The online shopping portals are rolling out the mileage offers. United is offering 1000 bonus miles for spending $50 and 2500 bonus miles for spending $100 at one of five select merchants, on top of the regular miles earned. The bonus can be earned three times on purchases made through December 31. Send $100 in flowers via FTD, for example, and earn 4500 miles – for a nice 45 miles per dollar spent. That’s a nice improvement over the otherwise-excellent 30 miles per dollar that’s available the rest of the year Through December 31st, Delta is offering 150 bonus miles when you spend $100 and 500 bonus miles when you spend $250 in addition to regular miles earned with selected merchants at their online mile. If you earn $150 with two or more merchants you’ll…
American Airlines has entered into an agreement with Hotels.com to transfer customers from one call center to another. In other words, when you end your call with American the AAgent will ask whether you would like to be transferred to Hotels.com for hotel accomodations. American will even give you 150 miles for completing a Hotels.com stay. It’s strange that American is charging booking fees for making a reservation through a call center at the same time they’re using their call center as a cross-marketing profit center. My strategy will be whenever I want to make a Hotels.com booking I’ll call American, ask a silly question (But not book a ticket! Don’t want that booking fee!), and take the Hotels.com transfer for the bonus miles. The only other place offering points for Hotels.com bookings is GlobalPass.…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
