Monthly Archives for January 2005.
Bankrupt American Trans Air, working on recovery via cost and schedule cutting, cash from Southwest, and codesharing, is trying to entice bookings by promoting its business class cabin. If you book online at ATA.com by January 10 for travel by February 3, you’ll earn a day of departure business class upgrade certificate (to be mailed after February 3).
Avis is offering a free Blackberry with one-year paid service agreement to customers who complete a rental by March 31.
Loews Hotels is offering a $20.05 credit on reservations of two or more nights made online by March 27.
Earn 1500 Priority Club points for having your taxes done by H&R Block.
One of the great frustrations of the American Express Membership Rewards program is that American Airlines does not participate as a transfer partner. What’s more, it’s nearly* impossible to use American Express points to claim an award seat on any oneWorld carrier (American, British, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, LanChile, Finnair, Aer Lingus). I say nearly because there are ways of working partnerships to get some seats, such as transferring points to Continental or USAirways to claim award seats on Qantas. But there aren’t any oneWorld partners in the Membership Rewards program. Right now there’s a brief window of opportunity, however, created by a confluence of two separate conversion bonuses. As I noted yesterday, transfers from American Express to Starwood earn a 50% bonus through March 31. And until January 31, transfers from hotel program into…
American Express is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to Starwood through March 31. Instead of the usual ratio of 3 Amex points to 1 Starwood point, this offer improves the exchange to 2:1.
Travelocity seems to be having difficulty properly converting French Polynesia Francs to US Dollars. Right now, all tickets originating in Tahiti and Noumea are showing up at 10% of their usual dollar cost. For instance, Tahiti-Los Angeles roundtrips are showing up from $299 in business class. So if you plan to be in French Polynesia, now is the time to book your tickets. If you already have tickets to French Polynesia, consider buying a one-way return ticket in business or first class and throwing away your existing return. Or you might claim an award ticket to French Polynesia (expensive in miles, I know) and fly from there to pretty much anywhere in the world in a premium class of service. After catching a free flight, top level elite status can be had for ticketing originating…
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Now that banks are able to issue American Express cards, some interesting offers may be coming down the pike. The first one that I’ve noticed is from MBNA, which is offering the American Express Platinum card free the first year and $195 after that. The card comes with MBNA Worldpoints as its rewards program rather than Membership Rewards. As far as proprietary rewards programs go, this one is pretty good but I still don’t like it as much as the various airline and hotel programs. So I wouldn’t put much spending on the card. Instead, I’d use the card for its benefits like airline lounge access. Amex Platinum cards come with access to Delta, Continental, and Northwest lounges when flying on the respective airline. The Platinum card is usually more expensive than straight lounge access,…
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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 »
