The Bay Area’s ABC TV station ran a piece on getting hotel upgrades. The sum total of their advice: ask. That’s actually good advice as far as it goes. More than anything else, style and mojo matter. I’ll usually say something at checkin like, “I’ve heard really great things about this hotel, so I’m pretty excited. I was hoping you might have a room with one of your special views?” More often than not the person at the desk will try to comply. It really doesn’t cost them anything. It makes me happy. And it avoids putting them in the position of either disappointing me in person or getting an earful (I’m not rude, but many guests are). If I have a reason to explain that a particular stay is ‘special’ I might send a…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for March 2005.
New Hilton Alarm Clocks
Mar
30
2005
Via Tripso.com, Hilton is introducing alarm clocks with an iPod plugin and related sweepstakes. The clocks are supposed to be especially easy to set. Unfortunately this probably won’t solve the need to make sure the alarm clock isn’t already set when you check in — there’s little worse than being woken up in the middle of the night because the last guest thought it would be funny to boobytrap you by setting the alarm to go off at 3am.
IRS To Tax Foreign Pilot and Flight Attendant Wages
Mar
27
2005
The IRS is apparently seeking to tax Latin American airlines for wages paid to flight attendants and pilots during the time they spend working over US airspace. (Link via Today in the Sky.) Critics of the move point out that other countries might respond by doing the same to U.S. airlines. Anyone with thoughts on why the IRS is focused on Latin American carriers — and not European or Asian carriers — feel free to offer them in them in the comments.
Amusingly Named Mileage Offer
Mar
27
2005
One of the more amusingly named mileage offers (via Free Frequent Flyer Miles) has to be The Danny Schurman Homeselling System:This written guarantee will give you the assurance that if your home doesn’t sell within 120 days, we will give you up to 2500 Airmiles. Gary Steiger says these are Alaska miles and wonders what the phrase up to is doing there. This may be of limited interest to those readers in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Completely off-topic: committing a crime with impunity in a small part of Idaho
Mar
27
2005
I just an an really interesting piece to be published in the Georgetown Law Journal (shocking itself, it’s also a good read) that argues there’s a 50 square mile area in the U.S. where felonies can’t be prosecuted: the portion of Yellowstone National Park which is in the state of Idaho. The Constitution’s 6th Amendment requires that juries be picked from the same district and state in which a crime is committed. Federal law sets the district governing all of Yellowstone as Wyoming — logical, as the park is 91% in the state of Wyoming. The districts of Montana and Idaho exclude the park.So juries must be chosen from the District of Wyoming to prosecute crimes committed in the park. However, if the crime is committed in that part of the park that is in…
Northwest Visa Offers
Mar
25
2005
Northwest has new offers up for their co-branded credit cards issued by US Bank. I’ve previously mentioned that US Bank is one of the biggest sticklers for one signup bonus per customer. However, a recent exchange with Gary Steiger (of Free Frequent Flyer Miles, where I came across this offer) made me realize that their limit is per card type. I first signed up for the Platinum Visa a few years ago when the offer was for 25,000 bonus miles over 2 years, requiring $500 in spending with Northwest for part of those miles. That signup qualified me for the 2002 Fly Free Faster promotion that netted another 10,000 miles. In 2003 I signed up for the Northwest Business Visa for 10,000 miles to qualify for that summer’s Fly Free Faster promotion. That was a…
Free $25: ING Direct Online Savings Account
Mar
25
2005
ING Direct is offering 2.8% on their FDIC-insured online savings account.That’s a pretty good rate for a savings account (my local bank is offering a similar rate on 12-month CDs). What’s more, ING Direct offers new customers $25 just for opening the account when referred by an existing customer (the referrer gets $10). There are no account minimums and no fees. You can open the account with $1 and get credited an additional $25. They’ll make you wait some time, I think a month, before you can withdraw their $25. Other than that, no restrictions. There was once a $50 referral offer, I haven’t seen that in a couple of years though. I signed up at $25, pulled my money out, but then a couple years later realized I still had the account (with 17…
Fare Alert Email List
Flyertalk’s ScottC has reactivated his free travel deal alert email service. He says that all of the subscribers to the old email have been imported into the new system. This isn’t a ‘TravelZoo Top 20’ or airline weekly e-fare list — it’s a low-volume alert list to let you know about breaking deals and fare glitches, such as the famous $61 roundtrip to Iceland, $20 British Airways fare to anywhere in Europe in World Traveler Plus, and $55 business class deal to Puerta Vallarta. Definitely worth signing up.
Independence Air Discounts
Independence Air’s 20% discount which had been set to expire March 31 is now valid through July 31. You have to answer a short questionnaire about your company and you’ll be emailed a unique link that generates fares 20% off what would otherwise be the lowest price for an itinerary. There’s also a 20% off link from Business Week that’s valid through June 30, no questionnaire required.
Squeezing the Profit Margins of Frequent Flyer Programs
Mar
22
2005
Randy Petersen points out that airlines are booking balance sheet adjustments to increase their expected liability for their frequent flyer programs. When an award is redeemed, frequent flyer programs recognize revenue from mileage they’ve sold and they have to pay for the awards that are claimed. A domestic saver award might entail a frequent flyer program ‘buying’ a seat from the airline for $25. A partner award is more expense, and an ‘anytime’ award (that generally requires about twice the number of miles to redeems) is more expensive still. Frequent flyer programs are apparently seeing greater redemption of anytime and partner awards than past experience would predict, so they have to acknowledge an increased future liability. Randy believes this phenomenon is good for members of frequent flyer programs, because it illustrates the value of partner…
