Oct
28
2005
The Delta American Express is offering double miles on all purchases from November 1 through December 31. Maximum bonus is 10,000 miles and registration is required.
Double Delta Amex Miles
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2005.
Swan Song?
Oct
28
2005
Delta is considering dissolving its “low cost carrier-within-a-carrier” called Song. The wisdom of these operations has always been questionable at best. Delta used to offer a similar product to and around Florida. They resurrected the idea with Song, and expanded it to cross-country flights. USAirways used to have Metrojet. United had “Shuttle by United” on the West Coast. There’s still the occasional 737 in Shuttle by United colors (with less legroom and no ability to serve hot food) disappointing frequent travelers when they’re surprised at the gate. There’s the familiar joke about United’s current attempt, Ted, that it represents “the end of UniTED.” Continental had Continental Lite. It’s very hard to market two distinct products under the same brand. It’s hard to offer operational independence. And with different pay scales and work rules (the real…
Wall Street Journal: Mouthpiece for Labor?
As part of Northwest’s bankruptcy, they’re trying to reduce labor costs. This creates strained relations with their unions. So far, so good. But to borrow Brad DeLong’s phrase, “why oh why can’t we have a better press corp?” This Susan Carey piece (originally in the Wall Street Journal offers a rather odd definition of outsourcing: Those intra-Asia flights are mostly staffed by nearly 700 Asian attendants from bases in Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines and other countries. They operate under different pay and work rules but have language skills for Asian destinations as well as English. The current union contract allows this limited but longstanding outsourcing. (Emphasis mine.) According to Susan Carey (and the PR voice of the Northwest flight attendants union), staffing planes flying within Asia with flight attendants from Asia is outsourcing?…
Finally a new Amtrak 20% off link
Amtrak is offering 20% off on service to Philadelphia. In reality, the discount applies to all Northeast Corridor trains, though Metroliner and Acela Express are as usual excluded. Discount code V735 is valid on tickets purchased through April 22, 2006 for travel through April 25, 2006. Blackout dates are: November 22-29, 2005; Dec 16-Jan 2, 2006; Jan 13-16, 2006; Feb 17-20, 2006; April 13-17, 2006. On itineraries where V735 is not available, try H542. It’s a 15% discount that seems to work on most trips, including Metroliner and Acela Express. It’s only valid through December 15.
Sheraton Bellevue.. not luxury, but as value for money it does the trick
I spent a single night last week in Seattle, before heading out of SeaTac on a 6am flight. Normally that would call for a night at an airport hotel, which in Seattle often means a $35 three-star bid on Priceline. That wasn’t going to work for me on this trip, and since I had my little dog with me I went looking for a Starwood hotel — domestically they’re incredibly pet friendly. The Seattle Sheraton and Westin properties were sold out. Bummer, I’d have booked the Sheraton on a cash & points rate if it was available ($45 + 2800 points). The W wanted about $300 a night, and unlike the Sheraton and Westin they charge a $100 pet fee and an additional $25 a night on top of that. I love the W Seattle,…
Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental
Oct
23
2005
I’ve been meaning to go to CityZen, the restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental DC, for awhile. I finally gave it a try Friday evening. The food was excellent, though there were some missteps. Valet parking is complimentary. The restaurant validates. They asked for my ticket when I entered, and they returned it to me as I left. The valet walked us the ten feet from the car to the hotel with an umbrella since it was misting. Service was friendly, knowledgeable, and discrete throughout… with one blaring exception. Little things, like replacing my wife’s napking when she got up to use the restroom, make a big impression. The dining room was beautifully-designed but loud, making conversations difficult. The restaurant has an open kitchen, but it isn’t silent or perfectly orchestrated like you’d see at Maestro.…
Improving on United’s New Boarding Procedure
Oct
23
2005
Tyler Cowen wonders if, instead of United’s new plan involving boarding passengers assigned to window seats first, airlines would save more time charging for carryons (making passengers internalize the costs of lengthy boarding processes) or awarding prizes based on how quickly passengers get into their seats and buckle up. The latter idea, while novel, would undoubtedly entail pretty substantial technological costs to retrofit aircraft appropriately. How else to know how long each passenger takes from boarding to buckling? And it would probably involve taking aircraft out of service for a time to do the retrofit, not to mention lengthy FAA approvals for the aircraft modificiations. So I’d guess that costs would be way too high relative to any savings from quicker boarding times. Besides, as passengers compete with each other for quicker boarding, aren’t there…
Loyalty Makes You Hungry
Oct
23
2005
I first mentioned Pizza Hut’s loyalty program a couple of years ago. With some time and members under the crust, they’ve concluded that the program increased “incremental orders by 93% from members over a matched control and raised incremental net sales 65 percent.” They found that, somewhat counterintuitively, charging a fee to their best customers actually worked best. It apparently builds commitment and buy-in to the program and brand.
Up to 60,000 Bonus Points for Priority Club Stays through December 31
Oct
23
2005
Priority Club — the frequent guest program for Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plazas, Holiday Inns, etc. — frequently offers stay bonuses. The intention is to target certain members, generally offering 10,000 bonus points for a specific number of stays. In practice, anyone who signs up for the bonuses gets them, regardless of whether the member is targeted for the bonus or not. Furthermore, historically you could sign up for several of the bonuses and get all of them — even though the intention is that a member only receive one bonus. As always with these sort of things your mileage may vary. But if you have several stays coming up between November 1 and December 31 with hotels that are part of this program, you could pick up as many as 60,000 bonus points. You’ll need…
American’s 36,000 Bonus Miles to the West Coast
Oct
23
2005
In response to United’s similar offer, American now has a bonus of up to 36,000 miles for flying up to 8 roundtrips to California, Oregon, or Washington through February 15, 2006. Registration is required with promo code AAWCB.
