Starwood is offering a bonus for stays on the West Coast through April 30. Registration is required. Earn up to 6,000 bonus Starpoints® for repeat stays at participating Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, Luxury Collection, St. Regis and W Hotels in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Sacramento. Simply register and stay at one of the participating hotels now through April 30, 2006, and you’ll earn 1,000 Starpoints for your first stay, 2,000 for your second and 3,000 for your third stay — up to 6,000 bonus Starpoints.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for January 2006.
E-Bates Works Well on Priceline Bids
E-Bates does seem to be the best portal to use when making Priceline bids, it offers 3% cash back which doesn’t compare to the old eBay Anything Points program but is the best offer standing. And best part is that rebates post quickly. You don’t have to wait until the hotel stay to see the 3% in your account. A successful bid on Wednesday yielded a rebate in my account Thursday night. Plus if you sign up for eBates they’ll give you $5 added on to your first rebate credit.
USAirways Award Chart Inflation
Jan
05
2006
USAirways quietly increased the number of miles required for a first class award seat from North America to Europe (.pdf) from 100,000 to 125,000 miles — a 25% jump. Oddly enough, a first class seat from New York to London is now more miles than a first class seat from New York to Bangkok. There may be other changes to the chart, I haven’t looked closely yet…
Mandarin Oriental the top Luxury Hotel Brand?
Via Hotel Chatter, eHotelier.com shares a new survey on luxury hotel brands which finds the Mandarin Oriental at the top. Fair enough, I’d rank them second behind the Peninsula chain, but not an unreasonable claim. Except while the survey included “Fairmont, Four Seasons, Inter-Continental, Leading Hotels, Le Meridien, Loews, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and W Hotels” it didn’t include Peninsula!
United Bonus for Both Buying and Checking in Online
Jan
04
2006
Yesterday I mentioned United’s offering extra bonus points for booking online. Now they’re also offering additional bonus points for both buying tickets at united.com and checking in online.
Discounted United Awards to/from China
Jan
04
2006
United is offering discounted coach award seats between the US and Beijing or Shanghai for just 45,000 miles. Travel must be complete by March 31. This offer can only be redeemed by phone, not online, but the standard $15 telephone booking fee is waived (good call, United).
Barclay’s Card is Better
Jan
04
2006
The Arizona Republic compares the two USAirways co-branded credit cards and correctly sides with the Barclays/Juniper Bank Mastercard product that I’ve been touting the past couple of days over the stale Bank of America card.
Extra Bonus Points for United.com Online Booking
Jan
03
2006
United is offering a total of 2006 bonus miles (the standard 1000 plus an extra 1006) for online bookings made by January 10, 2006 with travel by March 8 for domestic and Canada itineraries and March 31 for international itineraries. Fourteen day advance purchase is required for Domestic/Canada destinations and seven day advance purchase is required for international destinations
Kerry Skeen, Deflecting Blame Even at the End
Even after burning through over $100 million and announcing the airline’s closure, Independence Air CEO Kerry Skeen blames everything but himself for the airline’s failure. But Skeen, the airline’s unyielding chief executive, blamed its demise on a combination of troubles, including record high fuel prices and cutthroat competition from other airlines. He’s shocked that competitors would respond aggressively? Then he’s an idiot. And fuel was not to blame for the problems faced by Independence Air — if fuel had been free they’d have still been losing money. The business plan flawed: a high per-seat cost and low fares, high-frequencies to destinations that couldn’t support the capacity, and even an initial unwillingness to list the airline’s flights in computer reservation systems. And Skeen wouldn’t even take the life preservers that were thrown to him: Analysts say…
Delta Multiple Ticket Purchase Bonus
Jan
03
2006
Delta is offering bonus miles for booking multiple tickets at once online. Registration is required. SkyMiles members can earn bonus miles on all Delta, Delta Shuttle®, Delta Connection® carrier or Song® flights, for every flown round-trip ticket purchased at delta.com using your American Express Card and flown between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006. For transactions including 2 tickets, the purchaser will receive 1,000 bonus miles. For transactions including 3-4 tickets, the purchaser will receive 2,500 bonus miles. For transactions including 5 or more tickets, the purchaser will receive 5,000 bonus miles. To qualify, tickets must be purchased on the same itinerary.
