John Ewoldt of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has nerves of steel and decides to book whatever award tickets are available and just shows up for travel on his preferred dates and times. Not a recommended strategy, and contrary to Ewoldt’s assertions this is not something that will work on all award tickets. Just try it with many carriers’ partner awards or with a good number of Asian or European carriers that don’t permit changes. But I still have to respect his effort!
Yearly Archives
Yearly Archives for 2006.
Up to 5000 Bonus Miles for Transferring Hotel Points to United
Jul
11
2006
Got this last night by email: Convert your hotel points into Mileage Plus miles now through September 30, 2006 and earn up to 5,000 bonus miles that you can redeem toward travel, dining certificates, auction items, and more. Check out Mileage Plus Awards to view all of your redemption options.Here’s how to transfer hotel points and earn bonus miles: 1) Select a hotel points program that you belong to from the list below2) Transfer the amount of hotel points equivalent to 10,000–19,999 miles(exchange rates vary by hotel program), and you’ll earn 2,500 bonus miles 3) Convert the amount of hotel points equivalent to 20,000 miles or more(exchange rates vary by hotel program), and you’ll earn 5,000 bonus miles Select your hotel program: Marriott Rewards®, visit Marriott online or call 1-800-450-4442. Priority Club® Rewards, visit InterContinental®…
20% off on hotel rooms I wouldn’t stay in
SmarterTravel is featuring 20% off at Choice hotels (Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Clarion Inn..). At least you earn points.
The Challenge of Redeye Flights
The Global Traveler has tips for surviving redeye flights. Basically don’t drink caffeine and try to get to sleep right away. Great as far as it goes, but I find redeyes to be brutal, and survival to depend entirely on the seat. I had tremendous difficulty flying Bangkok to Narita a couple months back in ANA’s old style business class seat. It was just uncomfortable and nothing I did could change that. Give me a full recline in a comfortable seat and it’s a different story. The short flight time would still present challenges and I wouldn’t be well rested on the other end, but it would have been far better. The only real tip for surviving redeye flights is a modern business class or three-class first class seat. I know that won’t help many…
American Miles for Movie Theatre Sodas
Jul
06
2006
Cinemark Theatres are again offering American Airlines miles for the purchase of a large soda. Back in 2004 the offer was just 100 miles per soda. Now it appears that not all codes are winners, but at least 1 in 5 are and those receive a minimum of 500 miles and a long-shot chance for 100,000 miles. Sounds great, right? Just go to a Cinemark theatre and dumpster dive for these codes off sodas and get some award tickets. Alas there’s a limit of 10 Instant Win 500 AAdvantage miles Game Piece codes and two 5,000 AAdvantage miles Game Piece codes per account. Of course, each member of your family can have a separate account and I’m willing to bet that excess codes wind up on eBay… Since there aren’t any Cinemark theatres near me…
Sometimes Banner Ads Show You Something Useful
Amtrak is advertising over at Flyertalk.com, and a banner brings you to a signup bonus promotion — enter promotion code NEC06 while opening an Amtrak Guest Rewards account and receive 3000 bonus points for your first train trip taken within 90 days of signing up instead of the usual 500 points. That’s enough for a one-way Northeast corridor ticket, and almost enough to transfer points to Continental or Hilton.
GroceryMiles 10 Million Mile Giveaway
Jul
02
2006
United’s GroceryMiles has a sweepstakes to give away miles:First prize: 340 people will win 25,000 miles Grand prize: 10 people will win 150,000 miles Register by July 31.
Amazon Groceries Discount
I realize I’ve been well outside the real of frequent flying with the last few posts, but for folks who travel so much it seems like there’s never any time to go to the grocery store I just thought I’d note that Amazon.com now sells groceries, and through August 31 is offering $10 off a $49 order with coupon code GROCERY2 in addition to free super saver shipping on orders of $25 or more. Details here. Update: If you’re hitting $25 for free shipping anyway, why not add a 79 cent PDA case?
Free $5 Starbucks Gift Card
Jul
02
2006
A builder is offering $5 Starbucks gift cards for filling out a survey. As with most promises of Starbucks gift cards, it’s an open question whether it’ll come to fruition.
Cheap bags
Brylane Home has a clutch reduced to $1.99 and a tote and clutch reduced to $7.99. You can use discount code BKSHIP3 for free shipping or code BHSAVE15 for $15 off a $30 order if purchasing multiples of these items.
