Yearly Archives

I’m sitting here in one of my absolute favorite hotels, the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Florida. I reviewed it extensively with photos this past September, so I’ll spare most of the details. This isn’t the highest-end property in South Florida — it’s not the Mandarin Oriental Miami or the Ritz-Carlton South Beach, for instance — though it’s more than nice and at a much better price point. What sets it apart is that there is no better property in the world for elite recognition. They upgrade platinums to suites consistently, and have even been known to let Platinum members know in advance when a suite upgrade might not be forthcoming. And those suites are large, with nice bathrooms, and wraparound balconies overlooking the ocean. It’s a very large hotel with nearly 1000 rooms but they…

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The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) runs its Blow Watch column today on film and airlines. View from the Wing gets top billing under travel: Which hotel hands out 1,000 American Airlines frequent-flier miles for each night you stay? And is it really possible to earn a free flight on Delta by drinking Coke? View from the Wing, a blog for airline passengers, solves these riddles and more. (Answers for those above: Hyatt hotels and yes.) Gary Leff’s brief, informative posts point readers to sometimes bewildering mileage promotions. In April, he wrote that fliers could score 25,000 Delta miles for signing up to Earthlink Voice, an Internet phone service. He also posts on how to rack up smaller amounts, like 4,000 United miles for signing up to Netflix, and 200 Northwest miles for taking an…

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I just transferred 25,000 Diners Club Club Rewards points to British Airways, since they’re offering a 50% transfer bonus through the end of August. This let me top off for another international business class award, and will be paired with my last 60,000 Cathay Pacific Asia miles. Looking up the award I had forgotten that Diners Club is also offering a 50% bonus on transfers of Midwest Airlines miles through the end of August. Meanwhile, I still don’t know what will replace the Diners Club Restaurant Savings Program (really ‘iDine Prime’) once it ends July 12. This is a program that keeps losing value. They upped the foreign currency conversion fee, ended two billing cycles to pay, and lost the bulk of their US domestic airline mileage transfer partners. Now the Diners Club is going…

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Yesterday I was asked about mileage bonuses for brokerage accounts, and I’m aware of the following: Ameritrade has several offers with June 30 expiry. A $50,000 deposit nets 25,000 miles on Continental, Delta, United, or USAirways (USAirways offer expires Sept 30). Even better, a $25,000 deposit nets 20,000 points with Starwood. Fidelity also offers 25,000 United miles for a $50,000 deposit. There are other offers, but those are big ones from large industry players. The best place for checking on a listing of such things is Gary Steiger’s Free Frequent Flyer Miles website. And of course brokerages aren’t the only financial offers for miles — there’s mortgages, car loans, bank accounts, insurance… and of course credit cards credit cards credit cards (here’s a brief primer on the best ones though while I still carry a…

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Via Hotel Chatter, I’ve been reading up on blogs written by hotel employees. Hotel Chatter recently linked to Not Your View — which hasn’t been updated in awhile but which refreshingly acknowledges both the good and the bad in their hotel — and a blog by the General Manager of Vancouver’s Opus Hotel. I find this genre an interesting read but haven’t found anything both consistently good and frequently updated. Any suggestions?

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Via Online Travel Review, Air New Zealand is investigating employees’ use of travel perks in exchange for sex with prostitutes. Under airline staff discounts, staff can buy unbooked seats at as little as 10% of the full fare, and can use a “Buddy Fare” for a companion to travel anywhere in the world on the airline up to four times a year. According to the article, some Air New Zealand staff used the Buddy Fares and discounted tickets as payment for sex with prostitutes. I started pondering new mileage redemption options, how the scheme could have been set up in the first place, and whether the prostitutes in question managed to negotiate hotel and rental car discounts as well. And then I stopped.

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Monday night I attended a reception hosted by All Nippon Airways celebrating 20 years of service between Tokyo and Washington-Dulles and commemorating the introduction of their NewStyle cabins on the DC route. ANA’s new first class is arguably the best cabin in the sky (I haven’t flown the new first on Emirates yet, but I hear great things, so I caveat this as ‘arguably’). It’s the widest seat in the sky, has a 15″ LCD TV at each first seat, is complemented by Boeing’s on-board internet product as well as ANA’s fabulous food offerings and outstanding service. The real drawback to ANA is ground service, there’s very little done for passengers before boarding and upon arrival and ANA lounges are universally spartan (though perhaps improved with their recent relocation at Narita, I haven’t passed through…

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