Today in the Sky notes that Greyhound has introduced a loyalty program, Road Rewards. I haven’t looked over the particulars, but Ben Mutzabaugh says that 16 segments equals a free roundtrip. I’m not even signing up for the program, even if it turns out to be easy to game. It would be bad enough to sit through 16 Greyhound segments. But the reward for doing so is more travel on Greyhound? And as if that wasn’t bad enough, their points even expire.
Yearly Archives
Yearly Archives for 2006.
A vote of no confidence
Just a few hours removed from the shoe carnival myself, I’m uniquely sympathetic to El Al Airlines which wants to do its own baggage screening because it doesn’t trust the TSA.
Aren’t the existing 900 rooms enough?
Starwood’s The Lobby reports that the Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers will finally live up to the plurality in its name by building a second (albeit shorter) tower.
Marketing Copy that Makes You Want to Buy the Product
Japan’s StarFlyer Airlines has this as its slogan: Blazing like a mother comet producing meteor showers throughout the world (Via the Upgrade Travel blog.)
Where to Put Your Miles When Flying Paid First Class
The Global Traveler reports that bmi British Midland is now offering up to 625% mileage earning for miles flown in paid first class. Normal bmi is already generous on these fares — 300% miles for first class and 200% miles for business class plus Gold members earn a 25% status bonus. Now once you reach 55,000 status miles in a calendar year excess status miles get converted to redeemable frequent flyer miles at a one to one ratio. In total, after passing 55,000 status miles, first class fares would earn 625% of flown miles and business class would earn 425% of flown miles. Not bad. Not bad at all. (Of course, membership in bmi’s frequent flyer program is only open to residents of the UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, Netherlands and Spain. So you may need…
The Nicest Hotels in Bangkok, or Two Places I Didn’t Stay
I had a decent enough place to stay when I was in Bangkok, but it wasn’t at one of the generally-accepted nicest hotels in the city. The top honor usually falls to the Peninsula, followed by the Oriental and the Metropolitan. I went to dinner one night at Sala Rim Naan, the Thai restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental. The Oriental has part of its property across the river, right next to the Peninsula, and this restaurant is part of that across-the-river outpost. You take the hotel’s boat to get there, naturally. Here’s a view of the restaurant’s outside seating Here a view of the Mandarin Oriental from the restaurant My appetizer sampler My lobster entree The next day we had late afternoon drinks at the Peninsula. You can either arrive at the hotel on the…
Starwood is Considering Devaluing its Awards
Starwood is currently surveying some of its customers on how to increase the points required for awards in the least objectionable way. The following survey was passed along to me by a reader I trust. Hilton Hotels has “raised their prices” to redeem a free night. Starwood Hotels and Resorts is considering changing its redemption program. If Starwood were to “raise their prices” we want to know what would be most acceptable to you. In thinking about the “price increases”, please review the following option below and rank them in order from 1 to 4 with 1 = the most acceptable and 4 = the least acceptable. 1 = highest ranking …4 = lowest ranking Raise the award redemption level on all six tiers of hotels in the Starwood Hotels program. For example a hotel…
Alaska Airlines Updates
May
05
2006
A Flyertalk member posted a summary of Wednesday’s Alaska Airlines MVP Gold lunch in Anchorage. (Alaska regularly hosts gatherings for their top tier elites.) Key points:A new Platinum top tier will be introduced in 2008, requiring 70,000 to 80,000 miles. MVP Gold “Guest Upgrade” certificates will be going electronic in 2007 (bye bye, eBay). Alaska’s website can now book partner awards on Delta. Alaska will be introducing a new destination that members “will really like.” Rumors have been flying for a long time about Hawaii, but this is hardly confirmation of that. (Alaska’s 737s can make the jaunt…)
A Look Back at 25 Years of Frequent Flyer Programs
The cover story (free) of the May Inside Flyer is a fun piece on the history of frequent flyer programs. These programs are 25 years old this month, and publisher Randy Petersen has the story on how the programs came into being. A good read.
25 Days, 25 American Airlines Bonuses
May
03
2006
American is celebrating 25 years of their AAdvantage program this month with 25 separate offers, one available each day for 25 days. Today is the third day, and the offer is that you can register for 25% bonus miles on your spending with the Citibank American Airlines Mastercard posted on your May, June, and July statements (up to 2500 bonus miles, that is based on up to $10,000 in spending). The spending cap reduces the potential value of the offer, but it’s still worthwhile, and the daily offer website is worth checking, well, daily.
