Yearly Archives for 2006.
Hotel Hotsheet reports that Marriott will roll out “Total Trip Pricing” — a commitment to show “all in” costs for their hotel rooms on their website. In other words, taxes, surcharges, and resort fees will be fully disclosed. Small steps towards a better world…
Hotels have moved to become more like airlines over the past few years, with non-refundable internet prepaid rates and moving back the deadline for cancelling a guaranteed room without penalty (often now it’s 6pm the day before checkin instead of day of — and some resort properties require much earlier cancellations, even weeks). Airlines themselves have become more like airlines, with most change penalties moving from a pittance up to $100 (though the odd route on some carriers is still $50 mostly as a result of competitive requirements, Alaska is generally $50 across the board and JetBlue is just $25). It’s remained something of a mystery why rental cars haven’t been able to move to a penalty-laden pricing model. But Hertz appears to be making baby steps towards changing that. They’ve announced their intention to…
Last week I mentioned that I didn’t think Northwest’s move to charge for ‘premium’ seats in coach (which, outside of exit rows, aren’t in any way actually better) was a big deal. For infrequent flyers it’s neutral or a positive, the opportunity to access seats — though not meaningfully better — otherwise were mostly available to Northwest elites. For frequent flyers it’s more or less a non-issue: if you’re regularly flying Northwest and spending much time at all in coach you should be changing airlines. The only positive Northwest has is its domestic upgrade program, which isn’t just complimentary but also something they regularly deliver on. Still, charging elites for something they used to get for free (without even anything new offered up in return) is never a good thing. But what really irks me…
(Ok, not any other chain, Radisson wouldn’t count!) Best Western is awarding lifetime Diamond status to everyone who stays 60 nights in 2006. (Via The Global Traveller.)
HP is offering a $5 Starbucks card for customizing your profile with them. You don’t even have to sign up for spam. Starbucks card offers rarely come, but it’s about 15 seconds of work…
After some stops, starts, and glitches over the weekend it looks the like Le Meridien properties have gone live on the Starwood website and most are now listed as award redemption options as well. The integration is official, and Starwood elite members should now expect to have their status benefits honored across participating properties in the chain. (Notably absent are the Parker Meridien properties in New York and Palm Springs, which didn’t participate in the old Moments program either — as well as about ten other properties.)
Orbitz is offering $50 Off hotel bookings of 3 or more nights. Discount code is 831750. It’s valid for stays through April 30th but the booking must be made by March 22. This presumably applies only to OrbitzSaver prepaid hotel deals. Meanwhile, Travelocity is offering $10 off “Good Buy” hotels with code HTL10. This can be used even on a single night stay, but can only be used once per Travelocity account (except for Travelocity VIPs who can use it an unlimited number of times). Flyertalk member CalItalian reported these discounts and noted, regarding the $50 Orbitz coupon, Best deals I found were weeknights in Reno or Laughlin, NV. 3*, 3 night stay with coupon for $25 to $28 plus tax.
Northwest is again explicitly targeting Asia-Pacific frequent flyers with offers of an elite status match. Details are rather scarce on the website, certainly they’ll match up to Gold (mid-tier) but I wonder whether they’ll go to Platinum since they’re looking for any possible incremental revenue while in bankruptcy. Presumably matched status will last through the end of the year. No information is provided on what documentation is required of your existing status levels.In all likelihood this will operate in a similar manner as when they offered it in 2005, detailed discussion of which can be found at Flyertalk.com.
Alex Tabarrok notes his favorite items for travel: an inexpensive noise-cancelling headset, a Paul Frederick non-iron dress shirt, and his Kodak DX7590 digital camera. Allow me to suggest a wireless pocket router. Too many hotels have wired high-speed internet. I don’t always want to sit at the desk to work (especially frustrating at resort properties with balconies overlooking the ocean!). Or sometimes my wife travels with me and we’d both like to be online. This is the one I’ve been using, about $40 + shipping after $10 rebate. Second, power converters. Magellan’s has a nice website that’ll figure out for you just want converters and adapters you need, wherever in the world you’re traveling (I was shocked to find them accurate for Rwanda!). And don’t forget that clicking on the link to Magellan’s at ebates.com…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
