Expedia has launched a new VIP program for their frequent customers that is strangely like… their old VIP program. The program is called ElitePlus and offers fee waivers on changes and cancellations made through Expedia as well as a special phone number for assistance. Most of the world avoids Expedia change fees by making changes directly with an airline, for instance. But existing Expedia VIP’s (what they used to be called) got their fees waived. And a special phone number. That last part is a real perk, I’ve heard of 3-hour hold times when contacting Expedia but I’ve always had my calls answered right away. Sure, there are other throw-in benefits of dubious quality, such as ‘special sales’ (more spam?). The announcement email, though not the website, notes that Expedia elite members will get access…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2007.
American Express Bonus for Transfers to Hotel Programs
Through November 30, American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to Starwood, Hilton, Priority Club, and Best Western.In most cases this still won’t represent a good value. In fact, with the bonus, Hilton transfers are still shy of 1 Amex point to 2 Hilton points — which is what you can get all the time with a small dance of going Amex to Hawaiian to Hilton.Still, in the past I’ve transferred Amex to Starwood using a similar promotion. The normal rate there is 3:1 and this makes it 2:1. But that was before the Starwood devaluation…(Hat tip to the MilesLink Newsletter.)
New Amtrak Guest Rewards Redemption Option
Just when I diss Amtrak Guest Rewards (and this doesn’t help with my trust of the program or with their customer service issues), they introduce a new redemption option — 5,000 Amtrak points convert to 25,000 Choice Privileges Points. The extreme value here is: 5,000 Amtrak points yield 25,000 Choice points which convert to 5,000 miles with Air Canada, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Mexicana, Northwest, United, and USAirways. Talk about flexibility! 10,000 Amtrak points yield 50,000 Choice points which convert to 20 Southwest Rapid Rewards credits, more than enough (16 required) for a free ticket. 50,000 Amtrak points yield 250,000 Choice points which convert to 100 Southwest Rapid Rewards credits, which earns you a companion pass and 6 roundtrip tickets (that can be used for you and your companion. Now, Amtrak still imposes a limit…
The Downside to Being a Maximizer
It’s not just miles and points, I’m looking for deals in just about everything that I do. I don’t always sweat the small stuff, a dollar here or there, but if it isn’t costly to do so I will (I’ll grab frequent flyer miles or Fatwallet cashback even on a $15 purchase). I scrounge for coupons when making online purchases, I used to find Googling the online store’s name and ‘coupon’ would work but there are so many bogus coupon sites looking for their own referral commissions that it’s a pain to sort through. In addition to searching Ev Rewards for the best shopping portal returns, I also head over to the Hot Deals forum at Fatwallet (and to a lesser extend Slick Deals) and search for the merchant I’m buying from, it’s amazing how…
Checking the Status of Your Flight
Scott McCartney’s latest column is on the various flight status websites you can use to track a flight, monitor position, gate changes, etc. Frequent travelers know that airline websites, and those from the major booking services, are often lacking. The conclusion of the piece? That my own favorite and most used, FlightStats.com, comes out as most useful and reliable. (This is also the one which the KVS Availability Tool integrates with.) Not mentioned in the piece, one of my favotire tricks for United Airlines flight status is to check United Cargo, when a flight is delayed this site will give you the real reason why — useful when the airline doesn’t want to give you compensation, claiming that a delay is due to ‘weather’. Update: Upgrade: Travel Better reports that American’s cargo website offers useful…
Hall of Shame: Amtrak Guest Rewards
So you have to ride the train, and at least they give you points for that. But that’s more or less all you can say about Amtrak Guest Rewards. I used to like their 2500 point award, one-way in the Northeast Corridor for unreserved service. I’d keep some tickets on hand. Of course, Amtrak doesn’t even have unreserved service anymore. And they upped the point requirements with just hree weeks’ notice. And they both imposed maximum points transferred out of the program in a year and dropped United as a partner without any notice at all. These more or less made me not trust the Guest Rewards program. But their problems go even farther. Amtrak Guest Rewards has just implemented online award booking. In other words, they’ve entered the ’90s. But there’s a glitch. In…
New American Credit Card Offers
Oct
07
2007
Citibank is offering 25,000 bonus miles and first year free for the Ameircan Airlines business and personal mastercards and personal American Express. All cards require $750 in spending within the first four months to qualify for the bonus. These cards can generally be churned every few months, and signing up for all is 75,000 miles at a pop.
New Alaska Airlines Mileage Expiration Policy
Oct
03
2007
Alaska Airlines has followed the industry trend and announced a new mileage expiration policy. They’re moving from the old standard of three years to two. Now, they’re still more generous than the current reigning policy in the industry of 18 months. And any activity, earning or redeeming, will keep an account active — no worrying about which kinds of miles extend and account and which do not. And finally, there’s an explicit way to extend expired miles — within a year of expiration, a $75 fee will reactivate an account. Last year I kept my brother-in-law’s Alaska account active by signing him up for a free Points.com account. I think he earned 20 miles. The MilesLink newsletter points out that the first date that miles will expire is April Fools’ Day 2008. Heh.
New USAirways Business Mastercard
Oct
03
2007
Juniper Bank, which issues the USAirways Mastercard — one of the better airline mileage card values — now has a business card though it isn’t quite as lucrative. The best offers for the personal card include two years fee-free, 50% bonus miles on first year spending, and 15,000 miles with first purchase. The business card will match the signup bonus but at a $79 annual fee. (There’s a no fee version with just 5000 bonus miles at signup.)
Delta Offers Elite Qualifying Miles for Eating
Oct
03
2007
iDine (aka Rewards Network) has a new Delta dining for miles bonus that offers both redeemable miles and elite qualifying miles (registration required). Four qualifying dines of $25 or more in October and November earns a bonus 1000 miles that even count towards status. Now, it’s just 1000 miles. But the notable thing is that the bonus offers the opportunity to earn elite status for something other than flying. Already increasingly common (and in some measure pioneered by Delta) is elite status through credit card spending. And last year USAirways offered its ‘Everything Counts’ promo at the end of the year where most miles (credit card spending excluded) counted towards status. Some Dividend Miles members became Chairmans Preferred 100,000 mile ‘flyers’ by sending a whole lot of flowers. So this is another step in that…
