Hyatt is offering double credits towards elite qualification on stays during the first three months of 2008. Registration required.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for December 2007.
The Final Word on Amtrak to Choice Points Transfers
Randy Petersen puts the smack down and gets the straight story on Amtrak transfers to Choice Hotels. I recently reported that Amtrak reduced the value of transfers to Choice Hotels with no notice and then removed the option altogether.From NotiFlyer[Members are] again be able to transfer points from Guest Rewards to their Choice Privileges account at a rate of 5,000 to 15,000 points, and transfers will be completed for members who were in the middle of a transfer when the closure occurred. According to Blakey, the exchange option will remain in effect through the end of 2007, at which time changes to the program will be instituted. As of Jan. 1, 2008, the Guest Rewards exchange program will only be available to elite members (Select and Select Plus) and members who hold an Amtrak co-branded…
Singapore’s New First Class
Singapore’s A380 really is amazing in first class, as this trip report from the recent inaugural flight clearly shows. Good luck getting an award seat, though. Singapore isn’t an easy redemption in first class to begin with. Their premium product is near impossible. And it’ll be awhile until there’s a full A380 fleet as well.
USAirways Adds Surcharge for USAirways.com Bookings
Dec
12
2007
USAirways has apparently added a $5 surcharge to flights booked on its own website. CrankyFlier has the goods. This seems inconsistent with USAirways’ own policiesThere is no booking fee for tickets purchased or redeemed on usairways.com. However, when CrankyFlier confronted USAirways with evidence — that the website was pricing out itineraries $5 higher than the airline’s published fares — they acknowledged it, but refuse to call it a booking fee. [T]he $5 increase you’re seeing is essentially a fare increase to fares booked at usairways.com.” Regardless of the semantics, it is now $5 more expensive to book tickets at usairways.com than it is to book at some other online engines such as Priceline.com (their traditional airfare booking site, not the name your own price site – Priceline doesn’t add booking fees). Even booking through Expedia,…
StarNet: United’s Weapon of Mass Award Destruction
Dec
10
2007
Back in July, I wrote up a primer on securing Star Alliance awards. In it, I alluded to Starnet, the system that United uses for booking these awards for Mileage Plus members. Its search capabilities are primitive (you often can find better availability searching segment-by-segment that you can telling the agent your origina and destination, simply because it doesn’t search many possible connections). But most vexxing for frequent flyers is that the system filters availability. That is, a partner airline may be offering a seat for award redemption — but United’s system will still tell you it’s unavailable. The agent will usually blame the partner (“they aren’t offering any seats”) when that isn’t true at all. Instead, United doesn’t want to pay for the seat. United is known to ‘filter out’ availability especially of Luftansa…
Continental Inflight Currency Accepted on Northwest
Dec
08
2007
Continental Airlines inflight currency, the kind that pays for drinks and headsets, is acceptable onboard by Northwest. I never realized that, and apparently many Northwest flight attendants don’t, either. (In addition to selling scrip at checkin kiosks, Continental gives these out to their OnePass Platinum members.) It’s confirmed by Northwest on a Flyertalk thread that the Northwest flight attendant manual is clear on this fact under amenity coupons (section 365.1.4 if feeling particularly confrontational about the subject). A very minor issue, to be sure, but something I never knew for sure. Drink up!
Airline Route Map Tool
Flyertalk member cockpitvisit has created a Windows downloadable program to see a graphical depiction of the route maps of over 100 airlines. It’s interesting in its own right, to be sure. But for me it’s a useful tool in coming up with award itineraries. Say, for instance, that I’m trying to book a premium class award with United miles and I’d like to include a transpacific segment on Signapore airlines. I may already know that Singapore flies from LAX to Tokyo, Tapei, and Singapore. And from San Francisco to Seoul and Hong Kong. But I could easily have forgotten the option of flying Vancouver to Seoul. Here’s the download link for the zipped file, a screen shot of the program, and the Flyertalk thread discussing it. Admittedly for the true airline geeks among us.
Amtrak Transfers to Choice Hotels Over
First Amtrak reduces the value of points transfers to Choice Hotels with no notice whatsoever. Now the option to transfer to Choice is gone entirely, a matter of days later. This just piles on the history of customer unfriendly business practices for this program (limiting the number of points transferred out of the program in a year with no notice, dropping their partnership with United with no notice). The Carlson folks run the program like a true clown operation.
Presidential Primary Loyalty Points
According to Inside Flyer magazine (subscription required) the Barack Obama campaign has launched a points program for volunteers. Earning opportunities include marching in a parage or signing a supporter card (or getting someone else to do so) for 25 points, and working a phone bank for 50 points. They haven’t published a redemption chart, and BaltimoreSun.com cites the campaign’s online organizer as saying the points system is primarily a way for supporters to measure they impact they are having on the campaign. But really, this just formalizes a process that all campaigns have — what you give is a primary determinant of what you get. They could easily partner with the custom rewards engines at American Express or Diners Club, where enough points could be redeemed for a dream experience… Like Secretary of Commerce in…
Priority Club Redemption Sale
Dec
04
2007
Priority Club offers ‘any hotel, anywhere’ as an award — you redeem your points for an Amex Gift Card for use on hotel purchases. These can be used to pay hotel bills anywhere you wish. The idea is that you aren’t limited to Priority Club hotels with your Priority Club points. The usual downside? You get less than half a cent in value per Priority Club point. Standard hotel redemptions offer far better return. However, through December 15th, Priority Club is offering these ‘Any Hotel, Anywhere’ redemptions at half off. You can get better than 4/5th of a cent per point (double the value). This actually makes for a pretty good deal. First, because you’re paying for your room instead of redeeming points. And that means whatever hotel you’re staying at should be earning you…
