Monthly Archives for January 2008.
Promo code DFHOLLYWDGO is valid for 15% off American Airlines one-way or roundtrip flights to Los Angeles, Burbank, Orange County, and Ontario. Book by January 22 for travel between February 26, 2008 and April 30, 2008 (excluding March 14-16, March 21-25, or March 28-31). Valid for coach only, up to six passengers on one reservation.
Currently on the main bmi Diamond Club page is an offer to join the program (promotion code FF19KD) and receive 9,000 miles straight away. Terms and conditions of the offer are pretty much as you’d expect: you get 9,000 miles added to your account within 3 business days of signup, and don’t you dare open up a second account for the purpose of taking advantage of this offer! I’d save up my miles rather than just grabbing the free redemption this offers, however: 9,000 destinations miles is sufficient for 1 return direct flight with bmi or our Star Alliance partners in the UK, or between the UK and Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland. All flights are strictly subject to availability. The real value in the bmi program is cash and…
Alitalia is offering a 2000 mile signup bonus which will credit to new accounts if you take an Alitalia flight or credit an airline partner flight to your account within 3 months of enrollment. (Thanks for Free Frequent Flyer MIles for the pointer.)
Priority Club has a short survey about their program for 250 points. Survey runs through February 29, 2008. Every bit helps!
The Arizona Republic covers improvements in USAirways’ wine offerings. After several years of settling for whatever was cheapest, US Airways is upgrading its wine list, especially in first and business class, where it’s a free perk. Travelers in coach, where wine costs $5 a pop, won’t be totally left out. US Airways is replacing its current no-name wine in coach with a Beringer brand and plans to offer a second, more expensive ($8) choice, too. [Snip] “Everyone has tried to raise the bar,” she said. “Everybody has kind of said, “Oh my gosh, we have a teeny bit more money, we can offer our consumers a great glass of wine instead of a crap class of wine.’ “ Somehow there’s a real honesty here, even as the piece massively exaggerates the improvements in USAirways’ soft…
Here’s an idea for what to do during a layover at LAX… take a free off-airport parking shuttle to the In-N-Out Burger on Sepulveda. An In-N-Out is located on nearby Sepulveda Boulevard right next to the Parking Spot–a parking structure that conveniently provides free shuttle service. All you have to do is wait under the red “Hotel and Courtesy Shuttle” sign outside of any airport terminal, and when the yellow and black polka-dotted Parking Spot shuttle swings by, jump on board. It will take you literally next door to In-N-Out. Follow your nose through the back door, across the parking lot, and right inside where you need to order a double-double and fries to enjoy the best layover of your life. There are a few things to be very careful about, however. First off, you…
I’ve seen several New Year’s Resolution stories, most of them are silly, and none are worse than the median piece on New Year’s resolutions for managing your miles, points, and travel — because anyone who would actually use the advice likely knows far more than the person writing the piece. So here’s my brief attempt at a set of New Year’s Resolutions. As always, your mileage may vary… And for many of my readers, even these will seem utterly pedantic. Keep track of your miles. A free tool like MilePort is my preferred method. It’s a program on your computer, you enter your frequent flyer numbers and passwords, and it updates your balances with a single click. And since they’re all in one place it’s easier to keep track of what miles you still need…
Most hotel chain ‘best rate guarantees’ are bogus marketing gimmicks, designed to give you confidence that you’ll get the best prices on their own websites whether this is accurate or not. The promised benefits to finding a lower rate elsewhere are often elusive, with complex and arcane rules and sometimes incompetent claims staff who deny otherwise valid submission. The one real exception to this is the TripRewards program, which regularly honors its one night free policy when you submit a competing lower price elsewhere. There’s an extensive Flyertalk post on the subject with nearly 500 replies. There’s also now a Best Rate Guarantee Blog dedicated to identifying hotels where lower prices are found on websites other than the Triprewards site, with the goal of allowing you to claim a free hotel night there.As a brand…
In an otherwise not-funny news spoof (not even worth clicking on, really), I did enjoy the frequent flyer miles approach to parodying presidential candidates, with Ron Paul’s conspiracy theory and John Edwards’ class warfare approaches below. Paris, France – The Paris Hilton admitted today that it had screwed Congressman Ron Paul out of double-dipper frequent flyer miles by neglecting to properly process the bonus points to the congressman’s credit card. [Snip…} John Edwards had some comments for MSNBC about the recent Hilton, Ron Paul flap…”It seems a pity that those valuable miles will be wasted when there are so many homeless in America that would love to visit Paris.”
TripRewards is offering double points or double miles (registration required) for your first four stays booked by May 15 and complete by June 15. (The registration page suggests that the offer is valid through May 15, but the terms and conditions clarify that stays must simply be booked by that date and can be consumed up until a month later.) I might use this at a Wyndham property, but beyond that it’s of little use to me as I really don’t frequent Baymont Inn, Days Inn, Ramada, Super 8, or HoJo properties…
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 »
