United is offering double elite qualifying miles for travel through June 15. Registration is required and only flights taken after registration earn the double EQMs. You don’t get double redeemable miles, your flown miles just count double towards elite qualification.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for April 2008.
Return to Le Meridien Barcelona
The morning after dinner at El Bulli we took a cab to the Figueres train station, had our return ticket stamped for the Catalunya Express to Barcelona, and boarded the train. Uneventful ride back, grabbed a cab to the Meridien, and checked in. This time they had us assigned to a junior suite on the 7th floor corner, facing a side street. I asked if we could do any better, and they offered a similar room overlooking Las Ramblas with a fairly panoramic view. I asked whether any renovated suites were open, and they told me this was it… they also mentioned that they hadn’t yet decided to renovate some of the remaining suites on the upper floors, “some customers prefer the older style.” I don’t know whether this was guesswork on the checkin agent’s…
20,000 Mile Signup Bonus, Fee Waived for Northwest Visa Products
Northwest and US Bank are offering 20,000 mile enrollment bonuses with no fee the first year for the Visa Signature and Business card products. US Bank cards have had mixed results with churning at best, most customers will only be able to earn the bonus once for each card type (at least based on my rather dated understanding of the issue). But it’s a good deal for folks who haven’t had either card before. It’s worth noting that if the Northwest-Delta merger closes, there’s a pretty good likelihood that the US Bank relationship with the airline will eventually end. That’s quite a ways off, and doesn’t really effect the decision to take this card now, but worth noting. The American Express relationship with Delta is a stronger one, and represents a better card in any…
5000 Bonus Continental Miles for New Accounts with First Flight
Ripped from Free Frequent Flyer Miles: Many of Continental’s non-U.S. websites offer 5,000 miles for signing up for the program and taking your first flight. Language change can be made in the upper right corner. These sites say nothing about where you must live to get the bonus, and links to a signup website that permits registration by people living most anywhere in the world. I wonder what happens if a U.S. resident signs up via a non U.S. website. Worth a shot. (Thanks to Frequent Flyer Bonuses for these links.) United Kingdom Ireland France Spain and Canary Islands Japan Hong Kong Israel
15% Off Southwest Purchases
Southwest is offer a 15% discount on tickets purchased by April 21 for travel through October 30 using promo code DING15. The terms and conditions aren’t onerous. Discount applies to roundtrip tickets booked at Southwest.com. August 29, 2008 through September 1, 2008 are blacked out for travel with this discount. The discount doesn’t apply to Business Select, Business, or Senior Fares, and doesn’t take money off of taxes.
United Increases Change Fees to $150
Sometime last night United began loading new fare rules with $150 change fees for domestic tickets, up from in most cases $100 (some specific markets had and still have lower fees, but this applies to better than 90% of fares). I don’t see any announcements or news stories on this yet, but here’s the thread on Flyertalk. A dozen years ago the change fee was $25, ten years ago it was $50, eight years ago $75… Now most airlines charge $100, although as with baggage fees etc. the low-cost ‘no frills’ carriers frequently charge lower change fees. JetBlue charges $50 (or $40 if the change is made online). Southwest has no change fee, they apply the full value of a ticket towards new ticket purchases, but a same-day change involves buying up to full fare.…
Off to Roses, and Dinner at El Bulli
I had considered renting a car, and in the end that would have been the easiest. It’s just not that difficult a drive from Barcelona to Roses. Instead, though, we took the Catalunya Express train to Figueres. Cost was ~ 10 euros apiece each way. A car wouldn’t have been more expensive overall, though, because of the cost of cabs – a good 40 euros each way to and from the train station into Roses. (I’d still take a cab to and from the restaurant, though, for reasons I’ll explain). At the train station you stick your ticket in the machine to enter the area of the station with the tracks, but presumably any train ticket would work, no tickets were ever checked onboard in either direction, so why not buy the cheapest ticket and…
Barcelona Trip Report Continued – Le Meridien and Rambling Along Las Ramblas
Le Meridien Barcelona Just under 30 euro cab ride from the airport, and I walk into the hotel and up to the checkin desk. Relatively quick and painless, but not suite available. In fact, no upgrade available. “It is a very nice room, it is an upgrade, trust me you will like it.” It’s the smallest room I’ve ever seen in Europe, and it faces a side street. Back down to the desk to renegotiate, they give me a somewhat larger standard room – this time facing Las Ramblas with a little standup balcony to walk out on. The only downside is that it’s two beds joined together rather than a true King. Ah, Europe. This is an improvement, at least. Service isn’t great here, no one helped me with my bags. And my first…
Columbus Dispatch Knew Skybus Was Folding, Didn’t Report it, and Offers Silly Self-Serving Excuses
The Columbus Dispatch was told by Skybus that the airline would be shutting down. And instead of reporting the story, they sent a reporter to fly the last flight and cover the story. The reporter traveled alongside all the passengers who would soon learn that they had no return ticket to Columbus, instead of letting folks know they might not want to get onto the plane. The paper explains that they honor news embargoes — they were given the information on the condition they not use it until 9:30pm. They’re proud of themselves for actually sharing the information earlier… when another news organization already broke the story, they didn’t wait to post it either! Well, bully for them. We discovered that the local ABC/Fox television stations were telling people at the airport about the shutdown…
Aer Lingus Says They Won’t Honor Mistake Fare
Apparently Aer Lingus had a 5 euro business class fare to the U.S. This one never made it to Flyertalk, which I suppose is one reason I didn’t know it had happened. One source reported it as a fare to Boston, I’ve also heard it was valid to Los Angeles. The airline says just over 100 tickets were purchased, though I’ve also heard 300. In any case, the airline currently says they won’t honor the tickets, though it doesn’t sound like all of this is final yet. It’s highly unusual for a flight deal ultimately not to be honored. Hotel error rates are more hit or miss, but airfares are mostly good once ticketed. Occasionally an airline will back out, but even then I’ve frequently seen some sort of compensation given in return. So this…
