In response to a post on Starwood Hotels in-hotel points-earning, reader Greg wrote: Based on your comment about SPG not a great program based strictly on hotel revenue, which program do you think is the greatest value, and in turn, easiest to get rewards? My somewhat meandering answer: Easiest redemption is Starwood and now Hilton since they’re now advertising no capacity controls as well. (Starwood is going to have to come out with something new, at least for Platinum members, since Hilton has matched their unique selling proposition. I predict that they will.) Starwood has plenty of properties that I actually want to redeem at, much more so than Hilton, but that’s a function of my luxe preference. And Starwood is a great place to accumulate points via credit card spending in order to redeem…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for May 2008.
Questions United Asks When It Suspects an Award or Upgrade Has Been Bought or Sold
Flyertalk member bseller, whom I had the pleasure to sit next to on a flight from the West Coast to Chicago in business class on a 777 back in 2002, offers some experience with United’s Mileage Plus fraud folks. He tells the story of an upgrade — which was technically traded for with another member against Mileage Plus rules — being flagged by United as possible fraud. “There was a FRAUD ALERT in the PNR and it required that I verify the validity of the upgrade”, or words to that effect. I should point out that this U/G was done ONLINE. Here are the questions asked- AND they were REQUIRED to be anssered PRIOR to the issuance of a BP. This is NOT “optional” sh*t; You guys can proceed at your risk: Q: How did…
Quadruple Starwood Points at aloft Hotel Properties
Starwood is offering quadruple points on spending at their new aloft hotels through the end of the year. Registration required. General members will earn 8 points per dollar spent, while Gold and Platinum members will earn 9.. and paying with a Starwood American Express card, of course, earns an additional bonus point (plus the dollar for the credit card charge). So a Gold member paying with an SPG Amex for their aloft stay will net 11 Starwood points per dollar. Which, of course, finally makes Starwood competitive with other programs when it comes to redemptions derived from in-hotel spend. But only for aloft stays, only through the end of the year, and only for members who register. (Starwood is a great program, and the Starwood American Express is a great credit card, but make no…
American Ups Award Prices, Requires $5 Payment to Book Free Tickets Online
This is already being much discussed elsewhere, but American has imposed a $5 fee for website award bookings. The old argument was that reservation centers were more costly than web, an airline wanted to (a) push its reservations online to lower costs and (b) charge a fee for the ‘extra’ service of having a person handle the booking. Now, even the cheaper online booking will come at a fee. Why? Because they’re looking for revenue sources, and because they can. Online booking is still cheaper than booking by phone, and American has a captive market to some extent amongst AAdvantage members looking to redeem their miles. With millions of awards redeemed annually, multiply those out by $5 and they’re predicting serious revenue. Of course, AAdvantage members aren’t really captive at least in terms of their…
Weird New Route of the Day
Horizon has announced new San Jose-Sacramento service. Umm, yeah, I’ll buy a ticket on that route. (Though sometimes an extra easy segment can come in handy.) Cranky Flier explains what’s going on: Billings to Helena? San Jose to Sacramento? Yeah, that’s just odd. Basically they’re creating round-robin trips where you fly from point A to point B to point C and then back to point A. These have never really worked well for airlines in the past, so I’m not sure what makes them think this will be a winner this time.
W Hotels, Townhouse-style, that Somehow Resemble the Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow, and Offer Gambling
The Sunday Times (London) outlines Richard Branson’s plans for expansion into hotels: Branson already uses Virgin Atlantic to drive customers to his mobile and credit-card companies. Now he wants to use the airline to fill a new range of Virgin hotels. The first will be in New York, London, Los Angeles and Atlanta. If they prove a success, India, China and Saudi Arabia will follow. Virgin Hotels will be based on the Clubhouse, Virgin’s premium passenger lounge at Heathrow airport, which was developed with restaurateurs and hoteliers, notably Nick Jones, creator of Soho House. “We have loads of hoteliers coming in and stealing our ideas from the Clubhouse, so we thought we had better do hotels ourselves. We are going to take the concept of the W hotel and move it on 10 years by…
More Cheap Hawaii Departure Cities: Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia
The United Newark and Houston to Hawaii deal was aimed right at the heart of Continental — both Newark and Houston and Continental hubs, and United was apparently responding to cheap Continental flights to Hawaii out of United hub Los Angeles (although not quite as cheap as this, and from a market where lower prices tend to be common). Continental has now fired shots in a different direction — USAirways — with dirt cheap Honolulu fares from Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Pittsburgh. So more folks than before may have an interest, although unlike United these Continental flights will be very difficult to upgrade since Continental charges a co-pay in addition to miles for bumping up to the premium cabin.
Best Offer Yet for Continental Mastercard: 20,000 Miles and $35 Fee
Free Frequent Flyer Miles points to the best signup offer I’ve seen yet for a Continental Airlines Mastercard: 20,000 miles after first purchase and a statement credit of $50 to offset the $85 fee. Since I’ve never seen this card with a fee waiver, effectively offering a $35 annual fee is a great deal for 20,000 miles. The card also comes with two Continental lounge passes annually after your first year so you only get those if you keep the card into the future, which personally I would not. But then I’m not a huge fan of Continental miles, at least such that I would put my spending towards earning Continental miles over all the other currencies that I might be earning with the same credit card spend.
Flights From New York or Houston to Hawaii for Less Than $300
As posted over at Flyertalk, United has Newark or Houstan to Honolulu for less than $300 including tax. Also available at this price, Newark to Kauai. This isn’t a “jumbo” like $33+tax for business class to Cyprus, but it is a pretty good fare worth mentioning. The fare is valid for flights on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday (for the overwater segment) from August 21 through November 10, and December 5 through December 14. There’s a three-day minimum stay, and naturally the tickets are non-refundable. The fare is bookable most anywhere, such as the United website or Travelocity. And since it’s on United, the flights are upgradeable with miles (subject to upgrade availability) without any sort of co-pay or buyup. To find out in advance whether there’s upgrade inventory on a given flight, go to…
Free Marriott Gold Status Still Available
Back in March I posted about a free Marriott Gold status offer, targeted to some Air France-KLM members but apparently open to all. I really thought that folks signing up but ineligible would lose the status, but so far that doesn’t seem tobe the case. And the offer is still there. Meanwhile, I didn’t see it at the time, but this Flyertalk thread details a similar offer of free Marriott status for British Airways folks, the signup link is here. There’s apparently a Virgin Atlantic version of the offer as well, but I haven’t seen the signup link. (Although if I were curious enough, a bit of playing around and based on the links of the other two offers, I might be able to figure it out.
