Frugal Travel Guy wants to make a political statement, buying tea online and sending it to the White House — while earning double miles for doing so.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for February 2009.
Starwood Award Category Changes Effective March 2 — As Expected, Generally Good News
Starwood has announced new redemption categories for the coming year, effective March 2nd. Each year Starwood recategorizes its hotels based on prior year average daily room rates, and the category that it places a hotel in determines the number of points required for redemption. On the whole — as expected — more hotels went down in category than went up. Specifically, according to the Flyertalk thread on the subect, 82 went up in category and 156 went down in category. Some of the more interesting ones to me, the Thailand properties appear not to change though I know that their occupancy is hurting tremendously. They were really hit late in the year with the occupation of the Suvarnabhumi airport, and their real downturn afterward likely came to late to sufficiently effect room rates for the…
Continental Becomes More Customer-Friendly While Delta and United Hate Their Customers
As the newly combining Northwest and Delta adds fees and reduces elite bonus miles, Continental seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Continental will still permit the old, higher-level elite bonus mile accumulation for elites with their premium co-branded credit card, and Continental is actually taking away fees on award redemption. Changes made by all members more than 21 days in advance of travel will be free, as long as the original and destination remain the same. (Platinums remain exempt even within 21 days.) The neat thing about this is it isn’t just date changes that are fee-free, you can change times, airline partners, and even routing without incurring a fee. This makes sense. As it breaks off its partnership with Delta/Northwest come the end of October, its frequent flyers and the frequent flyers…
Random Alaska Airlines Observations
Alaska’s $50 companion certificate which comes with the Bank of America co-branded Visa remains one of the best deals in travel, since it can be used on any fare — from the cheapest up through full fare first, without capacity controls. Onboard meals have gotten better. Last night’s cod was rather tasty, and the dressing that came with my prawn salad was quite flavorful. And they still serve ice cream sundaes. The crews are uniformly friendly. That’s just always been an Alaska Airlines thing, and it remains so. But they’re not the most nuanced. This is not a refined product, it’s transportation. At least they make announcements reserving the forward lavatory for first class, and they use the curtain, but that doesn’t stop passengers from streaming forward and of course the flight attendants don’t say…
I’m No Longer a Royal Ambassador, Either
Lucky is no longer an Intercontinental Royal Ambassador. I’m not either. He’s fine with it. So am I… I’ve been the fortunate recipient of a Jimbaran Bay Suite at the Intercontinental Bali, the Diplomatic Suite at the Intercontinental Bangkok, a Terrace Suite at the Mark Hopkins, many 1300 square foot suites at the Willard, suites at the Intercontinental Atlanta, and on and on. Sadly the program is being reined in a bit. Royal Ambassador upgrades seem more limited lately as part of an attempt at standardization. The Intercontinental Le Grande in Paris no longer provides club lounge access (the Mark Hopkins long ago stopped). Free Weekend Night certificates are no longer valid when purchasing suites. Sure, the mini-bar is still free, but they’re revisiting the terms of the program in 2010… This has long been…
United Discounted Coach Awards to Europe
Through May 14, United is offering roundtrip coach awards to Europe for 40,000 miles. They just upped the price from 50,000 to 55,000 January 1. But times are tough, seats are empty, and United is betting they’ll stay that way at least until the “usually-busy-in-back” transatlantic summer season. The offer is valid between the U.S. (excluding Hawaii) and Canada and the following cities in Europe: Amsterdam (AMS), Brussels (BRU), Frankfurt (FRA), Geneva (GVA), London (LHR), Moscow (DME), Munich (MUC), Paris (CDG), Rome (FCO), and Zurich (ZRH). The award must be booked online and only United flights are eligible.
Will the United-Continental Partnership Mean Red Carpet Club Improvements?
One Mile at a Time expects full lounge reciprocity between United and Continental, and predicts that’ll mean free drinks in United’s Red Carpet Clubs. I believe lounge reciprocity makes sense and will happen, I’ve predicted it in the past. But I’m going to part company on the free drinks. The assumption is reasonable, “If United and Continental have lounge reciprocity, doesn’t United have to offer a quality product closer to par with Continental’s?” However, if they do have lounge reciprocity, it doesn’t really matter what the United product looks like. People will either buy the lounge membership of the program they’re associated with (lazy consumers) or go with the lower price. Either way, they have access to United’s lounges, whatever those lounges provide. Besides, if United was going to improve amenities the rational thing to…
1000 Free American Airlines Miles for New Members
Via Frugal Travel Guy, this FatWallet post shows you how to get 1000 free American Airlines miles for signing up for the AAdvantage frequent flyer program. 1) Become a member/sign-on on www.mycokerewards.com 2) Click on “Rewards and Sweeps” 3) Click on “Browse By Points” 4) Click on “25 and Under” 5) Listed under 0 points, 1000 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles FREEBIE ======= 1000 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles check out website for complete details. New American Airlines AAdvantage Miles Members only.
United Explains Why They Prevent Their Members from Booking Available Award Seats on Partners
United has finally posted their response on Flyertalk to the issue of Starnet blocking (for background see here and here, among many other posts — it’s United’s practice of denying members the ability to book award seats that are being offered by its partners, something no other Star Alliance airline does). United says they spend enough money on partner awards and don’t want to spend more. They provide enough benefits and you should be happy with that, darnit! (I’m paraphrasing, but I think this is actually a fair rendition, read the response for yourself.) United says their agents aren’t intentionally misleading customers when they explain that such and such airline isn’t offering award seats, rather than United is denying their ability to book the seat that’s being offered. Our agents are stupid and don’t know…
US Airways Double Elite Qualifying Mile Promotion
US Airways is offering double elite qualifying miles on flights through March 31 (registration required). The offer applies only to tickets purchased after registering. (Hat tip to One Mile at a Time.)
