A neat documentary about the quest for frequent flyer miles. Much of the filming was done at last spring’s Flyertalk Moderator meeting in Orlando. Sadly I was in Thailand at the time and missed it. Perhaps not Up in the Air, but it’s great to watch. I especially enjoyed Flyertalk’s beaubo talking about getting questioned by the DEA about why he had hired several local Thais to do nothing but fly back and forth between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai for six weeks. Not to mention Randy Petersen explaining how ‘normal’ it is to pick up and get together with friends on another continent.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2009.
Automatically Post Your Flight Status to Facebook and Twitter
A very neat tool, Twitterfeed for the frequent flyer set, it lets you automate your Facebook status update-bragging. Lufthansa has introduced MySkyStatus, that lets you enter your flights and it will send altitude, location, departure and arrival updates automatically to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
British Airways Visa Offers Two-for-One Award Redemption
The Chase co-branded British Airways Visa has announced a new benefit: Redeem for 1 travel for 2 Every year you spend $30,000 you will receive a redemption voucher for a ticket for a companion valid for 2 years. Redeem your BA Miles for a British Airways flight and take anyone with you on the same flight, in the same class of service. (There’s a website for the offer — http://www.ba.com/redeemfor1travelfor2 — that isn’t live yet.) Two first class award tickets for the price of one is huge, even with British Airways’ inflated award chart. This new benefit is on top of the new benefit that I mentioned a couple weeks ago where all spend on the card would earn 1.25 miles per dollar instead of the standard 1 mile per dollar. So you’ve got a…
Details of Hilton’s New Devalued Award Chart are Unveiled
Last week I posted that Hilton has been planning to devalue its points by introducing a new, more expensive higher category and presumably bumping the majority of properties up a category as a result. Now the new award chart is out and goes into effect on January 15. It comes with a new category 7 (50,000 points per night), and all “Waldorf=Astoria hotels” are 50,000 or more points in low season and up to 80,000 points a night in high season. From the FAQ: Has the cost of a free night changed? Yes. Reward categories have been updated along with point redemption rates. Please refer to the chart below. Updated reward catagory 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 New point cost for 1 free night 7,500 12,500 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000…
US Airways Introduces Complimentary Beer & Wine in Lounges: Will United and American Follow?
One Mile at a Time notes the news that US Airways will be offering complimentary beer and wine in their lounges beginning October 30. They’re also dropping the inance ‘partner lounge fee’ where you had to pay extra for your club membership to be valid in partner lounges, the only program to offer such a fee (and truly silly because you could buy a lounge membership for less from their partners and access their lounges — so it was a higher price to be paid only by people who didn’t know better). It’s not amazing that a lounge offers complimentary drinks. That’s pretty much world standard. But it’s amazing that US Airways is offering something extra, a cost that they aren’t already incurring. That simply hasn’t been their model. They’ve dubbed their stock ticker LCC…
Kudos for my award booking service in Conde Nast Traveler
Flyertalk’s Smart Shopper calls my attention to a letter in the November issue of Conde Nast Traveler praising my award booking service. After reading Wendy Perrin’s oft-repeated praise of frequent-flier expert Gary Leff on The Perrin Post *), contacted him regarding my upcoming European itinerary. Gary was incredible – he knew every carrier, every seat, every nuance. He handled everything, and we saved money by using our American Express points to book business-class flights. That’s what I like to hear!
View from the Wing #23 on Technocrati for Travel
Apparently Technocrati is listing this blog as #23 in travel. I don’t know how these rankings work or how they’re figured, how often they’re updated, what they’re based on, etc. But I guess I’m pleased to be in the top 25. I get why ‘produced’ blogs like Gadling and Jaunted beat me out, and why Rick Seaney is ahead in these rankings (hey, people like cheap airfares!). Not sure why several others are, last week I made my differences known with TripBase about their upgrade advice but I guess they’re more popular than I am. That’s alright, more upgrades for my readers! I was glad to see Musings of the Global Traveller up 13 spots to #70. Kiwi Flyer, who writes the blog, doesn’t post enough. But when he offers advice, it’s actually true! I…
Is Suing Over a Mistake Fare Taking Matters Too Far?
Wandering Aramean has filed suit in small claims court against British Airways for their refusal to honor a mistake fare to India. The tickets were $40 plus taxes and fees for full fare coach travel from the US to India. With fuel surcharges (assuming you didn’t find a strategy to get a booking engine to drop those) the tickets priced at over $500. BA cancelled the tickets pretty quickly, they didn’t wait weeks and decide not to honor. So I don’t have a real beef with them in the way they handled the matter. To a non-expert, though (who didn’t realize the base fare or the fare basis) $500 tickets don’t seem like obvious mistakes. And tickets of this price are usually non-refundable, consumers don’t get an out by saying they made a mistake several…
Starwood Introduces Cash & Points Awards for Category 1 and 2 Properties
Loyalty Traveler Blog covers the news that Starwood has introduced Cash and Points awards for Category 1 and 2 propoerties in Asia, the U.S., and Canada (though he can’t find any category 1 and 2 properties in the U.S. currently offering cash and points availability). Starwood’s Cash & Points awards are useful because they stretch your points. And they’re almost always more valuable than a points-only redemption, it amounts to selling you the difference in points at a deep discount (usually just over a penny a point). Unlike regular award nights, cash and points awards are not always available when a hotel has standard rooms available. Starwood will reimburse a hotel its full average daily room rate on a regular award night when a hotel hits 90% occupancy. Not so with cash and points, Starwood…
46,000 Continental Miles for a Mastercard if you Act Fast
That’s a nice haul from a single credit card applicaiton. And Continental miles are worth a whole lot more than they used to be, with the airline joining Star Alliance in just over a week. The credit card offer itself is for 40,000 miles broken out as follows: 25,000 bonus miles after first purchase 5,000 bonus miles for adding an additional authorized user within two months of account opening 10,000 bonus miles for spending $1,000 on the card by Nov. 30, 2009That’s 40,000 for $1,000 in spend by the end of next month and adding a cardholder. Plus the regular points for the $1,000 in spend and you’re at 41,000. And as long as you register for the Mileathon promotion before applying for the card (and before November 30) you’ll get an additional 5000 miles,…
