The Washington Times today carries a piece on travel services offered by bloggers. The piece highlights two: my award booking service and CrankyFlier‘s Cranky Concierge. For $30 (for a domestic itinerary), Brett Snyder will search for the best fares and offer you advice on booking the best onboard product, monitor your flight and assist during irregular operations, and provide any necessary post-trip followup. Basically he’ll act as a really good travel agent and then some, and at a reasonable price. Brett’s services aren’t aimed at me but at his price point I think they’d be great for a regular business traveler without a travel department for instance. Now, my services are more expensive than Brett’s as the Times piece notes. But I think the article conflates what we’re offering a bit. My services are rather…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2009.
What Should I Post On My Blog, Versus On Twitter?
Do you prefer to read the blog, grab the RSS feed of the blog, or follow me on Twitter? And what do you think I ought to be writing on my blog, versus on twitter? As I mentioned last month, I’ve been ‘tweeting’ (and even getting a bit of recognition for it!). Thus far Twitter gets a feed of my blog posts, so it’s a decent way to keep up on the deals and advice I offer here. And I post some minor deals and thoughts that don’t seem to ‘rise to the level’ of a blog post. For example I just tweeted a US Airways magazine sweepstakes for Bose Quiet Comfort 15 headphones. If it was a free set for everyone who signs up, I’d have blogged it, but… Since I’m just figuring out…
Hilton 25% Discount Through the End of the Year
The Hilton 25% discount for Visa Signature cardholders has been extended through December 31. Back in June I posted the following offer: First they ask you to authenticate with the first 8 digits of a Visa signature or Visa infinite card, and then they take you to a booking page. The 25% discount is off of the Best Available Rate rate plan, which of course may not be the best available rate. Still, on a few random tests it appeared to be the lowest price room – lower than advance purchase rates and this rate is cancellable per the reservation’s cancellation deadline and not prepaid. The rules do require payment at the hotel to be made with a qualifying Visa card, though that’s like a “your mileage may vary” requirement. Glad to see it’s still…
British Airways Visa to Increase Mileage Earning by 25%
Last month I posted about a new offer of 30,000 bonus miles for signing up for a British Airways co-branded visa from Chase. The card has a $75 annual fee. Effective November 4, the card will earn 25% more miles: 1.25 miles per dollar on regular spend, and 2.5 miles per dollar on spending with British Airways. Now, to me the card is really just best for the signup bonus. You already earn 1.25 British Airways miles per dollar when you spend $20,000 on a Starwood American Express and transfer those points to British Airways (because Starwood gives you 5000 bonus miles). And there are occasionally additional transfer bonuses on top of this. So I’d still stick with a Starwood Amex for spend (which also gives you the flexibility of deciding where to transfer your…
1500 Free EVA Evergreen Club Miles for New Members
Through the end of the year EVA Air is offering 500 miles for signing up for their frequent flyer program and another 1000 miles for applying online and creating a password. Effective now to DEC 31, 2009, join Evergreen Club during the promotional period will be eligible to receive 500 bonus miles on next day of enrolment. Join now to get more benefits. Please click here for more details. Joining Evergreen Club with password applying on-line can earn extra 1,000 bonus miles. Please share this good news with your friends immediately.
Your Turn to Share a Tip/Trick With ME?
So I’ve been at this blog for several years. I’ve shared offers for free status, just for signing up. Folks have gotten plenty of upgrades as a result, whether airline, hotel, or rental car. I’ve shared free miles offers, sometimes from just clicking a link and other times for churning credit cards, savings accounts, prepaid debit cards, purchasing travelers checks, and whatnot. Folks have also gotten cheap trips via discount promotions and mistake fares that I’ve posted. And I’ve worked hard to help folks learn to get the most of their miles, whether via options to transfer or launder via other programs or how to get the best value redemptions or the best return in premium classes using the least amount of miles. Hopefully y’all have gotten your nickel’s worth of free advice! But I’d…
British Airways Free Status and Bonus Miles for Premium Class Travel
I don’t usually highlight promotions for paid premium class travel, but this one is interesting. British Airways is offering residents of Europe other than the U.K. both progressively more bonus points and elite status for a single roundtrip in their longhaul business or first class product. Details are here and vary by your country of residece. The offer is for free silver status for a year based on a single roundtrip in business class, and BA Silver is enough for lounge access across oneworld. In addition the bonus point offers are as follows: Residents of Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, and Switzerland earn 18,000/50,000/100,000 bonus miles for 1, 2, or 3 roundtrips during the promo period. Residents of Andorra, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Faeroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland,…
The Best Mileage Management & Tracking Tools
I don’t just participate in a coiuple of airline and hotel loyalty programs, I participate in dozens. That’s great for taking advantage of the best promotions on offer, and it’s great when the time comes to redeem miles because I have s omany options. But it’s cumbersome to manage — all those account numbers, all those passwords, and a lot to keep track of like how soon will points in a given account expire? Fortunately there are plenty of solutions that make this easier — aggregating account information in a single place, allowing login to an account with a single click, updating all account balances at once. And offering it all for free, for a couple dollars a year, or at most a bit over a dollar a month. There are really three sites worth…
The 10 Worst Hotels in America
Ok, we all have our lists. Hopefully no one has experience with all these properties, to be able to make an informed comparison. But here’s a fun list of places to avoid. Beaches Oceanfront Resort in Daytona Beach, Florida: “If you consider Hell a resort, then this is a resort” Ramada Plaza JFK: “We had stayed here about nine years ago–same reason, delayed flight. The place apparently had not been cleaned between these two stays” Velda Rose Reort Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas: “I think Velda died in our room.” Airport Plaza, Brook Park Ohio: “One of the beds was broken and propped up with a stack of Bibles.” Continental Bayside Hotel, Miami Beach, FL: “the cabby laughed when we asked him to take us there!”
American Express Usually Responds to Complaints with Free Points
I’ve complained (on multiple occasions) to American Express when I saw posted on Flyertalk that there was a targeted bonus miles offer that wasn’t sent to me. I’ve written to their corporate office and I’ve used their online email messaging system. The online system is quicker and easier, but writing to their corporate office has yielded larger point bonuses. I’ve also complained about new signup bonus offers that are larger than what I got when I first signup up for a card. American Express has been known to provide the difference in miles or points, or at least part of the difference, as a goodwill gesture. It seems that most points-related complaints are met with free bonus points, at least in my experience (bear in mind that I’m a pretty high-volume charger). Frugal Travel Guy…
