I get press releases all day long from travel providers, and 99% of the time I spare you, my readers, from having to hear about them. They usually read something like, “New survey research discovers that X% of travelers say they want to get away for Y holiday, and Z is a great place to [Book Your Travel Online / Stay for a Romantic-Exciting-Fun Time / Waste Large Amounts of Your Hard Earned Dollars]” And on occasion when I reply to the PR hacks with a legitimate question, even just searching for how in the world there’s something to write about, I don’t hear back. Most PR firms send out press releases hoping something’ll stick but don’t know enough about what they’re pitching to speak intelligently about it, or they’re too lazy to do the…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for March 2010.
Podcast on American Airlines and Oneworld Awards
The new Upgrd podcast is up, this time discussing American Airlines AAdvantage awards. I didn’t join the sho this week, but after listening if you have any questions about booking awards with American miles hit the comments here and I’ll offer up my suggestions.
Very Nervous About an Upcoming Flight
I’ve got a major first class award redemption coming up, one that’ll definitely be worth a report here, involving some of the better carriers in the world and some amazing hotel rooms, not to mention a very famous restaurant. But I couldn’t start the award out of my home city, and so I’ve booked a separate ticket to connect up to the start of the award. That always makes me nervous, because in the event of irregular operations that causes a misconnection the onward carrier isn’t responsible for re-routing you. When I booked my flight, I gave myself better than a six hour connection. And there was a flight an hour after the one that I booked as a backup. But since that time the ‘backup’ flight has been pulled from the schedule. There’s no…
300 Free Priority Club Points
Via Lucky: You can earn 300 Priority Club points by completing this quick survey. The points post instantly. The answers are all obvious. This is their program, they’re going to say it’s good, so you can earn points from ‘all of the above’ and your benefits are ‘all of the above.’ They’re not going to advertise other brands, so theirs are ‘all of the above.’ They have lots of hotels. The only question where the answer may not be obvious is how many nights or points it takes to get to Platinum elite status — 50 nights or 60,000 points, the latter being exceptionally easy (and these 300 points count).
Marriott Introduces Free Internet for Gold and Platinum Members — US and Canada Properties Only
In April, Hyatt announced free internet for all elites. Two weeks ago Starwood announced free internet for Platinums (not Golds), and that benefit started March 1. Now Marriott joins the party with free internet for Gold and Platinum members (not Silvers), although the benefit will only apply in the U.S. (excluding Hawaii and US territories) and Canada. That’s the most limited benefit of the three programs. It will begin May 7. Hilton, of course, makes free internet an option for Gold and Diamond members, but to have it you’re required to give up your upgrade and breakfast. There’s not much difference between Hilton Gold and Diamond as it is (though a year and a half ago they made an attempt to distinguish the two by downgrading the Gold breakfast benefit), they could at least offer…
Two New 100 Free Continental Miles Offers
Straight from Free Frequent Flyer Miles: 100 easy miles are offered for learning about the benefits of the Energy Plus/Continental Airlines partnership by April 30, 2010. Use promo code 57077. 100 easy miles are offered for reading about earning miles for paying your energy bills on your Continental Airlines credit or debit card by April 30, 2010. Use promo code 57078. Update 3/13/10: Miles have already posted for me.
1000 United Miles for New Rewards Network Dining Members
Aren’t you proud of me? I called them Rewards Network in the title, I’m breaking my habit of referring to them as iDine — finally. It took me long enough to stop calling them Transmedia. Their United Airlines co-branded mileage earning for dining program is offering a 1000 mile bonus for spending $25 or more on qualifying dines within 30 days of registering. (Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)
25% Off at eBags
Speaking of laptop bags, coupon code SCENE25 is good for 25% off at eBags. (HT: Dan’s Deals.) The AAdvantage Shopping Mall offers 7 American miles per dollar at eBags. Not certain that the SCENE25 will work with mileage earning, though I suspect it will. And the AAdvantage Mall website lists a 25% off one item offer for St. Patrick’s Day. Coupon code for that offer is COMJSTPAT, and to the extent it’s listed on the AAdvantage site there shouldn’t be any combinability problems with mileage-earning.
Who Ever Thought That a Laptop Bag Review Could Generate Death Threats?
The internet is sure a crazy place. I reviewed the Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer, which I much like. One of the arguments for the bag I’ve seen made online is that it’s made in the USA. I explained that while I think the bag is great, this wasn’t one of the compelling reasons for me. That generated some real vitriol. One of the commenters here on this blog posted a snippet of my review on a political site, Google-stalked me generating a mini-bio for that community, and that was followed up by comments like: “Wouldn’t it be a shame if such a person were to die in his sleep.” “Someone needs to figure out how to teach them some manners again.” “This is another one of those things that I simply will not tolerate. No.…
The Silly Waste of the Small Community Air Service Development Program
Cranky Flier, in his BNet column, takes issue with some of the Small Community Air Service Development Program grant winners. The federal government takes grant applications from small communities to spend in a variety of ways promoting air service. Tunica, Mississippi — 40 miles from Memphis — got $500,000 to subsidize bringing gamblers to town four times a week via Atlanta on Airtran. Rockford, Illinois’ airport — which calls itself Chicago Rockford to emphasize just how close and convenient they are to Chicago, which has plenty of air service as a hub for United and DeltaAmerican (O’Hare) and a busy low cost carrier hub for the likes of Southwest (Midway) — got $500,000 to support non-stop flights to business destinations from Rockford to LA, Minneapolis, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, and/or New York. Now, Rockford has some…
