At the end of July, United re-introduced discounted short-haul awards, but only offered the option through August 31. Instead of the usual 12,500 miles one-way or 25,000 miles roundtrip, they’re charging 8,750 one-way or 17,500 roundtrip. This applies to awards booked at least 7 days in advance of travel (no discount on last-minute award bookings), and is for flights that are 700 miles or less each way and only within the Continental U.S. or between the U.S. and Canada. Now that it’s August 31, they’ve extended the offering — but only for tickets booked by September 30, 2010 for travel through January 7, 2011. Like last time I’d fully expect American to match. But it’d sure be nice if they made moves like these a permanent part of the program rather than a ‘temporary’ promotion.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for August 2010.
Why I Love US Airways Reservations Agents
Award from US to Kuala Lumpur and back, business class. Set up the reservation, agent gets ready to price. And contra Continental where the computers do everything, US Airways agents do a whole lot more fill in the blanks. Very helpful agent asks me about Kuala Lumpur, “that’s in North Asia, right?” Of course, business class to North Asia is 90,000 miles and to South Asia is 120,000 miles. Sadly, I am an honest man. Or at least I’m willing to own up to my geography. Still, I have to wonder (and I often wonder) whether US Airways made a really big mistake when they tried to save money by switching off of Sabre to SHARES. I flew them the weekend of the systems cutover, certainly I knew better but I had a great desire…
25,000 Delta Miles for $500 in Skymall Purchases Today Only
The offer is at skymall.com/25000 and runs through 11:59pm tonight (Mountain time) only. They’ll award 25,000 Delta miles for making $500 in net purchases (excluding tax and shipping) today only. It’s not valid on gift cards, and some items and vendors are ineligible and per the terms and conditions of the offer that’ll be “noted on the product page.” Discussion on Flyertalk is here. Now, I don’t have time to find anything on the Skymall site that I want, and I don’t want to do this just for the miles (as I won’t spend 2 cents a mile for Skypesos). But if you have any interest in the actual stuff you’d purchase, then this is a pretty rockin’ offer. (HT: Carol.)
25% Bonus on Diners Club Transfers to American AAdvantage
From September 1 through October 31, folks like me who still have a Diners Club card earn a 25% bonus on transfers of Club Rewards points to AAdvantage. Meanwhile through end of September transfers of 40,000 – 59,000 Diners Club points into Delta Skymiles earns a 20% bonus and 60,000 or more points earns a 50% bonus but that offer holds little interest to me. In both cases my inclination is to save points in Club Rewards for their flexibility rather than being tempted into a transfer just for the bonus. Though Diners Club has lost several partners in recent years, predominantly because they’ve become a Mastercard and compete in the US against airlines’ own co-branded card offerings now (not to mention the card issuer earning a lower interchange fee as a result of the…
Expedia and Citi Thank You Network Severing Ties
Expedia and Citi Thank You Network are severing ties on December 1. Currently Expedia’s prepaid hotel bookings and air and hotel packages earn Thank You Points, and Expedia offers a co-branded credit card issued by Citi which earns bonus points for Expedia purchases. That earning goes away for purchases December 1 and thereafter. Expedia promises a new rewards program in early 2011. We’ll see what they have in store. To date they haven’t been especially aggressive. Hotels.com doesn’t have an especially rewarding program, but will give you a free night for every 10 booked — the idea being you can book through them and not be tied to specific chains (or specific chain booking sites) and still earn rewards. Sure, those Hotels.com nights can only be redeemed based on your least expensive nightaverage hotel rate,…
Tewwowism Paranoia, Then Again Maybe We SHOULD Consider Government Officials to Be Threats…
I know you’re not supposed to joke about aviation security, but seriously was this really a threat? A former Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Sir Geoffrey Henry, has been removed from an Air New Zealand flight for remarking that he was a terrorist when boarding the plane. According to Air New Zealand, Safety of our passengers and crew is of paramount importance so the passenger was escorted off the aircraft. Bet the flight became that much safer! Sure, the former Prime Minister is an idiot. You didn’t joke about bombs in an airport long before 9-11. Hard to imagine what was going through the guy’s head, this wasn’t funny. But hard to imagine as well that anyone believed he was a threat to have on board the aircraft.
Current Best Mileage Offer for Flowers: 30 United Miles Per Dollar from FTD
Not as good as the offer of 30 miles per dollar plus 1500 miles was, but I do try to keep track of the best mileage offers for flower orders, great for business gifts as well, FYD is offering 30 United miles per dollar at least through Setpember 30, that’s the expiration date listed on the offer I received via email from United but these FTD offer websites usually stay around long past their expiration and continue to work successfully.
US Airways Promo: Up to 100,000 Bonus Miles for Partner Activity
US Airways has brought back their Grand Slam promotion (registration required). Step up to the plate. Get up to 100,000 bonus miles (6,000 of which are Preferred-qualifying miles) with every major-league hit. Get your hits between September 1 and November 14, 2010. They ran this promo in similar form in 2008 and in 2009. You can register now for the promo (and might as well), but activity won’t count until September 1. Activity undertaken by November 14 will count, and that activity must post to your US Airways account by February 25. This year there’s no popping into a Starwood hotel property, having two cokes and running up a $10 tab and having your miles credited directly to US Airways, they’ve implemented a minimum spend for earning credit with Starwood (100 miles minimum to count…
What Will Hyatt’s Fourth Quarter Promotion Be?
Lucky says that Hyatt’s Lake Tahoe property spilled the beans early on its Facebook page, and that we’ll be seeing 10,000 bonus points for every five nights between September 15 and December 15. That’s actually not a bad promotion, just not as generous as their Faster Free Nights (or Big Welcome Back nights, whatever they wish to call it these days) of a free night for every two stays. So a big bonus actually feels like a disappointment. I know I was hoping to stack up on those free nights with check-ins at my local Hyatt airport property during the fourth quarter, but that may not be in the cards. Still, this promo in conjunction with the pending launch of the new Hyatt co-branded credit card will make it pretty easy to rack up Hyatt…
Extreme Behavior at the Hotel Gym
USA Today picks up my post about the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 and the troubles my wife had there with another guest in the gym, and the hotel’s ham-handed handling of the situation. Have you ever gotten into it with another guest at the hotel gym? Perhaps you verbally sparred over treadmill use or received the evil eye when you grabbed the last available elliptical machine before another guest? If so, here’s your chance to vent. The question came up after I read frequent flier Gary Leff’s latest blog post on BoardingArea.com this morning about his lackluster experience at a Fort Lauderdale hotel. During the stay, one hotel guest brought hotel security to the fitness center to speed possession of the hotel’s only working treadmill. When I posted the story about the hotel’s mishandling of…
