Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for October 2010.

Starwood Accelerated Elite Status for Aloft, Element, and Four Points Nights/Stays

Through the end of the year, nights at Starwood’s Aloft, Element, and Four Points hotels count double towards elite status. And if you aren’t already Gold, four stays at those same brands by January 31 will get you that (of course four one-night stays by December 31 will get you eight nights under the first promo, and Gold only takes 10 nights in the first place). Both promotions require registration.

Continue Reading »

100 Free Continental Miles, or Onepass Finally Fixes the Terms and Conditions on its Minor Free Miles Offers

Free Frequent Flyer Miles posts a link to an offer of 100 free Continental Airlines miles. 100 easy Continental Airlines miles, apparently for letting them know that you read about earning miles by paying your bills automatically via the airline’s credit and debit cards. What’s most interesting to me is this — there have long been reports that many of these offers are specific to things that someone with a co-branded Continental Airlines credit card might take advantage of, but the terms and conditions of the offers never said anything about requiring such a card in order to receive the bonus miles. There have been reports of folks not getting the miles, usually folks who don’t have the card. I’ve never known it personally, I do have their card, one of the nice benefits I…

Continue Reading »

Amtrak Double Points and 10,000 Bonus Points for 10 One-way Trips Through December 14

Amtrak’s new website has launched, it’s been an annoying couple of days unable to check balances or redeem points. But they’ve brought it back with a new bonus, “Take Ten”. (registration required.) 10 trips = 10,000 bonus points. Plus, double points along the way. Take Ten-the celebration starts on Friday, October 1, 2010. It’s the ten-year anniversary of Amtrak Guest Rewards, and we’re celebrating our members with more ways to better serve you, including an improved program, extended service center hours, a better online experience, mobile site, and the new Take Ten promotion. Earn with Take Ten from 10/1/10 through 12/14/10 – 10,000 bonus points when you Take Ten trips – Double points on all Amtrak® travel – Plus, the points you already earn for Amtrak travel So we get double points on everything through…

Continue Reading »

British Airways to Offer Full Mileage Earning on Discount Fares, Increased Elite Tier Earning on Discount Fares, and Increased Silver Elite Bonuses

Yesterday I wrote about the American Airlines side of mileage changes with the American-British Airways-Iberia joint business venture. The changes to British Airways Executive Club are as expected: British Airways Executive Club members can now earn and redeem miles and earn Tier Points on all American Airlines flights. But here’s the kicker. In lining up more with American Airlines mileage earning, (1) Elite mileage earning increases for BA Silvers. They’ll earn a 100% bonus instead of a 25% bonus. BA Silver is considered the equivalent of American Airlines Platinum, and so they’ve upped the mileage bonuses to match American’s offering. (2) Flying discount coach now earns full redeemable miles, whereas it used to earn as little as 25%. (3) Flying discount coach also earns 50% elite tier points, up from 25%. This is a huge…

Continue Reading »

American AAdvantage Members Can Now Earn and Redeem Miles for British Airways Transatlantic, and Upgrade on BA and Iberia

As noted a week ago, British Airways, Iberia, and American have been working on reciprocal upgrades. They’ve done more than just introduce upgrades as part of their joint business venture, however. I said that they needed to introduce better redemption as well, and they did. Effective today, American AAdvantage allows members to earn and redeem miles for flights on British Airways between the US and London. Previously this was excluded from the program, and we always had to use the workaround of flying from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean if we wanted to use BA as part of an American AAdvantage award transatlantic. Less than the mileage earning, I’m interested in the redemption side of things. And BA award availability is really quite amazing from most US gateways, especially in first class (business class can…

Continue Reading »

This Week Around Boarding Area (or Things I Was Too Lazy to Blog Myself)

Lucky points out that Red Carpet Clubs will start offering free drinks today, now that Continental and United have merged. This was a foregone conclusion when American caved, and something I predicted last year when US Airways introduced free alcohol (though not in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh due to local liquor laws, and not in Boston due to lack of a liquor license, hah!). He also notes that the United clubs will offer free wi-fi to everyone with access, not just members, which is great for those of us who gain admittance through Star Alliance partner airline status. Lucky also notes that All Nippon’s award chart will get rid of the lower mileage award pricing for distances under 1600 miles roundtrip beginning in April, 2011. Everything else about their award chart remains the same, though it…

Continue Reading »

Wyndham Rewards Visa as a Good ‘Backup’ Card for Light Spenders to Use Where Amex Isn’t Accepted

Earlier in the week I was answering questions about why the Wyndham Rewards Visa wasn’t nominated in this year’s Frequent traveler awards. And the only reason is that it’s a new card in the summer of 2010, and the awards are based on offerings available in 2009. But I admit, it’s the first time I gave the card a look, and so it’s an interesting coincidence that Loyalty Traveler analyzes the card this week. It’s a no fee visa that could be useful even for folks without an interest in points in the Wyndham Rewards program, because their points conversion to airline miles is fairly reasonable. For the most part you earn 2 points per dollar spent and 2.5 points transfer to an airline mile — so you’re earning 0.8 miles per dollar. Ok, not…

Continue Reading »