Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for March 2011.

Free Instant bmi Silver Status (free checked bags on United, Continental, and US Airways)

Via Dan’s Deals bmi Diamond Club is offering instant Silver status for new members. That gets you Star Alliance silver, so free checked baggage on United, Continental, and US Airways, and some priority services. Status lasts 12 months from signup. Get in one this one right away if you do not already have status with a Star Alliance airline. And of course if you don’t want to actually credit your miles to bmi Diamond Club (though it’s great for both really short-haul flights and for paid premium cabin flights), you can check in with the bmi Silver number in the reservation to get free checked bags and then switch your frequent flyer number at the gate.

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Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore

This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn” Past installments:Prologue: The decision-making and booking process Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite In and Around Singapore One of the best meals I’ve ever enjoyed was at Tetsuya’s in Sydney several years ago. So when we heard that Tetsuya had opened a second restaurant, at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, we decided we wanted to give it a try on our visit. The restaurant does two seatings per evening, 6pm…

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Details on Frequent Traveler University April 29-30 at the Sheraton LaGuardia

A bunch of great people are giving their time to put on an excellent day-long educational event on how to earn the most miles, how to get the most out of your miles, and how to travel as comfortably as possible… I think the marketing folks described it as “Learn to live like a jet-setter without having to pay for it — by attending Frequent Traveler University, where the best of the best will impart their experiences, recommendations and tips to you.” Or something like that. Frequent Traveler University will be held at the Sheraton LaGuardia East in Flushing, New York. It begins with a cocktail reception on Friday, April 29 and educational sessions will be held throughout the day on April 30. Confirmed speakers include: • Randy Petersen • gleff • beaubo • lucky9876coins…

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What Do You Actually Have to Do to Get Capital One to Give You the 100,000 Point Matching Bonus?

[Offer currently unavailable.] Last night the story broke on Milepoint about Capital One offering a 100,000 mile ‘matching’ bonus for signing up for the Venture Card — they’ll match up to 100,000 miles from one of your frequent flyer accounts as a signup bonus (after spending $1000 on the card within three months) in addition to the normal 10,000 point bonus. I did describe the points as being worth $1100 in airfare, and their reps pinged me to point out that they’re redeemable towards travel generally and not just airfare. Fair enough. But the question that everyone keeps asking is whether or not they have to have earned 100,000 miles from credit card spend in order to have their miles ‘matched’ by Capital One. I said pretty clearly from my read of the terms and…

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Meet the Heads of Several Frequent Flyer Programs over Lunch on April 29 in New York

Details of the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit have been announced. The world’s oldest, as well as the first ever frequent flyer program AAdvantage®, the program that started it all, turns 30 on May 1st this year. The mileage Guru himself, Randy Petersen invites you to celebrate 30 years of miles and points. We will take a look back — and towards the future. The leaders in the loyalty industry will join Randy, including Maya Leibman, President of AAdvantage Jeff Foland, President of United Mileage Plus Jeff Zidell, Vice President of Hyatt Gold Passport And more guests to be confirmed! What to expect Randy will take you for a ride through the highlights of the last 30 years of miles and points Each of his guests will have a 15 minute presentation and after, there…

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The World’s First 110,000 Mile Credit Card Signup Bonus

[Offer currently unavailable.] Details in this Milepoint thread. Capital One offers a 10,000 ‘mile’ signup bonus for their Venture Card. But they’ve added a huge kicker — they will match up to 100,000 miles you currently have in another program. So if you have an account with one of several airlines that has 100,000 miles in it, when you spend $1000 on their Capital One Venture card within 3 months they’ll give you the usual 10,000 miles plus 100,000 miles. Since it’s a ‘match’ they’ll give you whatever your current balance is, even if it’s less than 100,000 miles of course. Now, Capital One “miles” are really just credits towards the purchase of airfare, a point is worth a penny’s worth of travel. I don’t really like this for my regular credit card spend. They…

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Combine Miles and Elite Qualifying Acitivity Between United and Continental Mileage Accounts

United and Continental will now let you move miles back and forth between your own accounts in the two frequent flyer programs. This is great to combine balances towards an award. It also means that effectively, Starnet blocking is dead, at least until the programs are actually combined. Because unless they’ve imported the architecture to do it over onto the Continental Onepass side, you could always just move your United miles over to Continental to book an award ticket. So at least for those in the know, if not for everyone, we’ve got full access to Star Alliance partner award inventory with United miles through the end of the year. You can transfer miles once per 24 hours, in 1000 mile increments and up to 200,000 miles per transaction. You can also combine your account…

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Hyatt’s Second Quarter Promo is Out!

It’s not Faster Free Nights, it’s more like the promo from end of 2010, The Great 10k. Between April 1 and June 30, members earn 10,000 Gold Passport points after their first five nights, and then 5000 points for each additional two nights. A maximum of 60,000 bonus points for 25 nights can be earned under the promo. Registration will be required, I’ll update this post when I come across the link. Update: The registration website (goldpassport.com/possibilities) won’t be live until March 31.

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