The winner of the National Car Rental Executive Elite Status Giveaway is commenter #310, Michael Koopman, as drawn by random.org. Mr. Coopman’s comment in the entry thread was a haiku: Executive Aisle Any car awaits your choice Take that, red Avis! As I explained in the entry thread, National’s unique selling proposition is its ‘Emerald Aisle’ where Emerald Club members pick their own car. Emerald Club Executive Elite members get to pick from the ‘Executive Aisle’ which tends to have a greater, broader selection of better cars. And they receive a free rental for every 5 rental credits (valid for any car that’s available). Executive Elite members also get guaranteed reservations with 24 hours notice. And in practice the treatment received is better than the published benefits, or so Executive Elite members tell me. Congratulations,…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for April 2011.
Things I Learned at the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit
Randy Petersen opened things up with a retrospective on changes in frequent flyer programs over the 30 years since the American AAdvantage program launched at the beginning of May 1981. I think I know the ins and the outs of programs pretty well, but I don’t always have the history or context to put changes in programs, and comparisons between what they’re offering now and what the value proposition used to look like, into perspective. Randy did a great job if reminding of the time before capacity controls, of the introduction in expiration of mile sand howe that coincided with triple mileage offers around 1988, thus the ongoing cycle of printing large quantities of miles followed by award chart inflation (not Randy’s analogy, but if you don’t prefer to think in terms of monetary economics,…
Giveaway: National Car Rental Executive Elite Status
As promised last week, I’m giving one lucky blog reader National Car Rental Emerald Executive Elite status. As I mentioned, I have Executive status with National myself (but not ‘Executive Elite’). National’s unique selling proposition is its ‘Emerald Aisle’ where Emerald Club members pick their own car. Just cruise the aisle and pick the one you want from that area of the rental lot, it’s not just about picking the car with the lowest miles or the most prestige on offer but sometimes you want a bigger car for more people or a smaller car for easier parking. It’s much nicer than getting assigned a car you don’t want, and then queueing for a rental counter agent to beg to be switched to something else. Much faster, too. Emerald Club <I?Executive members get to pick…
And the Winner of the Victorinox Bag Is…
The winner of the Victorinox Werks Traveler 4.0 Rollaboard bag contest is commenter #201 (drawn via Random.org). So, Rachel, you’ve won and I have passed your e-mail address along to the folks from National to follow up with you and get details to send you your prize. Thanks everyone for participating, and thanks National for the bag to give away. Next up will be the giveaway for their Executive Elite status…
How Award Tickets on Partner Airlines Get Messed Up, And How You Can Protect Yourself
I helped someone with an award ticket through US Airways. Reservation set up, about an hour total on the phone while the rate desk validated and priced the itinerary, they took the credit card and told me everything went trhough. Miles were deducted but turns out that the credit card didn’t process and the tickets weren’t issued, US Airways never contacted anyone about this. Passenger shows up at the airport, no ticket, can’t fly. (To protect the privacy of the person involved, I’m not going to go into greater detail about what actually happened here, but suffice to say it won’t repeat itself for customers whose credit cards aren’t in the name of a third party living in Asia.) I call US Airways to get it fixed, they tell me they would and I gave…
Your Kung Fu is Strong, But My Flight Attendant’s Dragon Style Will Defeat You!
Hong Kong Airlines says they deal with 3 drunk or unruly passengers a week, and have decided to require that all of their flight attendants learn kung fu in order to handle problems with a vengeance. Here’s how it will work in practice: A flight attendant could use the chi sau (“sticky hands”) technique to prevent a passenger from hitting him. “The idea,” Phillips explains, “is to block and control a person’s arms by linking your arms with theirs.” Next, split the assailant’s arms. Here, the flight attendant raises his left arm, and makes contact with his opponent’s chest, while holding back the arm with his right hand. The flight attendant now traps the assailant’s arms, leaving his right arm free to land a restraining punch. Though, as Phillips points out, “It wouldn’t be a…
The Weirdest Things You Can Do With Your Points, and Why It’s a Bad Idea to Do Them
CNN ran a piece on the “11 Weirdest Ways to Cash in Reward Points” … Get married by Elvis, learn the art of metal embossing, purchase a herd of goats. Hiring an Elvis impersonator cost 16,828 Bank of America Worldpoints. But it would have cost just $168 to hire the guy yourself, your points get you 1 cent in value. The Rock Band Camp cost 385,000 points for a $3000 experience. The $2500 chandelier cost 250,000 Amex points. The weightless flight experience is said to retail for only $5000 and yet cost 702,600 Wells Fargo points to redeem — so that’s just over 7/10ths of a cent per point. The $1395 fighter pilot experience cost 194,200 Wells Fargo points, again just over 7/10ths of a cent per point. The only lesson here seems to be…
Giveaway: Victorinox Werks Traveler 4.0 Rollaboard
A couple of days ago I mentioned that this blog would be carried both in its usual place and over at the National Car Rental Facebook Page as part of their ‘Go Like a Pro’ feature. Since National is a perennial favorite of business travelers for their ‘Emerald Aisle’ (pick your own car offering), it makes sense to bring unfiltered travel advice to their customers through their communications channels, I think it’s what I would do if I were them also, brand myself as the place for savvy travelers period and explain my offerings that way too. They’re not paying me, I do have elite status with National (though they aren’t the only rental car chain with which I have status), and I asked them if they might have a few things I could give…
American Airlines About to Change its Million Miler Qualification Rules, Only Flight Miles to Count Towards Lifetime Status?
For the past year or so there’s been intense speculation that American AAdvantage would change its million-miler program. Historically, there’s has been the easiest to qualify for of any major frequent flyer program. Most airlines count only actual flown miles, or actual flown miles on their own flights and not partners towards lifetime status. American, on the other hand, counted miles earned in an account from all sources. One million American miles earned, no matter from what, is lifetime Gold. Two million American miles earned, no matter from what, is lifetime Platinum. Each million miler threshold earns complimentary upgrades as well, Lifetime Gold gets either 8 domestic 500-mile upgrades or for non-US residents 4 confirmed upgrade instruments used on any American flight. Lifetime Platinum gets four confirmed upgrade instruments used on any American flight regardless…
250 Free Hilton HHonors Points for Liking Hilton Garden Inn on Facebook
The first 80,000 people to ‘Like’ the Hilton Garden Inn Facebook page will receive 250 Hilton HHonors points. Like them, then select “Like Us For Points” on the left hand side of the page, and fill out your information to receive the points. (HT: One Mile at a Time.)
