The 50% bonus for first-time transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Delta Skymiles (with bonus of 25,000 elite qualifying miles for transferring 50,000 or more) ends today, but they’ve already come out with the next bonus and it’s available to anyone who registers. Transfers of up to 99,999 miles earn a 25% bonus, and transfers of 100,000 miles or more earn a 40% bonus through June 30. My general advice remains, however, don’t be tempted by bonuses, don’t transfer your American Express points without a specific award redemption on the horizon.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for May 2011.
Free Planeside Meet-and-Greet and Fast Track Immigration with Roundtrip Car Transfer in Bangkok
In most cases throughout South Asia, VIP immigration meet-and-greet is available, reasonably priced, and utterly gratuitous. It’s wonderful to have when included free, such as provided by Thai Airways for all of their first class passengers in Bangkok – you’re met at the jetway and escorted (depending on distance, either walked or taken by golf cart) through VIP immigration with no lines, assisted with baggage, and turned over to your driver if one is waiting for you. The first time I experienced this was back in 2006, Thai used to identify first class passengers at Don Muang airport with a card they would give out and since my wife and I were both given a card and I admit I turned back only one, I still have one. It was really need to be taken…
Weekend New Orleans Premium and SUV Car Rentals $15.50 all-in
Posted on Milepoint by AutoSlash: Just came across this great deal for weekend rentals in New Orleans with Hertz for $15.50 total including tax. Seems to work for the weekend of 6/17 and the weekend of 6/24. After clicking through, you can change the dates and times to suit your needs. The best part is that this deal is available for *ANY* car type from economy right up to Luxury, any SUV or Minivan.
Book American AAdvantage Domestic (and Canada) Coach Awards at 30% Off
Via Destination David, it’s the last day of American AAdvantage’s 30 Deals in 30 Days to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the program. And today’s deal is worth mentioning, a 30% discount on coach saver awards within the Continental U.S. and Canada for bookings made by June 10 and travel between September 7 and November 8. That means 17,500 roundtrip for awards that would usually cost 25,000 miles. Registration is not required for this one, mileage discount will apply automatically, whether booking one-way (3750 mile discount) or roundtrip (7500 mile discount).
Who Has the Best Frequent Flyer Award Availability? Why the Media is Silly to Believe the New IdeaWorks Study
Scott McCartney writes about this year’s IdeaWorks study of award inventory, but the underlying work isn’t all that useful and I don’t think Scott does a good job of framing why. Some of Scott’s takeaways are true, others true ‘as far as they go’, and still others quite misleading. Last May Scott covered the study as well. The problems that I identified with the study last year remain. They’re just querying airline websites. As a result you get pretty big disparity between US Airways (‘the worst’) and Continental (‘in the top half’) even though they are dealing with virtually the exact same award availability as Star Alliance carriers. The US Airways website doesn’t show partner availability (yet), the Continental website does. Route selection bias. They handpicked 20 routes per airline, remember these are different routes…
Christopher Elliott Gets It Right — Legislating Federal Tarmac Delay Rules Would Be a Bad Idea
Goodness knows I give Christopher Elliott a hard time about his columns when I think they’re wrong. I gave him a piece of my mind just this past weekend. But he’s got a pretty sensible column in today’s Washington Post, where he explains why it’s a bad idea to write tarmac delay rules into law. A bunch of ostensibly pro-consumer lobbying groups want legislation to address tarmac delays, when regulation has already done so — long tarmac delays were exceedingly rare to begin with, almost nonexistent now, and the costs of rules extracting massive fines for such delays have simply led to more flight cancellations instead (which don’t obviously make consumers better off, to say the least). Oddly, these groups want legislation in absence of a problem and when consumers themselves are hardly up in…
Hawaii Airfare on Sale — $450 and $500 from the East Coast
There’s been a ton of battling back and forth over Hawaii fares the past few weeks, mostly it’s been Delta coming into other airline hubs and dropping price down to the $450 level, for example DC or Chicago through Atlanta to Honolulu. US Airways has gone into Delta hubs and done the same thing. Yesterday Delta dropped Philadelphia – Atlanta – Honolulu down to $450 or so, it’s gone now unfortunately. This morning I woke up to United offering these fares out of its own hubs with fares as low as $518 from the East Coast. Two-day minimum stay, fares are in the G and T buckets, and June/July/August seem to come in about $100 more. But I found Labor Day Weekend from DC for $538. Naturally, I don’t expect the fares to last long,…
Get $25 and a Good Chance of Winning an iPad2 for Joining the Milepoint.com Kiva Lending Team
I previously reported that Milepoint was offering $25 towards your microlending at Kiva.org. Specifically, that the first 200 members to join Milepoint.com’s ‘lending team’ on Kiva would receive $25 for their Kiva account after making $25 in loans. Well, Randy Petersen has upped the ante. If 200 people join during the month of May (and we’re over halfway there), then one person will be drawn at random to win an iPad2. That’s in addition to the $25 that each person will get for their Kiva account. So it’s a roughly one-in-200 chance to win an iPad. From Randy’s email, Called MilepointMonday, it highlights a membership drive among frequent flyers on the milepoint.com website. Their month-of-May membership drive is to recruit 200 new members to their Kiva Lending Team. Kiva.org if you don’t know is a…
Continental Mastercard Double Miles for Online Shopping Ends July 19
Via Milepoint, Continental is eliminating their offer of double miles for shopping through the Onepass portal for customers with the Continental Mastercard. On July 19, 2011, the ShopOnePass Twice the Miles program will be ending. Although you’ll no longer receive double miles on purchases made with your Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit card after the program ends, you will continue to earn valuable miles when you shop at ShopOnePass. I loved double miles for online shopping via the Onepass mall for having the Continental Mastercard, it’s why I kept the card. This benefit was one of the few differences between Chase’s offerings between United and Continental, none of the United cards had this feature. Although in nearly every other case where United and Continental have been different, the two carriers have gone with Continental’s…
Combating Rampant Hotel Towel Theft Through Use of Technology
Via Bruce Schneier, hotel towel theft is a much bigger issue than I had ever imagined, though my impression was based solely on the fact that I don’t ever take hotel towels. (I suppose it was especially irrational to hold this impression after Priority Club held a towel day in 2003.) I would have expected the incidence of towel theft to have dropped now that most travelers pay for checked bags, extra towels in the luggage presumably spill over into a need for more checked bags and thus hardly remain free. Apparently in Nigeria last year someone was sentenced to 3 months in jail for stealing two towels. The hotel that was victimized was a Hilton, not a Priority Club property, the culprit should have waited for the next amnesty and selected hotels more carefully.…
