In a story about Flyertalk and Milepoint.com frequent flyer communities, Greg Lindsay regales of many great mileage accumulation schemes in the May/June issue of Executive Traveler. Now, every frequent flyer story should begin… Steve Belkin was in trouble with the law. It was 2001, and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wanted to know why he’d hired 20 Thai farmers to fly four times a day, every day, for six weeks straight between the cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, only 80 miles apart in the infamous Golden Triangle, a hotbed for heroin smuggling. Sufficiently scared, Belkin showed them his spreadsheet—it was all part of a plan, he explained, to earn five million frequent-flier miles. For only $8 per round trip, his employees were racking up miles he then processed legally through Air…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for May 2011.
Over 225 Have Signed up for the Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminar October 29-30
Rick Ingersoll emails to let me know that 225 people have registered for the Chicago frequent flyer seminar that’s being held October 29 and 30 at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove Village (same location as last year, where the entire hotel was dedicated to the event for the weekend). The host hotel is completely sold out, but rooms are still available at the overflow hotel, the Holiday Inn and Suites O’Hare/Rosemont. Full details are in this discussion thread on Milepoint and registration is here. The event is sponsored by AwardWallet, Electric Wombats, ExpertFlyer, Milepoint, and ITASoftware. Costs are $75 per person which includes lunch on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be giving a talk on frequent flyer award booking, hHow to identify the best value uses of your points, find award seats, and navigate the call…
Trying Out the OTHER Andaz in New York, Wall Street
My regular hotel in New York has become the Andaz 5th Avenue but this past weekend I stayed at the Andaz Wall Street for the first time, in part because I’ve really wanted to try it out to experience the difference since so many Diamond members rave about it, and in part because the 5th Avenue property was pricing quite high and I didn’t want to burn the requisite points for that room. The Wall Street Andaz is frequently favored because they treat Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members well with room upgrades. At the 5th Avenue Andaz I’ve been fortunate to either be in an XL King View room or using a confirmed suite upgrade, many members report that the 5th Avenue property is fairly tight-fisted with upgrades but that the Wall Street property is…
Milepoint.com Offering $25 Towards Your Microlending at Kiva.org
Several Milepoint.com members got together and decided that as a group they wanted to get involved in microlending through Kiva.org. Kiva is a site that lets people lend directly to individuals in developing nations who are looking for funds to start businesses, to expand, to use funds for expenses that will allow them to continue to work productively, and effectively improve their lives. Kiva lets members ‘join teams’ and work together on their loans, encouraging each other and even competing with other teams to do the most to improve the lives of the people who are benefiting from the site. The Milepoint team is already one of the world’s most active and fastest growing. As a frequent flyer community it makes sense to get involved in the betterment of the local communities we visit in…
EU Considering an End to Passport Free Travel Regime
Via Marginal Revolution, a somewhat sensationalist account of European moves to end the Schengen passport-free travel regime. I believe that this would be a reversal of one of the truly great accomplishments of the past 50 years. European nations moved to reverse decades of unfettered travel across the continent when a majority of EU governments agreed the need to reinstate national passport controls amid fears of a flood of immigrants fleeing the upheaval in north Africa. In a serious blow to one of the cornerstones of a united, integrated Europe, EU interior ministers embarked on a radical revision of the passport-free travel regime known as the Schengen system to allow the 26 participating governments to restore border controls. … The policy shift was pushed by France and Italy, who have been feuding and panicking in…
Overwater Bungalows and the Best Value Aspirational Properties
Yesterday CNN.com ran a piece on overwater bungalows that led off with my stay at Bora Bora Nui, then a Starwood property and the newest on Bora Bora and now a Hilton property and one of the very best award redemption values out there. (A basic-level room redemption won’t get you the overwater bungalow but will get you a suite-size bungalow, and plenty of people get status upgrades or buy ups to overwater. Plus I’d expect Hilton’s new premium room redemption offerings to spread here and allow for overwater redemptions, though those are likely to be a less great value.) For many, Bora Bora represents the utmost in aspirational redemptions. The story’s author told me that Bora Bora Nui is now her screensaver. And indeed, it was absolutely stunning. As regular readers of this blog…
Aeroplan Ends 500 Mile Minimums
Via the MilesLink newsletter, Air Canada’s Aeroplan is ending 500 mile minimums for mileage earning on short flights, going to a 250 mile minimum, effective August 1. And of course, since actually flying Air Canada on discount fares doesn’t offer full mileage earning, flying a ‘Tango fare’ on a flight less than 250 miles will only earn 63 miles (25% of 250 minimum). Ouch. Try crediting that flight to british midland instead for 600 mile minimums. Aeroplan’s impending gutting of their award chart isn’t the only negative change on the horizon…
Are There Airport Restaurants Worth Flying To?
Airfare Watchdog has a post on the ‘top 10 restaurants worth flying for’. Now, there are plenty of restaurants worth flying for, at least I think so, I’ve written up my meals at El Bulli and the Fat Duck where those establishments were actually the point of the trip (as opposed to just an enjoyable meal I had along the way, such as this one). But I’ve never actually come across an airport restaurant that was worth flying to just to eat there. There are perfectly pleasant places in airports of course, and you wouldn’t be surprised to find that I think many airports themselves are perfectly pleasant places. Though there are of course many, many dumps … Chicago Midway, the A terminal ‘banjo’ at Washington National, St. Croix, the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX,…
Park Hyatt Aviara: Some of the Best Hotel Service in the United States
I spent last weekend at the Park Hyatt Aviara, a former Four Seasons property, and I was really excited to be there. The story as I understand it is that the ownership didn’t want to make the sort of capital investments necessary to maintain it as a Four Seasons given general economic conditions so they had a parting of the ways with their former flag and hence the re-branding. I tend to think of Park Hyatt as a modern brand, and Aviara was a Four Seasons in the ‘old school’ model, so other than the signage the place doesn’t really fit my mental model of a Park Hyatt. But what did strike me more than anything other than the old fashioned furniture and draperies was the service. Every single person that I encountered at the…
100,000 Miles for a New Citibank American Airlines Credit Card
Over the weekend I received an email from Citibank telling me that existing American Airlines co-branded cardholders would receive 1000 miles for registering for the promo this morning as part of American’s 30 Deals in 30 Days to celebrate 30 years of their frequent flyer program. So I blogged it and set it to be published early this morning, no sense posting the offer before it was live when it was about to go live, I figured folks would read it and register rather than having to remember to do it later. Well, the offer today is actually a signup bonus for new cardholders and the 1000 miles for current cardholders appears to be more of a consolation prize. Today’s card signup offer is: First time Citi® / AAdvantage® credit cardmembers can earn 30,000 AAdvantage…
