JohnnyJet was an internet travel superstar before there was any such thing, he started a website that was a collection of links, everything you’d find online about travel, and grew it from there including television specials. He has a series where he interviews famous (Peter Greenberg, Pauline Frommer) and ‘almost famous’ travelers. And I’m really humbled to be the latest of his ‘Travel Style’ interviews, though I don’t quite fit the almost famous category even. You can read about my favorite US city, my favorite World Heritage site, favorite restaurants both fancy and hole in the wall, my favorite airports, what I carry on, and what I’m reading now. As well as my favorite travel websites. And he gave me the chance to boil my travel advice down to a single tip, so I offered…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for June 2012.
50% Off Accor Hotel Properties
Usually when I see hotel sales, discounts are off of rack rate which means that they usually aren’t discounted relative to the best rate you’d normally get. And the sales usually are prepaid/non-changeable and certainly aren’t discounted much relative to otherwise-available prepaid rates. There may be 10% or so savings but the hype is much greater. One exception to this rule is the semi-regular Accor hotels sales. They’re running their 50% off sale through June 22nd, prepaid room nights for stays July 6 through September 2. The 50% off sale is for Leclub Accorhotels members only (of course, if you’re going to stay at one of their properties you should be joining their loyalty program anyway), non-members only get 40% off. The discount “applies to the public rate at the time of booking” and appears…
Ebay for Upgrades – an Airline Starts Auctioning Off Upgrade Seats
Upgrades aren’t just for elites anymore (or, on US airlines in premium cabins, for employees). For several years US domestic carriers have offered buyups at the airport. With unlimited complimentary upgrades it might have been rare for a general member to receive a buy up offer, though on some routes they’re quite common such as the US Airways ‘shuttle’ in the Northeast corridor. United has been perhaps the most aggressive with buyup offers to first class. They offer two kinds of upgrades — offers to allow customers to pay the difference between their fare and a coach fare with confirmed upgrade without paying a change fee, and inexpensive options that are supposed to only be made when all elites on the upgrade list are expected to be cleared. This latter has become known as “Tens…
A Pedestrian Trip, the Marriott Boca Raton
One of my frequent destinations is Boca Raton, Florida. Unfortunately there’s no Hyatt nearby. There’s no Starwood, either. And other than the Boca Raton Resort & Club, there’s nothing in town that purports to be especially nice. I’ve schlepped from the Hyatt Pier 66 when I’ve had competing reasons to be closer to Ft. Lauderdale along with trips up to Boca on multiple occasions, and my old go to used to be the Westin Diplomat for these trips but I’ve tired of 45 minute drives each way when I can stay mere blocks from where I need to be. Naturally to the North there are plenty of nice properties in Palm Beach. But you do have to go to Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach to broaden out options for a ncie hotel. Starting in July…
Is ExpertFlyer.com the Right Tool for You?
Expertflyer review: Expert Flyer is a collection of tools for the frequent flyer, some of which duplicate offerings found elsewhere and some of which are really unique and that I find absolutely worth paying for. They offer a 5-day free trial, otherwise it’s $5 (for limited access) or $10 (for unlimited access) a month, the $10 a month plan can be purchased for $100 a year. There’s also a free account that allows you to access only “seat alerts,” which I’ll describe below. The site offers the ability to search for award and upgrade seats on some airlines, plus flight availability similar to FlightStats.com but that doesn’t exclude American Airlines, flight status, seat maps, fare rules (including “maximum permitted mileage” for a route), and the ability to set up e-mail alerts for seats to open…
Bits ‘n Pieces for June 9, 2012
Here’s what’s going on: Frequent Miler gives a lot of good reasons to make Kiva loans (and by the way you can use them to meet minimum spend requirements on a mileage-earning credit card, withdrawing the funds when the loans are paid back), and also explains how to make a $25 loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world that won’t cost you a thing. Mommy Points asks you to do this as well, and to smile. Deals We Like is on board, too. This one is becoming an avalanche, you’re gonna need to join all the cool kids, c’mon and make this happen… The Points Guy flags a bonus for signing up for Delta’s business program, SkyBonus – register and take a qualifying flight by August 7 for 25,000 SkyBonus points. I wrote about…
Easy LIFETIME Star Alliance Gold Status
Aegean Star Alliance Gold is Easy and for Life: Last week I posted that I had received a status match with Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles. I wanted Gold status a new non-U.S. Star Alliance program now that my beloved british midland was gobbled up by British Airways (oh, don’t cry for me, that gets me British Airways Gold status for 22 months — and access to American’s Flagship Lounges even when flying domestically). Turkish has an interesting program, their status lasts for two years, and I just need 37,500 qualifying miles in that time to requalify (and I can even buy up to 10,000 of those miles). So I thought I was done. Then I read on Milepoint that Aegean was offering status matches to british midland elite members. They’re the Greek airline that joined Star…
15 Minutes of Free Internet Through Labor Day on Alaska Airlines Flights
Via NotiFlyer, Alaska is offering 15 minutes of free Gogo internet. Passengers on Alaska Airlines can access Gogo for free for 15 minutes on Alaska Airlines through Sept. 3, 2012. The offer is valid on flights within and between the West Coast and Alaska. Just like that darned drug dealer standing on the corner by the elementary school. Fifteen free minutes of internet crack and you’ll be hooked. You’ll want to send your response to the email you just downloaded. Or finish watching that clip of South Park parodying What What in the Butt (which the Seventh Circuit just affirmed was fair use and not a copyright infringement). Of course you can turn down the offer to pay for Gogo internet, and just get hooked on the Milepoint.com frequent flyer community which you can access…
A FlightStats.com Primer: How to Access Airline Fare Class Availability for Free
The FlightStats.com website is a really useful tool — not just for tracking flights, to see whether they’re on time, and looking up historical flight reliability data (which is how most savvy fliers use it) but also to look up availability of seats on specific flights, including availability by specific “fare classes” which are the letter codes of the different buckets of inventory that airlines use. That may not seem like something that matters to you, but it’s incredibly useful! Here are some examples of how you can use the information. For awards: Say that you have Delta miles and want to know whether Saudi Arabian has business class award space from New York JFK to Riyadh. Or you have Chase Sapphire Preferred points and want to know whether it makes sense to transfer those…
American and Air Tahiti Nui to Introduce Codesharing
American will be codesharing with Air Tahiti Nui on the Los Angeles – Papeete route. You can already redeem American miles for Air Tahiti Nui award travel, and used to be able to earn American miles flying Air Tahiti Nui but that option was eliminated in 2009. Now, flying American’s codeshare, you’ll have the opportunity to earn both redeemable and elite qualifying miles on travel from the US to French Polynesia. Nice! Currently the only way to earn miles flying from the US to French Polynesia – other than crediting Air Tahiti Nui flights to Club Tiare – is to fly Air France Los Angeles – Papeete (3 times weekly service) or Hawaiian Airlines Honolulu – Papeete (Saturday service). For most, paid travel to French Polynesia was simply a miles opportunity wasted. I was fortunate…
