I attended a Citibank/Hilton event last week at the Conrad New York which unveiled the new Hilton HHonors Reserve Card. It was held at the rooftop bar, directly across from condos where several top stars live and looking out over the river. They were pouring cocktails, but I didn’t see the executives doing the briefings drinking. So I didn’t visit the bar too often, I wanted to have my wits about me since the event gave me the opportunity to sit down with Jeff Diskin, the head of the Hilton HHonors loyalty program, and Ralph Andretta who runs co-branded cards for Citi. Most of my questions didn’t really center around the new credit card product. It more or less speaks for itself. I did ask another Citi executive earlier in the night, “how can you…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for July 2012.
Citibank Introduces Awesome New Hilton HHonors Reserve Card
Monday morning Citibank rolls out a new Hilton co-branded premium Visa credit card, and it looks to be really outstanding. Signup Bonus: 2 free weekend nights after $2500 in spend within four months. These free nights are valid at all Hilton redemption categories including Waldorf Astoria properties. Anniversary Bonus: 1 free weekend night each year after $10,000 in spend. Earning: 10 HHonors points per dollar on Hilton spend, 5 points per dollar on air and car rental, and 3 on everything else. Elite status: Instant Hilton Gold status which you retain as long as you have the card and Diamond status after $40,000 in annual spend. No foreign currency transaction fees. Annual fee: $95 I have the Hilton American Express Surpass card, largely because $40,000 in send on that card earns Diamond status. You can…
US Airways to Stop Interlining Baggage on Separate Tickets
Reader Lane E. passes on a new US Airways baggage policy that I do not like one bit. As a result of a new mandate by the Department of Transportation, US Airways has made the following change (effective 8/1/12) to the interline baggage check procedures: Interline through baggage check discontinued Effective July 24, the DOT has mandated new baggage rules requiring that airline passengers must pay the same published baggage fees[1] and have the same allowances for their entire itinerary. As a result of this new policy, effective August 1, 2012 US Airways will no longer be through checking passengers’ bags when they have been ticketed on separate tickets. For interline itineraries where the passenger has his/her entire journey on one ticket, we will continue our practice as it is done today, but when the…
A JetBlue Trip Report!
The last time I flew JetBlue was March 2002, from Washington Dulles to Ft. Lauderdale. They were the cheapest option by far, they had to be, it was the only way at the time I would have booked away from United Airlines. JetBlue has had a decent presence at Washington Dulles over the years, and I fly out of there when I have to, but I live near National so avoid Dulles as one of the more horrendous facilities in the country whenever I can. Of course, JetBlue began flying to National airport in November 2010. But I hadn’t had occasion to fly them until now, largely because I’m a creature irrationally driven by loyalty and first class upgrades. But I had to fly to Boston, and JetBlue’s flights were by far the cheapest for…
Losing My Situational Awareness.. at the Gate
I usually pride myself on how well I travel, soup to nuts, from booking to sailing through the airport and handling irregular ops. I sweet talk hotel check-in agents for upgrades, game my flights to maximize upgrade changes, and generally maintain strong situational awareness. I love reading Lucky’s blog because it seems like he’s sharing a stupid move he’s made on almost every trip. It makes him a far more entertaining read, I think, than I’ll ever be. I tend towards a far more analytical approach which best suits my personality. But sometimes I do something stupid. Or come off like a total newbie traveler. Like this past Thursday. I was flying up to New York and I was looking at a short delay. I sat down near my gate, at National airport’s round tables…
The Best and Worst Features of American Airlines
Now that I’ve flown enough to re-qualify for American’s Executive Platinum status for next year, I figure I’m in a position to express an opinion on my biggest likes and dislikes about the airline and its AAdvantage frequent flyer program. There Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Gogo inflight internet. Delta has this too, and with even somewhat better fleet penetration. But compared to United and US Airways it’s incredible. Inflight internet has changed my life. I’d unplug on the flight and be desperately behind when I landed, with urgent messages to answer and calls to return. My flight time is now much more productive time. It’s why even the laggard carriers are getting on board with internet — not because usage fees will cover the costs of installation, but because it’s so crucial…
How the Department of Transportation Views United’s 4 Mile Hong Kong Award Tickets
This is totally in the weeds and the sort of thing that will be interesting to a small subset of my readers, but here’s a response to a Department of Transportation complaint that was shared with me. Note that I did not file such a complaint, but I do find the response interesting nonetheless, in so far as it sheds light on current DOT thinking about mistake fares and the interpretation of their current regulations which require airlines to honor tickets that they sell without raising the price of those tickets after the fact in most circumstances. Passed along without further comment: This is in regard to your complaint against United Airlines (UAL) about certain Mileage Plus Award tickets to, from, or via Hong Kong that could be acquired on UAL’s website between July 14…
JetBlue Introduces Animal Farm Elite Status
Via Wandering Aramean come the details of the elite status program that JetBlue will be introducing. It’s called Mosaic, and they don’t want you to call it an elite level. While other airlines categorize their Customers, we’ve always steered clear of items that feel elitist or exclusive, and this strategy has helped carve our name in the industry. Status is earned based on straight spending in a calendar year, or flight segments and spending. And it offers benefits much like an elite program would. But they won’t refer to it as an elite program, since all of their customers are equal. All passengers are equal it seems, although some will become more equal that others. As readers know I’m a big proponent of loyalty and long-term value propositions. The ‘some are more equal than others’…
The Final Word on the 4-Mile United Award Tickets To and Through Hong Kong
United (and I would imagine collaboratively with the Department of Transportation) have come up with an interesting solution. They will allow anyone with travel commencing by July 21 to fly. They will allow anyone who had the ‘usual’ number of miles deducted from their account to cancel for a full refund without penalty. They are cancelling all reservations that were booked without the full normal mileage cost deducted where travel begins after July 21. The DOT has to stand by its regulations, which forbid cancelling tickets and raising price after ticketing under most circumstances. The DOT has now even said their rules apply to frequent flyer award tickets. And yet it wasn’t really something that United owed its customers, to fly them in many cases in last seat inventory and in first class to Hong…
When You Purchase a United Award Ticket, That Doesn’t Mean You Actually HAVE a Ticket
(And this rule applies even when the ticket is being issued at the full, correct mileage cost…!) I booked an award for a co-worker the other day that involved Qatar Airways. As I noted recently, it’s become increasingly difficult to use United miles to book awards on Qatar even though the partnership (which is ending) allows making bookings through September 14. Availability shows up on the website. But over the phone agents seem not to be able to find award space most of the time, and when pressed insist that Qatar is no longer a partner. That means you almost always have to book Qatar space on the website. But the website sometimes spits up when trying to make perfectly valid bookings. In this case I was looking for DC – Doha, Doha – Colombo,…
