One of the few sources of information that I pay for is Joe Brancatelli’s weekly newsletter. (Another worth paying for, that I used to subscribe to, is Holly Hegeman’s Plane Business.) Joe has a column up on his interview with Hyatt Gold Passport’s Jeff Zidell, in which he gets Jeff to concede that Faster Free Nights are no longer something to expect from Hyatt (it’s that tenacity which is why I subscribe to the newsletter..). Zidell explains: “Faster Free Nights doesn’t work anymore in light of the value we offer on an overall basis in Gold Passport now. And now we offer [points] promotions two or three times a year. Faster Free Nights was once a year, at best.” Joe called Faster Free Nights “the greatest promotion in the 32-year history of frequent travel programs.”…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2012.
Bits ‘n Pieces for September 14, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: United is offering a 40% discount on purchases of 30,000 or more miles through September 19th. United made a similar offer in April and in August. To my mind the price is still too high just to bulk up your account, but if you need some miles towards your next international business class award, and you have a reasonable likelihood of redeeming that award in the near-term, it’s the lowest price that United offers to sell miles. US Airways is offering up to 25,000 miles for flying on Star Alliance partners. Registration is required, and if you fly with US Airways and 3 Star Alliance partners by December 15 you get 2500 bonus miles; 4 airlines generates 5000 miles; 5 gets 15,000 miles; 6 produces a 25,000 mile…
Two Upcoming Concerts for Citibank AAdvantage Cardholders
As part of celebrating the Citibank-American AAdvantage co-branded partnership’s 25th anniversary, Citi will be hosting two concerts where tickets will only be available for sale to Citi AAdvantage cardmembers. Monday, Oct. 15, 2012, Alicia Keys at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York (ticket prices $50 – $125) Friday, October 19, 2012, Maroon 5 at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles (ticket prices $75 – $250) Normally I think that these experience offerings are more public relations than actual benefit since there just aren’t that many opportunities, you might call in and they’ll be gone in an instant or don’t even know they existed. When experiential rewards are about redeeming points, they’re almost always a bad idea, although Pizza in Motion seems to have gotten his Starpoints worth out of a Starwood redemption…
100% Bonus on Purchased US Airways Miles Through September 30th
US Airways is offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles through September 30th. On September 3rd they dropped a targeted 100% bonus but they appear to have dropped that restriction. A week and a half ago you had to enter your US Airways Dividend Miles number to verify whether you were eligible for the offer. Now everyone going to the purchase miles page gets the 100% bonus. Another difference from the September 3rd offer, they’ve even fixed the expiration date, that one expired September 31.. As with most of the 100% bonus offers that US Airways runs, you can buy up to 50,000 miles and receive a 50,000 mile bonus. 100,000 miles costs $1881.25 all-in. Accounts must be open at least 12 days in order to buy miles, so even if you don’t have a…
Enter to Fly on Mitt Romney’s Private Jet
Mitt Romney’s campaign is running a contest to fly on his campaign plane. It’s a fundraiser, and they send out a link that suggests a minimum donation to the campaign. But as with such contests, in order to be legal (i.e. in order to not be gambling), there has to be a way to enter for free. So if you want to enter, you can just fill out this short form. Enter by September 25 at 11:59pm Eastern. The prize is: roundtrip coach flights to and from the campaign plane one hotel night one flight segment on the campaign plane ground transportation They estimate the value at $2975, and I bet they’ll send out tax forms on it. Entry is open to US citizens and permianent residents who live in the 50 U.S. states, DC,…
A Few Hours Left to Book Awards on Qatar Using United Miles
Yesterday Qatar award inventory was pulled from the United website, even though the partnership which is ending was supposed to allow award booking with United miles on Qatar through September 14. Already the ability to book awards on Qatar by phone, calling up United, had all but disappeared. Finding a telephone agent who even believed award booking was still permitted on Qatar was a challenge, and finding one who knew it was possible and knew how to do it became almost impossible some time over the summer. Strangely, the ability to book Qatar awards on the website has come back. Here’s an example of Qatar business class, JFK-Doha. It’s unclear when exactly this ability will disappear again. Normally I’m a big fan of putting awards on hold (you can choose to call in your credit…
Bits ‘n Pieces for September 13, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Buy an American Express prepaid gift card with no fee, and free shipping. Go through Big Crumbs to get to the gift card purchase website and earn 1.4% cash back, too. Priority Club’s “stay X, earn Y” bonuses are now out. Register for 3 nights and 5000 points, 7 nights and 10,000 points, or 15 nights and 15,000 points depending on which one you’re confident you’ll hit with your stays. What’s involved in taking delivery of a new aircraft Milepoint.com is giving away a seat on the upcoming Star Mega DO with hotel nights included. My piece at Conde Nast’s Daily Traveler on 5 Tips for Booking Holiday Reward Travel Mommy Points explains ‘double dipping’ through rewards shopping malls: that some merchants allow you to earn points for…
Returning to Le Parker Meridien New York
Le Parker Meridien in New York didn’t participate in Starwood Preferred Guest until December 2008, when it entered the program as a category 6 hotel. In February 2009, with the annual re-categorization of hotels, it dropped to category 5 — making it a great value for points stays in New York. Most of the year it was just 12,000 Starwood points, which considering that New York hotel rates can often be high (and most chains have most of their decent hotels in the top redemption tier or close to it) was a pretty good value. That, and that Starwood’s Platinum members could usually rely on getting a junior suite, made it truly recommendable. Sadly with the February 2012 recategorizations it jumped back up to category 6, most of the year 20,000 points per night, and…
Chip and PIN Vulnerabilities
Last month I explained why I don’t like credit card chip and PIN technology, which are all the rage in Europe and which many consumers in the U.S. are anxious to get their hands on either because it will help them at unmanned kiosks across the Pond or because they’re just so darned cool. Today Bruce Schneier notes the security vulnerabilities. You see, an EMV payment card authenticates itself with a MAC of transaction data, for which the freshly generated component is the unpredictable number (UN). If you can predict it, you can record everything you need from momentary access to a chip card to play it back and impersonate the card at a future date and location. You can as good as clone the chip. It’s called a “pre-play” attack. Just like most vulnerabilities…
Bits ‘n Pieces for September 12, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: New Uber car service members can earn 800 Virgin America Elevate points for signing up. I still prefer using promo code YELPSF to get a $20 ride credit to start with. But, while the website doesn’t make this clear, one may get the 800 points without actually using Uber (at least the offer details just say you need to sign up). So folks who won’t use the service (I do and I love it) may prefer the Virgin America points. Frontier EarlyReturns has cut the cost of a roundtrip domestic award ticket to 20,000 points. Of course, they only raised it from 20,000 to 25,000 back in the summer of 2010. And it used to be 15,000. But I suppose they could use some new use in light…
