Turning the mic to Frugal Asian Man: Hilton DoubleTree is running a special promotion with Topguest where if you sync your Hilton HHonors number on their page at http://doubletree.topguest.com, you will receive 500 Hilton HHonors points for free. This offer is available to only the first 40,000 Hilton HHonors users who sync. From my understanding, you do not need to be a member/user of Topguest to use this promo. However, it does seem that if you have had your Topguest account suspended before (and you had synced your Hilton HHonors #), you will not be able to participate in this promotion.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2012.
Swiss Cancelling Myanmar First Class Mistake Fare Tickets
Last week I posted about a fare from Yangon, Myanmar to Eastern Canada … less than $600 for international three-cabin first class. The example of the fare that I gave was flying to Tokyo then Zurich then New York and on to Montreal, with Tokyo – Zurich – New York in Swiss First Class. The fare went viral, my post began a thread at Flyertalk (it was already being discussed on Milepoint). The morning after I posted this, I got an email from an executive at Swiss… May we ask you please where you received this information on behalf of SWISS from? A full week later, Swiss is cancelling folks who are flying that airline under the fare and whose tickets were issued as Swiss tickets (first 3 numbers of the tickets are “724”). Subject:…
I Used to Love this Joke When I Was in High School (Unsurprisingly, Spirit Airlines Edition)
Apparently the winner of last night’s debates wasn’t Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. It was… Spirit Airlines. They’ve been “winning the debate between high fares and low fares for years.” They are… Here’s their entire thirteen year old boy marketing copy (emphasis mine): We’ve been winning the debate between high fares and low fares for years – you could even say we are master debaters in this area. You see, high fares really rub us the wrong way, so we continue to fight to lower your fares every day. So stop getting jerked around, and enjoy these fares from only $29.80* when you travel from October 11, 2012 through November 15, 2012. All flights must be booked by 11:59 PM ET on October 5, 2012. Hurry, these fares are limited in availability! This was a…
Did Hilton HHonors Steal My Snack? Website Shows Elite Benefit Reductions for Diamonds
Hilton HHonors Diamond benefits are showing up differently on the Hilton website. Now, it’s possible that somehow old or mistaken text was used when the whole Hilton website recently got a refresh. In fact, the benefits page is different than what I see when I log into my account and go under preferences to hotel benefits — I still see many of the old offerings. So there’s a conflict on the website. But the wording on the Diamond benefits page isn’t just the old language. There is at least one change that appears in both places. So at least something appears to have really changed. And it doesn’t help that Hilton’s history is to make changes without trumpeting them or otherwise giving notice, in fact in June Jeff Diskin who runs the program told me…
Bits ‘n Pieces for October 4, 2012
News and notes from around the interweb: Wendy Perrin shares my comparison and contrast of the Chase Sapphire Preferred and JP Morgan Select cards. Delta Points offers an April Fools’ post in October. Jay Leno included Spirit and American in his monologue last night. New Girl in the Air: Miles for furniture? When I first got into this game, you could earn miles for giving blood.. Frequent Miler explains earning miles at campus Barnes & Noble bookstores with American Express prepaid cards. Too much of a hassle, even for him.
Reminder: Win a Free Trip on Star MegaDO 4
Through October 7 you can enter here on this blog for a chance to win a seat on the Star Mega DO 4 charter flight, with hotel nights and cash for expenses thrown in. Other BoardingArea blogs are also giving away a chance to win as well, you can enter once at each blog. (Thanks to Live from a Lounge for compiling this list.) DealsWeLike Delta Points Flying With Fish Frequent Miler Ghetto IFE Hack My Trip Just Another Points Traveller Live from a Lounge Loyalty Traveler Marshal Jackson on Travel Miles From Blighty Mommy Points New Girl in the Air One Mile at a Time Pearls of Travel Wisdom Point Me to the Plane Points Miles & Martinis Rapid Travel Chai Road Warriorrette The Sceptical Traveler Unroadwarrior Wandering Aramean Good luck!
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Still the Best All-Around Most Rewarding Credit Card
Key Link: Chase Sapphire Preferred There are three key value propositions for a credit card. Signup bonus (how much will they give you upfront for getting the card) How value is the earning for your ongoing spend (do you actually want to put spending on the card once you’ve earned the bonus) Benefits of having the card And the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is top of wallet for the first two of those criteria — one of the very best signup bonuses, 40,000 points after $3000 in spending within 3 months, and that’s an exceptionally good offer because their points are among the two best currencies of any loyalty program, and double points earning in that most valuable of programs on all travel and dining spending, Visa acceptance, and no foreign currency transaction fees. The…
View from the Wing Goes Political Again! (For a Chance at a Free JetBlue International Flight)
JetBlue has a new offer, “Live Free or Fly!” where they will give you a chance for a free international ticket if your preferred candidate for President loses. That way, you can “mak[e] good on an Election Protection promise: the chance..to freely leave the country (and return home!) if [you] need a break because [your] candidate doesn’t win.” You register your preferred candidate and destination in advance, and then: JetBlue will give away 1,006 roundtrip certificates to participants whose candidate lost. Tickets are good for roundtrip travel from any airport JetBlue services to 21 international, nonstop destinations including Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, St. Maarten, St. Lucia and Turks & Caicos. And of course they promote their LiveTV offering (but not internet yet…) by saying you can…
500 Free Aeroplan Points for Joining Coast Rewards
Coast Hotels is offering triple Aeroplan points on stays at their hotel chain through the end of the year. And as part of the offer they are also giving 500 free Aeroplan points just for signing up for the program, no stays required. Coast Hotels also partners with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan so perhaps we’ll see something similar on the Alaska side. The signup bonus applies to new members of the program only, of course. (HT: Milepoint)
Putting American’s Operational Challenges in Perspective and a Glimmer of Hope We’ll See Quick Improvement
In the Philadelphia Inquirer I try to put the recent sensational headlines about American Airlines in a bit of perspective. Gary Leff, author of the ViewFromTheWing.com blog, said he planned to fly to Chicago on Thursday on American and was largely unconcerned about the problems. “It’s beat-up-on-American week,” Leff said. “There are a variety of minor inconveniences – that’s what we’re facing at the moment. No doubt this will pass. They’re still operating 95 percent of their flights every day.” Leff praised American’s response to delays and cancellations, especially its willingness to go beyond requirements and put passengers on competing carriers for delays of two hours or more, or one hour for elite-status fliers. “They’re bending over backward,” he said. Leff and others said one side-effect of the dispute was that airline workers were overzealously…
