Barclay’s Bin wine sale site will give you 100 Amtrak Guest Rewards points for signing up. All that’s required is a name, email address, Amtrak account number, and making up a password. They give you $10 towards your first purchase as well, but no purchase is required for the points. (HT: Dan M.)
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for December 2012.
In Which I Give Delta Something of a Pass for its Lack of Award Availability on Air France
In mid-September Air France transatlantic business class award space mostly evaporated. And what did exist wasn’t bookable with Delta Skymiles, even though those Delta is a Skyteam partner of Air France. I initially tried to parse who was responsible, something that’s a big deal because historically Air France business class availability has been really good — and Delta has had access to whatever Air France made available to its own members. It became a great outlet for burning Skymiles, which are in most cases tougher to use and worth less than miles with US Airways, United, and American. I speculated that Delta was to blame, in part because they had withdrawn access to Air France inventory in the past when they decided it was costing their frequent flyer program too much money. And also because…
Bits ‘n Pieces for December 14, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Via Online Travel Review, LOT Polish has gotten rid of its 10th CEO in 12 years. So remind me why we had to put up with Glenn Tilton for so long? Pizza in Motion says Hyatt finally has a property at LAX airport — the Hyatt Place Los Angeles/LAX/El Segundo. I’ve become a fan of the new build limited-service Hyatt Place properties 100 Free JetBlue TrueBlue points. United has forced Awardwallet to stop checking account balances. Awardwallet, though, will let you configure your United.com e-statements and reservations to be sent to them directly in order to update your Awardwallet account (with instant forwarding to you). And since it appears that UsingMiles has worked out a relationship to continue displaying United balances, I’m hopeful the same will happen with…
25% Bonus Converting Hotel Points to British Airways — And Why You Probably Shouldn’t Do It
British Airways is offering a 25% bonus on hotel points converted into Avios through January 13. Eligible partners are Starwood, Club Carlson, Marriott, Hilton, Priority Club, Hyatt, and Shangri-La and no registration is required, the bonus is automatic. This bonus will get plenty of coverage, and is already getting coverage, the usual take is that it’s a good deal to transfer Starwood points. SPG certainly provides the most dramatic points into miles examples, because Starwood points are usually the best for transfers to miles anyway. 20,000 Starpoints normally yield 25,000 miles. With this bonus that’s 31,250 miles. So the illustration is 20,000 Starpoints to 31,250 miles — it looks like a bigger bonus than it is. Remember it’s just a 6250 point bonus. And 6250 BA points aren’t enough to get me to give up…
Instant Club Carlson Gold Status for New Account Signups
Club Carlson is offering instant Gold status for new members of their program. Club Carlson is the loyalty program for Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn, and Country Inns & Suites. They’ve been aggressive with big bonuses over the past year and a half, and just introduced a credit card that gets you second night free on your award redemptions. This offer is targeted at Platinum and Gold members of the Jet Airways JetPrivilege program. Gold status gets you: 50% bonus Gold Points on your Club Carlson stays 2,000 bonus points for online booking Upgrades Early Check In and Late Check Out on request, subject to availability The offer is supposed to be available through March 31 but my bet is that it’s pulled more quickly than that. Club Carlson is usually pretty generous with status…
New York City Passes New Regulations to Allow Mobile Taxi Apps
On Tuesday night I flew into New York and took a cab downtown. The cab’s meter wasn’t working, or so the driver said, and we agreed on a fixed price to my hotel. I know what a ride costs and wasn’t going to overpay. And I negotiated a discount for cash. But the cab driver — who was going to get paid the same amount regardless of the route — decided the best thing was to take surface streets despite no traffic at almost 10pm, not wanting to pay tolls. He also wanted to finish the trip as quickly as possible and pushed the envelope on every red light we approached. The cab couldn’t have had much of a suspension system, I was so thrown around that by the time I made my hotel I…
Suites, Treats, and Eats, a Malaysian Mileage Thanksgiving: Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur
Introduction: Constructing — and Re-constructing — the Award Trip American Eagle DC – New York and the New Nicest JFK Airport Hotel, the Hilton Cathay Pacific First Class, JFK – Hong Kong The Wing lounge in Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific Business Class Hong Kong – Kuala Lumpur Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Airlines Business Class, Kuala Lumpur – Langkawi The Andaman Langkawi Malaysia Airlines Business Class, Langkawi – Kuala Lumpur Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur Things to See and Do in Kuala Lumpur Korean Airlines First Class, Kuala Lumpur – Seoul and the Korean Airlines First Class Lounge Seoul Korean Airlines First Class, Seoul – Washington Dulles I have a love-hate relationship with Intercontinental’s Royal Ambassador elite program. I’ve had the status since 2006. It’s been responsible for the majority of the very best upgrades I’ve…
Bits ‘n Pieces for December 13, 2012
News and notes from around the interweb: Mommy Points reports that the Hyatt Union Square in New York will open as a Gold Passport category 5 hotel. Hyatt 48 Lex is category 4, an amazing redemption value (and eligible for the Hyatt Visa annual free night) so one assumes it too will eventually become category 5. The Hyatt Place Midtown will be category 4 when it opens. Very Good Points didn’t have a very good stay in Langkawi, I’m certainly glad that I chose the Andaman rather than the Sheraton! Dan’s Deals has a 40% off discount code for the W Hotels store, which also covers beds and bedding. Better than the usual 35% discounts that float around. LufthansaFlyer reveals Lufthansa’s first class holiday duck.
Delta Goes on the Record About Revenue-Based Frequent Flyer Programs
USA Today covers the impending risk of changes to frequent flyer programs, moving from rewarding miles flown with an airline to the amount of money spent — turning the legacy frequent flyer programs of airlines like United, American, and Delta into the much more modest offerings of Southwest and JetBlue. The piece is titled Frequent-flier rewards: Change is in the air and Randy Petersen predicts this is going to happen: “I would suggest by this time next year there’ll be at least one, if not more, of the major carriers that have adopted this kind of new normal among frequent-flier programs,” says Randy Petersen, publisher of Inside Flyer magazine, which closely follows loyalty programs. “I think in five years we will have forgotten about the old system.” I’m quoted making the case, though, that the…
Starwood’s First Quarter Promo – Up to 18,000 Points (after 20 nights)
Starwood’s first quarter promotion — January 15 through April 15, — will give you 2,000 bonus points for every four eligible nights (up to 8,000 points max after staying 16 nights during the promotion period) and then an additional 10,000 bonus points after completing 20 nights. That’s a top prize of 18,000 bonus points after 20 nights. Registration is required and will open sometime in early January. You can sign up to get a text message reminder. Ultimately a bit of a snoozer for a winter promo. Every fourth night you get 500 bonus points per night retroactively. It’s not even 500 bonus points per night if you don’t hit those 4th night plateaus. For heavy stayers nights 17 through 20 are well-rewarded with 10,000 bonus points though. (HT: Notiflyer)
