Noob Traveler says that the 50,000 point offer for the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® may be going away on June 30th. He says he received an email from Lufthansa to that effect. Barclaycard has upped their signup bonus on the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard to 50,000 points — 20,000 after first purchase and 30,000 more after meeting minimum spend within 90 days. The card comes with a $79 annual fee, and the points are surprisingly useful (though I recommend that even if you do get the card and collect Miles & More points, that you’re 25% better off earning them via the Starwood American Express than through this card). Miles & More is a great way to get domestic premium cabin awards on United (35,000 miles roundtrip compared to…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for June 2013.
Hyatt Introduces Points Earning, Redemption, and Elite Recognition at MGM Resorts in Las Vegas
Hyatt MGM Partnership: Hyatt Gold Passport announced this morning that it is linking up with MGM Resorts to provide reciprocal points earning and redemption (starting June 20) and reciprocal elite recognition (coming in August). Details on how each piece of this partnership will work are in various sections of this post. Hyatt Gold Passport members will be able to earn and burn at the 9 MGM Resorts in Las Vegas which participate in the MGM M life program, and Hyatt’s elite members will get elite recognition at those properties. Similarly, MGM’s M life members will earn tier credits and elite members get status recognition throughout Hyatt’s portfolio. Three MGM Vegas hotels that aren’t part of M life aren’t participating, and MGM’s properties outside of Vegas aren’t a part of the deal at this time. It…
Bits ‘n Pieces for June 5, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Rocketmiles is offering a 24 hour “double miles” bonus on hotel bookings. Using my referral link (no benefit to me) gets you double the usual signup bonus: 2000 miles with your first booking. As everyone expected when Delta acquired Northwest Airlines, they’re de-hubbing Memphis (promises not to do so notwithstanding). I give folks a hard time about flying the rapidly-devaluing airline associated with the SkyPesos frequent flyer program. And then I remember it could be worse: they could be flying Spirit. Leave a comment for a chance to win a new Briggs & Riley TORQ hard shell bag! Last day to get $35 free for new Uber on-demand car service accounts. You can buy Boeing 777 business class seats, perfect for your living room or office! You can…
Delta’s New Changes Pretend it isn’t a Skyteam Member for Elite Status Earning – But That’s Not Even the Big Story
Lucky thinks it’s a huge devaluation that effective September 1 Delta is reducing elite status mileage-earning on many of their partners, and that you can no longer earn Delta elite status miles on Skyteam partner Korean Air at all. Full qualifying miles will be earned only on Aeromexico, Air France, Alaska, Alitalia, GOL, KLM, and Virgin Australia. Reduced status miles may be earned on: Aeroflot Air Europa Czech Kenya Airways Middle East Airlines Saudia Tarom Aerolineas Argentinas China Airlines China Eastern China Southern Vietnam Airlines Xiamen Airlines And there will be no elite status mileage-earning on: Hawaiian Korean Malaysia Olympic It’s indeed shocking that flying on Korean Air — a member of the Skyteam alliance — will not contribute at all towards status on Delta. Delta is saying that travel with their partners is not…
American AAdvantage 30% Bonus on Transferred Miles Not a Good Deal
American is offering a bonus of up to 30% when you pay to transfer miles from one AAdvantage account to another. The offer lasts through July 1. Limited time offer: Earn up to a 30% bonus for friends and family, when you share miles Know someone who needs American Airlines AAdvantage® miles or could you use some extra miles to reach a travel award faster? You can share miles between family, friends or colleagues and the recipient will earn up to 30% in bonus miles. Sharing miles just became more valuable, so make the most of this limited time offer, now through July 1, 2013. The bonus gets progressively larger the more miles you transfer: Let’s take the biggest possible bonus as an example. If you transfer 50,000 points there’s a bonus of 15,000 —…
Elephant Jumps Thai in Northern Virginia Getting Even Better With New Dishes
About two and a half years ago I first wrote about my favorite Thai restaurant in the DC suburbs, Elephant Jumps in Merrifield. Regular readers know this place and word has certainly spread. I understand that some of the bloggers from First2Board organized a lunch there before the start of Frequent Traveler University at the end of April. There aren’t a ton of places that age well, and admittedly after it first got popular it had a few ups and downs especially with service (they were learning to staff properly and handle getting busy). They worked through the bumps well, and I kept going back. And going back. I had pretty much everything on the menu except for their Thai-Western fusion dishes which just didn’t appeal to me. This is a hole in the wall…
Etihad Being Invited to Join Oneworld?
The drama of Middle Eastern airlines and will they or won’t they join alliances heats up some more. Emirates was a partner of United and Continental. That partnership ended, and my sense is that wasn’t Emirates’ doing. They’ve wanted US partners (and have developed JetBlue and Alaska relationships). I expected that they would link up with American. I believe they had discussions with American. Instead, American developed a relationship with Etihad. Etihad bought into oneworld carrier Air Berlin. It seemed like Etihad would join oneworld. Then Emirates entered into a joint business venture with oneworld carrier Qantas. While Qatar agreed to join oneworld. And Etihad began getting close to Skyteam airlines. Did that signal that Etihad could join Skyteam.. and even bring Air Berlin with it? Now word is that Etihad will be invited to…
Comment Here And You May Win a Briggs & Riley TORQ Bag
I’m a Briggs & Riley fan, my usual carry on is their Baseline CX bag. They’ve made a splash over the past month with a new bag, and I’ve arranged a giveaway. As I explained earlier today, I’ll have a different Briggs & Riley bag to give away next week as well (different bags for different reasons, they’ve “got your business and leisure covered” as it were). The Briggs & Riley TORQ is a departure from just functional offering a stylish hard shell that I think looks great (although it’s extra-reinforced to prevent damage, so functional too). It has an extra wide wheel base to prevent tipping when overstuffed, and it’s a four wheel spinner for easy transport through the airport. And it comes with Briggs & Riley’s unrivaled lifetime guarantee. This time we’re going…
Man Bites Dog: American Won’t Reject its Citibank Co-Branded Contract in Bankruptcy
No surprise for readers of this blog, but American has filed with the bankruptcy court to “assume on a final and irrevocable basis” its agreements with Citibank, its credit-card partner. “For the avoidance of doubt, the Debtors [American, parent AMR, et al.) irrevocably and as of the date hereof waive any right to seek to reject the Citibank Agreements unless the Plan is withdrawn or the Court refuses to enter the Confirmation Order,” the settlement states. For its part, Citibank promised that it “will not object to confirmation of the Plan (or any plan of reorganization substantially similar thereto) unless the Plan or such other plan of reorganization differs from the Plan in any manner adverse to Citibank.” It increasingly seems to be last call to get the US Airways Mastercard. The best known offer…
Attention Hotel Elite Guests: Detroit Zoo is Pricing Giraffes at $80,000
As Detroit tries to get its awful fiscal situation in order it has priced giraffes in its zoo at $80,000. Detroit’s going-out-of-business sale is looking to be quite the affair. The Detroit Free Press examined the disparate and sometimes unusual assets left in the city that may be sold in order to pay off its debts And a giraffe, of course, is the ultimate hotel status amenity. I wonder if I could get Detroit to just rent me a giraffe? $80,000 is still rather pricey, as cool as it would be to walk into a hotel with one and slap down my Diamond elite card. (No final decision has been made on what Detroit will sell off. They are simply identifying and valuing assets in order to make decisions about what to sell of at…
