News and notes from around the interweb: 2500 free points if you sign up for a new Jet Airways (India) frequent flyer account. How National Car Rental developed its new mobile app Alitalia is offering up to a 50% bonus on purchased miles through August 31. There are some gems in the Alitalia award chart and they also offer extra availability for Alitalia flights using double miles. Their call centers can be annoying to talk to, and purchased miles can be used for no more than 75% of the mileage cost of an award. JetBlue’s new premium transcon (New York JFK – Los Angeles/San Francisco) business class seats, which I wrote about over the weekend based on an early-released video will in fact be completely flat, similar to what some European carriers are now offering…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for August 2013.
Munich Airport Employees Made a Video.. and it is AWESOME
Ok, I’m not sure if this is weird or just plain awesome, but the latter gets my vote. What do you think? Here’s the Google Translate version of the video description (original is German, natch): The new, produced a so-called LipDub image film of Munich Airport has brought to the catchy sounds of the song “Come away with me” the band “The Donots” in all kinds of movement. The result – a real blast: approximately 200 talented performers from the Munich airport family – from trainee to CEO – have participated. Parts of the apron were cordoned off, check-in desks temporarily withdrawn from the market and made a real hotel bed next to an airplane. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts…
Worst Case Scenario: Use Your Miles to Escape Terrorists, Avoid Natural Disasters, and Evade the Mob
Miles from Blighty posted earlier about seeing award space into Sana’a, Yemen using United miles. And I wondered, how useful would those miles be to leave Yemen right now? Granted, if you’re in Sana’a right now you’re probably there working for a government, a private employer that’s getting you out, or a non-governmental organization that’s hopefully working to do the same. In Yemen and across the region there are people fleeing because the U.S. has declared that really scary things are about to happen. (And presumably this is in comparison to the scary things that already do happen!) Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines flies six times a week from Sana’a to Istanbul with a 45 minute stop in Aden. And over the next few days availability is good — in coach only on the flight…
AwardWallet Can Track American AAdvantage Accounts Again
AwardWallet will once again be able to track American AAdvantage frequent flyer accounts. They announced this morning that they’ve worked through their disagreements. American Airlines and AwardWallet today announced that together they are making it easier and more convenient for AAdvantage® members to track their mileage balances. “American Airlines is continually looking for new ways to enhance the experience for our most valued customers,” said Cory Garner, Managing Director of Sales Operations and Distribution at American Airlines. “We have worked closely with AwardWallet to design an offering that meets our security requirements, while offering our customers a one-stop shop for tracking all of their loyalty affiliations, including AAdvantage.” It’s great to see that American really ‘gets it’. This is great news for members. As an American Executive Platinum, I don’t log into AA.com daily and…
Review: Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport (SFO)
I’ve stayed at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport four times this year, and have liked it less and less each time. But while some people have their preferences for Bay Area airport lodging, there’s not actually any hotel option that I’d put down in the ‘really good’ category so I rationalize that I’ve picked up reasonably priced stay credits and progress towards a few Hyatt Gold Passport promotions along the way — all without sacrificing comfort relative to other options by the airport. It’s a big, busy hotel that always seems to have a conference or convention going on in the lobby when I’m there. The basic exterior facing rooms are perfectly fine, and I’ve gotten a good night sleep after a long haul flight here. My best stay was my first one back…
Don’t Rely on Phone Agents or Airline Websites: Here’s Which Tools to Use to Find Award Space on Your Own
Most airlines offer poor tools for finding and booking award seats. Most airline websites do not include most partner airline flights. They don’t search all conceivable routings, either. But you can’t just call, either, because the tools agents are working with most of the time aren’t very good. Agents will be of variable skills and desire to help (which is why if all you are going to do is call the airline, be sure to hang up and call back if you don’t get the answer you want. As a result of these limitations, you frequently need to search for award seats yourself — find what award seats are available on your own, and specifically request those seats from a telephone agent. But how do you find available award seats that the phone agents may…
National’s New Mobile App Will Let You Choose a Specific Car — and Join Me for a Travel Tech Chat Next Week
I’m hosting a Google Hangout event on Tuesday, August 13th at 7:30pm Eastern to discuss technology and travel, what devices and innovations were important in the past, what the state of the art is now, and what’s missing. It’s organized by National Car Rental, since they’ve announced their new mobile app (can you believe they really didn’t have one before?) and they think it is pretty cutting edge travel technology. There’s one piece of it, being implemented next month, that could be. Now, there are only two real innovations in the rental car space that I’ve been able to think of over the past couple of decades. One is the loyalty program profile where your credit card is on file, no need to stop at the rental counter. National, like all of the other major…
Does the St. Regis Bali Have the Best Breakfast Buffet in the World?
I probably like the cooked to order menu service at the Park Hyatt Maldives and room service at the Andaz 5th Avenue more. The highest quality ingredients I’ve had for breakfast were probably at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris. And the buffet (which I understand is no longer as good) that I had at the Le Meridien Chiang Rai several years ago was probably better as well — it wasn’t more extensive, but there were more and more interesting things that would be brought around by servers for you to try over the course of a meal that weren’t on the menu. (The most extensive buffet title probably belongs to one of the many top end hotels in Kuala Lumpur.) But I imagine that the breakfast buffet at the St. Regis Bali is the…
And this is Why You Don’t Book Tickets for Other People Using Airline Websites
Jeanne passes along this complaint about Delta that’s in the early stages of gaining traction online. Bottom-line: passenger is denied boarding by Delta because they couldn’t produce the credit card used to purchase the ticket (her boss bought the ticket). The passenger was enroute to Uganda. Her boss got involved in the call, trying to convince Delta the ticket wasn’t fraudulent. And while we have only the boss’ word for it, she contends Delta’s agent suggested… The talented and adept Delta Red Coat team answered all of my questions and explained to me that my employee was asked to present her credit card because the “country of Africa is full of frauds.” How embarrassing! All this time, I was under the impression that African was a continent full all kinds of different people. Thanks to…
JetBlue’s Transcon Business Seats and Suites Revealed
Via Frequently Flying, JetBlue has released a video of their new Airbus A321’s which will operate on premium cross-country flights from their New York JFK hub. The video first takes you through the coach cabin showing both regular economy and the Even More Space section. It then heads up front to reveal what appears to be a 16-seat cabin with a 2-2 configuration in rows 1, 3 and 5, and solo mini-suites (complete with privacy doors) on both sides of the aisle in rows 2 and 4. Here’s the video rendering of what the cabin will look like. I took a few screen shots from within the video to offer a glimpse into JetBlue’s premium products. Here’s a straight forward shot of the new business class seats, two-by-two, outside of the first row I would…
