News and notes from around the interweb: Lufthansa Miles & More offering discounted 55,000 mile business class redemptions between the US and Europe Alaska Airlines re-introduces their online shopping portal with a bonus of 750 miles with purchase of $25 or more by October 31. McDonalds may introduce a rewards program The original cast of airplane will be promoting Wisconsin tourism. The coming ‘Occupy Wall Street Prepaid Debit Card’ meant to offer low fee financial services for the unbanked and a “protest with every purchase” has fees that are higher than American Express’ Bluebird fees. (HT: Saverocity) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed . It’s free . Don’t…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2013.
Two Days Only: Double Miles for October Hotel Bookings from Rocketmiles
Rocketmiles, the hotel booking website that rebates a substantial number of miles to you for your reservations, is offering a double miles promotion for bookings the next two days that are consumed in October. Bookings must be made by October 4, 2013 at 11:59 PM Central, you’re limited to one double miles bonus, and your reservation checkout date must be by October 31 (so reservations must be entirely in October, not just begin by October 31). I had hoped this would be stackable with the 3000 US Airways mile first booking bonus but the terms and conditions state, THIS PROMOTION CAN NOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER BONUS MILE/POINT OFFERS. Rocketmiles tends to offer the most miles per hotel booking, but you also generally do not earn points or stay credit in hotel programs and…
35% Off Beds and Bedding at the W Hotels Store
The W Hotel Store is offering 35% off beds and bedding with promotion code WSTAR35. I purchased a W Hotels bed using a 40% off code, back before the May 2010 price increase on beds. There are still on rare occasion 40% off discounts that pop up. But 35% is the usual discount that comes along every few months. Nonetheless, I’ve found it to have been a good purchase. I chose the ‘plush top’ rather than pillow top mattress, and added a feather bed. It’s lasted wonderfully, though I’ve since changed out the feather bed. (There are reports that the pillow top version won’t last as long, that it has a ‘memory’ or rather it wears out more quickly.) In my experience W Hotel Store purchases post as double points earning when paying with a…
How to Book a Business Class Award to Bangkok in North Asia Using US Airways Miles (in Front of Hundreds of People)
After my fateful phone call to Delta to book a two passenger business class award to India, it was Lucky of the One Mile at a Time blog’s turn at the microphone. This was all part of a presentation in a ballroom at Frequent Traveler University — after giving a talk on the basics of award booking, making the most of your miles, the idea was to bring the lessons together and watch them in practice. I had managed to get a telephone agent to construct an award on Saudia and on Aeroflot between New York JFK and Delhi — after running through all of the standard traps of a Delta agent not knowing who their partners are, not seeing award availability, and not thinking it was a permissable routing. Now it was Lucky’s turn…
U.S. Bank Getting Aggressive With Signup Bonuses and 40,000 Points for a LAN Visa
U.S. Bank isn’t the easiest credit card issuer to get approvals from, they’ll deny cards on the basis of too many card inquiries regardless of credit score and demonstrated ability to repay and even if you do not have any open cards with them. They’ve also been fairly tight-fisted with signup bonuses in the past. I’ve reviewed the five best cards they offer and two things were apparent: that they have several non-U.S. airlines as partners (as a smaller card issuer they lack the heft of a Chase, American Express, or Citibank and get crowded out of the market but they’ve been creative) that the most attractive card they offer is the Club Carlson Visa — largely for elite status in the Club Carlson program and for offering a free night with every award redemption…
How to Book a Business Class Award to India Using Delta Miles (in Front of Hundreds of People)
One of the things I try to do on this blog and in presentations is explain how to make the most of points, not just earn them. That’s why I walk through the best tools to find available award seats, and point y’all to the routes with the best premium cabin award availability for a whole family. At Frequent Traveler University this past weekend in Tampa, Lucky from the One Mile at a Time blog and I team-taught a session on the basics of award booking and then we put on another session together that we called Theory to Practice: How to Find Award Space and Construct Your Booking. What we decided to do was to challenge each other to book a complicated award over the phone with an agent, live in front of a…
El Al Produces a Bizarre Video: Unboxing a New 737
Via David H., El Al is very excited to be bringing Boeing 737-900s into their fleet, which will begin service at the end of this month. There are 4 rows of business class and 26 rows of coach. It’s a modern aircraft to be sure, though El Al is hardly the first to operate it. And that’s an amazing amount of packing peanuts. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. Don’t miss out!
US Airways Mileage Redemption Rebates for Credit Card Holders
US Airways sent out emails to credit card holders today with an offer of a rebate on miles redeemed for award travel through November 30th. These are targeted offers, with the rebate percentage varying by cardholder. The rebate is on all of the miles redeemed during the promotion period, and not just a single redemption, but is capped at 30,000 miles credited back. Award travel must cost a minimum of 20,000 total miles with travel complete by March 31, with the rebate to be credited 3 to 4 weeks after travel is complete. Upgrade redemptions qualify. I received an offer for 10% back. Necessary Indulgences sent along a copy of a 50% rebate offer. Meanwhile reader Yong G. sends me a 25% version of the offer. There’s no registration involved, so if you received this…
100% Bonus on Transferred Avianca Lifemiles Through October 15
Last year I explained Why You Want to Get Started With the AviancaTaca LifeMiles Program Right Now. LifeMiles is one of the best programs in the Star Alliance. There are some frustrations, like inability to book flights in more than one class of service on an award. But they sell miles cheap, their award chart is reasonable, they offer one-way awards, and the website is decent. Plus there are no fuel surcharges. I consider the better non-U.S. programs a great hedge and refuge against the risks of revenue-based frequent flyer redemption changes. And the AviancaTaca LifeMiles program regularly offers 100% bonuses on purchased miles and then lets you effectively buy miles at a deep discount again with their cash and points awards (where you need just 40% of the miles required for a given award…
Why Today’s American/US Airways Merger Developments Don’t Change Anything Legally But Could Still Influence the Outcome of the Case
Today’s American Airlines-US Airways merger news started with the government asking the trial court in the anti-trust case to stay the proceedings due to the government shut down. As a pure layman that seemed like the government’s best argument yet to push things off. The government after all has long wanted a much later trial, which would likely mean they’d win by default (since large companies can’t really remain in limbo indefinitely)Nonetheless the judge wasn’t persuaded and proceedings move on. Then come 3pm Eastern the Texas attorney general announced that this office would be pulling out of the government’s anti-trust suit which seeks to block the merger. When I first heard that a press conference had been scheduled with the Attorney General that seemed the only possible outcome. But what persuaded Texas to withdraw? Texas…
