You can receive 500 Amtrak Guest Rewards points for linking your account to Google Wallet (iPhone/Android). Points post instantly, but this is only open to the first 10,000 people who do it. After that, they’ll only award 100 points. Offer expires December 15. (HT: Slickdeals) 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. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for November 2013.
American Airlines Rolling Out Paid Bidding System for Upgrades
American Airlines has introduced a new bidding for upgrade system, so far only available for a limited set of flights. They’ll let non-elite members make an offer starting 6 days prior to departure, and you find out at least 24 hours before the flight if it’s been accepted. Your credit card is only charged if the offer is accepted. American does not promise to accept any offers even if there are first class seats open. Cancellation and Refunds of Successful Offers After you’ve made the offer you’ll be given a chance to revise it, although there’s no refunds once your offer has been accepted — unless irregular operations prevent you from receiving the seat you’ve won. I don’t like the terms and conditions of their refund policy in the event of irregular operations, though: In…
Too Good to Be True? 25% Cash Back on Bookings Made at Kayak.com
Rob F. passes along that TheSweeterDeal.com — a cash back site that looks similar to ebates and TopCashBack — has an amazing offer. Airlines and some hotel programs have ‘mileage malls’ — shopping portals where, if you click on a store through their link you will earn points for the purchases you make. Some similar portals offer cash back, like ebates and TopCashBack and BigCrumbs. This one falls into the latter camp. And they appear (quite clearly, actually!) to be offering 25% cash back on bookings made through Kayak.com, which would be huge. Now, such a high cash back offer seems inadvisable for the site to me. Their business model is to rebate a portion of the commission they’re receiving from the merchant. That way they incentivize you to use their site, and they make…
The Thing I Love Most About Doing Media Is…
Since this is my personal blog I will share something personal, that brings me joy, even at the risk of it being interesting to nobody else at all. Now, going on the Colbert Report was just cool in its own right. There really didn’t need to be anything else to love that one. But this is just a small personal thing. More than getting my point of view out there, and more than being able to send a newspaper article to my grandmother, I get a major kick out of frequent flyer memes going mainstream. In my USA Today op-ed last week about the US Airways-American Airlines merger, I was drawing lessons from recent airline mergers and offering advice on how to make this one less painful. Being able to include, as a shout out…
Declining Service Levels at the Andaz Wall Street
I wrote up stays at the Andaz Wall Street back in 2011 and also in 2012. I did not write about other stays I’ve had at this property because they were remarkably similar. Every time I have stayed there I’ve gotten the same room type — a large L-shaped room with a piece of furniture in the middle separating bedroom from living room; a junior suite that used to be considered a large room and now is an “Andaz Suite.” In other words, they downgraded the room type that they confirm upgrades into (whether using a Diamond confirmed suite upgrade or using points). And each stay after my first one the breakfast benefit was taken only in the restaurant, no more room service. Nonetheless, I’ve always considered this a good hotel for the location. Some…
Hyatt’s New Cash and Points Awards are Eligible for Confirmed Suite Upgrades and Promotional Points-Earning
Hyatt Gold Passport just announced three new changes: Discounted room rates for elites, 24 month expiration of points, and cash and points awards. Cash and points is the biggest news of the bunch. For category 2 through 6 hotels you’re “buying back” points at between 1.2 and 1.38 cents apiece, which is a good deal. And what’s more, it was announced that cash and points awards count towards elite status qualification. But it’s even better than that. Yesterday Hyatt clarified that since cash and points rates count towards elite status, they also count if you’re trying to earn status on an accelerated basis with a ‘Diamond trial’ (where you match your current hotel status with another chain and Hyatt gives you their Diamond status short-term and then has reduced requirements to keep the status). However,…
50,000 + 5000 Points for Chase Sapphire Preferred
Update: This offer on the main page for the Sapphire Preferred Card no longer comes up for me, I just get the 40,000 point offer. Others may have different experiences in the comments. Chase now has a bonus of 50,000 points after $3000 spend within 3 months for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. In addition, they are offering 5000 points for adding an authorized user to the card and making a purchase within 3 months. This is not my referral link, no credit to me, but it is the best current offer for the card. Now we know what Chase is doing to generate some excitement around the Sapphire Preferred card! Interestingly the annual fee is $0 the first year, and $125 after that. So the annual fee is $30 higher on this version of…
20% Off Virgin America Travel Between January 11 and March 6
Enter this giveaway drawing and receive a 10% off coupon code for use on Virgin America. Share the drawing (and they don’t verify if you’re sharing it with ‘friends’, with ‘enemies’, or with another of your own email addresses) and you get a 20% off coupon. Offer valid through November 26th for for non-refundable Main Cabin tickets only, for travel between January 11, 2014 and March 6, 2014. They don’t discount Friday or Sunday travel, and January 17 through January 20 and February 14 through February 17 are blacked out. Up to two passengers on the same itinerary may receive the discount. (HT: The Flight Deal) 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…
Some Clarifications About Hyatt’s New Benefits
Hyatt Gold Passport posted the following clarifcations to their new benefits this morning. Greetings MilePoint members, We are looking forward for our members having different ways to redeem awards. Diamond suite upgrades will be available for the MyElite rate; however, it would not be available for the Points + Cash rate as it is considered an award stay. The MyElite rate & Points + Cash will be valid for stay/night credit at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts excluding all inclusive properties, Hyatt Residence Club, and Mlife properties. The MyElite rate and the Points + Cash option will count towards the Diamond trial offers. Cancellation policies will still apply, and as long as you cancel outside of the policy, all points will be returned. If you cancel inside the policy, the points will be returned but you…
IHG Rewards Flash Sale – Award Nights Up to 75% Off – is Now Live
IHG Rewards, formerly known as Priority Club, has brought back another reward ‘flash sale’ with hotel night redemptions 25% – 75% off at specific properties. Book here. The deal will last for 48 hours. About 125 properties are participating. For US hotels, stays can be from December 1 through December 20. Non-US hotels stays can be from November 20 through December 20, 2013. Even if you don’t have IHG Rewards points, you can more or less buy all you wish instantly (with a few steps involved) for seven-tenths of a cent per point. Deals here are pretty good if any of the participating hotels can work for your plans. 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…
