American Express Membership Rewards has a new partnership with Emirates and indeed through this Friday they are offering a 25% bonus when you convert Membership Rewards points to Emirates Skywards miles. To highlight this offer, American Express asked if I would give one lucky reader 25,000 Emirates miles. Sounds good to me! To be clear, I do not receive anything for running this contest and giving away the miles. But American Express is providing the points. I covered the transfer bonus when it was first announced, along with the launch of the relationship between American Express and Emirates. See this post for more details on the ins and outs of booking awards through Emirates Skywards. The transfer bonus makes a business class roundtrip New York JFK – Dubai, normally 145,000 points, just 116,000 Membership Rewards…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for November 2013.
Hyatt Adds Elite Discounts, Cash and Points, and Extends Points Expiration
Last week Hyatt announced a modest devaluation of their award chart — a new category 7 for their six most expensive hotels, a slight bump in cost for award nights in categories 5 and 6, and an increase in cost of upgraded rooms. This week starts again with news from Hyatt, and this time three new features to their program going into effect January 7. Discounted room rates for elite members of the Hyatt Gold Passport program. Cash and points awards 24 month expiration of points, instead of 12 months New Discounted Rates for Elites Hyatt is introducing “My Elite Rate” which will be 20% off the Hyatt Daily Rate, cancallable (not prepaid), and available to all Platinum and Diamond members. This will be a capacity-controlled rate, so not always available, but better than booking…
The Westin Diplomat’s Views Are Just as Magnificent But It Isn’t As Great as a Gold Than it is as a Platinum
I first wrote about the Westin Diplomat outside of Ft. Lauderdale as far back as the fall of 2005. My blog has been through a couple of moves since then and I don’t have the photos from that stay, but it’s been a property I’ve stayed at many many times since then. Here’s a comprehensive review, with photos. Long before Starwood introduced a free breakfast benefit for Platinums at hotels without an available club lounge and ‘Suite Night Awards’ for Platinum members who stay at least 50 nights in a year, allowing those members to express preference for when they’ll receive an upgrade, I recommended this hotel as probably offering the best Platinum treatment anywhere. That’s because the Westin Diplomat has a lovely club lounge space on the 33rd floor overlooking both the Atlantic Ocean…
Verizon LTE Data Plans Actually Only Offering 3G Speeds in Some Major Cities
Video streaming is apparentl overtaxing Verizon’s networks. If you’re a Verizon customer and you’ve noticed your LTE network isn’t as fast as it used to be, you are not alone – and you are not imagining things. …[U]sers in large cities including New York, San Francisco, and Chicago are starting to see a significant deterioration in throughput. In many parts of those cities, users are downgraded to 3G service, which is significantly slower, when there is simply no more capacity on Verizon’s LTE network. …Verizon says it will resolve the problems by the end of 2013 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…
Europe on Track to Become Much More Generous than the US for Gate-to-Gate Electronics
The U.S. now allows airlines to certify so that its passengers can use electronic devices gate-to-gate. Large devices like laptops that could be projectiles must still be put away below 10,000 feet (but hardcover books can stay out). Electronics are supposed to be in ‘airplane mode’ once you start taxiing to take off (but not while taxiing to the gate upon landing, and not that flight attendants check anymore). I think this change is great, but so far I use my Android phone on the ground to answer emails (which I then connect to inflight wireless and send upon reaching 10,000 feet). I don’t use a tablet or iPad because I don’t want to lug around another device. I use my laptop, I’m not supposed to have it out at the beginning and end of…
Leave a Comment for a Chance to Win Hilton Gold Status, United Miles, and More!
Milepoint, the frequent flyer community that I co-founded, will be launching the ability to ‘gift’ premium memberships. That way you can effectively ‘buy’ more than one elite status, more than one discount for various travel providers. You can use them yourself and still give them away to friends and family. Since the functionality now exists (even if the interface isn’t yet public – stay tuned), I can give away premium membership on Milepoint as well. Milepoint Premium Membership is normally $49 and gets you: Hilton HHonors Gold elite status through the beginning of 2015. 1000 United miles National Car Rental Executive status 10% discount on purchase of Hyatt gift cards One free day of parking with Parking Spot (no minimum stay required) And more. So I thought I would give away (3) premium memberships. Each…
Earn Double American Airlines Miles on Qatar Flights
American is offering double miles for flying new oneworld member airline Qatar between November 15 and December 19, 2013 and again January 6 through January 31, 2014. Registration is required prior to travel using promotion code QRDBL. All paid published fare classes are eligible to earn double redeemable miles. 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!
Bits ‘n Pieces for November 15, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Flight cancelled after passengers mutiny over ejection of a blind man. (HT: Reid) Alligator Found at O’Hare Baggage Claim United will start flying to Atlantic City so that Chris Christie will support PATH train expansion to Newark Hyatt’s new all-suite all-inclusive properties will allow use of suite upgrade instruments to get into even better suites … but bookings for these newly-opened hotels do not yet seem to be going smoothly. How to transfer a small number of Le Club Accorhotel points to airline miles A man walks down the street… The rest of my life is so hard… I want a shot at redemption. The stock ticket symbol for the new American Airlines? You Can Call Me AAL. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals…
Alaska Airlines Opens the Kimono on their Frequent Flyer Program (and Other Interesting) Stats
Ok, I both abhor and love that way-overused and slightly-inappropriate corporate-speak (“open kimono”). But they very much laid bare some interesting data about their airline partnerships and frequent flyer redemptions at an investor conference (powerpoint, webcast) and offered some great insights. The two charts I found most interesting: When Alaska made small tweaks to its award chart this week (aka modest devaluation) it seemed both minor and incosnequential to people who are interested in their great international partner awards that can now for the most part be booked on their website — since the changes touched only Alaska’s own flights. But the presentation makes clear that 84% of Alaska’s redemptions are for travel on their own flights, 12.5% are on domestic partners American and Delta — with twice as many American redemptions as there were…
IHG Rewards Flash Sale – Up to 75% Off Points Redemptions – Returns on Monday
IHG Rewards, formerly known as Priority Club, is bringing back another reward ‘flash sale’ with hotel night redemptions 25% – 75% off at specific properties. Starting Monday at 10am Eastern the sale will be bookable here. The deal will last for 48 hours. 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. So clearly they’re avoiding the Thanksgiving holiday in the US and ending this before Christmas. They’ve posted the full list of properties up on their ‘community’ website, and it appears that 129 hotels are participating. Here are a few samples: Holiday Inn Resort Chaohu Hot Spring, China – 75% off (will be 6,250 points Hotel Indigo San Jose, Costa Rica – 75% off (will be 5,000 points) Hotel…
