The current round of Milepoint Premium offering is: 1000 United miles Hilton Gold status National Car Rental Executive status .. and several other benefits such as with ParkingSpot, Hyatt gift cards, and beyond. Last year’s offering was popular enough that we managed to secure substantially more packages this time around, hence it’s still available — though as of yesterday Milepoint Premium was 96% sold out. It’s now possible to gift Milepoint premium membership. With only a small number of packages left there will be limited opportunities to do this for the 2013 holidays, if elite status for Christmas or other similarly-timed holdiays appeals. But I love the functionality as we go into future releases of Milepoint Premium. It means I can take advantage of a Premium offer more than once, by leveraging it with friends,…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for December 2013.
Highlights from Supreme Court Oral Argument: What the Justices Do — And Do Not — Know About Miles and Points
Tuesday night I read the Supreme Court transcripts so you don’t have to — there were some priceless frequent flyer moments during the Court’s oral argument in the case of the Rabbi who complained too much and Ngorthwest Airlines closed his frequent flyer account… Justice Ginsburg didn’t seem to think that an airline unilaterally cancelling an account and refusing to honor accrued obligations was reasonable. JUSTICE GINSBURG: Mr. Clement, the argument was made that if — if the airline has an unreviewable right to terminate this agreement for any reason or for no reason, if that is so, then it’s an illusory contract. What — what is your answer to that, if one 16 party can get out willy-nilly, why — what kind of 17 bargain is it? Delta’s lawyer suggests that people pay for…
National Car Rental WILL Give Elite Status Credits When Earning Airline Miles After All
National Car Rental revised its terms and conditions last week, sneaking in some changes (they don’t tell you what the changes are) right before the Thanksgiving holiday. A reader alerted me that the updated terms specifically say that elite status credit will not be given for car rentals where you choose to earn miles instead of free rental day credits. Qualifying Rentals: Members attain their Membership Level (described below) based upon the number of qualifying vehicle rentals… A qualifying rental does not include … when a member chooses to receive mileage, credits or points for a frequent traveler program (such as, but not limited to, an airline frequent flyer or hotel points program)… National Car rental writes in to clarify that, even though this is what they say, it isn’t what they mean: . I’m…
American Express-American Airlines Lounge Relationship Ends March 22, and Other Big Amex and American News
There Has Been Speculation About the End of Amex Lounge Access on American Since October Back in October there was a good bit of speculation that American Airlines would stop offering lounge access to American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders. A few people reported being denied access, but that seemed anomalous. What was telling was that American Express seemed to stop listing American Admirals Club access as a benefit in their card marketing materials. They didn’t want to promise it to new cardholders, it appeared, perhaps suggesting they couldn’t guarantee it would be an ongoing benefit. Both American Airlines and American Express strongly confirmed that Admirals Club access remained a benefit of Platinum and Centurion American Express cards. Very explicitly they claimed there had been no decision to end the relationship. I concluded at the…
How Airline Bundles and Premium Service Subscriptions Can Save You Money — Or Cost You More
@jayhawknj tweeted me last night to let me know I was on a local CBS news segment in New York last night on airline bundling of ancillary services, and selling subscriptions for a year of those services. I’ve explained why airlines bundle in the past, and when you can come out ahead by buying packages from the airlines. Many of the benefits airlines will sell a la carte or in packages are offered free to an airline’s co-brand credit card holders, and of course to their elite frequent flyers. I think the piece as a whole is a little bit too positive on bundling, describing it as possible to get “VIP treatment” but not explaining the differences between seats with more legroom and personal escorts through security to private lounges as offered by American’s “Five…
Delta Will Sell You Qualifying Miles Instead of Making You Mileage Run
Delta is selling end of year elite qualifying miles, so you can give them a whole bunch of money instead of giving them a whole bunch of money and spending your time flying. They will sell you between 2500 and 10,000 qualifying miles, at a cost that will vary based on you status. I have 10,146 “MQM”s for the year. Had I been flying Delta I would have credited the miles to Alaska Airlines. So this isn’t from a Delta flight. Instead, it’s from a Saudia business class flight that was redeemed for someone else out of my account and which posted incorrectly. Since I’m more than 10,000 miles away from status, and I cannot roll over these elite qualifying miles to next year, so these purchased miles are literally of no use to me.…
Frequent Flyers Got Their Day in Front of the Supreme Court Today: How Will It Affect You?
The Supreme Court heard the case today of the Rabbi Who Complained Too Much. Northwest Airlines cancelled his frequent flyer account and he sued in State Court, arguing essentially that even though the frequent flyer program’s terms and conditions say they can basically do as they wish, honoring their program commitments or not, for any reason or no reason, that the state’s contract law includes an ‘implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing’ that doesn’t let the carrier behave that way. Delta, which now owns Northwest, argues that the claim is pre-empted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act. When the federal government deregulated the airlines, it declared that states couldn’t step into the breach by regulating airline routes, schedules, or pricing. The irony is, that no matter which way the Court rules, the case…
Starwood Extends Expiration of Misunderstood Suite Night Awards (and Why the Program Remains Revolutionary)
One of the major improvements in elite benefits that Starwood rolled out at the beginning of 2012 was the introduction of “Suite Night Awards” for Platinum members who stay 50 nights in a year or more. Ten nights are awarded in suites, which are confirmable up to 5 days in advance of arrival. Lucky notes that instead of expiring at the end of the year, any unused suite upgrades will not expire until April 30th — giving Platinum members an extra four months to redeem them. Loyalty Lobby says that instead of extending their validity, Starwood: should do the right thing and scrap these crappy SNA’s altogether or make the suites confirmable at the time of making the reservation. In their current form the SNA’s are useless. I think that misunderstands the point and the…
100% Bonus Buying Miles from Star Alliance Member Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca’s LifeMiles program, a Star Alliance member, is offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles through December 31. This is only open to members whose accounts were open prior to today. I love the tagline, ‘Buy iles 2×1’, my eyes tricked me when I first read it and thought they were trying to sell me “lies.” After all, back in May they tweaked some award prices without notice and increased the cash cost of cash and points awards as well. That said, when they joined Star Alliance I declared the program the most generous in the alliance. After United’s devaluation, which goes into effect February 1, that’s likely true. They are part of my “Devaluation Plan B” which is to look to international frequent flyer programs for value if and when US programs devalue further.…
Your Checked Luggage Has the Same Locking Code as US Nuclear Missiles!
For 20 years, the launch code for US nuclear missiles was 00000000. The code was even written down on the launch instructions, in case anyone forgot. Think about that the next time you’re lamenting how unsecure your ‘TSA-appoved’ locks are! (HT: Randy Barnett) 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!
