Wendy Perrin lists several approaches for getting into sold out restaurants. Here’s my interpretation of her suggestions: Be flexible. OpenTable will show you the next available reservation, so go when the place isn’t sold out. But OpenTable also won’t show all available, restaurants often withhold peak times from the booking service so be sure to call directly, too, and ask them when you might get in. Have a concierge service call for you. There are the premium credit card versions, American Express Platinum and Centurion also have some set-aside reservation agreements with some restaurants. Their concierge services aren’t the equal of the truly high-end membership concierge offerings, and I’ve had truly mixed results with such concierge services actually even calling to try, but it can’t hurt to multi-process — have them attempt while you do,…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for January 2014.
Plink Your App, Devalue and Don’t Tell, Get Loew, and Sue! (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 22, 2014)
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Loews hotels now offers free internet to all guests. Plink has Android and iPhone apps. (“How to Take Advantage of Plink Rewards“) Did Wyndham Rewards add a new category 9 redemption tier and not tell anybody? The lawsuit claiming damages because airlines don’t award you more miles when you fly a circuitous route has now been dismissed. 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!
Capital One Offering 100,000 Points for a Residential Mortgage
Real estate transactions used to generate ginormous sums of miles, at least back during the housing boom. A company called Awards for Mortgage used to give out tons of miles for taking out a home equity loan. Some people wrote big equity loans on homes they had fully paid off, paid back the loans, and in the process pockets a couple hundred thousand miles for a couple hundred bucks. Chase up until recently was giving out miles for residential mortgages. And I recall buying a property about 8 years ago where I got a large chunk of the real estate commissions rebated to me in the form of miles. There’s a few operators in the space still, like Air Miles for Moving and Miles 4 Real Estate that presumably earn commissions from transactions you’ll make…
Hilton Bonus Points for the Non-Business Traveler
Hilton has launched their new “Weekend Rewards” promotion. The U.S. Olympic Team spends weeks on the road training with the Olympic stage as their reward. As a business traveler, your time on the road away from home should be rewarded too. This is a promotion that’s either for the non-business traveler, or business travel is now defined as weekend travel. Because of the Olympics. Or something. Hilton is offering: 1000 bonus points per night, plus 5000 points for every weekend stay of two nights or more. While the offer page says you have to both “book and stay” between February 1 and April 30 to earn the bonus, the rules actually clarify you just need to register and stay between those dates. No need to actually cancel and rebook stays on February 1 to ensure…
How to Keep Your Airline Miles from Expiring
Most airlines have some form of expiring miles. Most programs promote that their miles never expire… Are they lying? No, and yes. Your miles won’t expire, but your account will become inactive if you don’t have some sort of activity for a defined period of time. And then you won’t have access to your miles anymore. Because they’ll expire. Actually, expiring miles are where a given mile has to be used within a specified period of time or else it simply goes away. Singapore Airlines miles are like that. No matter how much additional activity you have in your account, each mile is use it or lose it. Expiring accounts is soemthing different, no activity means everything in the account disappears. That’s what most frequent flyer programs have, and it’s how they can say miles…
Why Chip and PIN Credit Cards Haven’t Taken Hold in the U.S.
Many savvy credit card consumers like “chip and PIN” cards — cards that don’t just have a magnetic strip (or, don’t even have a strip if they aren’t being used in places like the U.S.) but offer an embedded “EMV chip” that contains encrypted card information. It’s more secure, and credit card security has been all over the news, leading folks to wonder what these savvy card consumers have been asking themselves for a very long time, why is the U.S. so backward? When the rest of the world has been using EMV chips in their credit cards for years, why do so few US cards feature those chips? And when a bank finally brings out chip cards, why are they “chip and signature” (you can scan the chip and then sign the slip) instead…
How Would You Make the Amtrak Experience Better?
Scott Mayerowitz wishes for a better Amtrak experience in the Northeast corridor. Here are his complaints. Slow internet connectivity. I don’t need wireless internet flying US Airways between Washington National and LaGuardia or Boston (though they have it, and paying for monthly unlimited inflight internet anyway I use it). But on a two and a half hour train ride in the middle of the business day it’s much more important. I usually use my own wireless solution, because Amtrak’s is unreliable. No advance seat assignments. Amtrak didn’t used to require advance reservations at all for some trains, now even regional trains require that. But advance reservations don’t mean seat assignments, and during peak times you have to sprint, bribe, or access the train via Amtrak’s lounge to get seats together if traveling as a couple.…
Mileage Redemption Fuel Surcharges — the New Cash and Points Awards
United is devaluing its award chart effective February 1. And thinking about United’s really high pricing for international premium cabin awards, and international first class awards in particular, the more and more I’m liking international frequent flyer programs more and more, including international programs that add fuel surcharges onto award tickets. Don’t get me wrong, fuel surcharges are bogus fees and they unfairly tax frequent flyers’ accumulated balances. For the most part they don’t really affect paid tickets, among other things they are a convenient mechanism for raising or lowering all fares in a given market. They serve as an excuse for airlines to take cash from members, claiming the miles pay for the base fare only and not any of the taxes or surcharges. But when choosing a frequent flyer program to use, one…
How Frequent Flyer Programs Really Work (What Travel Writers Tell You is Wrong)
I love that consumer ombudsmen like Chrstopher Elliott exist. They can get attention for people that are trapped in bizarre bureaucracies, out real cash after trips have gone awry and who are getting nothing but runaround. What frustrates me is that he seems to think that everything travel providers do is inherently ridiculous and unreasonable, and that consumers ought to be entitled to pretty much anything they wish. He reminds me of the Saturday Night Live fake commercial for a personal injury law firm that featured Phil Hartman — “Sure the sign said no trespassing, but how much did that really mean when you were as drunk as I was?” And Elliott makes crazy, over-the-top claims that even he can’t possibly believe, presumably to get clicks and generate controversy. That’s often how online writers get…
Tipping When Traveling Abroad: When to Do It? How Much to Give?
Commenter Scott G asked, Would love an insight into tipping in various regions of the world. Traveling in July to Paris and Japan and October to London and Ireland. In your experience does it vary by country, culture, or continent? When traveling to Australia a few years back was surprised that tipping is not always customary and only recently was becoming more popular in cabs and restaurants, etc. Haven’t seen a travel blogger explore this topic in detail. I’m not really an expert on tipping. Just because I know how to get around the world doesn’t make me an expert on its cultures. I think I’ve gained some insights into the places I’ve visited, my life has certainly been enriched by my travels and I understand places better than if I hadn’t visited. But goodness…
