The Amtrak Guest Rewards home page has a banner for its new ‘Go Three, Go Free’ promotion. Register by March 14 and take three qualifying roundtrips on Acela Express by then as well and earn a free roundtrip on Acela for use July 1 through Aug. 31, 2014. The offer has apparently been valid since January but I somehow missed it. There is a minimum spend requirement of $90 each way, and they won’t credit more than two one way segments per day. Amtrak Select Executive members get to redeem for Acela’s first class. Up to 4 free one-ways can be earned. Free ride blackout dates of July 3, 6, and August 29 apply. (HT: Notiflyer) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for February 2014.
1000 Bonus Miles for Presidents Day for Rocketmiles Hotel Bookings in Obscure Presidents Home States
Rocketmiles 1000 bonus miles in your choice of program for hotels booked today in the states of New York, Vermont, Virginia, Ohio, or Pennsylvania. Why? “To commemorate our least remembered Presidents.” How did they arrive at these states? William Taft’s (Ohio) jovial demeanor and affection for baths. Millard Fillmore’s (New York) contagious laugh and cloth-making skills. Martin Van Buren’s (New York) expertise of English, his second language. John Tyler (Virginia) and Chester Arthur (Vermont), for never whining when asked to step into the presidential role unexpectedly. Lifelong bachelor James “Old Buck” Buchanan (Pennsylvania), for doing it all without a First Lady. The bonus is not combinable with other offers. If you’re a first-time Rocketmiles customer you’re best off with 3000 Aeroplan miles or 3000 United miles, but this could be useful for someone that has…
Unlocking the Virgin Australia Award Chart (Now that They’re a Starwood Transfer Partner)
Virgin Australia has more non-stop award availability, especially in premium cabins, between the US and Australia than anyone else. By far. They have flights from Los Angeles to Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. I’ve managed to get four business class awards on the Brisbane flight over Christmas. They’re a Delta frequent flyer partner, and though Delta charges a pricey 160,000 miles roundtrip for business class between the US and Australia (fortunately, they no longer add fuel surcharges in addition to miles), this is more or less the best Australia redemption out there. The only alternatives, much of the time and certainly during peak season, involve flying via Asia — often double the travel time. And that’s really the only extent to which I’ve paid attention to them. (You can use Virgin America miles on Virgin Australia,…
I Need Your Help Before I Write My Next Trip Report!
I’m about to start another trip report and I’d really appreciate your feedback on how I should go about it. Back at the end of August it looked like American was going to start adding fuel surcharges onto all partner awards (where the partner charged those on paid tickets). It turns out to have been a system glitch, compounded by a vaguely worded memo talking about changes to certain revenue tickets, and then mistakenly confirmed by American’s twitter team. Oops. But during the few hours that this was going on I decided to book an award ticket, to get in under the wire and burn some miles and presumably save myself some money on fuel surcharges in the process. I booked Cathay Pacific first class New York – Hong Kong and return, and then added…
Hyatt’s Facebook Game: Choose Bonus Points or Free Nights… or a Night With a Supermodel
Hyatt Gold Passport has a really cool Facebook game promoting Hyatt’s bonus points or free nights offer that runs through April 30. Here’s how to strategically game the signup process. Just like the Gold passport promotion asks you to choose between earning free nights or bonus points, Hyatt’s Facebook app asks you to choose ‘which one would you prefer’ with some options between two really good things… and some decisions that more closely resemble Sophie’s Choice. Would you rather book the same vacation as your ex or your boss? I was surprised to learn that more Hyatt Gold Passport members would rather be rescued in minutes than stuck overnight on a ski lift with a supermodel. But I guess it’s cold, the choice wasn’t being rescued or stuck in the ski lodge. Hyatt execs really…
So a Man Walks Into the Wheel Well Of a Plane . . .
A tragedy on Saturday, a man’s body was found inside a South African Airways plane that had landed at Washington Dulles. A man’s body was found Saturday afternoon inside the landing-gear wheel well of a plane that had landed at a suburban Washington airport, authorities said. Ground crew assigned to the aircraft — an Airbus A340 operated by South African Airways — discovered the body around 1:30 p.m. in a remote parking area of Dulles International Airport, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement. Airport police, fire and other personnel went to the scene, joined by FBI agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. The location of the flight’s origin was not immediately known. Obviously the overriding reaction, even without knowing any more of the circumstances, is that this is sad and…
Upgrades on LAN Just for Being a LANPASS Credit Card Holder
South American oneworld airline LAN has a distance-based award chart, no fuel surcharges, and Starwood points transfer at 1 to 1.5 (40,000 Starpoints yield 75,000 LAN points). That’s all interesting as far as it goes. And U.S. Bank issues the LANPASS Visa Signature® Card here in the U.S. It comes with 20,000 bonus points with first purchase ($0 introductory annual fee the first year, $75 thereafter) and 4000 points each year with card renewal. What struck me as interesting is that they’ve added a new benefit to the card: 20% discount on LAN purchase (up to $1,000) 1 time per year 25% flight miles bonus 3 one-way upgrade coupons per year These would seem to make it a really strong card for actually flying on LAN (and not just redeeming miles for short-distance oneworld airline…
Voting for the Best Airline and Hotel Loyalty Programs is Now Open!
Voting for the Freddie Awards is Now Open! Since 1988 the Freddie Awards have been recognizing the best in travel loyalty programs. What’s unique is that the best of the best are voted on by members. You’ll be able to express your opinion on which programs are delivering the most value to you in several categories: Best Promotion Best Customer Service Best Redemption Ability Best Loyalty Credit Card Best Elite Program Program of the Year You can vote in one region or in each of the three regions of the world, whichever you wish. And as a truly global awards program, balloting is available in several languages. This is the largest awards program, and one respected by the industry. The awards ceremony will be held at Boeing’s Museum of Flight in Seattle at the end…
Here’s My Strategy for Keeping Elite Status With American
My paid travel has been relatively light so far this year, I’ve flown far more award miles so far than paid miles. Of course we’re only six weeks into the year, and that balance is about to change. But I care a great deal about my American Airlines Executive Platinum (100,000 mile flyer) status. So to make sure I’m in a position to keep it I’m doing all I can — and I don’t really mileage run, the cost of my time is just too high independent of the cost of tickets. I prefer to mileage run from home. With credit cards. My US Airways MasterCard gives 10,000 elite qualifying miles after spending $25,000 in a year. I’ve done that, and my 10,000 status miles have already posted. So now I am working on earning…
Redeem 100,000 Miles for a Real Flight Simulator Experience
I’ll admit I have accumulated more miles than I am comfortable with. I believe that miles are never going to be as valuable tomorrow as they are today, miles should be used in the near-term for travel and then more miles earned going forward for future travel. In that way you’re earning and redeeming miles based on the same rates and charts, and aren’t really affected by inflation. But I continue to earn more miles than I redeem even with four multi-person international premium cabin redemptions on the books for 2014. And while I tend to think that non-air travel redemptions usually don’t provide very good value (LCD toasters, anyone?), there can be some unique experience redemptions that make the cut — largely because you get access to the kinds of things you couldn’t do…
