I already really like PointsHound for the ability to earn miles when booking hotels for yourself (and especially for others). In that way they’re similar to Rocketmiles (which sometimes offers more miles, but has fewer properties to choose from). What I especially like though – and what differentiates PointsHound – is the ability to earn miles while in the case of their ‘Doup We’ve supercharged our website and the deals have never been better. This is no promo – we’ve increased our everyday earning rates and expanded our selection of hotels! Check out the new PointsHound and see how many more points you can earn on your next hotel stay. Here are their examples: A couple of months ago PointsHound was acquired by Points.com. That’s the company that many frequent flyers know lets you transfer…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for June 2014.
The Decline of – and Remaining Value in – Promo Awards
Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program should be interesting to U.S. frequent flyers for several reasons. They offer one-way awards, which Delta won’t have until next year. They are an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner (points transfer instantly). They have access to award space that Delta won’t let you have. They have most of their partners available for online booking Unfortunately their call centers are frustrating, their website can be too (and has been known to show ‘phantom’ award availability, seats that look available but aren’t really here to book). And they add fuel surcharges onto award tickets. One of the great values, historically, has been their ‘promo awards’. Award tickets at half the cost of their regular award chart can be a great value, for a relatively short booking window and for travel…
British Airways 50% Off Redemption Sale Now Live
As expected, British Airways has launched a 50% off long haul economy redemption sale. For 2 weeks the mileage cost of economy redemptions originating in London to 20 cities has been cut in half. Travel is permitted October 1 through February 28, excluding December 10 through January 10. Here are the destinations:
KLM’s Offensive World Cup Tweet (and What the REAL Outrage Is)
It’s not been a good quarter for airline twitter teams. But ever since US Airways gave us the greatest online gift of the past five years and no one from the twitter team got fired, it seems like their jobs are safe at least. After all, if US Airways didn’t fire the guy who used a Boeing 777 outside of normal operating parameters, then Delta couldn’t really fire anyone for sending out an arguably racist tweet about a giraffe (or at least one ignorant of its subject matter). And if the World Cup ensnared Delta’s twitter team in controversy, others haven’t been spared either. Buzzfeed highlighted KLM’s celebratory missive over the Netherlands’ victory over Mexico to advance to the quarter finals. The tweet even featured a guy wearing a sombrero. Mexico fans did not take…
United Announces the Elimination of Garlic Bread and Ketchup
While United makes excuses for losing $600 million in the first quarter, and is out of ideas so just copies Delta, they get more and more desperate. Strategy plans are said to look like what’s “found in a typical operating department’s annual budget presentation than in a corporate presentation..” So where do they turn for salvation? Elimination of ketchup from Europe flights and garlic bread from Asia flight premium cabins. The airline that spent 2013 losing 250,000 customers a month is eliminating complimentary meals on their Honolulu – Guam flights. They’re also shrinking the lavatories on 737-800 and 737-900 aircraft. They call them ‘space saving lavatories” which sounds almost futuristic… like Magic Flush. Why you may ask are they doing this? To squeeze in more rows of coach, of course! In a move @FakeUnitedJeff would…
How Internet Gets Installed on a Plane
I visited gogo inflight internet a couple of weeks ago and saw the technology behind internet in the sky as well as how support gets handled. One of the presentations included a time lapse video of the actual installation on a plane. That’s not done at gogo’s headquarters so we couldn’t see it being performed live (they do it onsite during maintenance in a matter of hours per plane). tnooz points to one such video, and it’s a great quick watch. Here’s a Virgin America aircraft getting equipped with gogo’s latest ‘ATG4’ air-to-ground internet service. You can join the 40,000+ 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…
Why Do Some Credit Card Companies Give Signup Bonuses Over and Over for the Same Card?
It’s an interesting thought exercise and window into the business models of the big banks, that some companies at different times in their evolution have given signup bonuses to customers that have had their cards in the past. It seems especially strange and impossible to people that are signing up for cards just to get the bonuses. I mean, after all, why would banks do that?
Up to 40% Off a Hotel Booking Today Only
Magic of Miles highlights a $40 off $100 hotel booking code you can use in conjunction with the Travelocity mobile app. Book today for travel through the end of the year with promotion code MOBILE40. The trick? Most national hotel brands are excluded from the promotion. Here’s the list of excluded hotel chains: Accor Hotels, Amari Hotels, Anantara Hotels, Aston, Banyan Tree, Barcelo, Carlson Hotels and Resorts, Choice, Drury Inn & Suites, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Fortune Hotels, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Furama, Hilton Hotels, Holiday Express Suite, Holiday Inn, IHG, Intercontinental Resorts, La Quinta Inns, Langham, Loews, Louvre, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Melia Resorts, Movenpick, NH Hotels, Oberoi, Peninsula Hotels, RIU Hotels and Resorts, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Scandic Hotels, Shangri-La Hotels, Six Senses, Starwood, Taj Hotels, Vincci, Woodside Hotels No Marriott,…
Why Do Credit Card Companies Waive Foreign Transaction Fees?
At some level this may seem obvious, but it was still interesting to me. It turns out that credit card companies waive foreign transaction fees on select products for the same reason they offer mileage bonuses even when those bonus offers come at a loss. It’s all about influencing consumer behavior beyond the individual transaction that benefit from the bonus or the elimination of a fee. American Express isn’t making money when it gives out 3 points per dollar on airfare with its Premier Rewards Gold product. Citi never made money offering 5% back on drugstore purchases. The idea with those is to engage their cardholder so that they become accustomed to using the card, and keep pulling it out. Because that’s how behavior apparently actually works, we don’t all maximize cards for each transaction.…
50% Off British Airways Redemptions, No Fly List Unconstitutional, and Forced Luxury Vacations
News and notes from around the interweb: Literally being forced to take an all expenses paid vacation. Court rules no fly list procedures are unconstitutional Analyst says United should shutter its Washington Dulles hub. They seriously looked at this a decade ago during bankruptcy. British Airways will apparently launch a 50% off redemption sale starting Monday for most economy flights originating in the U.K. ticketed by July 13 and travel between October 1 and February 28 (December 18 – January 10 excluded). Which foreign airlines receive the biggest loan subsidies from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to buy aircraft? Ryanair has received more than $6 billion in guaranteed financing. Air India, Korean Air and Latam Airlines, a Latin American carrier, have also received more than the $3.9 billion in guarantees that Emirates has obtained for buying…
