News and notes from around the interweb: Get $5 free from Paypal A simple rule for making every restaurant meal better The most lucrative way to use Marriott Rewards points is travel packages. Miles Professor offers a good introduction. Pluses and minuses of each of the American Express prepaid products The 20 Most Annoying Things About Airplane Travel (HT: Alan H.) 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 on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2014.
Double Redeemable Miles for Six Months! From Qantas…
I was sure excited to see a double redeemable miles promotion. I wonder whether my preferred frequent flyer program will match? Hah. At double miles, that makes Qantas’ long haul award chart almost reasonable. Registration is required and tickets must be purchased by September 12 — this is for new tickets purchased between September 5 and 12 only — but travel can be through February 28, 2015. So that’s about six full months of double redeemable miles. This is double miles of course off of Qantas’ ‘simpler’ earning structure. It’s always seemed odd to reduce earning, then increase earning, but what else are you going to do when you’re losing as much money as they are?> Qantas miles are great if you want to upgrade on Qantas. Otherwise there are generally better programs, period. It…
Earn Double or Triple Starpoints for Your Fall Hotel Stays
Starwood Promotions: Starwood is out with their fall promotion — double Starpoints on eligible stays of two or more nights and triple Starpoints if the stay includes a Friday or Saturday night (Thursday or Friday night in the Middle East) between September 15 and December 15. Where have we seen this before? (No quadruple points option this time, nor any mobile booking bonus.) Registration is required by October 31, but there’s no reason not to register now — just in case — even if you don’t expect to make any eligible stays during the promotion period. Perhaps you’re like me: I often find that I don’t know where my future self is going to stay… Here’s the list of non-participating hotels, which is to say that Starwood Preferred Guest isn’t picking up the whole cost…
Handcuffed and Detained: Your Next Trip Report Could Land You In Trouble
A man taking photos of his flight’s aircraft and cabin crew was taken off the aircraft in handcuffs, questioned, re-screened, and then let back on before the flight continued. Some passengers claimed air stewardesses were crying and one asked who would look after her children if anything happened. Nick Taylor, 40, from Blackburn, Lancashire, left the plane with his wife and son and paid £1,000 for new flights home. He said: ‘I had to make a decision, do I risk my family for the sake of £1,000? ‘The air hostesses were crying and there was a scuffle at the front of the plane. There was a very tense atmosphere. So what exactly made everyone so concerned? The ‘agitated’ passenger launched into a series of bizarre antics when his request to see the cockpit was rejected.…
Great Simple Strategy to Use Rental Car Miles and Save on Taxes Still Works!
One useful trick with rental cars — if you want to earn miles rather than rental credit, a preferred strategy with Avis — is not to give your frequent flyer account number when you make the reservation and just request the miles after the rental is over. There’s two reasons that made this exceptionally useful. Usually you’re talking about a small number of miles. One of the best things about it is being able to credit miles to just about whatever program you wish. This let you keep accounts active, keep miles from expiring. So you pick later where the miles go based on where you need them. You save on taxes. Rental car companies generally charge a fee to recoup the taxes paid when buying miles from US airline frequent flyer programs. But once…
Some Guy Built a Real Flying Model Airbus A380. There’s Only Three Problems…
While I’m posting videos on Sunday evening, here’s one courtesy of @phil_muller of an incredibly impressive model of a Singapore Airlines A380. This thing flies! There are only two things wrong with it. Here’s the rub: There’s no suites class onboard. No award inventory, either. And you cannot Book the Cook. Other than that, awesome! 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 on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
The TSA’s Official Instructional Video for Kids!
I don’t even know what to say. This apparently isn’t new, though it was new to me. (HT: Toqueville) 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 on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Fly540: Flying an African Low Cost Carrier.. And Living to Tell the Tale!
I’ve only offered up this blog to guests post a couple of times in the past, always when the reader has something unique to contribute that outside my expertise, or outside of the experiences I’m able to share. Attorney Eric M. Fraser on the Supreme Court’s Northwest vs. Ginsberg (the case of the Rabbi who complained too much and was kicked out of his frequent flyer program). His contributions here, here, and here. My co-worker Pakistani Correspondent (or ‘P.C.’), a young woman using miles for the first time and flying business class for the first time — redeeming Amex points transferred to Delta to fly Saudi home to her family in Lahore, Pakistan over Christmas and New Years. Her contributions: New York JFK – Jeddah Saudia Lounge, Jeddah and Jeddah-Lahore CIP Lounge in Lahore, Pakistan…
3000 Bonus Points Per Club Carlson Stay
Club Carlson is offering 3000 bonus points per stay booked with their mobile app between September 8 and November 16 (stays must be completed — check out — by November 16 as well). If you’re going to make a paid stay during the promotion period (excluding cash and points stays) anyway, it makes sense to book the room through the app. You must be an existing Club Carlson member to participate in the 3K Bonus Mobile App Promotion (“Promotion”). To be eligible to earn 3,000 points (“Bonus Points”) you must make a reservation on the Club Carlson mobile app between September 8, 2014 and November 16, 2014 (“Promotional Period”) and pay in full for a Gold Points-eligible stay at Quorvus Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson and Country Inns & Suites…
20% Off When You Book a Suite with Kimpton
Via Inside Flyer, here is 20% Kimpton suite discount — 20% off paid suite reservations with promotion code SUITES for bookings made by September 13 and stays through October 31. Here’s the offer, you have to be signed into your Karma Rewards account to see it. (Here’s why I’m not a huge fan of what they’ve done to the Kimpton loyalty program.) Inside Flyer says about the rates — Availability and discount varies by hotel. A check of rates for one-night stay in September found that with the promotion, a suite at the Palomar Philadelphia was $239 per night, while the best available rate on a standard queen was $199 per night. Of course that’s clearly for a suite that’s not much more than a standard room to begin with, but some will find this…
