Mommy Points let me know that the Andaz Maui breakfast — that I raved about just six weeks ago — has tightened up their benefit for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members. They’ve created a new, lower level buffet (the “Ka’ana Pantry” rather than full buffet) which they allow Diamonds to supplement with an entree and side off of the menu. Andaz Maui Had One of the Best Breakfast Offerings in Hyatt, the Chain With the Best Breakfast Benefit Hyatt offers the most generous top tier breakfast benefit — full, not continental, breakfast in hotels without a club lounge offering. I rate the Andaz Maui’s breakfast a notch behind the Park Hyatt Hadahaa in the Maldives (better setting), Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris (more refined, and room service option), and Andaz 5th Avenue (room service). It’s…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2014.
Why American Has Its Frequent Flyer and IT Priorities Right (and Randy Petersen is Wrong)
Doug Parker said that American AAdvantage wouldn’t be going revenue-based at this point, that their key metric is combining the AAdvantage program with Dividend Miles, and that once they accomplish that they’ll evaluate what’s next. In his opening remarks to the September issue of Inside Flyer, Randy Petersen seems to push for a revenue-based program now. He asks, Really? How could the topic not even be on the plate right now? Let’s see, the change in both the Southwest Rapid Rewards and Delta SkyMiles programs reportedly cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in technology changes to cconvert to revenue-based programs – and both were delayed upwards of two years because of technical hurdles associated with the change – and the topic is not on the table at American? … I…
Spirit Airlines Promotes Low Fares With Naked Photos of Jennifer Lawrence!
In Spirit’s latest, they offer: Spirit wins, because they get the Wall Street Journal to cover their ‘low fares’ at virtually zero cost. “Our bare fare was hacked,” reads a Spirit Airlines promotion emailed to consumers Wednesday, just days after hacked nude photographs of a handful of celebrities surfaced online. “We feel naked; you were never supposed to see this Bare Fare! It was meant for a special someone (who isn’t you). Now it’s all over the Internet for you to take advantage of as you see fit.” Spirit has promoted its Bare Fare program before, but the cheeky references to the weekends’ high-profile photo deluge are new. “We thought the cloud was our friend, y’know, because we spend so much time flying with ‘em,” the promotion says, referring to reports that hackers accessed the…
50% Bonus for New Air Canada Flight Bookings for Travel Through April 2015
Frequent Flyer Bonuses flags a lucrative Aeroplan bonus miles offer for flying Air Canada. It’s a 50% bonus on Air Canada (and Express and rouge) flights booked between September 2 and October 31 for travel between October 1 and April 30, 2015. Registration is required. 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!
About That 50,000 American Airlines Bonus You Can Get…
American Airlines Credit Card 50000 Bonus Miles: Monday I wrote about the 50,000 bonus point offering for signing up for the Citibank American Airline small business credit card. The link I had been using for a long while stopped working, but a reader provided me with a new one. The deal lives on. And indeed, 50,000 miles for the card is a good deal. It’s no fee the first year, and with a low spending requirement. It ‘stacks’ with the personal card. You can get 50,000 for both. Here’s Why (and how) you should get a small business card. I failed to make one important point in the post, because it wasn’t news – the 50,000 point personal card signup bonus is still available. I’ve gotten emails from several readers since I wrote the post…
Improvements Coming to Starwood Elite Upgrades: “SPG Preferences” and More!
Starwood introduced a whole new suite of elite benefits two and a half years ago. The one most initially prized was “Suite Night Awards” — Platinum members who stayed at least 50 nights a year would receive 10 nights that could be confirmed into suites in advance of arrival. How Upgrades in Advance Work Now Some members have had good luck with these, and of course it depends on the hotel (primarily how many suites they have) and when members stay (competition for those suites). But on the whole there’s also been much frustration over the ability to actually use the upgrades. In fact, at the end of 2013, unused suite night awards had their validity extended through the end of April 2014. These upgrades are not really ‘confirmed’ the way we usually think about…
The Guy Who Sparked the Knee Defender Controversy Plans to Keep Using It!
The passenger who touched off a media firestorm over use of the ‘knee defender’ and who caused a United flight from Newark to Denver speaks out. Scott Mayerowitz of the Associated Press scored an interview with James Beach, the man who touched off the firestorm. And all I can say is… wow. On the one hand he says he is “embarrassed by the way the confrontation unfolded and that he regrets his behavior.” The knee defender is against the rules at all of the major US airlines and he acknowledges that passengers have a right to recline their seat, but he plans to continue to use it anyway. Here’s how he goes about it: “I put them in maybe a third of the time. Usually, the person in front tries (to recline) their seat a…
New Partner Mileage Earning Bonus
Frequent Flyer Bonuses highlights and offer of up to 5000 bonus miles for earning points with partners on air berlin. Earn up to 5,000 Top Bonus Miles when you earn topbonus miles from at least two different partners. Register Online (Registration is required) Until Oct 31, 14 Bonuses as follows: 2 partner services – 2,000 extra award miles 3 partner services – 3,000 extra award miles 4 partner services – 4,000 extra award miles 5 partner services – 5,000 extra award miles As FFB observes, ” it is quite easy to earn at least the lowest bonus of 2,000 miles as you only need two partner earning actions and one of those can be Holiday Check where you earn miles for submitting a hotel review.” Partner earning promotions are some of my favorites. I always…
SPG Pro: Starwood’s New Points and Status Earning for Meetings, Agents, and Company Travel Assistants
I spoke with Chris Holdren and with Krystal Zell from Starwood Preferred Guest yesterday about a new initiative they’re rolling out: SPG Pro. This program continues the high level activity we’ve seen from Starwood over the past two and a half years since they: Introduced a new slate of elite benefits like Suite Night Awards, 24 hour check-in, breakfast, more bonus points, and free internet for Golds — plus lifetime elite status. Joined forces with Delta to offer each others’ elites more points and upgrades Partnered with Caesars in Las Vegas to offer reciprocal points-earning (plus limited elite qualifying night earning) Chris opened by saying he wanted to prove me to I was wrong about a blog post I wrote five weeks ago.
Last Chance to Buy LifeMiles at 1.5 Cents Apiece!
I almost called this post ‘Sarcastic Shock #2’ — Star Alliance member Avianca is offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles in its LifeMiles program through September 30. You can purchase up to 75,000 miles and receive 150,000 miles — at a cost of $2250 or 1.5 cents per mile. I don’t like investing in LifeMiles speculatively: Last May they tweaked some award prices without notice and increased the cash cost of cash and points awards as well. We got advance notice this time, but there are big award chart changes coming October 15. When Avianca joined Star Alliance I declared their program the most generous in the alliance. After United’s February devaluation, that’s likely true. They are part of my “Devaluation Plan B” which is to look to international frequent flyer programs for value…
