Monthly Archives

Nov 12 2015

It’s interesting that as airlines try to re-align their programs to ‘better reward high value customers’ (read: devalue the program for lower revenue customers, and at best remaining neutral for high spenders) they introduce mileage-earning from flight activity based on ticket price but have not yet introduced revenue-based redemptions.

Delta has hidden their award charts but still, more or less, prices awards on the basis of award charts. United maintains award charts. American is expected to as well.

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Nov 12 2015

Less than two weeks after news broke that Design Hotels would become Starwood’s 11th brand, Design Hotels is already being brought into Starwood Preferred Guest.

Today is the soft launch for the effort to bring Design Hotels into the Starwood Preferred Guest program. Only 5 of the 287 Design Hotels properties are live with SPG so far. They start with points-earning and limited in-hostel benefits.

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Nov 12 2015

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Nov 11 2015

airberlin is a oneworld airline, partner of American and British Airways, that’s largely controlled by UAE-based Etihad.

They have a great business class product for long haul travel, and they do not add fuel surcharges to their fares. That means when redeeming miles, even British Airways miles for travel across the Atlantic, there are no fuel surcharges.

They’ve just announced new service starting in May to 3 US cities and business class awards are available for 2 passengers on pretty much every flight!

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Nov 11 2015

The same Chinese man who bought a ceramic cup at auction last year and paid with his American Express card earning 422 million points is back at it again.

Billionaire art collector Liu Yiqian paid $170.4 million for Amedeo Modigliani’s “Nu Couche” at auction on Monday. With his American Express card. He uses a Hong Kong-based card than earns 1.5 points per Hong Kong dollar spent.

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Nov 11 2015

I’m trying something new and would appreciate your help. I’m working with ExpertFlyer on a travel survey. It’s not meant to be a representative survey of how all people travel. Those surveys aren’t so interesting to me. Instead, the goal is to survey really engaged travelers — the kinds of people who use sophisticated online tools to manage their travel, and read blogs like this one.

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Nov 11 2015

A homeless man in New York with a temp job at a law firm used the indentities of 20 of the firm’s clients to sign up for credit cards and use the free night signup bonuses for a place to live.

He also used the cards to charge hotel stays, and purchase items from Walmart. He was eventually caught buying and reselling Amtrak tickets (and presumably pocketing the travel category bonus points).

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Nov 11 2015

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Nov 10 2015

When American Airlines announced new Los Angeles – Sydney service they teased possible flights to New Zealand and acknowledged Auckland was on their radar.

Now the time has come. American announced service to Auckland with a Boeing 787-8 starting in June.

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Nov 10 2015

When I re-qualified this year for American Airlines Executive Platinum (100,000 mile flyer status), it took a couple of weeks to get a note from AAdvantage.

In contrast, within minutes of my 50th Starwood night posting, I had a congratulatory email. That was impressive. I also had another email inviting me to choose my benefit for reaching 50 nights (rather than just 25 stays).

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