Starwood is offering up to a 25% discount on purchased points through the end of the year. 10% off 500–9,500 Starpoints 15% off 10,000–14,500 Starpoints 20% off 15,000–19,500 Starpoints 25% off 20,000 Starpoints This isn’t an uncommon offer — Starwood offered this back in April, last November, and the previous March — but it’s also the biggest discount I’ve seen (it can liekly be taken to be as good an offer as it gets). The ‘normal’ price on Starpoints is 3.5 cents per point. Ouch. Fortunately, unlike airline miles, you don’t pay an additional tax on top. And there’s not also a ‘processing fee’ like many of the airlines charge. If you max out on the discount, and buy 20,000 points (which is what you are permitted to buy each year, although each member of…
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The New American Express Studio Lounge Concept Launches Next Year in Seattle
American Express is opening a new lounge at the Seattle Airport next year. But it won’t be a Centurion lounge as we’ve come to know them. Instead it’s a Centurion Studio. Here’s what American Express shared with me, [W]e are opening a new Card Member space in Seattle-Tacoma Airport – it’ll be an extension of the Centurion Lounge but in a smaller footprint. We’ll have the amenities Card Members tell us are most important when they’re on the road: comfortable seating, charging stations, fast and free WiFi, and complimentary healthy snacks and drinks. There are Centurion Lounge locations currently in: San Francisco Dallas Fort-Worth New York LaGuardia Las Vegas The Centurion Lounges feature outstanding food and drink, and some locations include showers, kids room, and even a spa. Access for Centurion and Platinum cardholders is…
United and Orbitz Sue to Crackdown on Site That Helps Consumers Save Money on Airfare
Regular readers know that throwaway and hidden city ticketing is a technique that can be used to save thousands of dollars on airfare. It’s not illegal (and the New York Times “Ethicist” endorses it), but it’s generally against airline rules, and there are some basic practices you need to follow to make sure you or your bags don’t wind up in the wrong city! You’re buying a ticket from A to B to C, where A to C is cheaper than buying A to B, but getting off in B. You can’t check bags or else they will go to C. In the event of weather or cancellations, an airline may want to reroute you to C via a different connecting city (“D”). Airlines see themselves as selling you a ticket from A to C,…
Delta Releases Full New Worldwide Award Charts for Travel After January 1
Back at the beginning of the year Delta announced half of how their frequent flyer program would work in 2015. They released changes to mileage earning but told us nothing about how miles would be spent. They explained that miles from flights would be based on spending. We learned that there would be a 5 tier award chart for each of economy and business class — 10 prices rather than the 4 that airlines historically had (and United continues to have) and the 6 that Delta introduced with Low, Medium, and High pricing. But we needed know what those prices would be, so we were missing a big piece of the puzzle about the value of the 2015 program. After continually calling Delta out for their ‘secret award chart’ — telling members the program would…
Is This How Your Aircraft Was Repaired?
Undoubtedly duct tape is a miracle of modern science. The Discovery Channel series MythBusters has featured duct tape in a number of myths that involve non-traditional uses. Confirmed myths include suspending a car for a period of time, building a functional cannon, a two-person sailboat, a two-person canoe (with duct tape paddles), wearable shoes, a leak proof water canister, rope, and a hammock which can support the weight of an adult male, and constructing a bridge that spanned the width of a dry dock. In the episode “Duct Tape Plane,” the MythBusters repaired (and eventually replaced) the skin of a lightweight airplane with duct tape and flew it a few meters above a runway. Reader Dick sends along this photo of a United Express regional jet at O”Hare. Seeing a plane repaired with what appears…
Propeller Slices Through Window and Hits Woman in the Head, and American’s Project to Track You
News and notes from around the interweb: The abandoned 5-star resort of North Cyprus Propeller slices through plane window, hits woman in the head. A woman, nervous about flying Malaysia Airlines, claims to have been sexually assaulted instead of comforted. (HT: Alan H.) Something is fishy about this story. Not sure how I didn’t know this, but American Airlines is pursuing a beacon technology project at Dallas that will tell you if you’re lost and where you need to be via their mobile app LAX wants 4 new fire trucks. Apparently that costs $3.8 million. Which is a bargain compared to what Boston Logan pays — $1.3 million per truck. 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…
Emirates: the Clear Winner to and from Australia
Qantas, a member of the oneworld alliance, has an odd set of partnerships. Its closest partner is Emirates, which isn’t a member of oneworld. One of Emirates’ main rivals is Qatar, which is in oneworld. Qantas dumped British Airways, also a member of the oneworld alliance, in favor of its Emirates deal. Here’s the thing: while the Qantas-British Airways deal didn’t make a lot of sense… flying passengers between Europe and Australia via London isn’t attractive for most Europeans outside the U.K. or for most Aussies heading places other than the U.K. because of the extra flying on what’s already a tortuously long route… but also because of Heathrow. An interchange in the Middle East does make sense, or even Eastern or potentially Southern Europe. But Emirates would seem to get the far better end…
What Happens to Existing Reservations When Your Status Goes Up or Down?
One of the classic data challenges with frequent flyer programs is: what happens when your elite status changes? Historically you would make a reservation, and your status would attach to it. When I dropped from Starwood Platinum status down to Gold at the beginning of 2010, my Platinum status still stayed in my reservations I had already booked. When I first went from United Premier to Premier Executive about 13 years ago, United didn’t see that I had a higher status with those initial reservations that I had made prior to my status increasing. But as IT systems have become better, this has begun to catch up. Still, not all programs have improved here, and it’s worth knowing about yours specifically. If your status is going up, do you need to proactively have something done…
100% Bonus on Citibank Transfers to Hilton HHonors Through January 8
Over the summer Citibank drastically improved the value proposition of its Thank You Points program, making the points transferable to a variety of airline mileage programs. Two years ago they introduced the program’s first transfer partner — Hilton. But transfers to Hilton are normally a really poor value at 1:1. Doubly so because Hilton massively devalued their program a mere month later. Current transfer partners are: Air France-KLM Asia Miles Etihad Airways Guest EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles Hilton HHonorsTM Malaysia Airlines Enrich Qatar Airways Privilege Club Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus The Air France KLM Flying Blue program is useful, and so is Asia Miles… their distance-based chart though gets expensive for long distance premium cabin flying. Singapore Airlines is my favorite option here — for cheap US domestic…
Real World Travel Tip: Take Care of Your Airline Club Agents, and They Will Really Take Care Of You
When I was young my family had a big gathering each year at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden. I remember being quite young, maybe 5 or 6, and spilling something on my shirt at brunch beforehand, so had to make a stop at a department store on the way to the event for a replacement. And… I spilled food on that shirt later in the day, too. My great uncle bought me a t-shirt at a concession stand to wear. It was a young boy sharing his ice cream cone with his horse. The horse was licking the ice cream. And the caption read, “treat your pony as you would like to be treated yourself.” I still have that shirt, although it doesn’t fit anymore. But it was my lesson very young…
