Earlier this year the Supreme Court limited the ability of consumers to sue frequent flyer programs, suggesting that the Airline Deregulation Act prevents state law claims against frequent flyer programs because it requires that all regulation of the airlines be done at the federal level. Strictly speaking you could sue for direct breach of contract in state court but could not make a state claim like a “covenant of good faith and fair dealing” — the terms and conditions of your frequent flyer program are what they are, no matter how one-sided. Your only recourse is to the Department of Transportation. But the Department of Transportation doesn’t regulate frequent flyer programs. They are, however, initiating an audit this month of programs and in particular their compliance with disclosure rules. The Transportation Department’s inspector general plans…
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Can On-Airport Parking Kill?
Last week a man was found dead in Chicago O’Hare’s parking lot B. AirportParkingReservations.com speculated on the cause, and offered travelers advice. Park with them. Email subject line: Can On-Airport Parking Kill? Use their app. “Don’t be late and end up in a crate.” Mmmm-kay… Except clearly, since the man was found in a car in an on-airport lot whatever his problems may have been (and speculation as to cause of death is suicide), those problems did not include an inability to find a space in lot B. AirportParkingReservations.com has apologized. On the plus side, though, their original marketing email did include a $5 off coupon. (HT: Mediaite) 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)…
A Delta Award Sale With So Many Caveats and Gotchas the Savings Just Might Not Be Worth It…
Delta is offering its elites and co-brand credit card holders a discount on award redemptions booked through September 23. Naturally, the more you dig in though the tougher this gets. Here are the discounts: So it’s 4000 miles off domestic roundtrip awards, though you get 8000 miles off if you’re booking at the more expensive medium “standard” (cough) price. Still, that means you can get decent availability for only a modest premium off of the ‘usual’ Delta domestic award pricing. And 10,000 miles off a roundtrip to Southern South America, Europe and Asia. Of course, this is for: Delta flights only, no partners, not even 49%-owned Virgin Atlantic Economy only No discounts are available to “Hawaii; Alaska; Canada; Africa; the Middle East; Caracas, Venezuela; Cancun, Mexico; Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; and Sydney, Australia.” International tickets…
American Eliminating Checked Bags on Separate Tickets Outside of oneworld
Via Traveling Better: Effective October 1, 2014, AA will no longer through check bags when the passenger presents separate tickets at the ticket counter except as noted below. …Customers traveling on separate tickets will only be able to through check bags when the ticket is for travel on: American Airlines and American Eagle US Airways and US Express oneworld partner airline For all other carriers ticketed separately, bag will only be checked for the AA, US or oneworld partner flight. The customer will need to recheck their bags with the other carrier for the continuing travel. Department of Transportation rules that went into effect in July 2012 mean that a customer pays one set of fees for their entire journey, and ultimately limits how much an airline is keeping of their own fees when checking…
Why Can’t JFK (and New York) Get Better Hotels?
Barbara DeLollis notes that bringing on New York hotels is really, really hard not least of which because of labor negotiations. The old 487-room Ramada Plaza hotel has been closed for 5 years. The property is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which doesn’t help matters. And they haven’t been able to come to terms on a labor agreement. Hotels in New York, and many Northeastern cities (and to a certain extent California) are faced with highly restrictive union agreements that play out in some interesting ways. A hotel may have to close down an entire service like a restaurant or room service in order to re-negotiate labor conditions or wages — lay off workers since the service is no longer offered and then bring the service back under new…
A Great Deal Comes Crashing Down: The End of Lifetime Star Alliance Gold Status
When Aegean Airlines joined Star Alliance about four years ago it offered the easiest path towards top tier Gold status within the alliance. Indeed, what they’ve been offering is lifetime Star Alliance Gold status. They’d give you 1000 miles just for signing up. Then if you earned 19,000 more qualifying miles within the first year you’d earn Gold status. For life. With the only caveat being that you had to keep your account active by earning a qualifying mile every three years. (There were occasionally signup bonuses that would do 2000 miles, which count towards status.) Things got a little harder with US Airways leaving the Star Alliance. US Airways flights all earned 100% of flown miles when crediting to Aegean. Discount United miles only earned 50% credit. Still, for lifetime status many found it…
Where to Buy Money Orders and Earn Miles
There have been plenty of opportunities to generate lots of miles, ‘tricks’ if you will, over time — like buying savings bonus with a credit card from the federal government, buying travelers checks from AAA, and buying coins from the US mint (see among other posts here, here, and here). But there have never been as many – or as complicated – tricks as you are today. People try to “buy money with money” and earn points in the process, which keeping costs as low as possible. Thanks to the Durbin Amendment to Dodd-Frank financial reform, we’ve mostly seen the end of mileage-earning debit cards… but we’ve also seen: The costs to a bank to offer traditional accounts rise (and offsetting profit opportunities on those accounts fall) Which leaves more people outside of traditional banking…
Free Points, a Suggestion for Every Hotel, and a Huge Congratulations!!
News and notes from around the interweb: Former Frequent Traveler University speaker Chris Guillebeau’s new book on quests and lessons learned from visiting every country in the world, which I wrote about two weeks ago, has debuted at number 3 on the new York Times’ bestseller list! Congratulations Chris! Definitely check out The Happiness of Pursuit! Low hanging fruit: It makes sense why hotels that charge for internet require you to log in for access. But I don’t understand why hotels offering free wifi make you log in. Just a thought about how to make travelers’ lives better in a small way but that would improves things at the margin every day. 1000 free Best Western points The government has shut down the original Chinatown bus line The first American Airlines retrofitted Boeing 777-200 with…
I’d Like to Share Some Personal Thank You’s — and Related Observations
The Samsung Galaxy S5 really does take good photos, even in low light and even with someone at the controls who cannot do more than point and shoot (and isn’t great at holding steady). And Las Vegas is beautiful at night… from a distance. View from Mix at the Delano Many thanks to Randy Petersen and his staff for hosting a great weekend conference on blogging. Thanks to Lucky from One Mile at a Time, to Summer from Mommy Points, and Ed from Pizza in Motion for great conversations as always. It was wonderful to re-connect with folks like Jetsetter’s Homestead and Chris McGinnis, and finally meet others like Head for Points and Travel is Free. Congratulations to Heels First Travel for being added as ‘featured’ at BoardingArea.com. The speakers — from Google, USA Today,…
American Express Centurion Lounge Las Vegas – the Original is Still Very Good
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). I’m a big fan of American Express Centurion lounges in US airports, which I get complimentary access to as a Platinum Card from American Express cardholder. I was in Las Vegas the past couple of days, and I stopped off in the lounge on arrival for a quick bit to eat and freshen up, and on departure for a meal so that I wouldn’t have to rely on…
