Spirit Air knows you hate airlines, so they want to give you magazine subscriptions. Virgin America knows you hate airlines, so they want to offer bonus miles that can be used for more than just magazines. Virgin American will give you 500 points for signing up. And then they’ll give you more bonus points for your first trip: 2500 points if it’s Main Cabin 5000 points if it’s Main Cabin Select 7500 points if it’s First Class What’s more, if you sign up using an existing member’s referral link, they get points for referring you too. Here’s my referral link to sign up. You are welcome to leave yours in the comments as well. Terms and conditions explain that the referrer earns the same 2500, 5000, or 7500 bonus points that the new member earns…
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Hyatt’s New Personalized Concierge Service to Help Knock Stays Out of the Park
Hyatt is trialing a personalized reservation and concierge service for frequent guests. Loyalty Lobby reproduced the message Hyatt sent out to members invited to participate in the trial. What Hyatt is Trying to Accomplish With the Program Here’s what Hyatt told me about the pilot project several days ago: We are constantly in touch with our members and using their feedback to think of new ways Hyatt Gold Passport can provide value to our loyal members. One way we do this is by piloting new ideas with members. We recently selected a small group of Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members to provide feedback on a new iteration of the Personal Line service in Omaha, which we’re currently calling My Hyatt Concierge. Members with current Personal Line service are not included in the pilot. We look…
United Platinum Status for $100!
eBay has long been a place where you can buy lounge passes and also non-transferable coupons. Goodness knows Craigslist is too, and people sell award tickets sometimes too although I think that’s generally a bad idea. Not only is it against airline rules but you’re dealing with people you don’t know while breaking the rules. If they’re busted by the airline, the first thing that happens much of the time is they ‘roll’ on their clients for leniency and you wind up out the cash and out the tickets. Recently though what I’ve seen more of is selling elite status on eBay, which seems to be selling one’s knowledge and sketchy skills (photoshop?). A couple of weeks ago it was Hilton HHonors Gold for $30. Now today Kalboz points to a ‘Buy it Now’ for…
Uber Agrees to End Surge Pricing During NY Emergencies, And Why That Means You’ll Never Find a Ride
Lucky recently wrote about Uber’s fixed rate pricing for airport runs and some of the rates are pretty good. For instance, 550 baht for airport to downtown in Bangkok. The Airports of Thailand service will set you back 1000 baht. (It’s still 2.5x the price of a taxi.) I think that £37 for London Heathrow to downtown with UberX and £60 with UberBlack is a pretty good deal, since a taxi can be as high as £80. There are cheaper ways to do it, but the pricing is pretty good for what you get. In his post, Lucky offered as an aside, There are some fair complaints about Uber’s surge pricing.. And I replied in the comments, No, there really aren’t. 1. Surge pricing is disclosed clearly in advance. You can take them up on…
8000 Free Miles for Sharing How Much You Hate Airlines!
Spirit Air will give you 8000 miles in their FREE Spirit program for sending a short message of hate about any airline, theirs included. I love this line, “Airlines mess up – but at least Spirit Airlines is willing to admit it.” Here’s Spirit’s CEO on why it’s good to have customers who think you’re bad. To fill out the form you need to be a member of the Spirit Airlines FREE Spirit program, so think of this as an 8000 point signup bonus. Then choose the airline you want to hate on. And then enter your message up to 140 characters. Why I Won’t Even Bother: Spirit’s miles expire after 90 days of inactivity unless you have their co-branded credit card and charge to it every month (although presumably charging somewhat less frequently can…
American Offers Two Discounted Miles Prices for You to Pick From. Are You Smart Enough to Know the Difference?
US Airways will regularly sell miles at 1.88 cents apiece. Those miles will become American AAdvantage miles sometime next year. American, though, wants a hair over 2.3 cents per mile – at best – even with their new purchase miles bonus promotion. Until July 31: Earn up to 16,500 bonus miles Didn’t plan a summer getaway? Here is your chance to fuel your AAdvantage® account with the extra miles you need to squeeze in a summer break. To get even this price you have to buy exactly the number of miles that qualifies for the bonus threshold. Buying more miles gets you the same bonus, meaning your cost per mile is actually higher. US Airways has traditionally sold miles far less expensively than American has. They’ve made their miles more expensive, and in some ways…
Air New Zealand Pulls Its Sexy Safety Video — Too Hot To Handle?
Southwest probably takes the title for best onboard safety announcements but no airline even comes close to Air New Zealand’s videos. One of those videos — their Sports Illustrated swimsuit video “Safety In Paradise — has been pulled, ostensibly because of the number of complaints. Air New Zealand says it wasn’t pressure that led them to pull the safety video, just their normal rotation, The process of phasing in the previously recorded “Bear Essentials of Safety” video featuring Bear Grylls began on their fleet about a week ago, and the process is almost complete, she said. I’m skeptical, because ‘Bear Essentials of Safety’ is a video from early 2013 that pre-dated the swimsuit one. Air New Zealand has been pushing the envelope on its safety videos for at least five years. Anything to lull passengers…
Earn Unlimited Bonus Miles for Flying Through Hurricanes
Delta is offering bonus miles for each trip to several destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean regardless of class of service. Registration is required prior to ticket purchase and no later than September 30, for travel between September 2 through December 11. The promotion is open to residents of the US 50 states (though the promotion terms do not say so, presumably residents of the District of Colombia are eligible — they’re really just intending to exclude folks already in the area like Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands but exclude residents of Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas by extension). All paid mileage-eligible tickets earn bonus miles, and one-way tickets earn half the bonus of roundtrips. There is no limit to the number of times the bonus can be earned. The offer…
50% Off Buying Miles from US Airways This Month
US Airways is offering a targeted bonus of up to 100% additional miles when you buy miles through July 31. The offer is targeted, then you go to the buy miles page you have to enter your account information to see whether you’re being offered a bonus. I was able to see the offer on able half the accounts I manage. If the offer is available to you, buying miles at a 100% bonus means buying them at a cost of 1.88 cents per mile. US Airways is almost always selling miles on the cheap, which is to say at a price higher than I’m willing to pay but much lower than the ‘retail’ price that almost never prevails. Seriously, has the Federal Trade Commission really never launched an investigation of US Airways Dividend Miles…
Video of the Frankfurt Airport Being Used in the New Star Wars Movie!
I’ve certainly driven across the tarmac in Frankfurt. Finding yourself behind a Boeing 747 is perfectly common. But what happens when that 747 is replaced by an Imperial AT-AT vehicle? I didn’t even realize that the new Star Wars film directed by JJ Abrams was filming. It is. And someone has faked footage of the Lufthansa airport being used as part of the production. It’s been viewed about 1.5 million times on YouTube over the past 5 days. Not that an airport can’t close down its apron for a video, of course, Munich did it and the results were awesome. Star Wars: Episode VII debuts in theaters in December 2015. Driving behind a 747 in Frankfurt requires only booking an award ticket that gains you access to Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal. (HT: Ron A.) You…
