The past several days I ran a giveaway of gift cards and car rental status. This was all courtesy of National Car Rental – to highlight their One Two Free promotion. There are (5) prize winners, each to receive a $200 gift card and Executive Elite status. Not only do Executive Elites get to pick from the Executive aisle of higher category cars (as National Executive status allows) but they earn free rental days faster and in my experience are able to redeem those free rental days for premium vehicles. To enter I asked readers to leave a comment answering the question, what is the one thing that can make your car rental experience better? Here are the five winning entries: (drawn via Random.org)
About Gary Leff
American Express is Testing Just Buying You Business and First Class Tickets When Awards Are Available on American and United
The new American Express Points Match program is a targeted test which allows some small business cardmembers to redeem their Membership Rewards points for travel on United and American without transferring points to a partner frequent flyer program like Aeroplan or British Airways. When awards are available on American or United, targeted members can call American Express and Amex will go ahead and book revenue tickets on those flights and deduct the number of Amex points that American or United would have taken from your AAdvantage or MileagePlus account. The steps are:
Where to Find the Best Macarons in the World
Previous installments: Introduction: Paris for the Holidays, Saying Goodbye to American’s Old Business Class, and a Suite at the Park Hyatt Vendome American First Class Lounge Chicago O’Hare and Business Class, Chicago – Paris Park Hyatt Paris Vendome Executive Suite Avoiding Tourist Traps: Good Places to Eat Near the Eiffel Tower and Picasso Museum in Paris A couple of years ago I spent New Years Eve in Paris. It’s was a fabulous night — Laduree for macarons and champagne, then metroing to a spot with fewer tourists than the Champs Elysee but where you could still see fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. Street vendors were set up with food, while people ran through the streets with champagne. In the comments to that post many folks suggested that while Laduree’s macarons are good, they don’t come…
Should Higher Revenue Flights, or With More Elites, Get to Land First?
New technology will make it easier for air traffic control to prioritize certain flights over others. Richard Deakin, the chief executive of National Air Traffic Services (NATS), said the introduction of remote technology, sensors and infrared cameras would increase the amount of data air controllers received from flights, The Sunday Times reported. Controversially, this would in turn allow controllers to prioritise flights at the request of the airlines. In the UK press this is being described — and chastised — as letting flights with the most elites and premium customers land first. There’s nothing inherently moral about ‘first come first served’ and while there may be other prioritization rules that offend sensibilities, more information and prioritizing air traffic makes good sense. Experts have suggested such changes would destroy what has been a basic premise of…
Win $1000 and Status, Save Money on Your Family’s International Airfare, and the Things You Didn’t Know About In ‘n Out..
News and notes from around the interweb: Last chance to enter! I’m giving away $1000 and 5 top tier National Car Rental elite statuses. Save money on international airline tickets when traveling with kids. Spirit Airlines eliminating wine in a can? (HT: Pizza in Motion) Reminder: Only 3 days left to make reservations at Hyatt properties that are going up in award category. 13 things you didn’t know about In ‘n Out burger British Airways has always given ‘soft landings’ when you don’t requalify for status. For instance, a Gold member who doesn’t fly at all would still get Silver the next year. But those who are gifted the status by a ‘Gold Guest List’ member will no longer receive soft landings. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every…
Transatlantic Business Class Awards WIDE OPEN, 6+ Seats Per Flight: Use American or US Airways Miles NOW
US Airways transitioned its fare codes over the weekend. As of yesterday, ‘U’ is fare basis for business class awards instead of ‘I’. It looks like some of the folks in revenue management over at US Airways didn’t get the memo, because ‘U’ class has been left wide open on several flights. Last night and this morning, for instance, the US Airways Philadelphia – Tel Aviv flight had a big chunk of its business class cabin available as awards most every day for months. That hole seemed to get plugged early this morning just as I was going to write about it. But several flights are still exhibiting the trait. For instance, here are searches for business class award space on non-stop US Airways flights for 6 passengers. Here’s a sample of Philadelphia – Munich:…
The Key Questions to Ask Before You Panic Over a Purchase of Airline Gift Cards With an Amex Fee Credit
Airline gift cards aren’t supposed to be reimbursable with the $200 American Express fee credit. In practice, and in my own experience is that they have been. This could always change of course. Readers will reach out to me when they try this with concerns that they won’t get reimbursed. There are (4) questions I’ll go through that seem to explain why they haven’t seen a reimbursement. I’ll share these here, as a reminder of key elements to qualifying for the reimbursement. When did you make the purchase? (The reimbursement can take about a week) Was it an e-gift card and not a physical gift card? (Physical gift cards don’t seem to work, as I’ve noted, at least with American) Had you registered your preference for American Airlines as your preferred airline for the fee…
Avoiding Tourist Traps: Good Places to Eat Near the Eiffel Tower and Picasso Museum in Paris
Previous installments: Introduction: Paris for the Holidays, Saying Goodbye to American’s Old Business Class, and a Suite at the Park Hyatt Vendome American First Class Lounge Chicago O’Hare and Business Class, Chicago – Paris Park Hyatt Paris Vendome Executive Suite Paris is a fantastic city to experience food. But it’s also a city with a lot of truly mediocre (or worse) food, catering to tourists in large volumes. Those places are often near where tourists congregate – the top spots to visit. You have a large number of people, the rents are high, restaurants cater to both volume and lowest common denominator tastes. So if you want to eat well, and conveniently, near tourist spots it takes a little bit of work. Since I found a couple on this trip, I thought it was worth…
The Solution to Sleeping on Short Overnight Flights
Short overnight flights, like flying Eastbound East Coast to Europe, can be frustrating. You leave at night and arrive in the morning and have a full day ahead of you, but to really take advantage of it you need to sleep. (Here’s how I beat jet lag.) New York, DC, or Boston to London or even Paris can take less than 7 hours. You want: A fully flat seat in business class All aisle access so no one is climbing over anyone else and waking them Meal service to end quickly, and lights out quickly, so you can sleep. I don’t want to be woken for breakfast, the second meal on a short overnight isn’t going to be impressive (though I’ll try it if I’m up anyway). I don’t take a Bose noise cancelling headset…
Review: Battle House Renaissance in Mobile, Alabama (and My Strangest Taxi Experience)
I spent Thursday night at the Battle House Hotel, a Marriott Renaissance property. It was booked at my host’s $99 rate there, so a fantastic value for arguably the nicest hotel in town and certainly the nicest one near my morning meeting. The lobby of the hotel is fairly grand. When I checked in my Marriott Silver status — yes, I’m a silver from nights last year (while I’m a Hyatt Diamond and Starwood Platinum from nights, and a Hilton Diamond from a promotion targeted at American Airlines Executive Platinums) — was acknowledged in a funny way. The agent said, “Do you have dinner plans for tonight? Because of your silver status we have an offer where you will get 500 bonus points if you join us for dinner in the dining room here.” Umm..…
