American is offering double miles for flying new oneworld member airline Qatar between November 15 and December 19, 2013 and again January 6 through January 31, 2014. Registration is required prior to travel using promotion code QRDBL. All paid published fare classes are eligible to earn double redeemable miles. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
About Gary Leff
Bits ‘n Pieces for November 15, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Flight cancelled after passengers mutiny over ejection of a blind man. (HT: Reid) Alligator Found at O’Hare Baggage Claim United will start flying to Atlantic City so that Chris Christie will support PATH train expansion to Newark Hyatt’s new all-suite all-inclusive properties will allow use of suite upgrade instruments to get into even better suites … but bookings for these newly-opened hotels do not yet seem to be going smoothly. How to transfer a small number of Le Club Accorhotel points to airline miles A man walks down the street… The rest of my life is so hard… I want a shot at redemption. The stock ticket symbol for the new American Airlines? You Can Call Me AAL. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals…
Alaska Airlines Opens the Kimono on their Frequent Flyer Program (and Other Interesting) Stats
Ok, I both abhor and love that way-overused and slightly-inappropriate corporate-speak (“open kimono”). But they very much laid bare some interesting data about their airline partnerships and frequent flyer redemptions at an investor conference (powerpoint, webcast) and offered some great insights. The two charts I found most interesting: When Alaska made small tweaks to its award chart this week (aka modest devaluation) it seemed both minor and incosnequential to people who are interested in their great international partner awards that can now for the most part be booked on their website — since the changes touched only Alaska’s own flights. But the presentation makes clear that 84% of Alaska’s redemptions are for travel on their own flights, 12.5% are on domestic partners American and Delta — with twice as many American redemptions as there were…
IHG Rewards Flash Sale – Up to 75% Off Points Redemptions – Returns on Monday
IHG Rewards, formerly known as Priority Club, is bringing back another reward ‘flash sale’ with hotel night redemptions 25% – 75% off at specific properties. Starting Monday at 10am Eastern the sale will be bookable here. The deal will last for 48 hours. For US hotels, stays can be from December 1 through December 20. Non-US hotels stays can be from November 20 through December 20, 2013. So clearly they’re avoiding the Thanksgiving holiday in the US and ending this before Christmas. They’ve posted the full list of properties up on their ‘community’ website, and it appears that 129 hotels are participating. Here are a few samples: Holiday Inn Resort Chaohu Hot Spring, China – 75% off (will be 6,250 points Hotel Indigo San Jose, Costa Rica – 75% off (will be 5,000 points) Hotel…
Hyatt Mistakenly Offers Lifetime Diamond Status With Credit Card Signup
Hyatt sent out a marketing email to some Diamond members yesterday pitching them on their co-branded Chase credit card. Only they got one important detail wrong. The card is supposed to come with first-tier Platinum status. The marketing email offered Diamond status for as long as you remain a cardholder Not bad for a $75 annual fee! The terms and conditions, not just the marketing copy, were quite clear about Diamond status. Nonetheless, it was too good to be true and a mistake, as Hyatt posted to Milepoint. We’d like to apologize for an erroneous email sent yesterday to some Diamond members regarding the Hyatt Credit Card. This email had a statement that the Hyatt Credit Card includes Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status, which was incorrect. The Hyatt Credit Card includes Platinum status. All of…
New Website Finds the Lowest Airfares By Identifying Throwaway Segment Opportunities
Skiplagged is a new site that helps you find the lowest airfares including the kinds of fares that Kayak will not come up with… hidden cities and throwaways. Instead of having to come up with cheaper cities to fly to through the city you’re actually planning to go to, this site does the work for you and suggests the itinerary. I’m not sure the website will last because it is helping customers to act contrary to the ticketing rules of airlines (and they certainly won’t be able to sustainably earn commissions from driving bookings, if that is indeed their model). Last summer I wrote an extensive primer on hidden city and throwaway ticketing. Airlines often price tickets from one city to another through a hub cheaper than flights that terminate at the hub. Flying United…
US Airways Can’t “See” Many Award Seats on Partners, And Won’t Put on Glasses
US Airways Won’t Let You Book Some Award Seats Their Partners Offer US Airways has had ‘issues’ with redeeming miles going back three years. It started with Lufthansa First Class It began with Lufthansa first class on transatlantic flights. Lufthansa offered the award space to its partners, but US Airways agents wouldn’t ‘see’ that space. At the time I asked two top Dividend Miles executives (who are no longer with the company) and they claimed they weren’t intentionally blocking the space the way that United used to do. Instead they claimed IT issues, but which they didn’t seem all that eager to fix. Commenter Sean M. speculated at the time that it was an ‘AVS sync’ issue, which seemed plausible, TAM had something similar when they joined Star Alliance. Their process of syncing inventory live…
One Card to Replace Them All (in Your Wallet)
So I don’t think card issuers are going to like this, since they want their plastic in your wallet. Airlines and hotels want to generate loyalty from having their brand in your wallet. But those of us who have wallets stuffed full of cards — I have 12 in my wallet now, more in a zipped pouch, and still more in a safe — could really benefit from this to reduce sheer bulk. “Coin” is the size of a credit card. It’s electronic. And it ‘carries’ up to 8 cards and lets you toggle between them, so you can choose which one to pay with. It doesn’t display the card number on a screen though so this won’t help you place online orders. But you won’t need to carry all of your cards when you’re…
And I Would Have Benefited from Bluebird, Too, If It Wasn’t For You Pesky Kids!
Not everyone likes miles and points collectors abusing the American Express Bluebird product. First of all, I want you to know my attitude towards credit cards and money in general. #1: Feel lucky when you are approved, good credit is a stroke of luck. #2: people who care more about the rewards than the credit line must already have so much money they dont know what to do with it. Now. You people are RUINING bluebird/serve by making amex’s security dept so paranoid that every linked credit or debit card or every vanilla reload is an attempt at getting points rather than legitimate usage, that me, a person who couldnt get a credit card if my life depended on it because george bush gave me a 399 credit score, gets limited every time I try…
My USA Today Op-ed: American/US Airways Should Respect Their Customers if They Want to Succeed
I offer this wish for the US Airways-American Airlines merger in today’s USA Today: respect your customers and don’t make short-sighted decisions at their expense. We can expect them to retain American’s IT infrastructure. That’s important. Integration of computer systems means pain for passengers. It can mean less pain (Ameriacn’s system), or a whole lot more (the US Airways system). Don’t dismantle American’s premium product. US Airways tried to charge for water in coach back in 2008. US Airways doesn’t serve meals in first class on 3 hour flights. US Airways has less legroom upfront and no extra legroom seating. Turning American into US Airways will chase away customers and cost higher-revenue business travelers and corporate contracts. Be honest with your customers. Don’t promise them “changes you’re going to like” the way United did before…
