News and notes from around the interweb: Earn free Las Vegas comps from your computer Don’t fly during Ramadan A chilling tale of TSA, opting out, and what happens when the hand swab alarms. Last month Gordon Ramsey did a cook off against Singapore Hawker stalls… and lost. Apparently he did well with chili crabs, but his laksa fell flat. He graciously acknowleged the hawker chefs “kicked [his] a*se” (HT: Marginal Revolution) US Airways lost a motion to dismiss a lawsuit complaining that they award point-to-point mileage for flights instead of actual miles flown (if you take a circuitous route to avoid weather you should earn more miles since you’ve flown more miles). I’ve always thought the better suit would be airlines that award 1 to 5 fewer miles per flight than the actual point-to-point…
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Singapore Airlines First Class Passengers Can’t Use the Bathroom in Hong Kong
Singapore Airlines does an outstanding job in the air (though service is usually phenomenal long haul it does vary and can be quite mixed flying short haul). Their food is very good as well. But Singapore Airlines does not match the quality of its inflight product with its ground services. Even most of its lounges in Singapore are just ‘fine’. Lounges outside of Singapore? Not nearly so impressive. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Hong Kong. Singapore Airlines has a fairly large presence in Hong Kong with 7 daily roundtrips between Hong Kong and Singapore. One of their flights heads onward to San Francisco. San Francisco – Hong Kong – Singapore and return flights are dubbed SQ1 and SQ2. This flight has seasonally been served by an A380 with ‘Suites class’. And yet… the…
Just How Little an Impact the American-US Airways Merger Will Have on Competition
The very first thing I started subscribing to and reading regularly about the business of aviation was Holly Hegeman’s PlaneBusiness about fifteen years ago. I’m not sure I stumbled upon it, but it was well worth the fee I paid at the time. And oddly enough I think it was through Holly’s website that I stumbled upon Flyertalk.com for the first time. Without that I wouldn’t be writing this blog, or have had the chance to co-found Milepoint.com. Last month Cranky Flier contributed a piece there that looks at the underlying data in the Government Accountability Office’s review of the proposed American-US Airways merger. It turns out the much of the analysis isn’t very good. Cranky had to create his own data set. GAO apparently outsourced the data work and won’t make the supporting data…
Special Edition Rimowa Suitcase Now Available
Last month I wrote that there would be a special edition Rimowa carryon in conjunction with the upcoming Star MegaDO. You can win one. And they’re now also available for purchase. The Rimowa Salsa Deluxe 21″ Cabin Multiwheel (spinner) bag sells for $595. You’ll pay that here, but in this case it’s for a limited-edition version of the bag, and $200 will go to charity. This custom Rimowa Salsa Deluxe Cabin bag features a custom matte black finish and a MegaDO logo, both exclusive to the MegaDO and not available anywhere else. $200 of the purchase price is donated by Rimowa back to Milepoint Cares to help others. The $590 price includes tax and shipping for US and Canadian orders. (Shipping outside the US and Canada is not available, international participants on the upcoming MegaDO…
IHG Rewards “Big Win” Promotion Launches Early, Details Revealed
Last night I wrote that IHG Rewards (Priority Club)’s September through December promotion launches Monday. Except that the website to register and unveil your targeted offer is live early. My offer is for up to 72,100 points, what you’re offered may vary both in amount and in degree of difficulty. And while 72,100 sounds like a lot, scale matters here — these points, like Hilton HHonors points, are a bit ‘inflated’. This will not get you two free nights at the time participating hotels (and remember that the terms and conditions of the program exclude most elite benefits, hotels don’t have to give upgrades for instance, making the free nights themselves less valuable in my view). What I’ve been offered: Try one and done 1000 points for my first stay Stay more and earn more…
New PointBreaks List Coming Monday, Participating Hotels Revealed Now
Alert reader Erik in the comments points to the IHG online community where they’ve posted a ‘preview’ of hotels that should be participating in the next round of ‘PointBreaks’ discounted award nights available at just 5000 points per night. There may be some differences between the list posted now and what ultimately becomes bookable, though the this should be close to final. 5000 points per night is a fantastic deal, especially for higher end hotels that may otherwise run 40,000 points per night. (And sou can buy these points at 7/10ths of a cent apiece). But they have to be available for a hotel you can use during the promotion period — the hotels that should become bookable on Monday will only be available for reservations through October 31. And you have to act fast,…
New IHG Rewards Promotion Launching Monday: “The Big Win”
IHG Rewards — the hotel loyalty program formerly known as Priority Club which includes Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and other brands — will launch its end of year promotion this coming Monday. Registration will be required (the registration URL – ihgrewardsclub.com/win is not yet active and as of this writing redirects to the main IHG Rewards page), and earning will be from September 1 through December 31. “The Big Win” will be offers customized to different members, but with a minimum of 50,000 bonus points or 10,000 airline miles available. The first night stayed under the promotion will award 1000 bonus points or 500 miles. Beyond that, members will reeceive varying offers that will reward: increasing stays weekend stays stays with more brands Presumably it will be Monday before we know how lucrative –…
Would You Rent Someone’s Couch Instead of a Hotel Room? Should the Government Let You?
I haven’t paid a ton of attention to Airbnb and similar services that let residents in a city rent out a portion of their home (or the entire thing) on a night-by-night basis to guests. I like my privacy, I tend to like the impersonal nature of hotels even as I like being treated warmly as a guest. And I’m fairly ingrained in the elite status and points world. No doubt there are great values to be had by paying a small amount of money to rent out someone’s apartment instead of a hotel. And no doubt it’s a great way for residents to make use of underutilized resources such as an extra room or their whole place when they aren’t going to be using it. Have you used Airbnb or similar services? They’ve certainly…
Get Out of the Resort on Maui: Two Restaurants in Lahaina Worth Trying, Star Noodle and Aloha Mixed Plate
My mental model of Maui is that the better restaurants are mostly clustered in the towns closer to the airport like Kihei or Wailea. There are plenty of big resorts in Lahaina, like the Marriott and the Westin and the Hyatt Regency, but that the food offerings were middling at best. And even the better Maui restaurants offered fantastic views but food that wouldn’t be as impressive if you weren’t in a beautiful location on holiday and certainly wouldn’t impress at the price point in other cities. I discovered Aloha Mixed Plate on a visit to Maui in 2009. Mind you, it isn’t the world greatest food or service though the food is good. What it does offer is reasonably authentic local food, in an open air setting on the water (though somewhat obscured by…
Hyatt’s New Promotion is Progressively More Bonus Points For Every Five Nights
Registration is required, will not open until September 9, and must be completed by October 31. You’ll earn bonus points every 5 eligible nights between September 9 and November 30 as follows: Stays at MGM M Life-participating properties in Las Vegas count, too, by the way. How Does this Promotion Compare to Past Hyatt Offerings? This promotion is very similar to the one offered last September through November. That one offered bonus points every 5 nights, though starting with night 10 the bonus was 10,000 points and this time it increases with each set of 5 nights. It’s actually a pretty lucrative promotion for guests racking up lots of nights. Last year’s gave you 35,000 points after 20 nights and this year’s gives you 50,000. However, one difference is that unlike recent promotions there’s no…
