On Tuesday I announced a giveaway offer of a bunch of cool stuff from National Car Rental. You still have a day to enter. And since I don’t take anything myself when I do those, I have two of National’s “Summer On-The-Go” Prize Packs: Package one: Apple iPod Touch, $250 AMEX Gift Card, National-branded swag Package two: Apple iPod Touch, $50 iTunes Gift Card, National-branded swag I’ve gotten a couple of questions about what the National-branded swag is. National Golf Umbrella National Ultimate Privacy Luggage Tag National 14oz Striped Coffee Tumbler Since I’m not getting these for myself, I don’t know more than that! But they’re a nice add-on to the iPod Touches and gift cards. Remember, to enter: Take a picture of yourself adding leisure to a business trip or business meeting. For instance,…
About Gary Leff
Earning Miles for Most of Your In-Airport Purchases
ThanksAgain is the service you link your credit card to and then you earn miles automatically when shopping with participating merchants. It’s like making purchases through an online shopping portal to earn miles for what you’re buying anyway, only it’s for in-person retail purchases. And it functions like Rewards Network (formerly known as iDine but which to me will always be Transmedia), you hand over your credit card for the purchase and the miles credit automatically nothing else to do and the store clerk doesn’t see any difference between those who earn miles and those who don’t. I first wrote about ThanksAgain in 2007 when they were giving 500 miles in your choice of program just for signing up. Back then it seemed like most of their partners were dry cleaners, none of which were…
American Samoa to Confiscate Frequent Flyer Miles from Government Workers
Up until 2001, employees of the US federal government were not allowed to accrue frequent flyer miles from official travel and apply them towards personal trips. They were supposed to earn miles and use them to offset the cost of government travel. This didn’t really happen in practice. Since employees weren’t benefiting from collecting miles, those that weren’t attuned to also earning elite status tended not to bother collecting the miles at all. There was no good way of tracking the miles earned on government travel, and certainly no good centralized way of monitoring this. It’s difficult to parse out miles earned from one type of activity from miles earned for things like credit card spend, rental cars, hotel stays, transfers in from other programs, etc. And then actually using the miles for work purposes…
A Supreme Court Watcher Explains the Issues Raised By the Rabbi’s Account Closure Complaint
Yesterday I discussed the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the case of the Rabbi whose Northwest account was closed for complaining too much. Ginsburg sued. His complaint was dismissed in federal district court on the basis that state law can’t be used to address airline price, route or service issues since those are pre-empted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act. A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling disagreed, and now the Supreme Court will hear the issue. I asked reader and attorney Eric M. Fraser if he’d share thoughts on the case. Mr. Fraser is an attorney with Osborn Maledon and an active flyer. He has written posts about the Supreme Court at SCOTUSblog and has preferred status in US Airways’s Dividend Miles program — status he doesn’t want to see disappear. His comments follow:…
Planning an Award Ticket a Year Out? Here’s When Airlines Load Their Schedules
There’s a persistent myth that the best time to book an award ticket is instantly when an airline’s schedule opens — and that the time is 12:01am exactly 330 days prior to travel. But this isn’t quite right on two levels. Different airlines publish their schedules at different times Different airlines load award seats at different times — not necessarily when their schedule loads Airlines want to release those seats as (saver / low) awards that they don’t expect to sell for cash. They may load some award seats when the schedule opens but ~ 11 months out they only have a rough idea of what seats are going to go unsold. They may not add a single award seat on a given flight when the schedule opens. As time passes, as the date of…
I Don’t Like Airline Change Fees Either, But I’m Not a Buffoonish US Senator
The U.S. Senate is sometimes called the “world’s greatest deliberative body.” The Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate. The name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders In this grand tradition, Senator Chuck Schumer wants airlines to reverse their recent increases in change fees on non-refundable tickets. The New York Democrat said on Sunday that higher fees recently implemented by Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, and U.S. Airways make it difficult for families on budgets to travel, according to the Associated Press. The four carriers recently raised fees on ticket changes from $150 to $200 The distinguished Senator Schumer’s Wikipedia entry describes his political style, Schumer’s propensity for publicity is the subject of a running joke among many commentators. He has…
DC’s Taxi Commission Sends Me a Nastygram
In response to my post the other day on Washington DC’s taxi protection racket cracking down on Uber again, I got a nastygram from the DC Taxicab Commission’s public information officer. Her argument is essentially that they aren’t forcing Uber to go out of business here, since they could always just comply with the new rules. But nowhere has she or anyone else explained the consumer harm that supposedly follows from Uber being allowed to run its business (which is why the much more likely explanation is that the taxi commission is backing entrenched interests, as they’ve done before — with a string of federal convictions to show for it). It turns out, of course, that the DC taxi commission’s valiant efforts to protect consumers are occurring despite never having actually received a complaint from…
National Car Rental Giveaway: iPod Touch, iTunes Gift Card, Amex Gift Card, and More!
There are only two real game changing innovations in rental cars that I can think of in my lifetime. One is keeping your information on file so that you can be pre-assigned a car and take off by showing just your driver’s license. The other is picking your own car. Avis recently has been experimenting with the pick your own car concept in some locations. The pioneer in the space, of course, is National with its Emerald Aisle. I love National’s “Go Like a Pro” slogan because their Emerald Aisle concept, to me, is the perfect frequent business renter feature. But there are really only five major travel stories that resonate with the public, and one of them is “summer travel.” So I don’t blame National one bit for looking to catch a little bit…
Supreme Court to Hear Case of the Rabbi Who Sought Too Much Airline Compensation
A couple of years ago the story went ’round about Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg, a Northwest Airlines Platinum elite who apparently complained too much and had his frequent flyer account shut down. He lost hundreds of thousands of miles (and his elite status) in the process. Ginsburg sued. His complaint was dismissed in federal district court on the basis that state law can’t be used to address airline price, route or service issues since those are pre-empted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act. A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling disagreed, and now the Supreme Court will hear the issue. The Supreme Court’s docket is here. I admit I’m a bit surprised by the Supreme Court’s willingness to take this case, although I have not yet read the 9th Circuit’s decision (but I have read the…
The Marriott Elite Weekend Fast is Over! Gold and Platinum Breakfast Benefit Being Extended
A year ago I broke down the deficiencies in the Marriott Rewards elite program. Some of those have since been corrected, at least a little bit. Marriott Gold status comes after 50 nights, which is average for top tier status with other chains. Platinum takes a whopping 75 nights. One would expect superior or at least industry average benefits at that level. And yet late checkout is on request only, day of departure (rather than guaranteed). Resorts are excluded — but since it isn’t guaranteed, why exclude resorts? Other chains exclude resorts from their guarantee, but will generally oblige subject to availability which is all Marriott is offering anyway. Marriott’s breakfast benefit has also been weaker than the competition’s — free breakfast in the US and Canada has been guaranteed Monday – Friday only, with…
