News and notes from around the interweb: A former TSA supervisor takes to reddit and thousands of comments ensue. (HT: Reid) There was very little new or enlightening, but this — though obvious — was a surprising admission: The basic SOP that most officers have to know is several hundred pages long; few of them have actually read the whole thing and are essentially relying on word of mouth. Here’s a slightly more emotional reaction to Delta’s lounge access policy changes than I had offered. How to put awards on a brief hold at Delta.com. This only works for creating itineraries that can be booked online. The current major hotel chain promos you should register for. US airlines will generally offer paid day passes to their lounges in addition to membership and access to international…
About Gary Leff
300 Free La Quinta Points
Submit your member number and last name for 300 points. (HT: James R.) Here’s an old submission page for 300 points whose fine print suggests it has expired. I’ve never stayed at a La Quinta. From having read Lamar Muse’s excellent autobiography about his years as Southwest Airlines’ founding President, I recall the story of the La Quinta chain (its founder was a Southwest board member). Apparently the name derives from the founder’s search for the cheapest furnishings possible. They had a Southwestern motif, and so he chose a name to match. Free points, of course, are free points. Even if the Urban Dictionary claims ‘La Quinta’ means “next to Denny’s.” Points convert to a variety of currencies although you need 6000 points to do so. You can also earn free points via their Facebook…
50% Bonus for Crediting American Flights to US Airways, or US Airways Flights to American
American and US Airways have begun phasing in codesharing. In conjunction with this, both US Airways and American Airlines are incentivizing their frequent flyers to credit flights on the other carrier to their home mileage account. No need to book a codeshare flight, just credit a US Airways flight to American — or vice versa — and earn 50% bonus miles. US Airways is offering a 50% bonus on American Airlines flights between January 13 and March 2. Registration is required. Flights purchased prior to registering do count and in fact even flights taken during the promotion period prior to registering will count as well (the flip side of this is that bonus miles don’t post right away). The offer applies only to American, American Eagle, and American Connection-operated flights, and not to codeshares operated…
My Google Glass Experience
Thanks to my friend Scott on Facebook who extended me the invitation to buy Google Glass. It needs internet, so if I’m not at home or office I’m using my mifi. It works in conjunction with the MyGlass app on my Android phone. The battery life on my mifi could be better. The batter life on my phone could be better. And the battery life on Google Glass itself could be better. Plus that’s a lot of device juggling. It’s also not the easiest to store. It doesn’t fold up like glasses in a nice compact case, and I worry about squishing it in my laptop bag. The controls are awkward and non-intuitive although I learn them quickly enough I guess. I just found figuring out all the taps and swipes and head movements strange,…
Eat Better Burgers at the Airport, Earn More Points, and Watch Your Email for Status (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 12, 2014)
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: A week ago I shared how you can sta ck bonus after bonus earning loads of points for your stays at IHG Rewards hotels. Here’s another one for the list, 2000 points per stay for 60 days. Don’t register for it until you’re ready to stay because registering starts the clock. I have a short piece in this month’s Washingtonian on what changes locals can expect at National airport as a result of the American Airlines-US Airways merger. The biggest one? American customers will start flying more out of the C pier, trading Fuddruckers burgers for the superior Five Guys. American is targeting members for accelerated elite status earning and even including 500 mile upgrades in the offer. If you weren’t targeted you won’t be able to sign…
Best Current Miles for Flowers Offers: 30+ Miles Per Dollar and Take a Tax Deduction, Too!
You’ll often get lower prices and better quality having flowers delivered by a local florist rather than shipped by a national floral company. And you’ll certainly get better prices shopping around rather than ordering from a big name floral brand that gives you miles. The number of miles offered is a clue to the huge margins earned on flower sales. I once earned 100 Delta miles per dollar at 1-800-Flowers. Even the standard ‘better’ offers represent a less expensive way to buy miles than making a mileage purchase from an airline website much of the time. And if you’re looking for cheaper mileage purchases, buy teddy bears or similar items through the flower sites and donate them to hospitals, homeless shelters, etc. You’ll feel good and get a tax deduction that reduces your cost basis…
How Many Miles Would It Take For You To Be Happy About a Flight Delay?
I had an American Eagle (regional) flight delayed about three and a half hours this past week, and within minutes of landing I had an apology email sitting in my inbox — proactively offering 5000 miles. I thought, “Oh, cool, I didn’t even complain!” And then I thought, “gee I wonder which flight this was related to?” since I’ve had several long delays and missed connections over the past five weeks or so. I think the text could be better written to begin with the apology and to not bury the compensation piece at the end of the second paragraph. But I appreciated it nonetheless, realize that it is related to the flight that I had just gotten off of, and think the timeliness of it is especially well-done. Since receiving this I’ve seen several…
Delta Takes Away Elite Access to Many International Lounges
Yesterday Delta sent out an email announcing a big price increase for lounge membership and instituting a policy that everyone accessing their lounges via premium credit card would have to pay a fee to bring in guests. Will Run for Miles flags another change to Delta’s lounge policy, this time one that wasn’t announced just slipped into their ‘Skyteam Benefits’ page. Effective May 1, 2014, all Delta third-party operated international lounges will become Business lounges. What this modest statement means is that a ton of lounges will no longer be available to elite members. Here’s the change: And here are the lounges that elites flying international economy lose access to: THIRD PARTY BUSINESS LOUNGE LOCATIONS: Latin America and the Caribbean Bogota, CO (BOG) Caracas, VE (CCS) Lima, PE (LIM) Quito, EC (UIO) Rio De…
United’s Computers are Bad, Virgin America’s Flights are Discounted, and Your Travel Now Earns Bitcoin (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 11, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Julie Johnsson summarizes just how bad United’s computer systems have been. Poor performance, combined with extreme arrogance, help explain why the airline has been losing a couple hundred thousand customers a month. (HT: @mattyglesias) PointsHound now offers Bitcoin as an alternative to earning miles for your your hotel bookings. 10% off Virgin America flights if you book today for travel through February 13. John F. Kennedy phone call discussing retribution against Pan Am for its order of Concorde aircraft. He talks about the Boeing SST program (“our program”) — meanwhile the history of the Concorde program and the Tupolev TU-144 shows how bad an investment that would have been to push forward with. (HT: @HackMyTrip) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every…
One Benefit of the US Airways-American Merger: My Gogo Wireless Goes Farther
I had a short 45 minute flight on US Airways yesterday. I had been offline most of the day, so I figured I could at least download some email via inflight wireless and begin to get a handle on how much I had missed. So I fired up Gogo inflight wireless internet, to at least see what it was going to cost me. I have a monthly subscription for American Airlines, but I assumed I would have to pay on US Airways. I logged in and it didn’t make me pay for the session (the screen before logging in said 30 minutes would be $3, I figured I would do that). Worried for a moment that I had somehow been charged, I checked my account and saw that my monthly plan was now being billed…
