United posted on Milepoint that they will no longer offer extra award space for three-cabin first class flights starting February 1. I wanted to let you know about a change we’ll be making to the way we allocate MileagePlus award inventory for United Global First and United First on 3-cabin aircraft. As many of you know, we currently use the same fare class (ON) for both upgrades and Saver travel awards redeemed from MileagePlus Premier Platinum, Premier 1K and Global Services accounts. A consequence of this pairing has been fewer seats being available for upgrades. To remedy this imbalance, we will begin using ON exclusively for upgrades into United Global First and United First on 3-cabin aircraft effective February 1, 2013. Having a dedicated fare class for these upgrades will enable us to offer differentiated…
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Hyatt Announces Changes to Award Categories for Some Hotels in 2013
Each year most hotel programs re-categorize their hotels. They have different categories, in the case of Hyatt it’s one through six (Starwood for another example is one through seven). And each category has a price per night in number of points. Usually on an annual basis – although sometimes less frequently and occasionally throughout the year — hotel chains will shift some hotels up or down in category, increasing or decreasing the number of points that specific hotels cost to redeem for. Hyatt has announced their changes for 2013. These changes go into effect February 7, which means until that time you book under the ‘old’ rates. If a hotel is going up in price, lock in your future reservations now to save points. What’s more, if you make a reservation now for a stay…
Instant Top Tier Platinum Status in Accor Hotels Program Just for Signing Up
Instant Platinum (top tier) status in the Accor Hotels loyalty program comes around with some frequency, each time it does the signup link won’t stay active for long — sometimes a couple of days, sometimes just hours. Here’s the offer for instant Platinum status. Note that the signup page is just a signup page, no indication on that page that accounts will start at the Platinum level, but indeed it’s currently working as of this writing. You must open a new account, it cannot be applied to existing accounts. And when you do so you must use an email address that’s not currently on file with them. (if you have a gmail account you can add a period ‘.’ in the email address somewhere before the ‘@gmail.com’ and it will still be delivered to you…
Marriott Makes Earning Lifetime Elite Status Easier
Word last month was that Marriott would be changing the rules for lifetime elite status, removing the requirement for number of years in the program, beginning in 2013. Now Marriott has posted details of their new requirements for lifetime elite status in their Marriott Insiders forum. The new requirements are: Lifetime Milestones • Platinum Elite: 750 nights + 2 million points • Gold Elite: 500 nights + 1.6 million points • Silver Elite: 250 nights + 1.2 million points The website isn’t up yet, but they’ll be promoting lifetime status (rather than having it as an unpublished benefit of the program) at MarriottRewards.com/Lifetime. There are no changes to the number of Marriott Rewards points earned during a lifetime to earn status. Instead, they’ve dropped the requirement for 12 years in the program before being eligible…
Injuries During Sex on a Business Trip Entitle Woman to Workers Comp
So rules an Australian Federal Court: A frisky businesswoman injured having sex in a hotel is looking forward to a bumper payout after winning her battle for industrial compensation. The civil servant was making love to a friend during a work trip when a glass light fitting was torn from its mount above the bed. ..[She] later suffered depression which forced her to give up her job. Her claim for worker’s compensation for her physical and psychological injuries was initially approved by government insurer Comcare, then rejected after further investigation. A tribunal agreed with Comcare that her injuries were not suffered in the course of her employment, saying the government had not induced or encouraged the woman’s sexual conduct. The tribunal also found the sex was “not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay” such…
American Codeshares With TAM and Improves its Codesharing with LAN
As if it weren’t already all but a foregone conclusion that LATAM — the parent of South American airlines LAN and TAM — would swing towards oneworld (LAN is a oneworld member, TAM is in Star), American has announced that they’ve signed codesharing agreements with both TAM and LAN Colombia. Oneworld is already the strongest alliance between the US and South America, even though Star recently picked up AviancaTaca as a member. When I’m looking to book awards between the North and South American continents I always prefer American and British Airways points for the bookings — American’s availability is reasonably good, especially from its Miami hub, and LAN’s is good as well. Further, as part of the announcement, American indicates that they’ll be launching more South American service — Dallas – Bogota to connect…
Very Good Sentences: A Tourist Looks in on the U.A.E. Edition
Ben is there now: I visited the UAE for the first time last November, and found it fascinating. It was kind of like Las Vegas on steroids, minus the slutty clothing. …It’s like Disney World for adults, with the biggest and most expensive of everything. And what I also find fascinating about the UAE is how international it is. It’s the only place outside of the US or Germany where people don’t automatically assume I’m a visitor, because it’s a country full of temporary residents. While the US might be a “melting pot,” the UAE is a salad bowl, with all kinds of cultures that keep to themselves. I’ll be making my first visit there shortly as well and look forward to adding my own thoughts. Until then I’m strangely fascinated by takes like this.
Has Alitalia Learned an Important Discount Lesson?
Alitalia has been regularly running discounts on its flights, sometimes even 25%. Early on those discounts could be used to book Delta flights, but they figured that out and shut it down. Then in October they targeted a ~ $300 discount at the Japanese market but allowed it to be used on any flight. Including intra-European flights, which priced out in many cases as nearly free. Ultimately Alitalia wound up honoring any and all of the tickets that didn’t price literally at zero. Enter Alitalia’s latest discount offering, book by December 23 for travel from January 8 to April 13. It’s a strong discount — 250 euro discount on economy, 350 discount on premium economy, and 500 euro discount on business class. BUT… It’s only valid for Alitalia flights originating in Italy It’s only valid…
Bits ‘n Pieces for December 16, 2012
News and notes from around the interweb: Head for Points goes over the basics of upgrading with British Airways Avios points. I often say that international upgrades with miles are no longer the value that they used to be; British Airways is an exception where there’s no cash co-pay. Upgrades from premium economy to business class tend to be a very good use of points. You can buy Paypal reload cards with a credit card (and earn miles, meet minimum spend for signup bonuses) and add the money to your Paypal account. Giddy for Points talks about ways to get the money out of Paypal since you probably don’t want to just load your account and then transfer funds out to your bank account; Paypal can be quite persnickety and freeze accounts. In 2008, United…
The Hotel Rate Ethicist: Corporate Discount Codes, and Your Advice Needed on Whether I Should Renew AAA Membership?
I’ve had AAA membership for awhile, largely because I book AAA rates at hotels frequently. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked for proof of membership at check-in, however. The Hilton and Hyatt websites both ask you to enter AAA numbers when making reservations online, they don’t check that an account is currently active but presumably check to see that the digits are plausible. AAA rates aren’t always the best, for instance there are often better corporate rates where if you were an employee of a given company you’d be entitled to a lower negotiated rate — which sometimes codes with added benefits like free or discounted parking, or a much more generous cancellation policy than standard reservations (such as 6pm on day of arrival rather than day prior to check-in). I’ve never been asked…
