American Express Membership Rewards is running a 33% bonus on transfers to Hilton HHonors through January 31. This means that instead of transfer at a ratio of 1:1.5 you transfer at a ratio of 1:2. Frankly, you can normally get a 1:2 transfer ratio by transferring American Express points to Virgin Atlantic at 1:1 and from there to Hilton at 1:2. (And for that matter you can do the same with Chase Ultimate Rewards points, making Hilton a stealth transfer partner of Chase.) It’s even better to make the Hilton transfers when American Express is running a transfer bonus to Virgin. (One ended yesterday.) Of course, transferring directly to Hilton is faster and involves one less step. That said, I do not recommend it. I wasn’t even a huge fan of transferring to Hilton before…
About Gary Leff
How I Confused a Hotel into Giving Me a Free Suite Upgrade
An interesting thing happened on a recent stay at the Hyatt Regency Austin. I wound up with a ‘free’ upgrade to a suite with view of Lady Bird Lake and a patio. And I almost got kicked out of that suite! I’m not going to do a full review of the hotel, as I’ve already written about this property here and here (so didn’t feel the need to write about it after several subsequent stays, natch). Hyatt Gold Passport offers complimentary upgrades to Diamond members, but those upgrades exclude suites. Some hotels will give out available suites to diamonds if available anyway, but the program doesn’t promise it. If a Diamond wants a suite, they can confirm one at time of booking four times per year (for up to 7 nights on each stay) using…
This Week the Supreme Court Will Hear the Case of the Rabbi Kicked Out of His Frequent Flyer Program
Back in May 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. Reader and attorney Eric M. Fraser updates us on the case, as it prepares to go to oral argument in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Eric M. Fraser is an appellate and antirust attorney with Osborn Maledon. He is an active flyer and reads View from the Wing to help keep his preferred status…
US Airways 100% Bonus on Sharing Miles is Back – the Best Mileage Purchase Offer Returns!
US Airways is offering up to a 100% bonus on shared miles (miles transferred between accounts) between December 2 and December 6. Don’t transfer points today (December 1) — wait until this promotion goes live. You can earn up to 50,000 bonus miles with the offer, which should appear instantly with the transfer. The cost for this is “$0.01 per mile plus a processing fee of $30 and a tax recovery charge of 7.5%” — transferring 50,000 miles from one account to another will deposit 100,000 in that account at a cost of $567.50. Since that’s a net increase of 50,000 miles you’re buying miles at $0.01135 per mile. At that price I’m a buyer. What I love about US Airways is awards in premium cabins on Star Alliance partner airlines, and a generally reasonable…
$25 Off $75 at Amazon.com from American Express
American Express is offering a $25 statement credit when you spend $75 or more on a single purchase. Sign into your American Express account and you may find this offer under the “My Offers” tab (that’s all I had to do). You can also tweet #AmexAmazon to register. You need to have synced your American Express card and twitter account. Be sure to register right away, before the offer disappears. If you don’t have an immediate $75 Amazon purchase, but want to lock in the $25 savings, just buy a $75 Amazon gift card. Then you can split the purchases of into amounts below $75, or make the purchase(s) at any time in the future. This is another example of American Express’ new partnership with Amazon.com that can even get you free Amazon Prime. (HT:…
Seats on a Plane: How to Make Sure You Can Sit Together During the Busy Holiday Travel Season
It can be really hard to get seats together for flights during the holidays. Flights are full. More families are traveling together so more people are trying to sit together (compared to solo business travelers). And more and more airlines are holding back the number of seats they assign for ‘free’. For most passengers, your ticket doesn’t come with a ‘seat’. Obviously that isn’t literally true, since safety rules require all passengers to be seated. But there’s a limited number of seats on the seat map that airlines will let passengers reserve in advance unless the passenger: is paying the exorbitant full fare is an ‘elite’ frequent flyer doing 25,000 miles or more a year (usually) on the airline pays a fee for a ‘premium’ seat which sometimes just means an aisle or being closer…
Bits ‘n Pieces for November 30, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Marriott is running a 30% off Cyber Monday sale this coming Monday, and has given me (2) $500 Marriott gift cards to give away to readers. Enter here, all you need to do is leave a comment. The Economist has a video explaining fuel dumping. Ihis journalist did reach out to me to talk about the phenomenon of dropping fuel surcharges out of international airfares in order to get lower prices, but it wasn’t a subject I was especially open to discussing. Early in the year I did write a post, though, explaining the basics of fuel dumping. The Singapore Airlines Cabin Crew Employment Application The stress of the holidays brings out the extreme narcissism of some travelers. And the public-spirited exhibitionism of others. Add in inflight wifi…
Even Scarier than the IRS: What to Do If Your Frequent Flyer Account Gets Audited
Most airline and hotel programs will let you use your points to let someone else travel. Some programs are restrictive, letting you only redeem for family and making you even prove the familial relationship. But certainly US programs are less restrictive than that. Still, they don’t want you selling awards. Airlines want to be the sole brokers in their own miles. And selling awards might mean someone that would otherwise have purchased a ticket with cash gets an award ticket instead, costing them revenue. Plus award sales increase the total portion of points redeemed, it reduces the program’s ‘breakage’ and raises costs. And whether for airline or hotel programs there’s only a limited inventory to go around. More points redemptions means it’s harder for the program to satisfy the demands of members. So points selling…
6 Things You Can Do to Enjoy Your Vacations More
The best advice comes down to: spend time planning vacations, take more trips, work while you’re gone, and experience new and unusual things. Planning vacations contributes more to your happiness than actually taking them. You may need to go on vacation to justify all of the planning time. You get all of your relaxation benefits on the trip itself, but don’t expect to be relaxed when you get back. We quickly snap back into the stress of daily life, sans any benefit from the vacation. Go in knowing you’ll enjoy yourself while you’re gone, but don’t set the bar for “needing a vacation” that you expect to be reset, relaxed, and in a different place with work upon your return. Being on vacation can actually be stressful. We put pressure on ourselves to enjoy, quickly,…
Do Your Christmas Shopping at DFW Airport and the Shipping is Free!
I don’t know how y’all feel, but I really like the Dallas Fort Worth airport. It’s generally clean, the international D terminal is especially bright, and I like the remodeled A gates. It’s just an impressive place, the airport grounds are larger than all of Manhattan. The American Express Centurion lounge there is the best airport lounge in the United States. There’s complimentary spa services, a good bar, and nice buffet. Dickey’s barbecue near gate C6 is pretty good, as far as airport barbecue goes — it’s better than the Salt Lick in the airport, and even better than the Salt Lick at the Austin airport. The Grand Hyatt DFW to terminal D is certainly the best hotel attached to an airport in the U.S. I also find the airport management to be fairly innovative…
