The US Travel Association’s Daily Getaways — prepurchased discounted travel deals — returns weekdays from April 9 through May 11. Sponsored by American Express, paying with an Amex yields a 10% discount, it’s hard to imagine many people won’t do this. There’s a limited number of each deal, the better ones tend to sell out quickly, and this year some of the deals will offer a portion of the available items on ‘pre-sale’ — with access codes made available on the prize provider’s Facebook page, as an incentive to get people liking their pages. It’s being covered across lots of blogs and forums, and in the past there have been some pretty good deals. So far the Daily Getaways website shows the first two weeks’ worth of deals and there aren’t any that I’ll be…
About Gary Leff
Maximizing Miles in the Maldives: Cathay First, Eating in Singapore, and a Park Hyatt Water Villa – Park Hyatt Maldives – Part II
Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa: Introduction Positioning flights to San Francisco, Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, and Some Dim Sum for the Day Cathay’s New San Francisco Lounge Cathay Pacific First Class, San Francisco – Hong Kong The Wing and Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Singapore A Grand Suite at the Grand Hyatt Singapore Eating in Singapore Dinner at Waku Ghin, Marina Bay Sands Singapore Airlines Business Class: Singapore – Male Transfer to the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives Park Hyatt Maldives – Part I Park Hyatt Maldives – Part II Park Hyatt Maldives – Part III Maldivian, Kaadehdhoo – Male Singapore Airlines Business Class, Male – Singapore Cathay Pacific Business Class, Singapore – Hong Kong Conrad Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Chicago American’s Chicago Flagship Lounge and the Final Journey Home Service…
Maximizing Miles in the Maldives: Cathay First, Eating in Singapore, and a Park Hyatt Water Villa – Park Hyatt Maldives – Part I
Introduction Positioning flights to San Francisco, Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, and Some Dim Sum for the Day Cathay’s New San Francisco Lounge Cathay Pacific First Class, San Francisco – Hong Kong The Wing and Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Singapore A Grand Suite at the Grand Hyatt Singapore Eating in Singapore Dinner at Waku Ghin, Marina Bay Sands Singapore Airlines Business Class: Singapore – Male Transfer to the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives Park Hyatt Maldives – Part I Park Hyatt Maldives – Part II Park Hyatt Maldives – Part III Maldivian, Kaadehdhoo – Male Singapore Airlines Business Class, Male – Singapore Cathay Pacific Business Class, Singapore – Hong Kong Conrad Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Chicago American’s Chicago Flagship Lounge and the Final Journey Home Here’s a view of one…
25% Bonus on Transfers from Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic
Membership Rewards transfers to Virgin Atlantic will come with a 25% bonus from April 1 through May 15. The offer should appear on the site and tell you how many miles you’ll receive for your transfer, inclusive of the 25% bonus. As I post this it isn’t up quite yet but should be working within a few hours. Virgin has pretty darned good availability from most of its North American cities (New York-JFK, Newark, Boston, Washington Dulles, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver) to London, and also really good availability on to Africa as well. Its business class seat is excellent and will be refreshed as well. The downsides to Virgin are the very high fuel surcharges, which the mileage program assesses on award redemptions (as do most European and…
The Effect of Credit Card Signups on Credit Scores
One of the most-asked questions about credit cards is how does it affect your credit score, and of course the implied followup, do you care? I’ve signed up for scores of cards over many years and I still have an excellent credit score, it was nearly 800 FICO on the three major credit bureaus when I went to get my mortgage. In part because of signing up for more cards, rather than in spite of it. Each time you request credit, and your credit is pulled as a result, your score usually dips a little bit but just on the credit bureau that was pulled. So if an Experian credit report was pulled, the inquiry only shows up at Experian. Requests for credit suggest you might need credit, and lots of requests for credit can…
Deals and Updates for the Morning of March 30, 2012
Radisson has introduced Club Carlson points purchase, $7 per 1000 points up to 40,000 points annually. Not worth it for its own sake but useful to top off towards awards at the margin. Live from a Lounge says Jet Airways is offering 20% off on mileage redemptions through September 30 for awards booked on Jet metal using their website. Priority Club’s new PointBreaks list, valid through May 31, are now available. The lists are in the process of being updated, e.g. as of this writing the Asia list still shows hotels available through March 31 only, but I’m told that interesting properties in Asia include the Intercontinentals in Manila and Ho Chi Minh City for the new period. PointBreaks offer redemptions at 5000 points per night. Mommypoints says that the US Airways Debit Card from…
Booking Air France Business Class Awards with Delta Miles: IT Glitch Workaround
For the past few weeks Delta has been unable to book otherwise-available business class seats on Air France. That’s been true systemwide, and their only advice is to try to find Delta flights instead. Good luck with that (even if Delta serves your planned destination, Air France business class availability is generally good, Delta’s very much is not). Delta Points notes that the Asian call centers for Skymiles are now able to book these awards again, even though US call centers won’t see the availability. He suggests calling Hong Kong at 011 852 2810 4288. I’ve had good luck in the past with the Singapore call center, English is quite good: 011 65 6336 3371. Ask them to waive the telephone booking fee because the award cannot be booked online, some folks have been successful…
Mileage Earning Changes and New Fees for Etihad Guest
Etihad, new American AAdvantage partner and new partial owner of oneworld member Air Berlin, has introduced a new mileage earning structure that bases mileage earning on fare class. Effective June 1, most economy fares will earn only 50% of miles flown. Only H, B, and Y fares will earn 100% miles in economy. Discounted business class will earn fewer miles than full fare business class, and discounted first class will earn fewer miles than full fare first class. Meanwhile, beginning June 1 any award booked through their service center will incur a fee of $20 or 2000 miles.
Why TSA Airport Security is Actually Harmful, and Not Merely Ineffective
Bruce Schneier on why current airport security is actually harmful, and not just mere ineffective inconvenience: Kip Hawley doesn’t argue with the specifics of my criticisms, but instead provides anecdotes and asks us to trust that airport security—and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in particular—knows what it’s doing. He wants us to trust that a 400-ml bottle of liquid is dangerous, but transferring it to four 100-ml bottles magically makes it safe. He wants us to trust that the butter knives given to first-class passengers are nevertheless too dangerous to be taken through a security checkpoint. He wants us to trust the no-fly list: 21,000 people so dangerous they’re not allowed to fly, yet so innocent they can’t be arrested. He wants us to trust that the deployment of expensive full-body scanners has nothing to do with…
You Don’t Have to Go to Jetsetter for a Discount on Groundlink
Via Joey M. there’s a New York City Groundlink offer on Groupon. Groupon’s deal is $29 for LaGuardia or $39 for JFK or Newark transportation. And you can get miles, points, or cash back for shopping through your favorite mileage portal, the offers from Chase Ultimate Rewards and from the AAdvantage Mall appear especially lucrative.
