When readers shared their own travel tips and several really stood out as worth highlighting. Alan said, If your plane is delayed or cancelled, instead of waiting in line at the airport to talk to someone, simply call the airline and they will help you a lot faster. I’ll expand on this a bit. Whom to Seek Out for Help The Customer Service counter at any airport is usually the least customer and service-focused place at the airport. The lines are long serving everyone that’s displaced. The agents deal only with unhappy passengers. No matter their disposition, after a day of getting yelled at it’s tough to be proactive and helpful. They’re beaten down and just want to get through the day. While sometimes you’ll get stuck in this line, the first thing I do…
About Gary Leff
How to Get Free Airport Parking
When I wrote about the return of Milepoint’s Premium offer, it was natural to focus on the headline offers — Hilton Gold status, United miles, and even National Car Rental status. There are a suite of discounts and offers beyond that, they won’t all be useful to everyone but there’s opportunity to get value out of many of them. I use Expertflyer.com for instance, and there’s a 20% discount on a year’s subscription. Similarly there’s a discount on the KVS Tool which I also use extensively in searching flights, availability, awards, seat maps, Visa rules, maximum permitted mileage, minimum connection times and more. Commenter Gene has an eagle eye for the value of one of those benefits — a free parking day at The Parking Spot. @Gary — Is the Parking Spot coupon good an…
Can No Seat Assignment Be Better than Picking a Middle Seat in Back?
When readers shared their own travel tips and several really stood out as worth highlighting. Some I even disagree with, like this one from Shaun If a plane seat map looks full (and has no good seats left anyway), don’t select a seat or call to de-select one. You’ll end up with a seat request card and get a seat assignment at the gate. More often than not, a bulkhead will open up because they are blocked off for people with disabilities, etc, and aren’t always used. To be sure this is usually how things will work out. If you have no elite status and don’t want to spend money for a ‘better’ coach seat assignment (that may be more legroom, or may not be a seat closer to the front or an aisle) then…
Amazing Deal Alert: Hilton Gold, National Car Rental Status, and United Miles for $49
Milepoint has brought back Premium Membership, which includes a host of great deals for frequent flyers. And whereas last year we had to price it at $59, this year we were able to do it for $49. Hopefully this is one of the very best deals of the year. The headline benefits:Gold Elite status with Hilton HHonors through February 2015 Free upgrade to National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive Status 1,000 United MileagePlus miles It won’t work for everyone, Hilton Diamonds that don’t want to gift Gold status to anyone and who don’t collect United miles for instance. But for frequent flyers generally, we set out to create a really fantastic deal. Put another way, if you can’t get more than $50 of value out of this, you aren’t doing it right. Hilton’s Gold status…
JetBlue Introduces Family Pooling of Miles – A Great Option, But They’re Not First
Some frequent flyer programs allow ‘ppoling’ of points within a family, everyone flies and then a family member uses everyone’s points for a reward. Others offer family accounts on the theory that the points belong to the head of household. Family pooling is not uncommon with Middle East programs. Still others want to reward the decision-maker in travel, Southwest Airlines was one of the first ones with this idea with their ‘Secretaries Program’ in the 1970s where administrative assistants could earn free travel by steering their bosses to fly Southwest. (Another tactic in the 70s was rebating take-home alcohol to passengers buying pricier tickets, when the Civil Aeronautics Board began ‘experimenting’ with price competition and national carriers were permitted to undercut Southwest fares.) JetBlue has taken a step that’s a first for any North American…
How Not to Do Public Transport to the Airport
No doubt there are folks who like Los Angeles International Airport, though it’s a bit of a mess, fortunately there’s a new Tom Bradley International Terminal rolling out in stages (the old one is one of the great embarrassments to U.S. aviation). Even that improvement though comes with its disruptions. Personally the only two things I like about LAX are: That is has American’s best Flagship (international first class) lounge. That on long layovers you can take the Parking Spot – Sepulveda bus to In ‘n Out burger on the edge of the airport, sit outside and watch planes land. No doubt many Angelinos would value better public transportation to and from LAX. The L.A. Airspace blog reports that the airports authority is mulling just that. A simple underlining though should make clear why their…
Getting Started in Miles and Points With the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
I gave just a few people in my office one-on-one consultations about getting started in miles and points. I’ve also helped several of those people book award tickets with their points. Usually the first actionable thing my co-workers take away from those conversations is to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. I tell folks that they want to start with understanding their reward goals — that both motivates them and helps them pick the right program to earn points in. For most goals, though, Chase Ultimate Rewards points are the best place to start. And to track their points, using a site like Award Wallet. What’s interesting is that once people get this advice, get the card, and use the points the advice seems to spread like wildfire. How did you do that?…
The American Express Lounge in Dallas Opens Next Week — With More Services, and Free Access for Platinum Cardholders
Big news that American Express will open a top-end lounge at Dallas Fort-Worth in terminal D on October 15th, and that their lounges in the U.S. will be complimentary to American Express Platinum cardholders. Over the weekend @GrahamCC tweeted me that the American Express Centurion lounges now offer free access to Platinum cardholders. (Previously access was free to Centurion (“Black Card”) members only, with other American Express cardholders able to pay $50 for access.) Prompted by Graham’s tweet, I reached out to Gary Portuesi, American Express’ Vice President of Travel Innovation, and confirmed that Platinum cardholders do now have access to Centurion lounges in the United States — and that this includes not just Las Vegas but also future lounges, and that the next lounge in Dallas will open next week. A couple of months…
Grand Hyatt Tampa Was a Fantastic Venue for Frequent Traveler University
The Grand Hyatt Tampa was host to last month’s Frequent Traveler University. I’ve written about some of the sessions there, like the session on putting award booking ‘theory’ into practice, with a live call to Delta to book business class awards to India. This was probably the nicest venue for a frequent flyer educational gathering yet. Nice and convenient only minutes from the airport, with free parking, and within a few miles of multiple CVS stores that stocked scores and scores of Vanilla Reload cards — plenty of people were taking field trips off-site in order to stock up on frequent flyer miles. (There were even Reload cards up at the cash register.) Since I wasn’t going to spend much time in my room, I didn’t try to compete with the 60+ Hyatt Diamond members…
When to Take Advantage of United’s 25% Discount on Purchased Miles
United is offering a 25% discount on purchased miles through December 31. The miles do not post instantly, they warn posting can take up to 48 hours though they usually post a bit faster than that. The minimum purchase is 2000 miles and an account can purchase up to 100,000 miles per year. The only time this makes any sense is when you have almost enough United miles in an account for an award and need to top off that account (and do not have other, more cost effective ways of doing it). The deal in effect offers miles for purchase ~ 2.8 cents apiece. That’s still expensive. United miles are about the most valuable single airline currency out there because of the amazing award availability offered through Star Alliance (best from North American to…
