Hyatt is calling their series of 4 twitter chats the “World’s Largest Focus Group” and they will be giving away 4 free nights during each of the 4 chats, for a total of 16 free nights. Here’s the schedule, and each lasts one hour except the last is 90 minutes: Seamless Travel 3am Pacific/4am Mountain/5am Central/6am Eastern (whoops, missed that one!) Routines on the Road 5am Pacific/6am Mountain/7am Central/8am Eastern On the Road Rituals 10am Pacific/11am Mountain/Noon Central/1pm Eastern Traveling Like a Pro 12:30pm Pacific/1:30pm Mountain/2:30pm Central/3:330pm Eastern To see the conversation, enter #HyattWLFG in the search box on twitter. And anything you tweet should include that hash tag as well so that others will see it (and so that you will be eligible to win free nights). You can join the 30,000+ people who…
About Gary Leff
How to Find Business Class Award Seats for the Whole Family
Last month I argued that premium cabin award travel is best for families. More award seats cost more miles, and not everyone has the balances to support flying up front. But premium cabin awards in many programs do not cost substantially more than coach awards do — a business class ticket might cost 5 to 10 times the price of a coach ticket, but a business class award may be only 50% – 100% more miles. Ultimately you should redeem your points for what you value, and not everyone feels like extra room, a better sleep on long flights, or fewer hassles is worth any extra points or money. Last month I suggested ways to earn more miles instead of strategizing to economize on miles, as well as some of the compromises involved in finding…
Don’t Panic! American AAdvantage Awards on Qatar are Being Added in Error
Canadian Kilometers writes that when trying to book an award on new American AAdvantage redemption partner (and soon to be oneworld member) Qatar Airways, American is adding fuel surcharges onto the cost of the booking. Just last month American had a glitch where they were adding fuel surcharges onto award tickets flying Malaysia Airlines. They compounded the problem by telling folks that this was a new policy that would roll out across all partners. In fact it was meant to correct an issue with revenue tickets only and not awards. Like the Malaysia redemption problem it turns out that fuel surcharges are pricing on Qatar awards in error. You cannot book Qatar awards online. You cannot even search the space online in most cases. But award availability is in many cases quite good, even if…
Bits ‘n Pieces for September 25, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: A mock-up of the new United website is buried in its new ad campaign. As expected, and despite being royally peeved at Delta, Aeroflot won’t be leaving Skyteam, link is in Russian. (HT: Max in the comments) Two-thirds of Alaska state residents are members of the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program and six other facts you may not know. Last month I featured a Munich arport promotional lip sync video that was just awesome. Brussels airport has its own video released six months earlier. The production quality isn’t as good, but in some ways it’s even more bizarre. (HT: Lucky) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or…
Get Marriott Status and a Free Ritz-Carlton Night at Zero Net Cost
Via mo26 on Milepoint, there’s an offer for the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa that gives you a $200 Ritz-Carlton gift card after first purchase on top of the usual bonuses and benefits. I reviewed the card extensively last year. The Ritz-Carlton Rewards program is essentially the same thing as Marriott Rewards, the key differences being promotions that are offered and the particulars of their co-branded credit cards. With the Ritz card you get enough points for a free Ritz-Carlton night after $2000 spend within 3 months. And the card comes with Gold status (equivalent to Marriott Gold — so the easiest way to achieve 50 night elite status) the first year and then continues to provide that status each year with $10,000 spend. Now, there’s a $395 fee for the card. But the first year that…
Ban on Inflight Electronics Below 10,000 Feet Likely to Be Lifted in 2014
Back in June the committee formed to make a recommendation on use of electronics inflight below 10,000 feet asked for more time. Now that committee is expected to deliver its report this week. They are expected to recommend the restrictions be lifted, which in turn could lead to the FAA removing the requirement to turn off electronic devices for takeoff and landing soemtime in 2014. This will not mean inflight internet below 10,000 feet. That restriction is not under review. Passengers will be able to fire up their e-readers, have their phones on in airplane model, and watch movies or use their laptops though. This will not mean inflight use of cell phones. FCC restriction against that will remain in place. People almost universally hate the idea of passengers gabbing away on their cell phones,…
Mystery Solved: Flights Out of Venezuela Are Full — But Nobody Is Flying
The official exchange rate between Venezuelan Bolivers and American dollars is 6.3 to 1. Legally you can exchange dollars into Bolivars at that rate, but there are tight restrictions on the ability to buy dollars with the local currency. In fact, the black market rate is apparently closer to 44 to 1. However, it’s apparently now possible to buy up to US$3000 with Venezuelan Bolivars at the official exchange rate in conjunction with an international airline ticket. So Venezuelans are making money through arbitrage — buying airline tickets they do not intend to use, for the right to buy US dollars at a massive discount relative to what those dollars can be sold for on the black market. Many don’t take the flights, yet my own searches for space yield many days over the coming…
3000 — or Even 4000 — US Airways Mile Bonus for First Rocketmiles Hotel Booking
Rocketmiles is offering new customers a 3000 US Airways mile first-time booking bonus. When Rocketmiles offered a Virgin America first-time booking bonus it was stackable with the 1000 mile bonus for being referred by an existing customer. Nothing in this promotion’s terms and conditions appear to exclude that — making it effectively a 4000 mile bonus with your first Rocketmiles booking, in addition to the miles you would normally earn for booking a room. To qualify for the 3000 mile US Airways offer, you need to open an account and make a booking by December 14 for a stay consumed by March 31 and choose to collect US Airways miles for the booking. Rocketmiles used to allow my referral link to give you 2000 miles as a first-time booking bonus. Normally signing up through a…
What Ever Became of TopGuest: Points for Social Media Check-ins?
Three years ago a site called TopGuest started offering loyalty points for social media check-ins. They let you earn points with Hilton, Best Western, Choice Hotels, Priority Club plus Virgin America, Wyndham, plus Kimpton, Voila Rewards, and others. Even United was added. You would link a TopGuest account to a social media profile such as Foursquare, and then check in on Foursquare when at a qualifying venue to earn points. The technology wasn’t perfect, and back when I had a Blackberry I could check in on Foursquare at a Doubletree (Hilton points), Holiday Inn (Priority Club), Best Western, and more all from my home. It became a daily ritual of quick points. One can imagine this didn’t actually generate the buzz that TopGuest pitched travel providers on initially, and one by one programs fell away.…
What Today’s Southwest Rapid Rewards Devaluation Means for the Safety of Your Points
Southwest sent out an email blast today to let its members know that it would be reducing the value of its points for their best use, “Wanna Get Away” or discount advance purchase fares. There’s at least some notice given — bookings made March 31 onward will cost 70 points per dollar, rather than the current 60 points per dollar. Southwest is a ‘revenue-based’ program with the number of points earned being derived from the price of your tickets, and the number of points it takes to redeem for a given flight depending on the price of that flight. With this change each point will become worth 1.42 cents apiece. That’s a 15% hit to the value of Southwest points. The Points Guy says “I wouldn’t call this a massive devaluation” — I disagree. Yes,…
