Earlier in the week I saw that Southwest is offering double tier points (registration required) and I wasn’t going to post on it, since even though it’s useful for some getting A-List status really doesn’t excite me much and I was pretty distracted when It came across my screen. The offer matches American’s double elite qualifying miles, and like that offer runs through DecemberJanuary 31st. But it seemed worthwhile mentioning when I saw Online Travel Review point out yesterday that Southwest is also offering double points on all flights into or out of Newark, LaGuardia, Boston, Manchester, Providence, and Orlando for travel booked by December 30th and flown between January 4 and February 15th. Registration required. The ability to get double tier points and double credits flying specific routes during the month of January is…
About Gary Leff
How the Durbin Amendment Changed Mileage Earning Checking Accounts and Debit Cards
The end of most debit card rewards programs, and the recent imposition of monthly fees on mileage-earning checking accounts at BankDirect, are the result of the Durbin Amendment. NerdWallet runs an interesting piece on the effects of the amendment, pointing out its winners and losers (some of which may be surprising, but others will be familiar to those who pay attention to the points game and how it has been changing as a result of this legislation). NerdWallet interviews law professor Todd Zywicki, who blogs at Volokh.com where I first found reference to the article. The law was supposed to help small retailers by providing them relief from debit card interchange fees, but the unintended consequence has been higher prices as consumers shift towards credit instead of debit. The law was supposed to help credit…
RyanAir’s CEO on Barriers to Innovation in European Air Travel
RyanAir’s CEO Michael O’Leary speaks to the EU Innovation Convention. It’s a fascinating talk, offering a window into how they think about their competitors and also about European governments. I think of RyanAir much like Spirit. I think it’s great they exist. I have no problem with their combination of low fares and customer-unfriendly policies, but they also don’t really affect me because I have no intention of flying them. I love it when low fare carriers compete against the major ones whose elite status I enjoy, I benefit from my status and lower fares. I don’t think all of Michael O’Leary’s claims ring true, like that it’s all that convenient to fly to Charleroi Airport rather than Brussels (well, maybe if you don’t value your time and want to take a bus into the…
Priority Club First Quarter Bonuses
Priority Club has a series of bonus point offers for the first quarter of 2012, earn a certain number of points for a certain number of nights between January 1 and March 31. You have to select the offer you’ll register for, you can only have one of these and cannot change after you’ve registered. Offers via Priority Club Insider: Register: -Stay 3 nights earn 5,000 Register: -Stay 7 nights earn 10,000 Register: -Stay 15 nights earn 15,000
Hilton’s New Instant Free Gold Status Offer
Hilton HHonors is giving away instant free Gold status through May 2013 to Visa Infinite cardholders. The way they verify that you’re eligible, i.e. that you have a Visa infinite card, is by asking you to enter the first six digits of your card. Those six digits are ‘issuer identification numbers’ that say what kind of a card it is. Great in theory, you have to know the first six digits of a Visa Infinite card to take advantage of the promotion. But that information is even available on Wikipedia, the very first result found in a Google search. Which means that anyone can effectively take advantage of the promotion. As a Hilton Diamond member already I haven’t actually tested this out, I’m interested in it as a purely academic matter. But apparently entering the…
TripAlertz Giving Away Free Hotel Stays Again: $5 Per Signup You Refer to Them
Back in October TripAlertz was all the rage, giving away a $10 credit for every person that you got to sign up for the sign. Seriously, they were buying email addresses (and that’s all someone needed to give in order to sign up) at $10 in site credit apiece. Which struck me as seriously overpaying. Now they’re back offering $5 per new signup. You create an account, and then every friend who uses your referral link earns you $5. You can use the credit towards their ‘exclusive getaways’ hotels and with no limit, enough referrals will generate you free hotel and resort stays. No one has to buy a thing. I don’t entirely trust the website and their practices. TripCash originally expired after two years and was reduced without notice to a year and then…
Aeroplan Announces Changes to 2013 Elite Program
Aeroplan has followed a really good best practice in announcing changes to their elite levels going forward. It’s almost the start of 2012 and they’ve announced what benefits flying in 2012 will accrue for the 2013 program year. Members fly all year based on the offers that airlines make, and I’ve always found it disingenuous for an airline to pull the rug out from members after they’ve done the flying and right before they’re supposed to get the benefits. So a real kudos to Aeroplan which recognizes this, and decided to do any rug pulling with full advance notice. That’s respectful of their members. There’s going to be more (five!) levels going forward — 25,000; 35,000; 50,000; 75,000; and 100,000. There’s no change to the 25,000 mile flyer level. The 35,000 mile flyer level will…
Captain Kirk’s Approach to the Spouse Upgrade Debate
There’s been an ongoing debate on several blogs over ‘who gets the upgrade’ when traveling with your spouse or significant other and only one of you clears into the forward cabin. See, for example, this post over at Deals We Like where her husband makes a guest post appearance. They were planning to split time in the one upgraded seat, but all he got was an ice cream sundae in coach. Reader Pat B. e-mails me to relay a recent story where he gave up his upgraded seat to his travel companion, and apparently the flight attendants were just in awe, their sense being this sort of chivalry never happens, and fawned over him throughout the flight bringing him complimentary drinks, a warm cookie, and gave the couple of bottle of wine from the flight…
British Airways’ Parent and Lufthansa Enter Binding Agreement for sale of bmi
Via Seth, the agreement between British Airways parent IAG and Lufthansa for the sale of british midland’s mainline operation is now binding (though subject to regulatory approval). So Virgin, which isn’t usually a serious player in such matters but throws their hat in for theatrics, is out. To me it didn’t much matter whether British Airways or Virgin took control of bmi, I’m a recently-requalified bmi Gold member and wasn’t especially looking forward to having status with either BA or Virgin, or the accompanying devaluation of points. Because of its Star Alliance membership and cash and points award chart, plus allowable one-way awards with stopovers, the bmi award chart has always been really generous. British Airways now charges a separate award for each segment, bmi even allows stopovers for no extra points. And bmi charges…
The Simplest Advice Can Make the Biggest Difference
Sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks. I may write about pretty complex or convoluted deals and strategies here on the blog. Fortunately I have a patient readership. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is looking for the most Rube Goldberg-esque means of securing award tickets or earning more miles. I leave out the simple stuff, things that seem ‘obvious’ don’t really occur to me to write about most of the time. But then something happens to make me realize that there’s some useful advice that will be valuable for “the 99%” of mileage collectors. That isn’t actually too simple or obvious to be useful. Earlier in the week I had lunch with two professional acquaintences who asked if I might help them think about how to get more out of their miles…
