Gabriel Leigh covers hotel loyalty programs in DestinAsian magazine, explaining the lengths hotel programs will go to in order to win business from frequent guests. I’m quoted extensively in the piece, pointing out especially that hotel programs are lucrative, with points allowing members to redeem for truly aspirational properties they might not otherwise be able to afford. I note my own award stays at the Conrad Koh Samui (last month) and Park Hyatt Maldives (upcoming). At the same time the programs are lucrative for the chains themselves, since repeat customers are actually less costly to market to than new ones and elite customers can drive substantial revenue to a chain’s bottom line. I note that Hyatt Gold Passport and Intercontinental’s Ambassador program offer the most rewarding top tier elite levels. The article highlights free night…
About Gary Leff
30 Minutes Free Inflight Wireless on Delta through January 2
Delta’s domestic wireless coverage is excellent, and through January 2 thirty minutes of it is free thanks to a partnership with eBay. After your 30 minutes are up, you can still surf eBay for free. Or of course you can buy the service. It still mystifies me that inflight wifi adoption remains so limited, I’d think more travelers would want to be connected and furthermore during prime business travel hours would be expensing it to their employers. Of course, the more passengers that are using it the greater the service degradation seems to be, that’s going to be something of a curse for the service over time I think — as there becomes enough use to make the service economical, the quality of the service is going to deteriorate. So there will need to be…
Winners of Free Marriott Courtyard Nights Giveaway Announced
There were 3192 entries by the time the contest concluded at noon Eastern time today. So with thanks to assistance from Random.org, I drew two winners who will each receive two free nights at any Marriott Courtyard property in the Continental U.S. The first winner, kgk123: The second winner, Anthony H: You’ll both be hearing from me shortly on how to claim your room nights. Thanks to Marriott for providing the room nights in celebration of their new Courtyard lobbies, and thanks to everyone that had a good time with the contest, I appreciate your involvement!
A Weekend Stay at the New Hyatt 48 Lex
I spent this past weekend at the brand new Hyatt 48 Lex in New York. I’ve written about my stays at the Andaz 5th Avenue several times over the past year (see here, here, here, and about their pancakes here). That was the first place I searched. Standard rooms were sold out, which means no award nights available either. The Diamond Guaranteed Availability rate was about $750. So that wasn’t going to happen. Next up, I guess I do love the Andaz brand plus I figured that staying down on Wall Street would be much cheaper considering it was a weekend, I checked out the Andaz Wall Street where I stayed back in May. Also sold out of standard rooms, no award nights, and a Guaranteed Availability rate of ~ $650. Mind you, these hotels…
The Death of ITA Software’s Matrix1?
This is seriously inside baseball, but I had to share just to express my sadness and frustration. I used ITA Software‘s “Matrix 1” on Saturday. On Sunday it forwarded to their ‘new’ site, Matrix1 appears to be dead. Most of you are asking, what in the world does that mean? ITA Software is a company that handles the back end programming behind searching for airfare for several websites, both third party (like Orbitz) and airline sites. They search flights and pair those flights with fares, and the tools are really powerful although the most powerful search features aren’t offered on the consumer versions of their sites — since when you’re actually selling airfare you don’t want to offer complicated you want to offer simple, even though complicated can be more powerful. ITA, which was purchased…
Final Chance to Enter: Marriott Courtyard Free Nights Giveaway
At noon Eastern today, entry closes in my giveaway of two sets of two nights at any Marriott Courtyard in the continental U.S. Enter by leaving a comment in the giveaway thread.
Earning Double Points (and Elite Status!) at Starbucks
My wife was a Starbucks Gold card member before that was common, she had a Gold card when the ‘elite’ level Starbucks cards first came out (and there wasn’t even a reference yet at Starbucks.com). She and always got looks at the counter when she paid with it. I don’t know if that’s a mark of distinction or not. Probably it’s not… Well, it takes 30 transactions a year to reach Gold and 30 to retain it, I think it used to take only 15. And Gold status isn’t all that valuable. The “Green” level which used to be just for registering a card now takes 5 swipes and gets you free syrups, miles, and a brewed beverage when you buy whole beans (which I wouldn’t do from Starbucks since the beans are too oily).…
United Airlines Back Home: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites
Index: Planning the trip US Airways Shuttle to New York and the Sheraton JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York – Hong Kong The Pier Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite Bangkok Airways Business Class, Bangkok – Koh Samui Conrad Koh Samui, 2 Bedroom Ocean Pool Villa Conrad Koh Samui, Resort Bangkok Airways Business Class, Koh Samui – Bangkok Cathay Pacific Business Class, Bangkok – Hong Kong and Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong – Chicago United Airlines Back Home We had arrived early on our flight from Hong Kong. Which is great as far as it goes — but I had rather planned for the opposite. Since I was on a British Airways-issued award, I was using Cathay Pacific flights only. Adding…
BankDirect’s New $12 Per Month Fee
Back in April, I outlined the generous signup bonus of up to 22,000 American Airlines miles for a new BankDirect checking account. The unique selling proposition for internet checking accounts through BankDirect is the 100 American Airlines miles per $1000 average balance that you earn each month. If you keep $5000 in your checking account, that’s 500 miles a month, which is actually quite rewarding — 6000 miles a year at a time when most of us won’t maange to get $50 in taxable interest off a $5000 checking account balance during that time, and probably even less. Some folks used the account effectively to earn large quantities of miles with big balances, I never saw this as an especially great investment account earning miles rather than money, as a replacement for mutual funds for…
100% Bonus on Transferred Delta Miles
Only through December 16, Delta is offering a 100% bonus on transferred miles. This is a better deal than buying miles but of course you need to start with a stash of miles in order to make this work (or you can transfer points in from another program such as American Express Membership Rewards and don’t forget there’s a 30% rebate on doing that currently). Delta charges 1 cent per point that you transfer, plus a $30 fee per transaction. Transferring 30,000 points costs $330, and deposits 60,000 miles into the recipient’s account (for a net increase of 30,000 between the two accounts). Which means you’re effectively buying miles at 1.1 cent apiece. And even Skypesos are worth that. In order to transfer out or receive transferred Skymiles, accounts have to have been open at…
