I got a lot of great feedback on the videos that Conde’ Nast Travel posted with my advice on the best time to book award travel, the best hotel perks for business travelers, and the best first class rewards. I don’t have video production skills, and don’t figure that most readers actually want to look at me. But videos are a popular way to convey information, and many of you find it useful to listen to advice and not just read it. So while I’ve written up my advice on how to score the best hotel upgrades, and redeeming hotel pooints for upgrades, I thought I’d also share a video that I recorded last year on getting hotel upgrades. Production quality isn’t as strong as the Conde’ Nast videos. But I think Sean Colahan did…
About Gary Leff
Why International Mileage Upgrades are So Expensive and Hard to Get — And What a Better Strategy Would Be
A couple of reader questions about upgrades. JC said, Hi there! Love the insights you share. I know award ticketing requires of me a lot of foresight and planning, but what would really make a difference on my end is how to most efficiently book award tickets/upgrades on the web. And Joy asked, For Star Alliance or Oneworld, what’s the cheapest way to upgrade an Economy flight booked into a cheap fare class (like K or L)? It seems quite expensive on United, for instance, because you have to pay some $300 in addition to the miles you use. Can you do it with a partner airline’s miles for cheaper? Conventional wisdom has always said that the best way to use miles was confirmed international upgrades to business class (buying a coach ticket, using miles…
Instant Free Top Tier Status with Accor Hotels (and Status Match Options)
Instant Platinum (top tier) status in the Accor Hotels loyalty program comes around with some frequency, usually the signup link doesn’t stay active long — sometimes days, sometimes just hours. Here’s a current offer for instant Platinum status. (HT: This Milepoint thread and Milepoint member Simon) You must open a new account, it cannot be applied to existing accounts. And when you do so you must use an email address that’s not currently on file with them. Even if you don’t frequently stay at Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, and other related properties frequently, you never know when you might find yourself in one and having top tier status can’t hurt. Platinum status usually requires 60 nights or 25,000 points earned. It offers double points and at Sofitel, Pullman and MGallery hotels a complimentary drink and…
300 Free La Quinta Points
Sign up for the points here. As I explained last time, The videos are about 20 seconds long. Then you’ll be asked whether your trip is for business or pleasure, where in the state you are interested in, and whether kids will be along. That decision tree generates a longer 3-minute video to watch. The idea is you’re supposed to watch a video first and then get taken to a page where you enter your account information for the points. I’ve never stayed at a La Quinta. From having read Lamar Muse’s excellent autobiography about his years as Southwest Airlines’ founding President, I recall the story of the La Quinta chain (its founder was a Southwest board member). Apparently the name derives from the founder’s search for the cheapest furnishings possible. They had a Southwestern…
The Class Struggle in the Skies is More Illusion than Reality
The New York Times carried a piece this weekend called Class Struggle in the Sky where the author argued that in airworld, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The film Jerry Maguire did a much better job framing the issue, when Renee Zellweger’s character looks forward from the coach cabin and up to where Tom Cruise is sitting and tells her son, First class, that’s what’s wrong. It used to be a better meal, now it’s a better life. There’s no doubt that the man walking past me yesterday in the back, muttering to his family how great it would be if he had one of the bigger seats up front, shared this view. And that he was asked to use the lavatory “in his ticketed cabin” felt to him…
600 United Miles for Taking One (Arduous!) Survey
I woke up to an email this morning from United offering 600 miles for joining ‘Opinion Miles Club’ and completing one survey. You give your name, email address, mileage number and gender. Then you go to your email to confirm. Then they want your date of birth, home address, whether you rent or own your home, your occupation, your education level, income, and race. They also want to know who you’re employed by and how much you make. After completing registration they had another screening survey for me to take before they’d let me take a survey for miles. They wanted to know if I’m gay or wear glasses, and what purchasing decisions I make at work. You’ll need to decide if that’s too much information, too invasive, and for that matter how honest you…
Get 500 Free Southwest Rapid Rewards Points
Dish Network will give you 12,500 Southwest Rapid Rewards points for signup. But you don’t have to sign up for Dish Network service to get some points. They will give you 500 points for not signing up as well. Rapid Rewards Promotion: Limited-time offer. 500 Rapid Rewards Points will be applied approximately 8-10 weeks from submission. Offer available once per valid Rapid Rewards account. 12,500 Rapid Rewards Points will be applied approximately 8-10 weeks from activation. New customer offer only. Strictly speaking of course the points are for giving them your junk mail e-mail account so they can market to you. (HT: The Points Traveler) 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 subscribe to…
How Will I Be Able to Talk Miles and Points in 20 Minutes… TODAY?
This will be short because I have nothing unique to add to the conversation. I’m about to give a talk at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit on travel, and I don’t really want to. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great group of people, and it’s a talk that I love — but with the news of the Asiana crash in San Francisco it’s a little bit difficult to focus on my usual pedantic concerns of points, miles, first class cabins. And yet I won’t be posting much on the subject of the crash because I don’t have special knowledge from being on the scene, or special expertise other than as an observer of travel about crash investigations. I’ve just been following twitter for my updates. And I know to discount much of what’s reported…
Covert Operations: Do Travel Providers Keep Tabs on Us?
The first question I picked out of yesterday’s request or requests comes from Holly. Do airlines and hotels keep notes on us? And if they do, is that information available to whomever on a flight, with a CS rep or upon check-in? Not that I’m paranoid or have anything to hide, but I’m just wondering if miles/points whore – nice customer – complainer is ever in the equation. No. And yes. Hotels and much better than airlines at individualizing their customer service and getting to know specific guests. And individual hotel properties are much better at this than hotel chains tend to be. But even airlines try to use metrics based on customer behavior to guide the way they interact with customers. The blunt tool for all of this, of course, is elite status. In…
Delta Already Rolled Out Their Revenue-Based Redemption (in 2008.. and Lied About What it Meant)
The big theme this year in the frequent flyer universe — at least for US airline loyalty programs — is which ones will be trying to make themselves more “revenue-based” and when? Airline frequent flyer programs — the single most successful marketing innovation in history, and profitable multi-billion dollar businesses in their own right even as the airline business has struggled — have convinced themselves they’ve been doing it wrong all these years. So trying to figure out how to ‘reward’ only those who ‘contribute the most revenue’ is in vogue. Even though frequent flyer programs aren’t supposed to be about ‘rewarding’ people, they’re supposed to be engines with which to drive incremental business. Many in the airline industry have difficulty with marginal analysis, however. Delta is expected to be the first to alter their…
