As The Miles Professor noted in the comments, Starwood has made a decision on how it will handle the $30 rates at the Phoenician in Scottsdale for this upcoming December. They are unwilling to do $30. But they’ll do $130. Depending on the dates that folks booked, paid rooms are available in the $400 – $500 price range (and award nights are 12,000 Starpoints). I am contacting you today in regards to your December 2013 reservations for The Phoenician. Unfortunately, due to a systems error on March 27, the resort temporarily listed the incorrect and very low accommodation rate of $30 per night. While the Terms & Conditions on our website indicate the right to cancel if a reservation resulted from a mistake or error, we value your business and would like to extend an…
About Gary Leff
Earning Points for Dining at a Hotel Restaurant When You Aren’t a Registered Guest
Both Starwood and Hyatt allow their loyalty program members to earn points for dining at a hotel restaurant… when not a registered guest at the hotel. Starwood has done this for years, and Hyatt rolled out the benefit for the most part across their hotels in 2012. (I got to use the benefit with Hyatt for the first time back in November when I had dinner in DC with Mommy Points) Starwood makes it easy, while you’re supposed to be able to hand over your member card with the bill and have them credit you in my experience folks in the restaurant often don’t know about the benefit let alone how to credit points. So you wait for the points not to post, then submit a missing points request — I send in an email…
Bits ‘n Pieces for March 29, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Delta will be squeezing four more coach seats into their 737-900s by shrinking the lavatories. More Than Mary has started a series with my advice on getting a little extra luxury for your travel spend, the first part of the series focusing on hotels – with a tip a week for the next six weeks, I believe. SAS will be eliminating intra-European business class. Possibly short-sighted move, if my conversation with a British Airways exec a couple of weeks back is any indication — BA loses money on their intra-European business product itself, but maintains it because it’s key to be able to sell long haul premium cabin seats (they believe cunnecting premium cabin passengers would book away without an intra-European premium product). Le Club Accorhotels instant top…
Return to the Maldives: Park Hyatt Dubai
Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class The day prior to my arrival I received an email from the property offering me a complimentary car transfer to and from the airport. Suites at the hotel come with that, and I had booked my room the same way that Ben had and I applied an expiring Hyatt Gold…
1000 Frontier Miles for New Account Signup (or ~ 150 Free Miles in Your Choice of Programs)
Via Frugal Travel Lawyer. Sign up for a new Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns account here and earn 1,000 free miles by enrolling and completing a form with information about yourself. When signing up for your new account, click on the box for Frontier Sales & Specials and you will be notified of their deals by e-mail. Frontier is a points transfer partner at Points.com, meaning you can move points from Frontier into other loyalty programs (at a substantial devaluation). In the past it was possible to use one of these signup bonuses from Frontier to get free points in other programs (or Starbucks cards). Sadly they have since imposed a minimum threshold where your account needs at least 1001 miles in it in order to be able to transfer points out! Update: I wasn’t going to state the…
Starwood’s The Phoenician Resort in Arizona $30/Night in December
The Phoenician is pricing at $30 per night plus tax (and plus $29 per night resort fee) from December 11 through the end of the year at SPG.com. It’s an amazing deal for an expensive property, of course we’ll have to wait a few days to see whether it’s honored for sure so I wouldn’t buy other non-refundable travel around it just yet. Book it if you’d like to stay there, wait to see, and you may luck out with an amazing value. I stayed there in 2008 and much enjoyed it, especially the full sized spa bath amenities that I used to take with me to the gym. (HT: The Points Guy)
Bits ‘n Pieces for March 27, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Doug Parker says he’s open to re-thinking American’s new livery and branding. (HT: Milepoint) Folks burning their HHonors points before the massive devaluation a few hours from now! Hilton resorts in the Maldives have a new sea plane terminal lounge in the Maldives. (HT: Teja P in the VFTW comments) British Airways is closing its Jacksonville, Florida call center by the end of the year. Anyone that’s ever called there knows wherever their calls are routed going forward, service can only get better. I’ve never understood how people who live in Florida could be so unhappy. With 280 jobs affected, I now understand how I could hang up, call back, and get the same person so frequently. I don’t revel in anyone losing their jobs, but consolidating seems…
Return to the Maldives: New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class
Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class After checking in for my Etihad flight — a bit of a process in and of itself because the check-in counters are roped off and there’s a staff member there to keep people away who don’t belong, though I didn’t have to show him an itinerary to get through.. and…
American Express Bluebird Becomes a Real Checking Account (Get Your Limited Time Free Checks Now)
I’ve only known American Express’ BlueBird product as a great way of earning points, and especially meeting minimum spend requirements for credit card signup bonuses — buy Vanilla Reload cards (my local CVS still stocks them and takes credit cards) at $3.95 per $500, load the money onto the Bluebird card, then either have Bluebird make a payment to my credit card or transfer the funds back to my bank account. But that’s not really the purpose on Bluebird, and you can get a clue for what it actually is by noting that it was launched in partnership with Wal-mart. It’s a fabulous product for the unbanked. It started out as a prepaid American Express debit card that also served many of the functions of an online checking account. You could get cash from an…
Deep Discount Award Tickets For Flying Around Southeast Asia
Reader Troy R. passes along a tip that I think I noticed back in November but never fully internalized the significance of. He was reading my trip report on burning Hilton HHonors points at the Conrad Koh Samui — one of the really aspirational properties in the Hilton portfolio, and a great redemption value at 50,000 points per night through March 28 when the bottom falls out of the best redemptions in the Hilton program (this property becomes 95,000 points per night for 10 months of the year). All the rooms at the resort are standalone ocean villas with private pools. The food and service are good. The two downsides I note are that the hills are such that you have to take golf carts pretty much everywhere (golf carts are always at the ready…
