News and notes from around the interweb: Head for Points goes over the basics of upgrading with British Airways Avios points. I often say that international upgrades with miles are no longer the value that they used to be; British Airways is an exception where there’s no cash co-pay. Upgrades from premium economy to business class tend to be a very good use of points. You can buy Paypal reload cards with a credit card (and earn miles, meet minimum spend for signup bonuses) and add the money to your Paypal account. Giddy for Points talks about ways to get the money out of Paypal since you probably don’t want to just load your account and then transfer funds out to your bank account; Paypal can be quite persnickety and freeze accounts. In 2008, United…
About Gary Leff
The Hotel Rate Ethicist: Corporate Discount Codes, and Your Advice Needed on Whether I Should Renew AAA Membership?
I’ve had AAA membership for awhile, largely because I book AAA rates at hotels frequently. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked for proof of membership at check-in, however. The Hilton and Hyatt websites both ask you to enter AAA numbers when making reservations online, they don’t check that an account is currently active but presumably check to see that the digits are plausible. AAA rates aren’t always the best, for instance there are often better corporate rates where if you were an employee of a given company you’d be entitled to a lower negotiated rate — which sometimes codes with added benefits like free or discounted parking, or a much more generous cancellation policy than standard reservations (such as 6pm on day of arrival rather than day prior to check-in). I’ve never been asked…
Washington Dulles is a Very Bad Airport
I live near Washington’s National airport and will often be happy to connect if necessary in order to avoid Dulles airport. Not only is it a good 45 minute drive from downtown, but once you’re there you’re not even close to there. Public transportation options are limited; there are a couple of bus routes and those connect up to metro. (There will eventually be metro service in one of the most expensive transit projects in US history.) Taxis departing the airport are part of a monopoly franchise, which means you have double the taxi trips necessary — arriving cabs cannot pick up passengers and take them to the city, and departing cabs return mostly empty. It always amazes me that this doesn’t cause any sort of environmental uproar. You enter the main terminal and are…
Just a Few Hotel Rooms Left for Frequent Traveler University in April
The next Frequent Traveler University is April 26-28 in Northern Virginia. Lucky from One Mile at a Time, Mommy Points, Million Mile Secrets, The Points Guy, and Frequent Miler will all be speaking along with me at the event. And I’ll be putting together the rest of the program shortly. Already — still over four months out — nearly 400 people have signed up to attend. Folks have had some difficulty getting rooms at the host hotel. Co-organizer Tommy wrote over at Milepoint, The host hotel is sold out of regular rooms. I’ve gotten my hands on all the Executive Level rooms for an additional 40 dollars a night, so 139 per night, which includes full breakfast for all occupants every day and upgraded rooms on the top floors. There are only 100 of these…
100 Free Amtrak Points
Barclay’s Bin wine sale site will give you 100 Amtrak Guest Rewards points for signing up. All that’s required is a name, email address, Amtrak account number, and making up a password. They give you $10 towards your first purchase as well, but no purchase is required for the points. (HT: Dan M.)
In Which I Give Delta Something of a Pass for its Lack of Award Availability on Air France
In mid-September Air France transatlantic business class award space mostly evaporated. And what did exist wasn’t bookable with Delta Skymiles, even though those Delta is a Skyteam partner of Air France. I initially tried to parse who was responsible, something that’s a big deal because historically Air France business class availability has been really good — and Delta has had access to whatever Air France made available to its own members. It became a great outlet for burning Skymiles, which are in most cases tougher to use and worth less than miles with US Airways, United, and American. I speculated that Delta was to blame, in part because they had withdrawn access to Air France inventory in the past when they decided it was costing their frequent flyer program too much money. And also because…
Bits ‘n Pieces for December 14, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Via Online Travel Review, LOT Polish has gotten rid of its 10th CEO in 12 years. So remind me why we had to put up with Glenn Tilton for so long? Pizza in Motion says Hyatt finally has a property at LAX airport — the Hyatt Place Los Angeles/LAX/El Segundo. I’ve become a fan of the new build limited-service Hyatt Place properties 100 Free JetBlue TrueBlue points. United has forced Awardwallet to stop checking account balances. Awardwallet, though, will let you configure your United.com e-statements and reservations to be sent to them directly in order to update your Awardwallet account (with instant forwarding to you). And since it appears that UsingMiles has worked out a relationship to continue displaying United balances, I’m hopeful the same will happen with…
25% Bonus Converting Hotel Points to British Airways — And Why You Probably Shouldn’t Do It
British Airways is offering a 25% bonus on hotel points converted into Avios through January 13. Eligible partners are Starwood, Club Carlson, Marriott, Hilton, Priority Club, Hyatt, and Shangri-La and no registration is required, the bonus is automatic. This bonus will get plenty of coverage, and is already getting coverage, the usual take is that it’s a good deal to transfer Starwood points. SPG certainly provides the most dramatic points into miles examples, because Starwood points are usually the best for transfers to miles anyway. 20,000 Starpoints normally yield 25,000 miles. With this bonus that’s 31,250 miles. So the illustration is 20,000 Starpoints to 31,250 miles — it looks like a bigger bonus than it is. Remember it’s just a 6250 point bonus. And 6250 BA points aren’t enough to get me to give up…
Instant Club Carlson Gold Status for New Account Signups
Club Carlson is offering instant Gold status for new members of their program. Club Carlson is the loyalty program for Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn, and Country Inns & Suites. They’ve been aggressive with big bonuses over the past year and a half, and just introduced a credit card that gets you second night free on your award redemptions. This offer is targeted at Platinum and Gold members of the Jet Airways JetPrivilege program. Gold status gets you: 50% bonus Gold Points on your Club Carlson stays 2,000 bonus points for online booking Upgrades Early Check In and Late Check Out on request, subject to availability The offer is supposed to be available through March 31 but my bet is that it’s pulled more quickly than that. Club Carlson is usually pretty generous with status…
New York City Passes New Regulations to Allow Mobile Taxi Apps
On Tuesday night I flew into New York and took a cab downtown. The cab’s meter wasn’t working, or so the driver said, and we agreed on a fixed price to my hotel. I know what a ride costs and wasn’t going to overpay. And I negotiated a discount for cash. But the cab driver — who was going to get paid the same amount regardless of the route — decided the best thing was to take surface streets despite no traffic at almost 10pm, not wanting to pay tolls. He also wanted to finish the trip as quickly as possible and pushed the envelope on every red light we approached. The cab couldn’t have had much of a suspension system, I was so thrown around that by the time I made my hotel I…
