News and Notes from Around the Interweb: TJ on Miles & Points details his strategy to get $80 cash back purchasing internet domains for $14.95. An interesting find, and while it may even seem to be scalable (doing lots of domains at a profit) I predict that the folks paying out here will find it not economical for them to do so. Shades of the easyCGI shopping portal debacle? Nonetheless some will find it worth playing with, and certainly interesting to watch play out. JonNYC at TravelingBetter.com notes that American has increased the window — from 12 hours to 24 hours — for making $75 same-day confirmed flight changes. That’s a huge improvement that makes changing travel easier, though I still wish the fee was waived for elites. Thousands of View from the Wing readers…
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Citibank Will Remain the Issuer of American Airlines Credit Cards After the US Airways Merger
This is just a prediction, it isn’t a fact, but I think the prediction is based on some pretty sound data. I read through American Airlines’ year-end 2012 10-K filing this afternoon and learned several interesting things about the frequent flyer program: In 2011 American reduced revenue by $43 million because of a decrease in the ‘breakage assumption’ of their miles — fewer expired, unused miles. This is an accounting charge that says they expect redemptions to cost them more money than they had anticipated because members weren’t letting their miles lapse. In 2012 they took in less revenue for the sale of miles to third parties than in 2011. I wonder if this was related to the bankruptcy, with folks shying away from the airline’s program or from the airline itself due to operational…
Where Should You Burn Your HHonors Points Before We’re All Left Behind on March 28?
Hilton’s devaluation effects major cities and aspirational resort properties the most — the kinds of hotels that were previously ‘category 7’ but now most frequently category 10 and which even have category 10 high season prices, thus going from 50,000 points per night to as many as 95,000 points per night. And while the changes include ‘5th night free’ for elite members being spun as a new benefit, elites previously received a discount on multi-night rewards which are effectively going away. No more discounts on 4 night stays, for instance, you have to stay exactly 5 nights to get the discount. If you’re looking to burn your HHonors points in a blaze of glory before the category changes go into effect with the March 28 devaluation, then I suggest having a look at the following…
Frequent Traveler University Schedule Posted!
The current iteration of the schedule for Frequent Traveler University in Northern Virginia, April 26-28, is now up on the FTU website. Last I checked there were about 30 tickets left for Frequent Traveler University. There will be 650 people total in attendance, the largest gathering ever of frequent flyers in one place. But not to worry , for folks who wind up shut out and unable to buy a ticket, the tickets are not refundable by they are transferable and I do frequently see folks on Milepoint looking to find a good home to a ticket when a business commitment or family obligation gets in the way of their attending. So al hope won’t be lost once these last handful of tickets sell out. Which will happen very soon. Events begin Friday April 26th…
Points.com Giving Away (3) Million Mile Prizes
Via Pizza in Motion, Points.com is giving away (3) sets of prizes of prizes of 1 million miles each. Really I should have known this because they’re making the offer in line with voting in the Freddie Awards (the annual airline, hotel, and credit card loyalty program awards that I help to organize — several hundred thousand ballots cast already by travelers). Enter just by signing up for Points.com through the contest link, and winners will be able to choose the program in which they win miles from Aeroplan, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, American Airlines AAdvantage Program, Delta SkyMiles, United Mileage Plus, US Airways Dividend Miles, Virgin America, and others. In the past Points.com has offered signup bonuses of 10-20 miles in a program of choice for joining. In some ways then this is like…
Southwest Double Tier Points No Longer Limited to Milwaukee
Southwest is offering double points and double tier qualifying points for travel by May 15. They were already running double points but had limited the double tier qualifying points to Milwaukee flights. That’s been extended nationwide. (If you had already registered for either promotion, you’re already registered for this. Otherwise, iregister.) One change since the original promotion was first rolled out is that since February 14, only flights booked “through Southwest channels” are eligible for these promotions. Most Southwest flights are, to a greater extent than with the legacy carriers, so when I saw it I wasn’t especially concerned. Southwest’s website was one of the very first to hit a billion dollars in sales in a year — not one of the first airlines, one of the very first websites period. They’ve long marketed their…
Starwood Increases Points Prices at 20% of Hotels
Starwood has announced its category changes for 2013 (.pdf). Each hotel in their program is assigned to a category which determines how many points a free night costs, and each year they re-assign hotels to categories based on the hotel’s projected average daily room rate. The new categories go into effect March 5. So we don’t have a lot of notice, but there’s enough time to make bookings now for any hotels that are going to be going up in category (and thus up in price). And that includes speculative bookings, since most award reservations are fairly cancellable, just make sure to cancel within the rules of the reservation if you decide to lock in a lower price now but find you aren’t going to use the reservation after all. And of course once prices…
Bits ‘n Pieces for February 20, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Hyatt Gold Passport’s Jeff Zidell spends the day with the Freddie Awards that his program has won in the past. He and those awards are BFFs. And he’d like to win more of them. Live and Let’s Fly’s Matthew Klint was kicked off a United flight for taking a single photograph. It’s always hard to be objective when writing about an incident you were involved in yourself, but I do trust Matthew’s rendition of events. Another blogger was on the flight and watched it go down as well. AAdvantageGeek reports that within the next few weeks American first class napkins will again have button holes. Customers passionately pleaded for the return of the button hole after American removed them last year. I like them myself, in a restaurant…
Hilton’s Dramatic Devaluation Comes March 28: Time to Unload My HHonors Points
Hilton devaluation: It is, apparently, hotel loyalty program devaluation season. Since the first of the year Priority Club introduced a new 9-tier reward chart, Starwood raised the price of cash and points awards, Marriott introduced a new more expensive award tier and a points price increase for 36% of their properties. Just this morning I shared news that we’ll get a new devalued Wyndham Rewards chart on March 14. And in the coming days we should expect the annual category changes from Starwood. I would expect a whole lot more hotels to go up in category (and thus cost more points to redeem) than down, because their categories are tied to each hotel’s average room rates and prices have been on the rise. That makes Hyatt’s changes — more hotels getting less expensive than more…
New Devalued Wyndham Rewards Award Chart Coming March 14
Wyndham has shared some details of changes to their award chart coming March 16th. They are positioning it as a reduction in the number of points for award nights, and the elimination of the highest point categories as well. Here’s the details they’ve spelled out: Our lowest tier is decreasing from 6,000 to 5,500 points! We are adding a new 8,000 point tier between 5,500 and 10,000 points so you can stay at hotels for FREE more quickly Our highest point tier will be 30,000 points. The 35,000 and 45,000 point tiers are being eliminated. Properties within the current point level may move into different point levels. This means that point levels for individual hotels may increase or decrease beginning March 14. You’ll be able to see the new point levels on March 14. They…
