Over Labor Day weekend I made a pilgrimage to Lockhart, Texas for barbecue. It would be an overstatement to say that it was life changing but I certainly had the best barbecue I’ve ever eaten and it changed the way that I think about barbecue. I used to think that barbecue was as much about the sauce as the meat, but that’s because I hadn’t ever tasted meat that was so fresh, cooked with such care, that not only didn’t it need any sauce but I didn’t want to detract from the subtle flavors. After Lockhart I thought I was more or less ruined from barbecue. The places in DC didn’t get much business from me even before this, but there’s a place in Florida I’d go to with some regularity and that was now…
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Virgin America Offering Status Matches to United and American Elite Members
Virgin America is offering elite status matches to United and American flyers. If interested, email statusmatch@virginamerica.com with your Virgin America frequent flyer number and either a screen shot of your elite status account with United or American or a copy of your elite card. They will match United Platinums and 1Ks and American Executive Platinums to their top tier Gold status, and American Platinums and United Golds to their Silver status. Status only lasts through April 30, but there’s an expedited requalification scheme. Certainly Virgin America wants as many high value customers as possible given their financial performance. I’m tempted by the offer, since I’ve never flown them. But top tier elite status only gets you the right to buy up to first class on a space available basis 24 hours prior to flight. While…
Delta Selling Elite Qualifying Miles
As they did last year, Delta will sell you elite qualifying miles again now that the end of the year is approaching, you want to reach the next level of status (rather than banking your ‘leftover’ elite qualifying miles as a head start on next year), and would rather just pay money instead of spending the time to do some incremental flying. The qualifying miles post within 24 hours. It’s expensive at at least 10 cents a mile, but since it saves you the time of actually flying it could be worthwhile for some. (HT: Lucky)
British Airways and Iberia 25% Discount on Long Haul Award Tickets Works for US-Originating Itineraries
Yesterday I wrote that British Airways, Iberia, and Avios would be launching a 25% off award sale valid on long haul routes. Details of the sale are now online. As I expected, the terms and conditions specify “Flights depart London” and that led me to believe the 25% discount would be available only on London-originating itineraries. One Mile at a Time beat me to the punch with the word that 25% will actually come off of all long haul award flights to and from London. The sale is on for six days only and permits travel through the end of May in any class of service. This is a discount on the mileage cost of the award only and not on taxes and fuel surcharges (which, route-depending, can be substantial). Partner flights aren’t eligible, it’s…
United (Doesn’t) Eliminates Free ‘Hold’ Option for Award Tickets
Update: When I was looking at the site earlier today, the pay by phone box didn’t come up. In fact, the only options were credit card and paypal. Western Union and cash were gone. Those are still gone. But e-check is there, which wasn’t there this afternoon. Very strange behavior. But for now the ‘pay by phone’ workaround to put awards on hold lives. Perhaps there was a website update in progress. (Meanwhile, this post went up hours later than intended due to some technical glitches with the service that hosts this site. My humble apologies.) —————– Year’s ago United offered to ‘hold’ an award reservation for 30 days without payment. I once even had them extend the hold on an award as the end of that period neared. Granted, it was an award on…
Up to 100% Bonus for Car and Hotel Activity Credited to US Airways
US Airways is offering up to a 100% bonus on hotel stays and car rentals credited to your Dividend Miles account between November 12 and December 31. Registration required. The bonus is available on up to 10 activities during the promotion period, and the more activity credited to your account the bigger the bonus you earn. 1 – 2 hotel stays/car rentals = 25% bonus miles 3 – 4 hotel stays/car rentals = 50% bonus miles 5 – 6 hotel stays/car rentals = 75% bonus miles 7 – 10 hotel stays/car rentals = 100% bonus miles Only the first 10 transactions (based on activity date) count towards the bonus, and the cumulative bonus you earn will apply to all of those transactions credited to your account. Activity must be reported by February 28 to qualify…
How Infrequent Flyers Can Get Seats Together During Busy Holiday Travel
Scott Mayerowitz has tips for families to secure seats together during peak holiday travel. The tips apply regardless of season, it can be uniquely hard during the holidays when more families travel, more people thus want to sit together (compared to solo business travelers), and- flights are even more full (as though that’s possible!). The gist is: Confirm your seat assignments, they might not have ‘stuck’ whether you booked directly with the airline (possible aircraft swap?) or through a third party agent (glitch). Keep checking back. Especially at upgrade windows, coach seats open up as passengers get moved to first class (although mostly ‘premium’ seats get opened as those were generally occupied by elites, so if you are not an elite you’re likely to still have to pay for those). Use Expertflyer.com. Their seat alerts…
25% Discount on British Airways and Iberia Awards Originating in London
It’s the one year anniversary of the gutting of the British Airways frequent flyer program, and Avios is celebrating with a 25% discount on long haul redemptions originating in London, for six days beginning on November 14th. Full details of the sale aren’t online yet but it appears that it will be available through the British Airways, Iberia, and Avios websites and will apply to long haul travel in any class of service through May 2013. US frequent flyers fear not, you get a 30% bonus on transfers of American Express Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios starting next month. (HT: Head for Points)
Keeping Up Live with the Star MegaDO
Mommy Points is blogging the Star MegaDO. Sadly, I’ve blogged it in the past but have a conflict that prevvents me from joining the fun. They’re on the ‘optional transatlantic’ portion of the trip now in Zurich. They fly to San Francisco tomorrow, and then charter a United widebody to Houston (where they’ll have a barbecue at the airport) and then to Chicago where among other things they’ll meet with United’s CEO. She passes along some posts from the MegaDO blog, where you can read about the ultimate frequent flyer adventure as it happens. A LAX send-off from the Star Alliance Lounge A glimpse of what the Lufthansa overnight flight from LAX-FRA was like with 100 Mega Do fanatics on-board Our arrival ceremony in the new A-Plus Pier at Frankfurt, including some remarks by the Star…
Instant Accor Hotels Platinum Status Available… in English
Last week I wrote about I wrote about instant Le Club Accorhotels Platinum status, just for signing up. There’s a Dutch landing page for the offer and the form is in Dutch, I figured no big deal since Google Chrome does instant translation. A week later this one is still working, and Steve in the comments notes that the landing page brings you to a form where you can simple change the language in the URL, and you can sign up for instant platinum status in English. (Thanks for the tip, Steve!) As always, 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. That can even be a gmail account where you add…
