I highlighted Hyatt’s Winter promotion when it was first announced and then flagged when registration became available. But it’s worth highlighting again, because at the time I flagged it as the most generous current promo in the market. It’s not the most generous hotel promotion that’s ever been but it’s pretty good and I like it more than other current offerings. For every 4 nights between February 1 and April 30, members earn additional points and Hyatt Visa also earn an extra 25% bonus on top. Registration required by March 31. 4 nights earns 4000 points (+1000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders) 8 nights earns an additional 8000 points (+2000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders) 12 nights earns an additional 12,000 points (+3000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders) 16 nights earns an additional 20,000 points (+5000 for Hyatt…
About Gary Leff
Bits ‘n Pieces for February 7, 2012
Via Dan’s Deals, you can get a free 26 week subscription to the Wall Street Journal and also to Barron’s. Via the Points Guy you can get 3000 free Avios points if you log into your account and search for Realtytrac in the top right search bar, then sign up for a free 7 day trial. You’ll need to call (877-888-8722, 8am – 5pm Pacific) in order to cancel within those 7 days to avoid being charged for the service. Matthew points out that Continental.com has now added all Star Alliance partners to their website for award booking except Ethiopian Airlines. Continental.com is the easiest site to use for searching for award seats in my opinion, you don’t even have to log in to search flights. And if the miles aren’t in your Continental account…
How I’d Love to See Hyatt Gold Passport Trump Their Competition
I think that Starwood’s changes to elite benefits are really quite huge. There’s a breakfast option (Continental breakfast or 500 point check-in Amenity) for Platinums, the ability to express a preference for when you’d like your upgrade for Platinums who stay 50 or more nights per year, and true 24 hour checkin (not guaranteed and must confirm at least 48 hours in advance) for Platinums staying 75 nights or more per year. There are other new benefits, but these to me are the really ground breaking ones for the program. Oh, and Golds can choose free internet finally. The really funny thing is that Starwood hasn’t moved the needle of my opinion about where it stands relative to other frequent guest elite programs. Its top tier was number two behind Hyatt before, and it remains…
25,000 American miles for new DirecTV Signup
Via New Girl in the Air, DirecTV is offering 25,000 American Airlines miles for a 2-year contract, offer valid only through February 8. Not worth it for the miles alone, but a great offer for signing up for the TV service, I prefer my DirecTV to the Comcast service I had before.
New VIP Meet and Greet Services at Paris Charles de Gaulle
Regular readers know that I’m a fan of high-end meet and greet services at airports, while I don’t often pay for VIP assistance I think it’s a great option in certain circumstances, and I certainly love it when it’s included as part of my first class award redemptions (like the car to the plane from the Lufthansa first class terminal, and the escorts in Bangkok from Thai Airways). Frequent Business Traveler says that there’s a new meet and greet service available at Paris Charles de Gaulle starting at 200 euros. That’s a bit more than American charges for their Five Star service, but this is Europe after all. For a fee of €200, an Air France representative will provide an escort for departures, arrivals, and connections at the airport. Flying Blue members will receive 400…
Update on My Travel Technology Re-think
Last month I sought reader input into some new technology choices I wanted to make – a new camera, smartphone, and laptop. Since I much appreciated all of the advice, I thought I’d share an update on what I decided to do. It’s slightly old technology but I went with the tried and true Canon s95. There were mixed reviews of the pricier s100 and I’ve always liked the photos I’ve seen taken with the s95. So far I’ve been happy using it, I’ve taken better, richer photos and the auto mode works great. I know nothing about photography, just point and shoot, and this was the right size, quality, and price. I’m fully migrated over to my new Lenovo u300s. It’s a little “boxy” and not nearly as sexy as some of the other…
Improved Diamond Recognition at Hyatt 48 Lex, and Continued Excellent Recognition at Andaz 5th Avenue
Back in December I stayed at the new Hyatt 48 Lex in New York, it’s a pretty good new hotel and an excellent award redemption value as a Gold Passport category 4 (15,000 points per night vs. 22,000 at the Andaz hotels and Grand Hyatt). The only downside was the elite treatment, I felt like they really didn’t want me there, an intrusion in the restaurant where breakfast was very strictly defined and internet was limited to a single device, using two devices would incur extra charges. Points, Miles, and Martinis visited and reported back that they’ve addressed their deficiencies. Instead of being limited to a single (the least expensive) breakfast item and having to choose coffee or juice, the hotel now gives Diamond members a $25 hotel gift card (two registered guests would mean…
36 Avios Per Dollar at Nordstrom
Via Lucky, the British Airways shopping portal is offering 12 points per dollar at Nordstrom and there’s a promotion which will triple your first purchase of $50 or more, yielding 36 points per dollar. I’m no longer a fan of the Avios program to be sure, as a general matter. But there are some really good targeted uses, such as the uber-cheap short haul non-stop flights on American (which also won’t incur fuel surcharges since paid fares don’t) and also the non-stop US flights from the US to London where availability is really good in business class and first class on BA and for a pretty good product despite the fuel surcharges that will apply. Avios doesn’t thrill me, but if Chase were to bring back a mega credit card signup promotion I’d certainly find…
Korean Airlines Business Class Award Space Now Easier to Find (and How You Can Book It)
As reported on Milepoint, searching and booking business class award space on Korean Airlines just got easier. Delta Skymiles partners with Korean, it’s always been a bit of a pain because you cannot search for Korean Airlines award space on the Delta website and you cannot use the Korean website either unless you have enough Skypass miles in your Korean account to actually complete the booking. That means you’ve been pretty much at the mercy of Delta Skymiles agents, and with all of the different booking classes and blackout dates and probably more importantly variability in agent quality (Delta agents frequently don’t even know who their partners are, let alone how to book partner award seats, or even that you’re allowed to on a route that Delta also serves) that can be a real challenge.…
Singapore Airlines Premium Cabin Awards May Get Easier to Obtain
Singapore Airlines premium cabin seats are tough to get on points. One common request I get in my award booking service is for Singapore Airlines flights. There’s a certain allure to flying Singapore. I often feel like the airline is overrated. There’s a mystique to it, their onboard product is good and I very much enjoy the style of service (although others find them to be a bit too fawning). But I also like Cathay Pacific’s first class product quite a bit, and that of several other carriers, at least as much. They just don’t have quite the same branding. The problem is that Singapore Airlines premium cabin awards have been almost impossible to get. It used to be that it was easy to get a single seat in Singapore Airlines First class, they would…
