The Washington Post runs a piece implying that Ron Paul wastes taxpayer dollars on his own travel. And I agree that taxpayers ought not to be on the hook to fly Members back and forth to their districts at will, that’s the standard practice. The crux of the piece turns on Paul buying flexible government fares which are eligible for confirmed upgrades based on Paul’s status in the Continental Onepass program, so they lead with Ron Paul “flying first class on dozens of taxpayer-funded flights to his home state.” What they don’t say, of course, is Ron Paul was buying first class airfare, because he wasn’t. And they acknowledge at the end that Members of Congress buying flexible tickets is fairly standard. The Post contends that by buying government fares rather than searching on his…
About Gary Leff
Getting to Know American Airlines As a Newly Minted Executive Platinum
Thanks to American Airlines’ generosity, participants in the upcoming Oneworld MegaDO were able to participate in a fee-free status challenge. Normally, American charges for challenges and offers them only up to Platinum. MegaDO participants had reduced flying requirements and could match existing status with other airlines up to the top-tier Executive Platinum level. And I’m now an Executive Platinum. The requirement was 20,000 flown miles on American within three months, which isn’t bad, except that the flying had to be completed by January 13 and it was mid-December before I decided to jump in and do it. American’s double elite qualifying miles promotion meant that any of the flying I did in January would could double towards re-qualifying for Executive Platinum, making it easy to keep the status for two years based largely on my…
Town Car Airport Transfers in Major Cities for $4 – $14
Via Ben you can currently get Town Car airport transfers in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Francisco from $4 – $14. Basically Groundlink is offering a discount off of their usual pricing through JetSetter, and new JetSetter accounts receive a $25 credit which can be used to pay for the car service. So while Groundlink usually charges $38 for a Town Car from New York LaGuardia to Manhattan, they’re selling it instead for $29 through JetSetter, and your net cost is just $4. Other airport options: Newark to Manhattan, net $10 New York JFK to Manhattan, net $10 Chicago O’Hare to Downtown Chicago, net $14 Chicago Midway to Downtown Chicago, net $14 Las Vegas, net $14 San Francisco to Downtown, net $14 There’s also a $35 mobile voucher (net cost $10) which will…
Priority Club to Improve Points Earning at Intercontinental Hotel Properties in North America
New Girl in the Air reports that starting February 15, Priority Club is changing its points earning structure for Intercontinental Hotel properties in North America — offering 10 points per dollar (like at Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels) rather than the current fixed 2000 points per stay. Folks currently spending less than $200 on a stay at an Intercontinental (which is certainly possible for a night in Cleveland or Tampa for instance!) will earn a bit fewer points. But the pricier Intercontinental properties, and those with longer stays, will certainly earn more points. The change doesn’t apply in Europe or Asia Pacific, just North America. And it doesn’t apply to Affiliate Resorts (Venetian). While this is a positive change — it’s always been strange that Priority Club has been so tight-fisted with points at…
Using International Hotel Booking Site Sales for Successful Best Rate Guarantee Claims
My friend S. passes along that on January 27, Travelocity will be running a “UK 24 hour sale” claiming 50% off. Why do we care? Most of these sales are overhyped and this is the Travelocity U.K. site after all. Quite simply, it’s a great opportunity for successful best rate guarantee claims. Hotels will likely be offering inventory there on that site that they aren’t offering through their home booking channel. Chain hotels don’t generally participate in these sort of sales on US sites because they’ll be out of parity with their chain’s booking sites. But few best rate guarantee claims do it against international booking pages. So hotel revenue managers tend to offer their better rates on these international sites frequently. This works especially well with big city international markets such as New York,…
Track It Back is Good for More than Just Earning Miles?
As I rhapsodized nostalgic about back in August, the US Airways 2009 holiday shopping promotion was the biggest frequent flyer promotion I ever took advantage of, for myself and for others I earned over 16 million miles. After making purchases from four other merchants on the US Airways Dividend Miles shopping sites, purchases from Track It Back earned 140 miles per dollar — they doubled their usual 20 miles per dollar offer to 40 miles per dollar, and five different merchant transactions would earn a 250% bonus. That meant buying miles in unlimited quantity for 7/10ths of a penny apiece, donating the Track It Back stickers to charity would reduce the cost to half a cent a mile. The idea behind Track it Back is that you put the sticker on an item, register the…
Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminar Hotel Now Bookable
While the schedule for the October 12-14 Chicago frequent flyer seminar isn’t up yet, and registration won’t be available though will be shortly, booking of the event host hotel is now live. What I do know to expect is talks from at least Rick Ingersoll (Frugal Travel Guy), Brian Kelly (The Points Guy), Ben Schlappig (One Mile at a Time), as well as Mommy Points and others — both new speakers and repeats. With hopefully 500 spots at the seminar, and certainly over 400, registration shouldn’t sell out immediately. Two years ago it filled up almost entirely and very quickly, but the registration fee was lower and included less so folks made speculative reservations even if they weren’t committed to attend. Lots of folks dropped out, some didn’t even bother to cancel, the $20 fee…
Lufthansa is to European Airlines What Germany is to the E.U.?
Lufthansa decided to stop subsidizing budget imbalances at british midland and decided to sell it offer to British Airways’ parent company, which valued bmi’s slots at Heathrow. Lufthansa also made the decision to close its Italian subsidiary. Now Lufthansa has come back to the table and reconsidered its position on bailouts: according to LufthansaFlyer, they’re going to provide financial support to (wholly owned) Austrian Airlines along with an imposition of austerity measures. Lufthansa, 100% stakeholder in Austrian, has indicated its willingness to help Austria’s national carrier as it struggles through challenges in it’s business. Austrian has plans to potentially replace a portion of it’s 737 fleet with new Airbus A319′s and A320′s but can not finance the transaction without outside assistance. Austrian has indicated that Lufthansa would be willing to help, so long as it…
Best Current Rental Car Rewards Offers
Since August and through January 31, National is running a free rental day for every two two-day rentals. They are also running a status match offer. (Hertz Is also offering status matches through January 31). Million Mile Secrets flags that Avis has gotten into the 1-2-Free Game as well: a free rental day after every two 2-day rentals through June 30, 2012. Registration required. You can’t redeem in the New York area, can earn a maximum of six free rental days, and won’t earn those days if you choose to earn miles for your rental. You can’t double dip with Avis First, either, but it appears to me that you’ll still get credit in a Corporate Awards account. For one-day rentals, I credit Avis to my Virgin Atlantic account, no coupon code required and you…
Major Hotel Chain First Quarter Promotion Roundup
Mommy Points summarizes the new Priority Club promo for the first quarter. Priority Club will award double hotel points or airline miles for every stay after the second qualifying stay at participating InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn Club Vacations hotels worldwide during the promotional period that runs from 1/23/2012 – 4/30/2012. If your first qualifying stay is at a Staybridge Suites or Candlewood Suites, then you earn double points beginning with your first stay. Registration is required. So this is in addition to the first quarter stay X, earn Y bonuses, which is good, Priority Club needs to give out lots of points since they’re devaluing on January 18 (although ‘in the know’ members will still be able to call to ask for previous award pricing for…
