Back on March 5 I wrote about changes to American Airlines mileage earning checking and money market accounts with BankDirect, they were upping their signup bonus offers and reducing mileage earning for accounts with balances over $200,000. The big bonuses are great, and my checking account has less than $200,000 in it, so from my perspective this was pretty good news. Here are the basics of the account: I’m a big fan of BankDirect, I’ve written about it in the past such as here, they’ve hosted my primary checking account since July 2003. I’ve found the customer service excellent and the value proposition compelling. I get 100 American Airlines miles for every thousand dollars of average balance each month, which in a low interest rate environment is a pretty good rate of return (and unlike…
About Gary Leff
Huge Frequent Flyer Opportunities in New York the Last Weekend in April with Only a Few Seats Left
For anyone who is going to be in New York on April 29 and 30, or who can get there, two events are an absolute must. On Friday afternoon April 29, the Randy Petersen Executive Travel Summit is an opportunity to meet and hear from Randy, Maya Leibman (President of American AAdvantage), Jeff Foland (President of United Mileage Plus), and Jeff Zidell (Vice President of Hyatt Gold Passport). I’m working on my own list of questions for this group, but you’ll have a chance to ask your own. At the Sheraton La Guardia from 11:30am – 2:30pm, and $49 includes lunch. Registration is available and I’m told there’s not a lot of seats left. Then also at the Sheraton, beginning Friday evening with a cocktail reception and then with programs all day on Saturday, is…
Manhattan Custom Tailor, Phuket
In my post about staying at the Westin Siray Bay in Phuket, I mentioned visiting a tailor that I was quite happy with. I used a car to take me to Manhattan Tailors in town, my wife and I bought a good bit of clothing and I was thoroughly pleased with the service and quality. Their pricing is higher than what I’ve paid elsewhere in Thailand, even after bargaining (I probably could have pushed harder). But everything was well-done. Initially I ordered two suits, with extra paints each, and a jacket along with four shirts. And my wife ordered a suit and a jacket. We returned to the tailor shop for our second fitting, and they came to our hotel for third and fourth fittings. I was happy enough with the quality I was seeing…
Huge Improvements to the Hilton HHonors Program May Be On Their Way!
Deals We Like says that Hilton HHonors is going to be introducing three new features to their program that look like they could be huge improvements, addressing areas that are sorely lacking. I haven’t verified any of this with Hilton directly, and I’ll be trying to get more information in the coming days, but in the meantime I thought I’d pass this along. First is a cash and points awards option. Starwood and Priority Club already let you redeem awards for fewer points with a cash co-pay. With Priority Club, any award night can be had with a cash co-pay instead of full points, usually a pretty good deal. Starwood offers a better value still, but it’s capacity controlled. Hotels get the same reimbursement more or less for cash and points stays as on award…
2500 Free Hilton HHonors Points (Act Fast!)
Hilton HHonors is going through some kind of systems upgrade and wants to apologize for the inconvenience, give them your Hilton HHonors # and PIN and they will give you 2500 points. (HT: Points Guy.)
View from the Wing Wins a Tripbase Award
I got an email telling me I had won some sort of award for this blog, I admit I wasn’t familiar with it and I do need to get them to fix the typo in the name of my blog, but I suppose I’m still pretty pleased. Cranky Flier is one of the other winners, so I’m in good company at least. And I suppose these awards are a good way to advertise yourself, that is giving out awards is a good way to do so (cf. Frequent Traveler Awards, whose voted has just concluded..). www.Tripbase.com
Starwood To Replace Status Matches with Fast Track Challenges… Tomorrow
Anyone who wants to request a status match from Starwood needs to do so in the next few hours. Here are the details that we know. The folks at SPG want to give advance notice to the MilePoint community that there will soon be a change in policy regarding status match requests from competing frequent stay programs. Starwood Preferred Guest is evolving its policy on status matches to Platinum to a Stay Challenge format beginning April 1, 2011. Any contacts regarding a Stay Challenge offer will be done via email to the Platinum Concierge department. Any member wishing to apply for a Stay Challenge beginning April 1, 2011 can contact them at platinum.liason@starwoodhotels.com in order to request consideration. Members will be advised on the full requirements of their Stay Challenge and then contacted to advise…
Hyatt Gold Passport Second Quarter Promotion Registration Has Opened
Three and a half weeks ago I scooped Hyatt’s PR reps in detailing Gold Passport’s second quarter promotion, a few hours after I posted they were pitching it to me. Hah! Well, they announced the details of the promotion but you couldn’t register yet. But Will in the comments to that original post points out that the registration page is now up. Between April 1 and June 30, members earn 10,000 Gold Passport points after their first five nights, and then 5000 points for each additional two nights. A maximum of 60,000 bonus points for 25 nights can be earned under the promo. Register at goldpassport.com/possibilities.
Lufthansa Adds Airbus A380 Service to Miami, No More First Class Award Seats to be Found…
Lufthansa’s Miami-Frankfurt flight has been annoucned to go Airbus A380 beginning June 10. I’m a bit surprised, actually. While there’s surprisingly little transatlantic service out of Miami, that’s also presumably because it isn’t a market with the loads to handle an A380. But perhaps if Lufthansa was otherwise considering a second flight this is more economical. Whenever a new A380 flight is annoucned, the first thing I think is “award seats!” Several airlines restrict premium cabin award redemption on their Airbus A380 aircraft. Singapore doesn’t make the seats available to partners (intentionally) at all, and to their own members they don’t even allow double points redemptions into “suites class” in fact I have seen their offers go as high as nearly 1 million points roundtrip. Lufthansa restricts A380 first class awards to Miles & More…
Chase Ends Foreign Currency Transaction Fees on Another Credit Card
Effective immediately, Chase no longer adds foreign currency transaction fees to charges made on the Marriott Rewards Premier card ($65 annual fee waived the first year; annual free night certificate (up to category 4 on account approval, up to category 5 each year); 15 nights towards elite status and another status night for every $3000 in spend; 30,000 bonus points with first purchase). This card adds to the stable of no foreign currency transaction fee offerings from Chase: Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95 fee waived the first year, points transferable to several programs) Continental Airlines Presidential Plus Card (the expensive one that comes with lounge access) British Airways Visa Signature Card (1.25 BA miles per dollar and a free companion award ticket after $30k spend) Chase Priority Club Select Visa Card (good signup bonuses, not great…
