As detailed in this Flyertalk thread, and discussed by One Mile at a Time, beginning this coming Tuesday Delta and Northwest will begin offering reciprocal upgrades — Delta elites will receive automatic complimentary upgrades on Northwest, and Northwest elites will receive automatic complimentary upgrades on Delta. DL/NW Reciprocal Upgrades Are On The Way! ———————————————————————- October 23, 2008 On October 28, 2008, SkyMiles and WorldPerks elite members will be eligible to receive complimentary upgrades on Delta and Northwest flights. Reciprocal upgrade is for the elite members only. SkyMiles companions will only be eligible for upgrades on DL coded and Delta operated flights. WorldPerks companions will only be eligible for upgrades on NW coded and NW operated flights. What is changing? • Beginning October 25 you will start to see V/X inventory being added to some DL…
About Gary Leff
$35 Each Way+Tax, American from Newark to Belize (via Miami or Dallas)
American is running a $35 each way fare, Newark to Belize (EWR-BZE), clearly aimed at Continental. The $70 roundtrip fare comes to a total of $143 or $146 depending on connecting airports, the taxes consisting of Tax: US International Departure Tax $15.40 Tax: US September 11th Security Fee $7.50 Tax: USDA APHIS Fee $5.00 Tax: US Immigration Fee $7.00 Tax: US Customs Fee $5.50 Tax: Belize Conservation Tax $3.75 Tax: US International Arrival Tax $15.40 Tax: US Passenger Facility Charge $13.50 Appears valid through June, a Saturday stay is required, and no travel is permitted December 19 through December 28 or January 1 through January 8. (Hat tip to Online Travel Review.)
30% Bonus on American Express Transfers to Delta
Through December 31, Delta is offering a 30% bonus on points transferred into a Skymiles account from American Express Membership Rewards. This is not worth cleaning out your American Express Membership Rewards account for. Don’t dump your valuable Amex points into a less valuable Skymiles account unless you have a specific use for those Delta miles, and unless you’re certain there’s availability (and it’s possible to test that first, since Amex transfers to Delta are ‘live’ and show up in a Delta account instantly). The other thing to bear in mind is that you’ll get the 30% bonus later, a week after the transfer takes place, so you won’t be able to use those points immediately to ticket an award. My suggestion is to transfer the points you need for a given award, ticket it,…
1000 Delta Skymiles for Thanks Again Signup
Thanks Again is offering 1000 Delta miles for signing up. The offer is valid through October 31. If you’ve already signed up through another frequent flyer program, you should be able to sign up again with the Delta partnership — I would just use a different email address. (Hat tip to Frugal Travel Guy.)
This Is Pretty Cool
I’m Wendy Perrin’s hero. Pretty cool.
1000 Points Every Two Weeks for $5.95 Through December 31
American Express cardholders have long had the benefit of buying American Express travelers checks at no fee, using their American Express cards. The limit recently has been $1000 per Amex card every two weeks. The ‘little secret’ in all of this is that the travelers checks post as a purchase, not a cash advance, and thus earn miles and do not incur cash advance fees. In order to take advantage of this deal you had to go to an actual (rather than independent but branded) American Express travel office. Sadly, the free travelers check benefit goes away at the end of December. However, in the meantime, American Express is offering these travelers checks for sale online for just $5.95 using promo code TCDIRECT. Which means you’re buying 1000 points with, say, your Starwood American Express…
Marriott Program Changes, Easier Award Redemption More Points Required
Back in August I wrote that it looked like Marriott would be making changes to their program, moving towards the Starwood and now Hilton model of no blackout dates and capacity controls. Part of the change would involve modifying their award structure, offering fifth award night free just like Starwood. But this would come at a cost — Marriott currently offers point discounts for subsequent nights after the first, and this would go away. Well, bingo, that’s exactly the change that’s been announced. I don’t yet know whether Marriott is actually offering the same ‘true redemption’ as Starwood and for the most part Hilton, where ‘if a standard room is available it’s yours’. In fact, on Flyertalk the Marriott Concierge states Hotels will only be able to limit the number of rooms available for redemption…
W Hotel Bed Discount is Back!
40% off at the W Hotel Store is back using promo code WH4X5, probably valid through end of October only. This discount comes up frequently (see for instance here, here, here, here, and here). But every time it does it’s worth noting because it really is a great deal, I bought my W Hotel bed (plush top with featherbed) in March of 2007 and I’ve been happy as can be. 40% off makes the price reasonable, shipping is free and they’ll remove your old bed for free as well. And the discount applies to bedding as well, though I personally didn’t choose mine from the W Hotel Store. If you want automatic notification of the next time this deal pops up you might want to subscribe to this Flyertalk thread for updates.
US Airways Triple Dining Miles Promotion
US Airways dining for miles (aka Rewards Network aka iDine) is offering triple miles through the end of the year. Folks with an online account earn 9 miles per dollar spent instead of 3. VIP members who rate their restaurant experiences earn 30 miles per dollar. Sadly, the maximum miles earned under this bonus is just 3,000. But worth registering nonetheless.
Southwest Makes Excuses for Losses
The Southwest Airlines Blog tries to explain accounting rules and how how a $120 million quarterly loss is really a profit. Which leads us back to the original question: “Did we make a profit, or not?” The short answer is: yes, we made a profit running our airline in the third quarter. Thanks to strong revenues, relatively low costs, gains from hedges that actually settled this quarter, and lots of Employee elbow grease, we actually did pretty great (all things considered). We even beat Wall Street’s expectations! The long answer is… well, long. There are these things called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) which govern how companies report their financial results. The intent of GAAP is to help standardize and simplify financial reports. In practice, however, GAAP can get really complicated – like, tax code…
