This is already being much discussed elsewhere, but American has imposed a $5 fee for website award bookings. The old argument was that reservation centers were more costly than web, an airline wanted to (a) push its reservations online to lower costs and (b) charge a fee for the ‘extra’ service of having a person handle the booking. Now, even the cheaper online booking will come at a fee. Why? Because they’re looking for revenue sources, and because they can. Online booking is still cheaper than booking by phone, and American has a captive market to some extent amongst AAdvantage members looking to redeem their miles. With millions of awards redeemed annually, multiply those out by $5 and they’re predicting serious revenue. Of course, AAdvantage members aren’t really captive at least in terms of their…
About Gary Leff
Weird New Route of the Day
Horizon has announced new San Jose-Sacramento service. Umm, yeah, I’ll buy a ticket on that route. (Though sometimes an extra easy segment can come in handy.) Cranky Flier explains what’s going on: Billings to Helena? San Jose to Sacramento? Yeah, that’s just odd. Basically they’re creating round-robin trips where you fly from point A to point B to point C and then back to point A. These have never really worked well for airlines in the past, so I’m not sure what makes them think this will be a winner this time.
W Hotels, Townhouse-style, that Somehow Resemble the Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow, and Offer Gambling
The Sunday Times (London) outlines Richard Branson’s plans for expansion into hotels: Branson already uses Virgin Atlantic to drive customers to his mobile and credit-card companies. Now he wants to use the airline to fill a new range of Virgin hotels. The first will be in New York, London, Los Angeles and Atlanta. If they prove a success, India, China and Saudi Arabia will follow. Virgin Hotels will be based on the Clubhouse, Virgin’s premium passenger lounge at Heathrow airport, which was developed with restaurateurs and hoteliers, notably Nick Jones, creator of Soho House. “We have loads of hoteliers coming in and stealing our ideas from the Clubhouse, so we thought we had better do hotels ourselves. We are going to take the concept of the W hotel and move it on 10 years by…
More Cheap Hawaii Departure Cities: Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia
The United Newark and Houston to Hawaii deal was aimed right at the heart of Continental — both Newark and Houston and Continental hubs, and United was apparently responding to cheap Continental flights to Hawaii out of United hub Los Angeles (although not quite as cheap as this, and from a market where lower prices tend to be common). Continental has now fired shots in a different direction — USAirways — with dirt cheap Honolulu fares from Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Pittsburgh. So more folks than before may have an interest, although unlike United these Continental flights will be very difficult to upgrade since Continental charges a co-pay in addition to miles for bumping up to the premium cabin.
Best Offer Yet for Continental Mastercard: 20,000 Miles and $35 Fee
Free Frequent Flyer Miles points to the best signup offer I’ve seen yet for a Continental Airlines Mastercard: 20,000 miles after first purchase and a statement credit of $50 to offset the $85 fee. Since I’ve never seen this card with a fee waiver, effectively offering a $35 annual fee is a great deal for 20,000 miles. The card also comes with two Continental lounge passes annually after your first year so you only get those if you keep the card into the future, which personally I would not. But then I’m not a huge fan of Continental miles, at least such that I would put my spending towards earning Continental miles over all the other currencies that I might be earning with the same credit card spend.
Flights From New York or Houston to Hawaii for Less Than $300
As posted over at Flyertalk, United has Newark or Houstan to Honolulu for less than $300 including tax. Also available at this price, Newark to Kauai. This isn’t a “jumbo” like $33+tax for business class to Cyprus, but it is a pretty good fare worth mentioning. The fare is valid for flights on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday (for the overwater segment) from August 21 through November 10, and December 5 through December 14. There’s a three-day minimum stay, and naturally the tickets are non-refundable. The fare is bookable most anywhere, such as the United website or Travelocity. And since it’s on United, the flights are upgradeable with miles (subject to upgrade availability) without any sort of co-pay or buyup. To find out in advance whether there’s upgrade inventory on a given flight, go to…
Free Marriott Gold Status Still Available
Back in March I posted about a free Marriott Gold status offer, targeted to some Air France-KLM members but apparently open to all. I really thought that folks signing up but ineligible would lose the status, but so far that doesn’t seem tobe the case. And the offer is still there. Meanwhile, I didn’t see it at the time, but this Flyertalk thread details a similar offer of free Marriott status for British Airways folks, the signup link is here. There’s apparently a Virgin Atlantic version of the offer as well, but I haven’t seen the signup link. (Although if I were curious enough, a bit of playing around and based on the links of the other two offers, I might be able to figure it out.
Millenium Resort Scottsdale: $100/night rate rebated in a food and beverage credit
Via Frugal Travel Guy, the Millenium Resort Scottsdale is offering a $100 rate with $100 daily food and beverage credit. This isn’t a mistake rate, it’s a TravelZoo deal, and a pretty good one. Valid for stays from June 21st through September 17th, and book by June 4. There’s tax and a resort fee on top of this, and the food and beverage credit will be on the base food price only, and can’t be used towards tip. But it still makes the room almost free if you’d plan to spend your time on property anyway. No doubt the hotel expects to be slow — first because this is true off-season for Arizona, and second because they’re apparently finishing up a major renovation so no doubt bookings haven’t been flowing in the meantime. The TripAdvisor…
How United Upgrades Work
One Mile at a Time offers an introduction to United upgrades — the different instruments, how they work, and their waitlist priority. Good for the new United elite, or for those who would like to be.
Memorial Weekend Open Thread
What’s on your mind? A free for all in the comments, but please keep it civil (and clean). Let me know what questions you have and I’ll try to answer. What are the biggest challenges you face with travel or miles and points? Are you having trouble accumulating the miles you need, or booking the award you want, perhaps I can help… I’m not traveling this weekend, just playing with my new barbecue and relaxing by the pool (and working). I tend to hate ‘amateur day’ at the airport, Memorial Weekend isn’t quite as bad as Thanksgiving though, but if I can get my breaks in when the rest of the world isn’t around so much the better…
