United has been emailing out news of its new mileage for cell phone service partnership, Mileage Plus Wireless. The deals aren’t bad, they’re certainly better than what it seems you’ll get direct from the cell phone provider (either online or in-store), and you earn miles to boot. However, even with the miles the offers aren’t up to par with some of the independent websites out there such as Amazon, LetsTalk.com, and WireFly.com. I’m not a cell phone expert to be sure, but I’m moving and my new place really only gets reasonable reception with Cingular. I’ve been with SprintPCS for 10 years but their coverage is spotty in my area, and they don’t offer a Blackberry (my preference over the Treo). So I checked out Amazon and their offers were good enough, but they don’t…
About Gary Leff
A bit of news from Marriott
Jul
19
2006
Following on Westin’s move, Marriott announced today that it is going smoke-free in all of the Company’s lodging brands in the United States and Canada will become 100 percent smoke-free, beginning in September. So they’ve taken an idea pioneered elsewhere but expanded it beyond what its competitors are already offering — smokefree not just in a single brand but across brands. Bad for smokers, perhaps, and those renting rooms to throw parties (!) but good for most travelers whose worst nightmare is getting checked into a smoking room. Update: HotelChatter has more: At first, this sounds a little more drastic than it is since 90 percent Marriott’s guest rooms were already non-smoking. But the hotel chain goes one step further banning smoking from public spaces that includes restaurants, bars, meeting rooms and employee work areas.…
Avis Automatic Upgrades for Preferred Select Members
Avis’ first level of status (above just regular ‘preferred’ service that anyone can sign up for is Preferred Select. This entitles you to a one-car class upgrade, and the status can be obtained from frequent renting or by having an American Express Platinum card (the expensive one, not the cashback or Delta or Starwood co-branded card that’s also called Platinum). Some great tips on how Avis assigns car rental upgrades were posted on Flyertalk this morning, particularly interesting location fleet size can vary from airport to airport. from a low of 700 to a high of well over 10,000. the larger the airport, the better the upgrade possibilites. …when your name is on the board and you get to your car and theres no contract, 90% of the time its cause another customer misread the…
United Introduces Star Alliance Upgrades
Jul
19
2006
United has introduced Star Alliance upgrade awards — upgrades on most of their Star Alliance partners confirmed by redeeming miles. These has been available on other Star Alliance carriers for several months, United has just introduced them, but it’s notable that only Star Alliance offers this quite so broadly.United miles can be used for upgrades on ANA, Asiana, Austrian, LOT, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal and Thai Airways. (United miles could previously be used for upgrades on Lufthansa, but those were space available rather than confirmed.) Currently there are no upgrade options for other Star carriers such as Singapore, Air Canada, bmi, Swiss, Spanair, SAS, South African Airways, etc. Hopefully they’ll come in the future. Unfortunately you need to be buying nearly a full fare ticket in order to use this option. Y and B coach fares…
Which Programs Permit Negative Account Balances?
A Flyertalk member reports that they were short points for redeeming a Priority Club hotel reward. This person called and asked if they could go negative in their account, since they were really close, and the agent just gave them a 1000 point bonus to make up the difference. No cost, and better than buying the points for $12.50. Another member says they were allowed to go into the red in their Priority Club account. Starwood definitely bonuses people the few points they’re short an award, though the last time I queried this was a couple years ago. American has told me that if you’re within 500 miles of an award they’ll let you book it. I’m not an expert on the Lufthansa program, but I recall that Lufthansa Senator members are (or were?) allowed…
USAirways Discount
Jul
17
2006
The Upgrade Travel blog shares USAirways discount codes good for travel through November 15. If flying US Airways, and booking on usairways.com, try entering the promotional code RR506FS to receive a 10% discount on purchased first class tickets, or promotional code RR506CU for 5% off economy class tickets. On the flight booking page, enter these codes in the “e-certificate” box located below the “return date” field.
Why do I let hotel rankings bother me so much?
Travel and Leisure has come out with its 2006 list of the world’s best hotels. Every year these lists come out, and even though I should know better I allow them to frustrate me. Why is it that people who know little about hotels get treated as experts? How could they make such monumental ranking blunders? Indulge me by allowing me to point out just a few absurdities: The Royal Orchid Sheraton in Bangkok — listed as the #36 hotel in Asia — isn’t even the best Sheraton in the city and certainly isn’t better than the Grand Hyatt Erawan (#42), whose bungalows vault the hotel into the same league as Bangkok’s Peninsula and Oriental properties. The Inn at Little Washington is nice, though more worthwhile for dinner than for lodging and more notable in…
What Cathy Doesn’t Know, or Why Cartoon Characters Can’t Redeem Their Miles
Yesterday’s Cathy cartoon expressed a common frustration about using frequent flyer miles. I don’t mean to dismiss the idea because it is commonly held and people do have difficulty redeeming miles. But the conventional wisdom doesn’t match reality. If you take the miles and points game seriously, you should be able to do pretty well on the redemption side. Here are some basic tips. Build up miles in a single program until you have enough for the awards you want, and then diversify into other programs. That way when it comes time to redeem you’ll have more than one program to choose from. Sometimes United hasn’t had seats, but American does. Or Delta won’t, but United will. One good way to do this is to accumulate miles through partner activities (credit cards, mortgages, internet service,…
Northwest Shopping Bonus
Jul
12
2006
Northwest is offering 500 bonus miles for shopping online through their Worldperks Mall and spending $150 or more between July 1 and September 15. Registration is required. See the details on the offer, because some of their participating merchants (eg hotel, car, flowers) are excluded from earning the bonus. All your online purchases should — of course — receive some kind of reward, whether it’s Northwest miles or something else. The best one-stop sources for learning about the best bonuses are the extensive RewardsDB charts and the Webflyer tool. It’s always worth checking out these resources before making an online purchase of any kind. (And it’s not just miles – you can earn cash rebates, too.)
Fake Vacations
I usually write about real travel and real vacations, but Tyler Cowen points to Persey Tours which offers all of the accoutrements of travel without the trip. For $500, nobody will believe you weren’t sunning yourself last week on Copacabana Beach, just before you trekked through the Amazon rain forest and slept in a thatched hut. Hey! That’s you, arms outstretched like Kate Winslet on the bow of the Titanic, on top of Corcovado! Persey Tours was barely keeping the bill collectors at bay before it started offering fake vacations last year. Now it’s selling 15 a month — providing ersatz ticket stubs, hotel receipts, photos with clients’ images superimposed on famous landmarks, a few souvenirs for living room shelves. If the customer is an errant husband who wants his wife to believe he’s on…
