Last week United announced that they were bringing back discounted economy short-haul awards through August 31. So naturally I just received an email from American announcing the same — down to the length of flights this applies to and the deadline for booking those flights, as well as the pricing. With short-hop awards, customers can fly on American Airlines®, American Eagle® or AmericanConnection® non-stop routes under 700 air miles each way within the continental United States and Canada for a reduced number of miles. Travel one-way in Economy Class for only 8,750 miles (17,500 miles round trip) — a 30% savings off of the standard MileSAAver award! To qualify for this special award, book your reservation by August 31, 2010 and travel between August 3 and December 15. As before, these awards are more expensive…
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250 Free Continental Miles for Learning About Wasting Your Hard-Earned Miles on Merchandise Auctions
Through September 30, Continental is offering 250 free miles for registering on a page promoting spending your miles on Continental Onepass auctions. As with many of these offers, I don’t necessarily bet the points will post for folks who don’t have a Continental Mastercard. But they might. And since the rules of the promotion don’t say you need to have the card, you could probably argue for your 250 points if you don’t and they don’t appear.. Oh, and these auctions seem to be even worse than the ones on eBay. Not that the items on the Continental auction site are fake, of course, but 11,000 miles for two Cleveland Indians tickets… with a week left to go and the price left to rise?
Hilton Announces Free Internet for Gold and Diamond Members
I received an email this afternoon that Hilton is finally adding free internet as a benefit for their Gold and Diamond members — and not making them choose free internet or club lounge access and an upgrade (which isn’t to a suite anyway). Hilton Worldwide is pleased to announce that beginning September 1, 2010, all Gold and Diamond HHonors members will receive complimentary high-speed internet access during their stay at all 3,600 hotels within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio of brands. Over a year ago, Hyatt pulled the trigger, offering all elite members free internet. Then Intercontinental came out with free internet for their Ambassador and Royal Ambassador members, but details have fluctuated a bit. It’s been at some hotels, not all. Then a special promotion. And only on the ‘free internet rate’. Though some hotels…
New Priority Club Point Breaks List is Out
Priority Club’s new Point Breaks list is out, these are discounted award night redemptions, hotels that will cost only 5000 points per night. Now, though this round of Point Breaks is valid through October 30, in fact the best properties seem to drop off the list over the course of the list’s three months. In fact, sometimes the best value properties disappear within days! This time, though, I spy only a small handful of Intercontinental properties, none of the incredible values we’ve seen in the past. Specifically, if your travels happen to take you to San Pedro Sula, Guadalajara, Phnom Penh, or Amman you may be able to book the Intercontinental there for just 5000 points per night. There are plenty of Holiday Inn options, and in smaller towns I do sometimes find those to…
Spirit’s Carry-on Baggage Fees to Go into Effect, But Why Should Anyone Care?
Scott Mayerowitz has an ABC Travel piece tied to Spirit’s new charges for oversized carry-on bags going into effect. I’m quoted in the piece saying, “This is the airline that’s famous for hating their customers,” And of course I believe that — Ben Baldanza spurred the creation of the ‘cockroach’ movement (elite passengers so identifying themselves) after comments that passengers who always bought the cheap US Airways fares the company were offering were not necessarily loyal. And of course US Airways as a carrier was itself the cockroach that would not die, in part because of the loyalty of such unvalued customers. Then as head of Spirit, Baldanza was famous for his ‘oops’ reply-all to staff that a complaining customer wasn’t worth an apology, treat them badly but they’ll be back for more cheap fares.…
New Upgrd Podcast Up: “Full Body Scan” (aka Airport Security and Skykits for Terrorists)
The new Upgrd Podcast is posted, and Grace from Fly Gracefully joins us to discuss airport security (nudo-o-scopes and the ‘tampon paradox’), how to detect a terrorist (a ‘supposed’ 1K who needs to ask a flight attendant about United’s meal times), and avoiding United’s domestic reservations agents — or human agents altogether — when ticketing squirrely awards. Check it out!
So Far So Good! 100,000 Mile American Airlines Credit Card Signup Bonus
Last night I wrote about an offer for 50,000 American Airlines miles after $750 in purchases on a new credit card within 4 months and an additional 50,000 miles for spending $10,000 on the card within a year. There’s also a nice 75,000 mile signup bonus offer for those who don’t think they can meet the $10,000 minimum spend requirement — this one requires just $1500 in spend on the card within 6 months. All of these offers come with first year annual fee waived. But they’re being sent out by email, and the links in the emails take you directly to an application. That’s leading to plenty of teeth gnashing on Flyertalk, and much speculation on blogs, that the offer is targeted and that folks using the links may not get the bonuses. To…
300 Free Priority Club Points Instantly
I’ve long resisted installing the Priority Cliub toolbar on my computer, their 300 point offer for doing so just wasn’t lucrative enough for me to bother downloading software and uninstalling it. And the last thing I want or need is more clutter on my laptop (not to mention the eternal ire of my IT department). But Frugal Travel Guy points out that you don’t actually have to download the toolbar to get the points — you just have to enter your Priority Club number and PIN and your name and e-mail address. Click submit, the points post instantly, and you’re just taken to a screen where you have the option to download the toolbar. Works like a charm. So no reason not to do it.
United and Priority Club (Very Modest) Online Shopping Bonuses
It’s not just US Airways jumping on the mileage mall bonus train, United and Priority Club are offering bonuses, too. Though they aren’t as lucrative as what US Airways has come out with. Priority Club is offering 1000 bonus points if you spend between $100 and $500, 1500 bonus points if you spend between $500 and $1000, and 2500 bonus points if you spend $1000 or more at their retail partners through the Priority Club shopping mall by September 7. For a $100 purchase that’s a bonus 10 points per dollar, not bad. If you spend $500 it’s a bonus 3 points per dollar. “Meh.” And of course you don’t get any incremental bonus for spending more than the minimum for each level while not reaching the next bonus level. Plus of course the most…
Shanghai Airlines Departs Star Alliance October 31
The Global Traveller has the details on Shanghai Airlines’ departure from Star Alliance. Shanghai Airlines will leave Star Alliance at 31 October 2010. The alliance status of some of the Chinese airlines has been up in the air for a while due to the complicated and evolving cross-ownerships in each other – Shanghai is in the process of being merged with China Eastern, which earlier this year announced an intention to join Sky Team. China Eastern is itself partly owned by both Cathay Pacific (Oneworld) and Air China (Star Alliance). So it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Shanghai Airlines would leave Star Alliance. Travellers on Shanghai Airlines will now have a period of a year or two without alliance benefits but existing Star Alliance awards on Shanghai Airlines for travel after October will be honoured.…
