The Washington Post carries a story on reimbursable expense policies of firms receiving govenrment bailouts. Firms receiving government bailout funds are required to publicly post their ‘luxury’ expense policies — which include travel expenses — by Monday. The Post piece goes into the greatest detail on the 15-page policy adopted by Chrysler. On the one hand, incredible specificity in expense policies can work against the interests of a company. There are times when it makes sense to pay for first class (say, coach is sold out on a non-stop, connecting flight kills an extra day of an employee’s time). On the other hand, the cultures of these companies seem to have been that expenses were incurred for the benefit of employees (non-taxable extra compensation) rather than towards the profitability of the company. And the policies…
About Gary Leff
Stimulus Money for… Inflight Internet?
AirCell is seeking stimulus money. A portion of the funding that has been set aside by the US government to expand broadband access to unserved and underserved communities is being sought by Aircell. The company has applied for a $65 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Programme (BTOP) grant through the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. BTOP provides grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, to enhance broadband capacity at public computer centres, and to encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service. Well, yeah, I guess airplanes are historically underserved by broadband…
Reminder: Get Your Northwest Luggage Tags While Northwest Still Exists
As mentioned previously, this may be just about your last opportunity to create your own luggage tag for 1000 Northwest miles before the Northwest program goes away, folded into the lesser Skymiles offering. It’s a great chance to use a stray 1000 miles, or to generate your own keepsake of Northwest while the brand is still out there.
The Book Wasn’t All That, But Based on the Trailers I’m TOTALLY Looking Forward to the Movie
The frightening thing, and I’m ashamed to admit this, is that I’ve done the elite card throwdown..
Continental Offers Double Elite Qualifying Miles through December 15
Registration required. American started it last week, and then United quickly followed. Delta and US Airways are still out in the cold on this one.
5000 United Miles Per Hyatt Stay
Lucky points to this offer from Hyatt — 5000 United miles per Hyatt stay through October 31. For stays between September 1 and October 31, United 1K members can earn 5,000 miles per Hyatt stay (registration is required), and as far as I can tell there’s no limit. That means 5,000 miles for a $75 stay at a Hyatt Place hotel. That’s a deal in and of itself, but combine that with Faster Free nights, which will almost definitely be back, and I think we’re looking at quite a deal…. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe this is combinable with any other bonus points opportunities, right? While this offer is targeted to United 1Ks (The offer page says “United Airlines® Mileage Plus 1K members are invited…”), I wonder whether anyone can…
US Airways Offers Bonus Elite Qualifying Miles when You Buy Miles in September
A month ago, US Airways was offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles. Now their new mileage purchase bonus offer is elite qualifying miles. Through September 30, the offer is 1000 elite qualifying miles for every 10,000 miles purchased, and you can earn up to 5000 bonus qualifying miles that way. So you can ‘buy up’ your remaining elite qualifying mile needs, and actually pocket miles in your account at the same time, though this is a fairly expensive way to claw yourself the final leg towards status.
8 Free Southwest Credits with New Account Signup
Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Southwest is offerig folks free credits when they enroll with an address in Massachusetts or New York: Earn 6 credit for enrolling and 2 more credits for signing up for emails if you are a resident of Massachusetts or the state of New York.
More Continental Changes Announced – And They’re Mostly Good
In addition to the new Continental award chart, there’s a thread on Flyertalk where a Continental representative outlines a whole sleuth of changes — most of them positive. In particular, discount tickets on Continental will earn full elite qualifying miles regardless of where they were booked (you don’t have to book on Continental’s website to earn full credit). And regular-priced awards will no longer have a Saturday stay requirement. There are plenty of other changes and confirmations. As expected, Continental Golds and Platinums will be Star Alliance Golds. Platinums get same-day change fees waived. Elite bonuses will be arned based on 500 mile minimums (rather than actual miles flown, so an improvement for short-haul earning). Elite upgrades on Northwest go away October 1. This is as expected, now ew have the date. Travel with Emirates,…
Continental’s Star Alliance Award Chart is Out!
Continental joins Star Alliance at the end of October, and their miles become much more valuable as a result. Continental has long had a reputation for being terrible with award redemption, which was really a two-part problem. (1) They were always stingy with flights on their own metal, when awards were available they were at inconvient times. Continental has always been much harder to redeem, at least except close-in to departure. And with small international premium cabins those prized awards were doubly difficult. (2) Being a member of the worst alliance, with the worst partners. Continental wasn’t just stingy with awards, their partners were stingy with awards too. Northwest and Delta were almost as bad as Continental historically. Moreover they were aligned internationally with Air France and KLM and Korean (while finding a single transpacific…
