Via PointsWizard, Gadling offers simple instructions on using your mobile phone abroad. Or you can read my more advanced approach of an Icelandic sim card and callback service.
About Gary Leff
Delta Giving Away More Elite Qualifying Miles, This Time With Hilton
Through May 31, Hilton family stays of two or more nights earn 1,000 Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles and 1000 bonus Skymiles. Registration required. Between the personal and small business co-branded American Express cards which offer alite qualifying miles along with Hilton stays, it’s possible to become a Platinum elite without ever setting foot on a Delta plane (but that’s probably overkill). Such folks don’t even need the double elite qualifying miles for flights offer…
Just 7 Hours Left to Buy
Via TravelTech Talk, 1 Sale a Day has a prepaid AT&T sim card with $10 call credit shipped for $3.99. Strikes me that it can’t hurt to have another number. And swapping cheap prepaid sim cards isn’t crazy if you pair the strategy with a free Grand Central number where you can change the number it forwards to at will. Maybe it’s just the tech geek in me, and there’s no useful purpose to this, but $3.99 and $10 credit sure isn’t much lost. Update: Flyertalk’s ScottC offers more details It’s on the GoPhone plan, so there are 2 options: No daily charge, minutes are $0.25 $1 daily charge, but minutes drop to $0.10 (daily charge only applies when you actually make a call) + FREE AT&T mobile to Mobile
Someone Up There Has a Cruel Sense of Humor
Lifted straight from Joe Sharkey: The Gods Must Cut It Out Now: British Airways and BAA, the operator of Heathrow, have plenty of blame to share for the recent mess following the opening of Terminal 5. But today, B.A. had to cancel 114 flights at Heathrow because of snow. In London. In April. It must make Willie Walsh feel like Dante Hicks at the end of Clerks. (Where he asks Randall what’s his encore…)
Where Not To Stay in Las Vegas
Here’s a hint. In case this wasn’t obvious, avoid the Tropicana. The owners of the embattled Tropicana hotel have placed a bounty on bedbugs, offering housekeepers $25 a pop for each one brought in alive. The offer was posted in the hotel’s housekeeping offices, raising eyebrows among workers wondering whether they should pull out magnifying glasses while changing sheets. “Don’t forget to check for bedbugs!” one flier exclaims in English and Spanish. “Check every room — every day.” The posting features enlarged images of the minuscule bloodsucking menaces. Well, at least they’re trying to get rid of them.
You Can Help Solve Heathrow’s Baggage Mess
I haven’t had a chance to post this earlier, but several days ago an online game started making the rounds. You play British Airways CEO, and your task is to round up all the stranded bags at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and get them on their way…
Trip Report’s Final Flight: Frankfurt Back to Dulles
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Washington, DC (IAD) 1:15pm Lufthansa 0418, Boeing 747, First Class, Seats 81C, 81A Scheduled Flight time: 8h 45m The flight was 100% full in economy and business, and packed to 12 out of 16 in First. This would be our most crowded F cabin of the trip. After our hour-long delay we were onboard and ready to go. Only we weren’t. Apparently there was a problem with an indicator regarding one of the doors and its associated slides. They thought it was fixed, but it wasn’t. So another call to the mechanics, and we sat on plane for about two hours while they worked out the troubles. Plenty of drink services in First, and they eventually served the canapé as well while we were still on the ground. Clearly the FAs…
Skybus is Done
Another one folds. For those keeping score at home, that’s Aloha Airlines on Monday, ATA Airlnes on Thursday, Champion Air’s announcement Monday that it’ll stop its operations after May 31 and now Skybus. All in one week. Skybus plans to file bankruptcy papers on Monday, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Another airline I’ve never flown, on purpose. You can’t make money with $10 fares, no matter how bare bones your product.
Priority Club PointsBreak Makes Buying Points Worthwhile
One Mile at a Time points out something that I had been meaning to write about a good while back but somehow didn’t… that the extreme value of Priority Club PointBreaks awards make purchasing points from Priority Club worthwhile. When you find an expensive hotel such as a top-flight Intercontinental being offered at 5,000 points a night, it may make sense to buy those 5000 points for $50. That’s a better deal in most cases than you’ll ever see on Priceline. They’re offering 10% bonus on points purchased through April 14th, and that can be a reasonable offer to use in topping off an account anyway. But in general I wouldn’t purchase points now just in hopes of using them later for a PointsBreak hotel — since other uses of Priority Club points won’t generally…
Creative Debt Collections: Convention Hotel Edition
Just a rather unusual hotel billing story, the Westin in Las Vegas is hitting convention attendees with unexpected charges when the conference host (the one with the contract with the hotel!) didn’t pay. The The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority says they’re “not familiar with such a practice” and neither am I. The hotel apparently claims that language on the conference attendees bill says that participants are liable for charges other third parties do not pay, but that’s generally thought to refer to the hotel bill itself — the cahrges on the bill that the participant is signing — not undisclosed amounts for other services. I don’t expect this one to stand.
