JetBlue is offering 15% off flights booked by March 24 for travel between May 4 and June 17, 2009 (excluding May 21-25) by using promo code AMEX15 at JetBlue’s promo flight booking website.
About Gary Leff
The Difference Between United’s International Call Centers
Cranky Flier learns the importance of United’s call center geography. I’ve had countless problematic interactions with some Indian agent conveniently named “Mark” or “Mr Smith” or anything else generically American in the past, and I’ve rarely left the call feeling satisfied. In fact, I consider it a victory if I find an agent that I can actually understand, so when I had to call the reservations line this week, I braced for the worst. The agent that answered the phone had a slight accent and tone that led me to believe he was Filipino. First victory: I could understand him. I told him my situation, and he surprisingly didn’t have to ask for clarification. He pulled up my reservation, said that the $25 phone reservations fee didn’t apply, and quickly took care of it for…
Priority Club Friends and Family Rate for Everyone
Randy Petersen points to the Priority Club Friends and Family discount, which anyone can use. And the discount seems to be pretty good. Reservations are pre-paid and must be made by the end of May, but stays can be for up to a year from date of reservation. Points aren’t supposed to be earned on the rate, but sometimes are. Each hotel determines their own availability and how deeply to discount, some properties take as much as 40% off. Frugal Travel Guy has pointed to the offer before and there’s a Flyertalk thread on the issue. But personally I’d use the link Randy points to, because I want to be Steve Sickel’s friend. I’ve corresponded with him in the past, and he’s struck me as a pretty good guy, and I mentally thank him every…
The End of the Northwest Visa, and Some Basics on Proprietary Bank Points-Based Rewards Programs
With the Northwest/Delta merger (Delta acquisition of Northwest), the surviving credit card partner is American Express. The US Bank-issued Visa will be going away later in the year. American Express, with its higher interchange fees, is likley in a position to be offering more for miles, and American Express has played an integral role in the financial viability of Delta over time — prepurchasing as much as a half a billion dollars worth of miles at a time and extending a $100 million line of credit. Naturally this is a blow to US Bank, as their Northwest partnership is big business for them. Word is that they are going to try to keep customers in a new proprietary points program, offering their own points where 20,000 points buys a domestic ticket on any airline. Most…
Four Seasons Las Vegas – $149
Lots of discounting out there in Hotel-land, and Vegas in particular. This is hardly the best deal I’ve seen, but the best deal on a Four Seasons in awhile at least. The top places usually seem to let their occupancy rates suffer rather than drop price too substantially (though you may find amentiies thrown in, or discounting via third night free offers). So it was interesting to see the Four Seasons Las Vegas offering rooms from $149 a night through May 14. A two night minimum stay is required, and weekend nights are included in the offer.
Free NCAA Basketball Tickets for Starwood Platinums Who Act Quickly (on Friday)
Starwood is giving away NCAA Championship basketball tickets to Platinum members at precisely noon eastern on Friday. Shouldn’t have told you that, less chance for me to score the tickets…
$300 Washington DC to South Florida in First Class
US Airways has a $134+tax fare each way between Washington National airport and Fort Lauderdale. Decent enough fare during normal times, it prices out at about $309 roundtrip. But this is a first class fare. (And this morning it was pricing out about $50 less!) West Palm Beach is available for $399 roundtrip all-in. Compare this to American’s discounted “KUP” fare, DC to Miami of about $900 roundtrip. First class for the price of advance purchase coach, the fare won’t last long for sure. It’s an “A” fare which is discounted/restricted first class so it’s non-refundable and carries a $150 change fee. Fare basis is AA7UPN.
A Good Time to Book Way Ahead for Transpacific Premium Award Travel
I don’t usually talk about planning award travel ten months off, but I happened to notice today that there are tons of dates in January, 2010 available where All Nippon Airways is offering two first class award seats, Chicago – Tokyo. I didn’t check the reverse, or other gateways (New York-JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco… sadly ANA is pulling first class from Washington-Dulles in July, and first class award seats departing Japan have been harder to secure in the recent past) but if you’re having difficulty getting back my suggestion is to search first class awards on Asiana — Seoul – JFK, Seoul – Chicago, and the ubiquitously available Seoul – Los Angeles (this is certainly the most available transpacific flight in first class for an award, offering seats nearly every day of the year…
Why Different Members Receive Different Mileage Offers
Different customers get different mileage offers, and Chris Elliott thinks it’s discriminatory. Which is rather silly. Different members with very similar profiles will get different offers precisely because their profiles are similar. It’s called “split testing.” You want to know what offer gets the strongest response. And in order to do that you need to compare people with similar profiles, and vary only the offer. Perhaps you get the same response giving 1500 vs 3000 miles, in which case you want to give out fewer miles. Perhaps 3000 miles seems ‘too good to be true’ and people ignore the offer. Or perhaps there are even more offers out there, say a 10,000 mile offer. Maybe 1500 isn’t enough to get a response but the response rate is virtually identical for all offers above 3000. The…
Time to Redeem Those bmi Miles! First Class Awards Getting More Expensive…
bmi Diamond Club is increasing the cost of first class award redemptions by 25% effective May 1. First Class award flights Miles only Miles plus Cash Current x 2 Miles x2 Cash x2 From 1 May 2009 x 2.5 Miles x2.5 Cash x2.5 In addition to charging 2.5 times the miles (instead of double) for first class compared to coach, whether for an all-miles or a cash and points award, they are also imposing a 10,000 mile surcharge each way for Lufthansa First Class. It’s not 100% clear whether this applies to both all-miles itineraries or to cash and points itineraries as well. If the latter that would actually be an improvement, because currently cash and points awards cannot include Lufthansa First Class. My assumption is that there’s too much availability in Lufthansa first, the it’s…
