Air Tahiti Nui has long been a partner of American Airlines, has recently added Northwest Airlines, and was supposed to add Delta — for redemption only. You can spend lots of points to get to Tahiti but if you’re flying Air Tahiti Nui on a paid ticket you’re not going to earn miles — unless you pay to join Air Tahiti Nui’s own program (doesn’t make sense for most) or book the flights as Qantas codeshares. That’s now changed. As of August 1, you now can earn American miles when flying Air Tahiti Nui. These are not “elite qualifying miles” so they won’t help you keep your Gold, Platinum, or Executive Platinum status. But they’re redeemable miles.. the kind that will help you earn towards your next award flight to Tahiti! Most coach fares (Y,…
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USAirways Club Passes on Sale
Aug
07
2006
Via the Upgrade Travel Blog, USAirways is selling day passes to its lounges for $25 through August 31 — rather than their usual $40 — by mentioning promo code ES25. Details here. Most US carriers sell day passes for $50, though $25 is the usual price for access to the Alaska Airlines Boardroom without a membership. (Boardroom members can buy day passes as gifts for only $15, and a year and a half back Alaska was selling these around Christmastime for only $12.50.)
The Man Who Arranges Bachelor Parties at Hooters Hotel i Vegas
Hotel Chatter interviews the custom party planner for Hooters Hotel in Vegas, who will arrange ‘anything that’s legal’. He’ll arrange “Celebrate your Divorce” packages and put stripper poles in your room.
Which Starwood for an Award in San Francisco?
A reader at HotelChatter.com wants to know which Starwood hotel to use for an anniversary stay. The choices are: Westin St. Francis W San Francisco Palace Hotel Le Meridien Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf The St. Regis – not on the list above – is absolutely outstanding. Of course it’s category 6 property so 20k – 24k points per night! The choice depends on how many points this person has to burn in their account…. The other key question is whether they have any status with Starwood. The Westin St. Francis has some absolutely teeny rooms at the entry level, so I don’t think I’d stay there unless I was a Platinum and thus reasonably assured of an upgrade. (The St. Regis does a good job upgrading Platinums to suites, by the way.) The Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf…
$25 room nights at the La Quinta Resort & Club
According to this thread on Flyertalk and this thread and others at Biddingfortravel.com, La Quinta Resort & Club is coming up on Priceline for $40 when bidding for a resort in the “Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert” zone… and $25 when bidding for a three-star hotel in this same zone. Priceline has been known to set minimums for successful bids at a particular quality level. It looks like there’s a rate of as low as $25, but when bidding for a resort Priceline rejects bids under $40. There aren’t any three star properties willing to accept anything even close to $25, so Priceline ‘upgrades’ you to a resort when bidding on a three star property. My hunch is that La Quinta loaded a Priceline rate of $250, err they meant to load a $250 rate, and…
$25 room nights at the La Quinta Resort & Club
According to this thread on Flyertalk and this thread and others at Biddingfortravel.com, La Quinta Resort & Club is coming up on Priceline for $40 when bidding for a resort in the “Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert” zone… and $25 when bidding for a three-star hotel in this same zone. Priceline has been known to set minimums for successful bids at a particular quality level. It looks like there’s a rate of as low as $25, but when bidding for a resort Priceline rejects bids under $40. There aren’t any three star properties willing to accept anything even close to $25, so Priceline ‘upgrades’ you to a resort when bidding on a three star property. My hunch is that La Quinta loaded a Priceline rate of $250, err they meant to load a $250 rate, and…
$25 room nights at the La Quinta Resort & Club
According to this thread on Flyertalk and this thread and others at Biddingfortravel.com, La Quinta Resort & Club is coming up on Priceline for $40 when bidding for a resort in the “Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert” zone… and $25 when bidding for a three-star hotel in this same zone. Priceline has been known to set minimums for successful bids at a particular quality level. It looks like there’s a rate of as low as $25, but when bidding for a resort Priceline rejects bids under $40. There aren’t any three star properties willing to accept anything even close to $25, so Priceline ‘upgrades’ you to a resort when bidding on a three star property. My hunch is that La Quinta loaded a Priceline rate of $250, err they meant to load a $250 rate, and…
Scoring an Upgrade at the Bellagio: a tip at checkin and a two-bedroom, five bath suite
I’m sitting at the Bellagio in Vegas, and while it’s certainly an impressive physical plant it isn’t really a ‘nice’ hotel. Every request takes probably 45 minutes or more to fulfill. (I wanted more towels, so I was sure to pull out my phone while I was down at the pool to call the hotel so that there would be towels in the room when I went up later… there weren’t, but fortunately housekeeping turned up within 20 minutes of my returning to the room.) Turndown service is inconsistent. Housekeeping is inconsistent. The lobby is a madhouse. Valet parking can take a couple minutes or 30. But that’s really a function of Vegas more generally. There are a few better service-oriented options. Certainly Skylofts at MGM Grand would provide better service (I haven’t stayed there…
Elite Security Lines Finally at Washington-Dulles!
I haven’t been through Dulles recently, so this email from United (which came this morning, despite forward-looking reference to July 18) was news to me:We are delighted to inform you that beginning July 18, 2006, Washington Dulles will offer two new security checkpoints exclusively for our First, Business and elite travelers, their families or travel companions. With the shorter lines and wait times, getting through security will be quicker and easier for you. Also for your convenience, one elite lane will be available on the east side of the terminal near the United® ticket counter. A second elite lane will be located on the west side of the terminal. Whichever lane you use, we ask that you please be prepared to show your Mileage Plus® card.
Starwood Won’t Devalue its Award Chart After All!
I broke the news back in May that Starwood was considering devaluing its award chart 25%. I don’t know the internal discussions or reasons why, perhaps because of the outcry that followed on Flyertalk or perhaps for entirely different reasons unknown, but apparently the devaluation has been called off — at least for now. Starwood Lurker posted the following on Flyertalk this afternoon: Just as an FYI, the word that I got from on high today was that there won’t be a devaluation of 25%. As far as it stands now, there will not be any major changes to the program’s award chart in the near future. Good news, or so it seems!
