I spent a single night last week in Seattle, before heading out of SeaTac on a 6am flight. Normally that would call for a night at an airport hotel, which in Seattle often means a $35 three-star bid on Priceline. That wasn’t going to work for me on this trip, and since I had my little dog with me I went looking for a Starwood hotel — domestically they’re incredibly pet friendly. The Seattle Sheraton and Westin properties were sold out. Bummer, I’d have booked the Sheraton on a cash & points rate if it was available ($45 + 2800 points). The W wanted about $300 a night, and unlike the Sheraton and Westin they charge a $100 pet fee and an additional $25 a night on top of that. I love the W Seattle,…
About Gary Leff
Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental
Oct
23
2005
I’ve been meaning to go to CityZen, the restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental DC, for awhile. I finally gave it a try Friday evening. The food was excellent, though there were some missteps. Valet parking is complimentary. The restaurant validates. They asked for my ticket when I entered, and they returned it to me as I left. The valet walked us the ten feet from the car to the hotel with an umbrella since it was misting. Service was friendly, knowledgeable, and discrete throughout… with one blaring exception. Little things, like replacing my wife’s napking when she got up to use the restroom, make a big impression. The dining room was beautifully-designed but loud, making conversations difficult. The restaurant has an open kitchen, but it isn’t silent or perfectly orchestrated like you’d see at Maestro.…
Improving on United’s New Boarding Procedure
Oct
23
2005
Tyler Cowen wonders if, instead of United’s new plan involving boarding passengers assigned to window seats first, airlines would save more time charging for carryons (making passengers internalize the costs of lengthy boarding processes) or awarding prizes based on how quickly passengers get into their seats and buckle up. The latter idea, while novel, would undoubtedly entail pretty substantial technological costs to retrofit aircraft appropriately. How else to know how long each passenger takes from boarding to buckling? And it would probably involve taking aircraft out of service for a time to do the retrofit, not to mention lengthy FAA approvals for the aircraft modificiations. So I’d guess that costs would be way too high relative to any savings from quicker boarding times. Besides, as passengers compete with each other for quicker boarding, aren’t there…
Loyalty Makes You Hungry
Oct
23
2005
I first mentioned Pizza Hut’s loyalty program a couple of years ago. With some time and members under the crust, they’ve concluded that the program increased “incremental orders by 93% from members over a matched control and raised incremental net sales 65 percent.” They found that, somewhat counterintuitively, charging a fee to their best customers actually worked best. It apparently builds commitment and buy-in to the program and brand.
Up to 60,000 Bonus Points for Priority Club Stays through December 31
Oct
23
2005
Priority Club — the frequent guest program for Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plazas, Holiday Inns, etc. — frequently offers stay bonuses. The intention is to target certain members, generally offering 10,000 bonus points for a specific number of stays. In practice, anyone who signs up for the bonuses gets them, regardless of whether the member is targeted for the bonus or not. Furthermore, historically you could sign up for several of the bonuses and get all of them — even though the intention is that a member only receive one bonus. As always with these sort of things your mileage may vary. But if you have several stays coming up between November 1 and December 31 with hotels that are part of this program, you could pick up as many as 60,000 bonus points. You’ll need…
American’s 36,000 Bonus Miles to the West Coast
Oct
23
2005
In response to United’s similar offer, American now has a bonus of up to 36,000 miles for flying up to 8 roundtrips to California, Oregon, or Washington through February 15, 2006. Registration is required with promo code AAWCB.
10% Discount on Midwest Airlines
Oct
23
2005
Promo code DCMIDWEST will get you 10% off at Midwestairlines.com on tickets purchased through November 30, 2005 for travel through February 17, 2006. It’s a Diners Club card promo but terms and conditions don’t seem to require use of a Diners Club card (and the Midwest Airlines website probably wouldn’t even know if you were using one anyway, now that Diners Club is just a Mastercard — at most they’d be able to restrict payment to Mastercards but they probably don’t even do that). Travel from November 23 to 27 and December 22 to January 2, 2006 is blacked out from the discount.
Amtrak Guest Rewards Registration Bonus
Earn 1000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points for signing up for the program with promo code MIDWS and taking a train trip by April 30. (This is an improvement over the standard 500 point offer.) (Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)
Online Dirty Tricks at American Airlines
Oct
18
2005
The Wikipedia entry on the Wright Amendment (the law which restricts destinations of flights taking off from Dallas’ Love Field, which serves — and was intended — to protect American Airlines from Southwest) was edited by someone using an American Airlines domain. Someone using an Internet service provider registered to American edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia last week to describe Southwest Airlines as “a notoriously litigious company constantly seeking to change laws to gain an advantage.” For a time, the site also said Dallas-based Southwest is “known for its PR machine and litigious nature.” American dismisses the event as actions by rogue employees that it cannot identify.
Double Elite Qualifying Miles are Back at United
Oct
18
2005
In what’s becoming an end of year tradition, United is offering Double Elite Qualifying Miles for sale. Register by December 15th, pay $200, and your flight miles from October 25 through December 15th will count double towards 2006 status. No reason to register right away, wait until early December to see whether doubling your flight miles during the qualifying period will bump you up to higher status.
