Here’s a story about a husband and wife who took a month for their honeymoon and traveled around the world in business class — all on frequent flyer miles, with most of the hotel nights paid for in Hilton HHonors points. We saw the famed sunset in Key West, sandy black shores around Tahiti, the Opera House and governor’s mansion in Sydney, Bangkok’s ornate Grand Palace, the Ancient Agora in Athens and Sorrento’s Mediterranean Cliffs. We even got a personal marriage blessing from Pope John Paul II at the Vatican five months before he died I’m not making as many stops on my own upcoming honeymoon, but will travel to more than one part of the world over three weeks – in first class, not business, and also all on points.
Airline Elite Beyond Elite
Chris Elliott’s latest column, published in today’s New York Times is on airline status beyond the published benefits of elite frequent flyer programs. The gist is that high spenders receive rewards greater than those provided to an airline’s 100,000 mile flyers. On United and on other airlines, members of the secretive, invitation-only clubs are met at the airport by employees and whisked past the check-in line. They wait for their flights in unmarked V.I.P. lounges and are offered liberal upgrades and personalized attention by airline employees. And at a time when airlines are obsessed with improving their on-time records, it is not uncommon for a plane to be held for a super-elite member who is stuck in traffic. Chris gets some of the details wrong. He says that the Global Services designation requires only $20,000…
iPod Vending Machine
There’s a vending machine in the Atlanta airport that sells iPods. I hadn’t seen this. Though I don’t like Hartsfield one bit, it’s long had the best vending machines, especially for ice cream.Thanks to Marginal Revolution for the pointer.
Federal Government Airport Screening Devices Don’t Work
The federal government spent billions of dollars on screening devices that didn’t work when it took over airport security. It didn’t make us any safer, but it made us feel safer “After 9/11, we had to show how committed we were by spending hugely greater amounts of money than ever before, as rapidly as possible,” said Representative Christopher Cox, a California Republican who is the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. “That brought us what we might expect, which is some expensive mistakes. This has been the difficult learning curve of the new discipline known as homeland security.” How bad are the screening systems? Customs officials at Newark have nicknamed the devices “dumb sensors,” because they cannot discern the source of the radiation. That means benign items that naturally emit radioactivity – including cat litter,…
Free Magazines
Some free magazine subscriptions available: A six-month subscription to Better Homes & Gardens. Enter promo code KDIH502BH. A one-year subscription to Genre Magazine (for gay men) A free subscription to TechNet Magazine A free subscription to Driving Sports Magazine A two-year subscription to Black Enterprise
Miles for Baseball Tickets
Continental is offering tickets to a Houston Astros game on May 19 for 25 miles apiece, limit 4. Offer expires May 12. (Hat tip Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)
Triple United Dining Miles
Register to earn triple United miles at the first three iDine restaurants you eat at by June 30, up to 3000 bonus miles. A credit card set up to earn United miles for dining and an online iDine profile are required. (Okay, I can’t stop calling it iDine, I’ll never manage to refer to it as RewardsNetwork. But at least I’ve stopped calling it Transmedia.)Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.
300 Free Priority Club Points
Receive 300 Priority Club points for requesting a price quote through FordDirect.com.
More Intercontinental Hotels with Presidential Suites Available as Awards
Following on the recent spate of Presidential Suites available for award redemption at Intercontinental hotel properties (using the standard room 30,000 Priority Club points per night rate, see here and here), Flyertalk’s Savage25 surveyed all the Intercontinental hotels to see where this glitch is currently coming up. The report: For kicks, I tried a random date in October for reward nights at all ICs. ICs that are out of the way seem to have great redemption deals. Figures are Best Flexible rates for the respective room types on the date of redemption. Asia ==== IC THE GRAND PALACE SRINAGAR KING PRESIDENTIAL SUITE $1,000 Middle East and Africa ========== INTERCONTINENTAL DOHA 1 KING BED DIPLOMATIC SUITE $563 INTERCONTINENTAL RIYADH 1 KING EXECUTIVE SUITE $933 MASSARAH TAIF INTERCONTINENTAL 1KNG 1QN 2 BEDROOM ROYAL SUITE $1,119 2 KING…
Completed all my free electronics offers
I’ve completed all my requirements for the free digital camera from Gratis Networks (the free iPod folks). Actually I’ve completed everything for all of their free electronics offers, and am waiting to receive only the digital camera and the Playstation Portable.For those of you who need to complete a marketing offer for one of these promotions, I notice that both eFax Plus and consumerinfo are currently on the offers list. Both offer 30 day free trials. Thirty day trials are the best because you have plenty of time to get credit for the offer and cancel without being under a time gun. Nothing is shipped, so you don’t even have to pay for shipping. I’ve used both of these before and had no problems with cancellation. (eFax offers cancellation via online chat, and I was…