TravelZoo is paid to advertise travel offers. Nevertheless, their weekly “Top 20” sometimes has some pretty good deals. Occasionally (though rarely) they’re truly exceptional. This week there were two that stood out to me: $799 per person from Los Angeles to Tahiti, transfers to the island of Moorea, and 5 nights hotel. Also $680 per person from Washington-Reagan National (less from New York) to Honolulu plus 7 nights of hotel.As is the case with any package, the eye-popping appeal comes from the low price. And it isn’t going to be the most luxurious trip — airfares usually not upgradable, hotel that is decent but far from world-class. Nevertheless, these represent decent values. On the other hand, discounters like GoToday.com and last minute package sites like Site59 give you nice deals with the ability to upgrade…
About Gary Leff
Aeroflot: Drunk Flight Attendants Assaults Passenger
Via Tyler Cowen, CNN reports on an air rage incident that reverses the usual narrative: Drunken passengers often give air crews trouble, but Russia’s leading airline on Tuesday reported an “unprecedented” reversal: A passenger was assaulted by intoxicated flight attendants…on a domestic Aeroflot flight…Seeing that the crew were intoxicated and were not fulfilling their duties, Chernopup [a passenger] asked to be served by a sober and competent flight attendant, Dannenberg said. He was then beaten up by crew members.
British Airways ‘Winter in July’ Sale
From now through July 22nd, British Airways is offering flights to London from $178 plus tax roundtrip for travel beginning October 28th. Other European destinations are slightly higher, though the fares allow for a London stopover. Saturday night stays are required. Hotel nights can be added from $39.
How does the shareholder fare in loyalty schemes?
I frequently and fervently extoll the virtues of loyalty programs, both as a consumer and from the point of view of businesses whose profits are likely to come from frequent repeat customer and for whom product differentiation is otherwise difficult. (See for instance here.) At the same time, loyalty programs can be poorly designed, and improperly conceived rules can become very costly for a company. And I do my best to point out those poorly conceived rules! I make the most of many of them, and I’m comfortable doing so. Pushing the envelope on promotions and loopholes serve a very real economic purpose: by exploiting and exposing loopholes, companies are forced to get better. They’re forced to think through promotions. They’re forced to improve their computer programming. These things make commerce stronger. That doesn’t say…
Gosh, golly, gee
I’ve been getting lots of mentions lately, by Frommer’s and now in Flyertalk.com’s TalkMail. an excellent Weblog, which is hosted over at WebFlyer.com, titled “View From the Wing,” and that his blog has been recognized by none other than noted travel-industry expert Chris Elliott, who has this to say about our very own gleff “Gary Leff (is) the original business-travel blogger. Terrific observations on the industry. Sometimes, you wish he’d write more.” Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If you’re coming over here from Frommer’s or TalkMail, welcome! If you like what you read, you’ll want to sign up to have each day’s content delivered to you overnight by email. Just enter your email address in the box to the right beneath by picture. You might also check out some of my past…
Aloha Airlines Ends Intra-Island First Class
Aloha Airlines is removing first class seating from its intra-island flights. “Times have changed,” Zander said “Demand for first-class service on interisland flights has diminished as more and more trans-Pacific carriers, including Aloha, now fly nonstops direct to the neighbor islands. Today, virtually no one in Hawaii wants to pay a premium for a first-class seat on a 30-minute interisland flight.” Naturally Aloha still offers a premium product between Hawaii and the mainland United States. Hawaiian Airlines offers first class both across the Pacific and on its intra-island service. While Aloha wasn’t seeing substantial revenue from purchases of their first class product on short-haul flights, upgrades to first was the primary benefit of their elite frequent flyer program. It remains to be seen how they will retain the loyalty of their frequent customers as long…
250 Free United Miles
Sign up for emails from United Cruises and get 250 miles.
Free stuff
Sign up for two free years of Best Life magazine.Free mousepad for Virginia residents from the Commonwealth… wonder why my state government needs to be giving away mousepads? Oh well, you can also get a free mousepad by signing up for a psoriasis support group!
Free flat-screen TV
The same company offering free iPods (see post below) is also offering free flat-screen TVs. The offer works exactly the same way. The company making the offers can’t lose — they only ship the stuff to you once you’ve taken actions that get them paid by their advertisers. So really that’s who is bearing the cost. The key is to take advantage of advertisers’ offers that won’t actually cost you anything.
Free iPods
There’s a longrunning discussion at Flyertalk.com about a website offering free iPods. You sign up, complete one of their offers, and get five friends to complete offers as well. Then they send you an iPod. Seems pretty generous, in fact my first reaction was that it was too good to be true. But now that tons of folks have already taken the plunge, and confirmed that iPods have been shipped, I’m sharing this offer. The economics are pretty simple: this website gets paid for each offer you and your friends take advantage of. The commissions are enough to cover the cost of an iPod. And since many folks won’t complete all of the steps, they’ll keep commissions on some folks who they don’t ever have to pay out to. So how should you approach the…
