Take 10% off America West’s new coast to coast flights.
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Alaska MVP Gold Requalification Promo
United isn’t the only one running elite status promos. Alaska is telling current MVP Golds that if they fly 8 segments between October 15 to December 15, 2003 and they can retain their status. (Registration required.) And those segments will score you a mess of bonus miles, too.
Cheap Houston flights
Delta just dropped its fare to Houston from several cities (including Baltimore and Phoenix) to $123 with no overnight stay required. Fare basis code is TE14TN95. From Scott Carmichael’s Hot Deals Alert List.
About Singapore’s New Flight
Singapore Airlines’ new planned ‘longest flight in the world’ (non-stop to Los Angeles) will come at a price premium and offer upgraded seats and service. It isn’t quite the Lufthansa all-Business Class model, but coach will have wider seats and greater pitch. The flight will be scheduled for 16 hours from Singapore to Los Angeles and 18 hours from Los Angeles to Singapore. A similar length flight is planned for Singapore to New York — though New York is nearly three thousand miles West of LA, its over-the-pole routing will prevent substantial additional flight time.The current longest flight is Continental’s Newark-Hong Kong non-stop service.
Can a Pittsburgh-based low cost carrier make it?
The new Pittsburgh-based low-cost carrier in the planning stages will have a tough time succeeding. No real insight there — the airline industry is tough, especially now. Startup businesses are tough, especially in areas with large entrenched players.Probably the best thing the airline has going for it is something the article suggests may be a barrier to success — the man behind the concept has already led two airlines which wound up in bankruptcy. In the airline industry everyone gets three shots at failure . . .
Getting the best travel help
David Rowell has posted the third and final installment in his series on picking a good travel agent.
Read them for the articles. Heh heh.
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New Starbucks credit card
Starbucks has introduced an affinity credit card. I was hoping for something a little bit more rewarding. This no annual fee Visa earns 1% of your spending back as Starbucks credit. In their marketing terms (“Two remarkable cards in one!”), your Visa doubles as a Starbucks Card. 1% of your total purchases are deposited onto the Starbucks card each month, and you hand over your Visa as though it were such a card to pay for lattes, etc. Sounds good, no? The concept is good but the rewards are on the low side. You get $10 in Starbucks for every $1000 you put on the card. I’ll take 1000 Starwood points for $1000 over this any day. To me, that’s at least three times as rewarding. While many folks consume a whole lot of Starbucks,…
Competition comes to online travel sites
Overstock.com is offering an online booking engine. Graphically it looks most similar to Orbitz, which suggests that it has the same backend, although I haven’t spent but 30 seconds on the site to see if that’s the case. Overstock’s unique selling proposition seems to be that it is undercutting the booking fees charged by other online travel sites, tacking on $2.95 rather than the customary $5 or $6.Update: The Washington Post has more Overstock Gets Into Travel: Overstock.com Inc. — a four-year-old Web company that sells items from closeout merchandisers — begins selling discounted hotel rooms, car rentals and airline tickets today. The site, which says it gets about 8 million visits a month, is entering an online travel field already crowded with the likes of Travelocity.com L.P., Expedia Inc. and others attracting price-conscious customers.…
New Starwood web booking promo
Book online and stay three times by the end of the year for 2000 bonus points. You have to register.
