Bits ‘n Pieces for November 1, 2012

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Air Mauritius has become a partner of Air France KLM’s Flying Blue (story in French). Previously you could book Air France codeshare flights on Air Mauritius using Flying Blue miles, now you can book all Air Mauritius flights. This is especially useful because Flying Blue is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards (points transfer instantly, and with occasional transfer bonuses) as well as Starwood Preferred Guest.

  • ING Direct, officially merged with Capital One today, will no longer charge foreign transaction fees on debit card purchases made outside the United States.

  • Starwood is offering 50% off at hotels and resorts in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The site is currently showing a deal expiring November 11 for stays through February 28. However, a new offer is supposed to be posted on November 12, book by December 20 for stays through February as well.

  • Starwood’s fall promotion was announced to include a 500 point bonus for bookings made on their iPhone app. Now that they have released an Android app as well, bookings made with it will also count for earning that bonus. I’ve downloaded it, it looks great, but does not support making award reservations or cancelling reservations.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Some of the Air Mauritius flights were open for Delta SM redemptions. Did something change there or is that still the case?

  2. Readers should check other Starwood promotions which may be cheaper than the 50% off. For example, the Enriched Getaway at the Andaman in February includes two meals daily and is 133MYR per night cheaper.

  3. I agree. There are/were better promotions.

    For example, I booked Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur for 250MYR while the link you posted shows 280MYR for the same night.

    And it’s UP to 50% off.

  5. I looked at both hotels in Singapore for February and there were no discounts – 360-390 Singapore dollars for the least expensive rooms. Does anyone have a booking code for this or other discounts for Singapore?

  6. Gary, the SPG Android app does let you book award reservations. Just select any rate for the dates you want and continue to the next screen. Right under the $$ rate is the Use Starpoints button. You are then taken to the mobile website and your options are listed for you to choose. I even noticed that many of the “Limited Participation” properties show points rates when the website does not

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