News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Best Western is offering a $50 Best Western Travel Card valid through November 1 after 3 stays between April 22 and June 9, plus 1000 bonus points if you pay for all three with their co-branded credit card. Registration required. (HT: NotiFlyer) My comment reported on whether major airlines will adopt the ‘pay by weight’ concept: Not. Going. To. Happen. Head for Points reports that Virgin Atlantic will offer intra-UK redemptions for just 7500 points roundtrip and £30 in taxes/fees. That trumps British Airways’ 9000 points roundtrip, and matches them on fees, though flight frequencies are more limited. Chase is temporarily waiving the fee for online gift card purchases, although they say you won’t be able to get a ‘PIN’ for the gift cards meaning it’ll be tough…
General
Category Archives for General.
A New Method to Hold United Award (and Revenue) Tickets
United Has Been Making It Increasingly Hard to ‘Hold’ Reservations When I first got started in this game United allowed frequent flyer award tickets to be put on ‘hold’ without ticketing or mileage deductions for 30 days. And provided the awards were on United, rather than one of their partners, that hold could even be extended. That time period was reduced to 14 days and then 3 days and then — with the switchover to Continental’s reservation system March 3rd of last year — taken away. United still allowed award holds for accounts with insufficient miles to book an award (presumably to give yo time to transfer miles or buy miles to make up the difference). And so you could hold an award with an account without miles, and go back and ticket with a…
100% Bonus on Purchased AviancaTaca LifeMiles is Back
In December I explained Why You Want to Get Started With the AviancaTaca LifeMiles Program Right Now. LifeMiles is one of the best programs in the Star Alliance. There are some frustrations, like inability to book flights in more than one class of service on an award. But they sell miles cheap, their award chart is reasonable, they offer one-way awards, and the website is decent. Plus there are no fuel surcharges. I consider the better non-U.S. programs a great hedge and refuge against the risks of revenue-based frequent flyer redemption changes. And the AviancaTaca LifeMiles program regularly offers 100% bonuses on purchased miles and then lets you effectively buy miles even cheaper with their cash ad points awards (where you need just 40% of the miles required for a given award ticket). Through April 30, LifeMiles will give you…
Airport Security Can’t Stop MacGuyver
When you can build weapons with ordinary items commonly available airside, what’s the point in confiscating 4 ounce deoderants? (HT: Jenn B.)
Bits ‘n Pieces for April 5, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Qantas Bans Pork After Linkup With Emirates (HT: sobore on Milepoint) Boeing 787 to fly starting June 1. At least that’s what LAN has updated its schedule to say. Alitalia will give you a $100 off e-cert in exchange for your email address, amounts higher for premium cabin travel. (HT: Joe Sent Me Steals & Deals) American Admirals Club prices are going up for elites on May 1 (they get less of a discount): $25 for Gold members and $50 for Platinums and Executive Platinums. I use my British Airways Gold status (acquired when BA bought british midland) for access. If I didn’t, I would use my American Express Platinum card. If I didn’t, I would redeem Business ExtrAA points for lounge access (one of the better values…
1000 Free Marriott Points for Posting in their ‘Insiders’ Forum
Via Notiflyer, Marriott Rewards is offering 500 points per post, up to 1000 points, for baseball stories. Everyone who writes a baseball story and posts it to the Marriott Rewards Insiders blog in the “Other Topics” section will earn 500 points per story (up to 1,000 points). You will need to create a new account if you aren’t already a Marriott Rewards Insiders member and then enter “42story” in the tag section when posting your story. There are prizes for the stories as well — up to 60,000 Marriott points and baseball ticket.
Why I Finally Signed Up for ‘Global Entry’ and Just How Easy It Was
Global entry sign up: I bet it will come as a surprise to many of my readers that I wasn’t one of the early adopters of Global Entry, the expedited customs and immigration program (that also comes with TSA PreCheck). But the civil libertarian in me was initially really bothered by the program, and I just didn’t do it. Though that all changed a few days ago. Concerns That Kept Me Away From Global Entry These Past Two Years Global Entry requires the government performing a background check on you and also fingerprinting you and taking your picture. Even though I was influenced a great deal by reading David Brin’s 1998 book The Transparent Society where he argues that low-cost surveillance, communication and database technology would mean an end to privacy as traditionally conceived, I…
Why Starwood is Willing to Pay You to Book Through Their Mobile App
Lucky is confused by Starwood’s desire to offer bonus points for mobile bookings. [A]m I the only one that doesn’t really get the trend lately for mobile site booking bonuses? I understand the concept of wanting to familiarize people with their mobile site, but at the same time I can’t help but feel like no one wins if we just have to go through the hassle of making a normal booking by smart phone when we’re sitting in front of a computer. Hotel chains offer incentives– at various times carrots but also sticks — to get you to book directly with them rather than through travel agency sites. They’ve in the past offered online booking bonuses. Some chains won’t honor elite benefit benefits at all if you book through a third party website. And most…
American Wants to Test Your Math Skills With Good New Buy Miles Bonus
American is offering two stackable promotions for the purchase of miles. First, up to a 30% bonus on purchased miles through May 17. There are specific bonuses at various threshold levels of mileage purchases, it isn’t a straight percentage. To get the best deal you want to buy the minimum number of miles necessary for the tier level you’re interested in. To get a 30% bonus you need to buy exactly 40,000 miles — anything less and the bonus is lower, buying more miles and you still only receive 12,000 bonus miles so your percentage bump is lower as well. This offer on its own isn’t that attractive. But through noon central time on April 5 you also get a 15% discount on the price of the miles you’re buying (as long as your purchase…
Securing Transatlantic Business Class Award Space from Houston
Turkish Airlines launched Houston – Istanbul six days per week service yesterday. The route makes a good deal of sense for Turkish. They’re a Star Alliance member and Turkish is a Star Hub, so they should see some decent feed. They also connect up with a ton of former Soviet cities with oil, including many more obscure airports. I also like Turkish quite a lot for their strong business class lounge in Istanbul, their willingness to put even economy passengers up in a hotel when traveling on a forced overnight, and because of their decent award availability to Asia and Africa (it’s often a go-to last-ditch way of getting folks to either on award tickets). They’re also the best way to use Star Alliance miles to the Maldives. (And they’re willing to status match.) So…
