Alaska Airlines began to introduce long-anticipated one-way awards on partners on March 20th. This was a huge development, because while Alaska Airlines is a hugely flexible program — partnering with many of the airlines in both Skyteam and oneworld — and thus a good place especially for the infrequent flyer to credit flights they take on American and on Delta (since those miles get pooled towards earning rewards faster), the program was also really limited because if you wanted to redeem on partners you couldn’t mix and match them. You had to fly the same partner both ways, and that’s not always available. You could not do American one way and British Airways the other to make an award work. The initial roll out of one-way partner awards was pretty limited — just American Airlines…
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Category Archives for General.
Front Desk Agents Who Hate Us Because We’re Beautiful (or Our Elite Status Cards Are)
The hardest part of any hotel elite program is ensuring consistent delivery of benefits at the check-in counter. The greatest failure point comes from relying on thousands of front desk agents being well-trained, well-motivated, and even relies on their not having a bad day. While most airline benefits are computerized, most hotel benefits rely on a person to deliver. Starwood has removed some of the human element with its Suite Night Upgrades for Platinums who stay 50 or more nights — 10 room nights a year where members can have an upgrade confirmed up to 5 days in advance, this is assigned by computer based on published room inventory, removing much of the discretion from the process. And Hyatt goes even farther, though the upgrades are requested and confirmed by humans it’s done in advance…
Bits ‘n Pieces for April 9, 2013
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…
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…
