A couple of weeks back I posted that using Delta Skypesos to get to Australia on V Australia was easy. That isn’t quite true. It’s one of the best uses of Delta miles, to be sure, and the award space is much better in business class on V Australia than on Delta to be sure. But it isn’t the gimme that it seemed at first. V Australia uses the booking class ‘Z’ for business reward space. Expertflyer ostensibly was displaying Z inventory, but it was phantom inventory that appeared to cause “4” to be shown as available seats regardless of actual inventory. The KVS Tool appears to suffer a similar issue displaying ‘Z’ inventory on V Australia. Now, all hope is not lost. It does seem that Delta has access to the very same reward…
General
Category Archives for General.
Genuineness vs. Plasticism in Flight Attendant Interactions with Customers
Tyler Cowen presents a reader question about flight attendant ‘fake pleasant speech’ — which questioner Robert refers to as “robotic beauty queen.” Tyler believes that the facade is important to maintain because a more relaxed, casual approach would belie true feelings of contempt for passengers amongst half of flight attendants. Certainly this is a common stereotype, the Wikipedia entry on flight attendants even references the old Saturday Night Live skit with David Spade and Helen Hunt, “Total Bastard Airlines,” where the flight attendants bid passengers adieu with a sarcasm-laden “Buh Bye.” (Here is the skit on Russian RuTube, the stereotype resonates with pilots as well, the old skit gets relatively recent reference at the Professional Pilots Rumor Network bulletin board forum.) I believe that on the whole though flight attendant interaction with customers is driven…
Marriott Platinum Status on the Cheap Without Any Stays or Nights
Here’s an interesting Flyertalk thread on Marriott’s meeting planner incentive program. Marriott, like Starwood (which offers its Platinum status after $100k in meeting spend in a calendar year), offers the ability to earn status credits to incentivize meeting spend. The poster in this thread on Flyertalk reports that the Marriott elite status benefit is 10 night credits for each meeting, and reports on receiving the credits for any meeting, even just a conference room, where no sleeping nights are consumed. If you could secure just a conference room at a low-end Marriott family porperty for $100 for a couple of hours, the thread speculates that you could earn Platinum status from scratch for $800. Or that this allows for ‘mattress runs’ at just $10 per night (10 night credits for $100). Another member, mooper suggests:…
The Outstanding Value of American Airlines oneworld Awards
This afternoon I had a conversation with an American Airlines agent, it was the second or third time that one of them commented that they ‘never see’ distance-based oneworld awards, that they do one or two a year at most. So I thought it might be worth a post on the basics. Most American Airlines awards are one-way awards, and they don’t permit stopovers except at the North American gateway city. That means if you fly from your home airport to Los Angeles, and then to Tokyo, you can stop over in Los Angeles. But not outside of North America. That was the tradeoff when American went to one-way awards, they got rid of most stopovers. But American also offers another award type that offers unlimited stopovers as long as you do not exceed 16…
United ‘Starnet Blocking’ Still a Problem for Mileage Plus Members
United ‘blocks’ award seats that their partners offer when it doesn’t want to pay for those seats. They’re the only Star Alliance airline that does this. A Lufthansa seat to Europe might be available with Continental, US Airways, or Air Canada miles but United might claim the seat is unavailable. I’ve been beating this drum for quite some time, not just here on this blog but in other media like Inside Flyer and Conde Nast Traveler, and I’ve helped to drive coverage elsewhere such as in the Wall Street Journal. Now, blocking wasn’t much of an issue from early May through early August. It would creep up occasionally, but nothing like in the past. Take the end of April, for instance, virtually no Lufthansa space that the airline was offering was bookable with United miles.…
3000 American Miles for a 3-Day Avis Rental
Via TM Travel World, American is offering 3000 bonus miles for a 3-day Avis rental by using coupon code MUAA022 through December 31. The page trumpets a discount as well but you do not need to use their discount code in order to get the miles. And the offer also provides 1000 miles on a one or two day rental. This matches the US Airways offer of 3000 miles for a 3-day rental valid through March 31. (Personally US Airways will get my next 3 day rental to leverage as a credit in their Grand Slam partner promotion.) Of course some will prefer to just rent from National, as they’re still making their Executive status level available to anyone who signs up…
250 Free Continental Miles
Through October 31 Continental is offering 250 free miles for entering your Onepass account number on a page that tells you about onboard discounts (for beverages or DirecTV). In my experience the miles only seem to post automatically for folks with a Continental credit card, though the terms and conditions don’t say anything about requiring such a card to receive the miles. (Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)
Delta Elite Qualifying Miles for Hilton Stays
Via the MilesLink newsletter, you can earn Delta elite qualifying miles for Hilton stays of 2 nights or more (registration required) between September 1 and December 10. Naturally, you have to select Delta Skymiles as your ‘double dip’ earning partner. If your Hilton HHonors earning selection is ‘Variable Miles’ you will earn 1 bonus mile and 1 Medallion Qualifying Miles per dollar spent. If your Hilton HHonors earning selection is ‘Fixed Miles’ you were earn 500 bonus miles and 500 Medallion Qualifying Miles per stay. You can earn up to 10,000 qualifying miles through this promotion.
Up to 40,000 Delta Miles for Suntrust Debit Cards
Outsourced to Lucky: Through the end of the year, Sun Trust is offering 25,000 SkyMiles for a business debit card and 15,000 miles for a personal debit card. Each comes with a $55 annual fee. As far as I can tell, this deal is even easier than the one with Chase, as only a single qualifying purchase is required, and you just need to keep your card open until the bonus posts. And from the comments on Lucky’s blog: you can leverage your Biz account and make a ton more miles. I did this promo last year (it was VISA and 15,000 miles), if you get additional users (up to 4) on your account, you don’t need to give SS# for them (so no inquiries), you should collect 25,000 per card, so for $275 ($55…
1000 Free Points for Joining Goldpoints Program
Via Loyalty Traveler, GoldpointsPlus is offer 1000 points just for signing up by September 6. The enrollment form will pre-populate with promo code GPX2010 for the offer. I’m not a huge fan of Radisson, and I haven’t paid too much attention to Goldpoints since late 2001/early 2002 when their then-active shopping portal offered huge bonuses and the points could be transferred to miles at wonderful ratios. But they’ve gotten more aggressive with their promos the past couple of years, and I do like one of their most innovative (in my humble opinion) benefits.. I believe they’re stil offering this free status upgrade offer, and that includes their “Our World, Your Lounge” benefits in Europe, Middle East, and Africa — elite members are welcome any time in any hotel (when not staying!) for a free coffee,…
