Last night I had dinner with a small group of Flyertalkers. At my suggestion we ate at Lima Restaurant. They had availability for our sized group, they offer a pre-theatre menu (3 courses, $35 dollars) until 7 p.m., and I’ve been meaning to go back and try them since they re-opened after a renovation. The food was surprisingly good. The service was appallingly bad. It was the worst service I’ve had since brunch at Poste. The waiter came over to take orders but the person he started with wasn’t ready. He refused to start with someone else at the table, and hovered over the member of our party who wasn’t ready instead. He said that he had to rotate in the specific order he was asking for, and couldn’t rotate beginning at a different spot…
General
Category Archives for General.
Citibank Ending Fixed Point Flight Redemption?
According to Frugal Travel Guy Citibank’s Thank You Points will no longer offer ‘fixed point redemption’ come March 1, 2009. This is a huge blow to the program. It allowed points to be worth 2-3 cents apiece, instead of the standard 1. Truly a disappointing development. Variable point redemption lets you use points to buy flights, with the points worth a penny apiece. Fixed point redemption lets you buy tickets up to a specified dollar value for a set number of points. Ending this option makes Citibank credit cards earning these points that much less valuable. I will be putting a bunch of money on my current Citi Platinum American Express (which is pooled with a fixed-point redemption-eligible account) to get up to 90,000 points in order to make my next redemption level. And I’ll…
$10 Weekend Rates at Alamo
Through May 31, Alamo is offering $10 per day weekend rates on rental cars that are kept for a Saturday night. This works for economy through premium cars, one day minimum and four day maximum rental. You can pick up as early as Thursday at 9 a.m., and must return by Monday. The rates are capacity controlled, so always try to book early as you can cancel (or not..) if you don’t need the car.
Northwest Introduces Award Booking Fees
Northwest announced several more changes to their WorldPerks program as they proceed with their merger with Delta Skymiles. They’ve introduced elite qualification by flight segments (good) and are removing Saturday stay requirements for saver-level redemption bookings beginning January 15 (also good). As I’ve previously suggested, it will become possible to move miles between a WorldPerks and Skymiles account in February (good). And they’re introducing a three-tiered award structure like Delta and raising the price of many awards (very bad). But here’s the whammy from today’s e-mail: Also effective January 15, 2009, Northwest will introduce a new award ticket redemption fee and will increase our award reissue and redeposit fees from $50 to $100. Award Ticket Redemption Timeframes (WorldPerks Platinum Elites are exempt from this fee) Award Ticket Fees 3 days or less prior to departure…
The Frustrations of Booking United Awards Before Their Gutted Award Chart Went Into Effect
Yesterday was another “award booking day,” where I spend a bit of time helping various friends with their award travel. One managed a Bali trip in first class on Asiana and Singapore. Another started off with a Thailand trip, ran into a bit of difficulty, and settled on Bali as wlel. Both were using United miles. Yesterday, it turns out, was actually award booking day on United for much of the frequent flyer world. That’s because as the New Year struck, so did United’s bloody award chart increase. In fact, at one point yesterday the regular international awards phone number featured hold times in excess of 90 minutes. That’s the number I usually favor, instead of elite agents, because the international call centers are frequently very helpful. Domestic agents can sometimes be helpful, and sure…
$50 for Test Driving a Dodge
Via Frugal Travel Guy, Dodge is offering $50 for taking a test drive. And dealerships in New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Maryland can’t even make you take the test drive to qualify.
Marriott MegaBonus Returns
In my Christmas Day post on hotel bonuses, I noted that I wasn’t aware of what Marriott was offering. Carol emails to let me know that they’ve got their ‘MegaBonus’ back up and running (you’ll be prompted to log into your account in order to see the details, and registration is required to earn the bonus). The offer is 2,500 points for every paid stay with Marriott, starting with your second stay, between February 1 and April 30, 2009 — up to 25,000 points maximum for the promotion. And of course you have to be choosing to earn Marriott points instead of airline miles in order to earn the Marriott points bonus. Update: As pointed out in the comments — and I should know this is how Marriott does it! — different members will receive…
New Year, New Hotel Promos
The new year is bringing a sleuth of new hotel promotions. Hilton is offering double points (at participating hotels only) between January 6 and April 6. Priority Club is offering 3000 bonus points for every third qualifying night, up to 30,000 points between January 12 and April 30. For those earning miles instead of points, the offer is 1000 bonus miles for every 3rd night, up to 10,000 miles. Starwood is offering 500 bonus points for each each qualifying night, plus an additional 5,000 every 10th night from January 7 through April 30. This Flyertalk thread suggests that between January 9 and April 30, Hyatt will offer: ~ Stay two nights and earn 2,000 bonus points/miles ~ Stay four nights and earn an additional 4,000 bonus points/miles (totaling 6,000 bonus points) ~ Stay six nights…
1000 Delta Miles for Test Driving a Mercedes (10 Locations Only)
Mercedes is offering 1000 Delta Skymiles for a test drive at ten ‘select’ dealerships, fortunately the one in my home town is included. This isn’t nearly as lucrative as the British Airways offer from about 5 years ago which gave 10,000 miles for test driving a Jaguar — and of course British Airways’ family accounts allow you to combine miles from four different people towards a single ticket which meant that test drive offer was really worth 40,000 miles. Still, if it’s convenient and if test driving a Mercedes is appealing, this is a reasonable offer. The participating dealerships are: Alexandria, Virginia Atlanta, Georgia Cincinnati, Ohio Eugene, Oregon Lindon, Utah Northbrook, Illinois* Orlando, Florida St. Claire Shores, Michigan Valencia, California Tiverton, Rhode Island * In Illinois if you actually buy the car, you get appointed…
Mileage Transfers Between Northwest and Delta Accounts To Become an Option in February?
I’ve written in the past that I expect Delta and Northwest to allow members to transfer miles back and forth between their Skymiles and Worldperks accounts at will, prior to the two programs combining into one. This is similar to what America West and US Airways permitted members to do, outsourced to Points.com to handle the transfers. Randy Petersen predicts that this will go into effect in February, and offers some inside baseball details on how this is being accomplished, via in-house technology. This will allow members to combine their points form the two programs towards an award ticket, access partners of one program that may not be partners of the other, and utilize the best award chart or award rules for their situation. Sadly, they’ve taken steps to limit the opportunities for arbitrage across…
