A story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday has been much talked about on the web, the man who turned down 12 round-trip coach tickets for two from the U.S. to anywhere in the world American flies. (He won the ‘We Know Why You Fly’ contest, I’ll save mocking American’s ad campaign for another post.) The man turned down the prize because American reported that each ticket would be worth $2200, and so his tax liability was going to be $800 per ticket. The tickets expire within a year, and he quite reasonably didn’t think he’d get as much value out of them as he’d be liable for in tax. As the Journal piece notes, it is possible to dispute the reported value of a prize. Contest winners do have alternatives, according to tax experts.…
General
Category Archives for General.
Yummmmm
Had some pretty good dim sum for lunch today at Mark’s Duck House. If you find yourself in Northern Virginia, it’s worth going. Got out of there at $20 for two people. And if you’re in DC needing a hip place for dinner with good food and excellent service, recently I’ve been a big fan of IndeBleu. It’s Indian-French fusion, decor is straight out of a W Hotel, and the staff were brought in from European charm schools. Outstanding, though a bit pricey. The biggest driver of cost is that the menu is set up as four courses. I keep it affordable by ordering a couple of second courses, using one as my main. For what it’s worth people seem to like my restaurant recommendations. A large contingent of my office came back from Miami…
Myths and Reality in Obtaining Airline Upgrades
James Wysong’s newest column is on ways to get an upgrade. His advice: Become a member of that specific airline’s frequent flier mileage club. You can be a member of many different airlines’ clubs. Unlikely. Being an elite member of an airline’s frequent flyer program is the surest way to an upgrade, although each program’s terms and conditions are different — you may need to pay a certain fare or spend upgrade certificates, and the rules likely vary between domestic and international flights. But simply joining a frequent flyer program is unlikely to score an upgrade (except in one limited circumstance, overbooking of coach, discussed below). The flight is oversold in economy, but there are empty seats in business and or first class. Absolutely. Airlines oversell coach and instead of denying boarding (which is costly,…
Independent Hotel Reviews
This Seattle Times piece (hat tip Tripso Daily) discusses internet web sites that allow travelers to post reviews of the hotels they’ve stayed at. Sites like TripAdvisor.com are absolutely invaluable for getting a window into a hotel property. Reading what past travelers have had to say can be very useful. The piece observes, though, that reviews are posted anonymously. I haven’t found that to be a problem so much as the other observation in the article, that individual’s standards vary greatly. The best thing to do in reading internet reviews is to read through several of them and look for consistent themes and patterns. Those are most likely to provide a window of truth about a property. And then it’s important to read between the lines: one resort where I stayed last year had several…
Getting Upgrades at Hotels
The Bay Area’s ABC TV station ran a piece on getting hotel upgrades. The sum total of their advice: ask. That’s actually good advice as far as it goes. More than anything else, style and mojo matter. I’ll usually say something at checkin like, “I’ve heard really great things about this hotel, so I’m pretty excited. I was hoping you might have a room with one of your special views?” More often than not the person at the desk will try to comply. It really doesn’t cost them anything. It makes me happy. And it avoids putting them in the position of either disappointing me in person or getting an earful (I’m not rude, but many guests are). If I have a reason to explain that a particular stay is ‘special’ I might send a…
Frequent Flyer Advice: the End of Nuance and the Last Man
The Denver Post carries a piece in what seems like a neverending stream of stories on how difficult it is to use miles, and how miles are worth less today than ever before. (Hat tip to Today in the Sky.) The article makes the correct point that major airlines are on financially shaky ground. After two years in bankruptcy, United still lost over $300 million in January. But while the future of USAirways is up in the air, most flyers have little to fear in the immediate term over losing their miles. To name just one data point, American Express prepaid half a billion dollars for miles, they seem pretty confident about the future of the Skymiles program. Still, the article is correct that the number of miles required to redeem many awards has gone…
Paying More and Getting More Value
Joel Widzer”s new column up at Tripso.com is about spending more on travel and getting value for money spent. His basic message is right on the money: the rock-bottom lowest price isn”t always the best deal, and it can be worthwhile to spend a little more when traveling. That doesn”t mean, as Joel says, “you get what you pay for.” I don’t think he means to imply that paying more is always worthwhile. Just this past weekend I helped a colleague get a room at the Jersey City Hyatt for $55 when they were looking for an inexpensive stay in New York. There wasn’t anything available inexpensively in Midtown. It’s certainly not the case that they would have been better off picking a $100 or $150 room (though if they were full price patrons at…
Whose miles are the most valuable?
Speaking as someone with a hefty seven-figure total mileage balance (which doesn’t compare to some folks I know with an eight-figure balance), my own preferences are as follows, in order: Starwood: hotel rooms are almost always available, plus points transfer into most airline programs is at 1:1 — plus 5k bonus for transferring 20k. Starwood Amex is the best points-earning card to the extent that spending earns 1.25 miles per dollar on all spending when transferring points in 20k blocks to airlines with 1:1 ratio, which is better than the AA Mastercard for instance. Not to mention the card is cheaper. American: I’ve never had any problems with availability. Partner awards are great. All miles earned count towards lifetime elite (we’ll see if that feature lasts). United: Availability on UA metal ain’t what it used…
Applying for credit card signup bonuses… over and over
A reader writes: Hi Gary: I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now and find it highly enjoyable and informative. Thanks! However, I’ve never seen one question asked or answered. How frequently can you sign up for an airline or hotel credit card, get the signup bonus, cancel the credit card, then sign up again? I’ve signed up for the various airline and hotel credit cards, used them for a while, then canceled them since I never actually used them much. My credit rating is good enough that it can suffer another round of hard inquiries on my credit reports if I were to sign up for those credit cards again and would be worth the extra signup points. I’m somewhat puzzles that this isn’t a more frequently asked… Perhaps I am missing…
Useful advice on upgrades
Smarterliving.com has two new useful columns on upgrades. First is a piece by Tim Winship on affordable first class and second is an article by Erica Silverstein on upgrading with miles. Both are useful and worth reading, although it’s always worth remembering that any time you try to tackle such a broad subject across a range of carriers, the devil will be in the details and some small items will be wrong or misleading. Contra-Winship, not all carriers offer unlimited domestic upgrades to their elite members. United, for example, does not. Erica Silverstein offers a bit of confusing prose about what fares are eligible for upgrades on US carriers. Northwest allows all but the most deeply discounted fare classes to be upgraded; and Delta only allows full-fare economy economy tickets to be upgraded. She’s correct…
