The Times of London is reporting that British Airways is revoking Michael Winner‘s complimentary Gold status after Winner published negative comments about the airline in a newspaper piece. A spokesman for BA explains: “Mr Winner has a complimentary gold card from British Airways. Given his recent comments, we are sure he won’t be needing it. So we won’t be renewing it. Our message to Michael Winner is: ‘Don’t worry, dear, it’s only a gold card.’ ” Ok, fair enough, There’s no reason for British Airways to extend you special courtesies if you’re going to trash it in print. But… wait a minute! The airline is offering up status, presumably hoping that it will influence your public statements. Shouldn’t that sort of thing be disclosed when you’re commenting publicly on the airline? And more importantly, why…
General
Category Archives for General.
$100 Rates at the Fairmont Empress, Vancouver Island
The Fairmont Empress Vancouver Island has $100 room rates bookable through 2008. They’re capacity controlled, of course, and you must book by January 31. But this represents an excellent deal, especially in summer when room nights can go for over $400. The rate is fully prepaid, but you can cancel 45 days or more prior to stay to receive all but one night’s accomodation back. Update: Yes, yes, of course, commenters are right, this hotel is not in Vancouver, British Columbia but rather in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Good deal nonetheless, I guess “Canada” is just “Canada” to me (funny, since I can pick apart the nuances of geography across South Asia. Heh).
Hilton PointStretcher 2008 List Online
Hilton HHonors has posted its Point Stretcher participating hotels and dates for 2008. The page looks a bit funky (someone didn’t check the fonts on the left hand side of the page before publishing! perhaps that will be fixed before you click the link) and you have to search by US state or by country to see whether there’s any participating properties, rather than giving you a single comprehensive list, but it’s worth checking out before booking your next stay. Point Stretchers offer 40% off of standard redemption pricing, which in most cases is the way to go. Some participating hotels offer only a smattering of dates… like two weeks for the whole year.. and there’s no guarantee that they’ll have availability on those dates when you check! But saving 40% is worth the extra…
Award Discount: Just 30,000 American Airlines Miles to Tahiti
The American Airlines Uruguay site has a promo in Spanish — only 30,000 miles to redeem an Air Tahiti Nui roundtrip between New York-JFK and Papeete (Tahiti). The usual price is 75,000 miles. This is only valid in coach, and for travel complete by May 31 (U.S. summer is high season there…). Unfortunately, nobody at American seems to know about this! So it remains to be seen whether it’s bookable. But it’s clearly being advertised by American. The terms and conditions do not restrict redemption to members from any particular country. I do not see the offer anywhere in English. If only the offer was for business or first class I’d be pursuing it pretty hard. Air Tahiti Nui’s hard product (seats) are pretty last generation, but the soft product (meals, service, emenity kits) are…
Alitalia Signup Bonus
Alitalia is offering a 2000 mile signup bonus which will credit to new accounts if you take an Alitalia flight or credit an airline partner flight to your account within 3 months of enrollment. (Thanks for Free Frequent Flyer MIles for the pointer.)
USAirways to Upgrade to Two Buck Chuck
The Arizona Republic covers improvements in USAirways’ wine offerings. After several years of settling for whatever was cheapest, US Airways is upgrading its wine list, especially in first and business class, where it’s a free perk. Travelers in coach, where wine costs $5 a pop, won’t be totally left out. US Airways is replacing its current no-name wine in coach with a Beringer brand and plans to offer a second, more expensive ($8) choice, too. [Snip] “Everyone has tried to raise the bar,” she said. “Everybody has kind of said, “Oh my gosh, we have a teeny bit more money, we can offer our consumers a great glass of wine instead of a crap class of wine.’ “ Somehow there’s a real honesty here, even as the piece massively exaggerates the improvements in USAirways’ soft…
Making the Most of Your LAX Layover
Here’s an idea for what to do during a layover at LAX… take a free off-airport parking shuttle to the In-N-Out Burger on Sepulveda. An In-N-Out is located on nearby Sepulveda Boulevard right next to the Parking Spot–a parking structure that conveniently provides free shuttle service. All you have to do is wait under the red “Hotel and Courtesy Shuttle” sign outside of any airport terminal, and when the yellow and black polka-dotted Parking Spot shuttle swings by, jump on board. It will take you literally next door to In-N-Out. Follow your nose through the back door, across the parking lot, and right inside where you need to order a double-double and fries to enjoy the best layover of your life. There are a few things to be very careful about, however. First off, you…
New Year’s Resolutions for Miles and Points
I’ve seen several New Year’s Resolution stories, most of them are silly, and none are worse than the median piece on New Year’s resolutions for managing your miles, points, and travel — because anyone who would actually use the advice likely knows far more than the person writing the piece. So here’s my brief attempt at a set of New Year’s Resolutions. As always, your mileage may vary… And for many of my readers, even these will seem utterly pedantic. Keep track of your miles. A free tool like MilePort is my preferred method. It’s a program on your computer, you enter your frequent flyer numbers and passwords, and it updates your balances with a single click. And since they’re all in one place it’s easier to keep track of what miles you still need…
New ‘Best Rate Guarantee’ Blog
Most hotel chain ‘best rate guarantees’ are bogus marketing gimmicks, designed to give you confidence that you’ll get the best prices on their own websites whether this is accurate or not. The promised benefits to finding a lower rate elsewhere are often elusive, with complex and arcane rules and sometimes incompetent claims staff who deny otherwise valid submission. The one real exception to this is the TripRewards program, which regularly honors its one night free policy when you submit a competing lower price elsewhere. There’s an extensive Flyertalk post on the subject with nearly 500 replies. There’s also now a Best Rate Guarantee Blog dedicated to identifying hotels where lower prices are found on websites other than the Triprewards site, with the goal of allowing you to claim a free hotel night there.As a brand…
The Jewish Bankers and New World Order Steals My Frequent Flyer Miles and Keeps Travel Away from the Poor
In an otherwise not-funny news spoof (not even worth clicking on, really), I did enjoy the frequent flyer miles approach to parodying presidential candidates, with Ron Paul’s conspiracy theory and John Edwards’ class warfare approaches below. Paris, France – The Paris Hilton admitted today that it had screwed Congressman Ron Paul out of double-dipper frequent flyer miles by neglecting to properly process the bonus points to the congressman’s credit card. [Snip…} John Edwards had some comments for MSNBC about the recent Hilton, Ron Paul flap…”It seems a pity that those valuable miles will be wasted when there are so many homeless in America that would love to visit Paris.”
