No photos are allowed in Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal. Still – naturally – there’s a video tour on YouTube. For the uninitiated, if you’re flying Lufthansa international first from Frankfurt, you don’t mix with the unwashed masses in business. You have a separate facility, top service, and a Mercedes or Porsche transfer across the tarmac to the plane.
General
Category Archives for General.
Best Western Signup Bonus Extended
The Best Western signup bonus I blogged about in May has been extended — signup by October 6th and receive 1000 bonus points with your first stay. Based on the card graphic on the signup page it looks like you may also receive Gold Elite status at signup.
Diners Club Transfer Bonuses
Diners Club is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to Midwest Miles between October 1 and November 30. They’re also promoting a less exciting Delta transfer bonus between October 1 and December 31 — 10% on transfers from 20,000 to 39,000 points and 25% on transfers of 40,000 or more. Meanwhile, the 50% Frontier transfer bonus still runs through October 31 and discounted Hawaiian Airlines redemption runs through December 1.
Bought an iPhone? Get the recent price drop refunded to you!
Tyler wants early adopters of the iPhone to stop complaining that the price dropped after they purchased.. I agree, stop complaining and get your credit card to refund the difference. There are all kinds of benefits hidden in premium credit cards, most of which consumers never take advantage of. Does your card come with concierge service (lower end ones are often outsourced to VIPdesk, mid-tier services to Circles, etc.)? Price drop protection? Extended warranties? Plenty of reasons to buy with a credit card rather than a debit card, especially when you know the benefits. Oh, and after getting the price difference back you are still eligible for your $100 certificate from Apple…
Starwood Amex Fee Going Up
For years the Starwood American Express has had no annual fee the first year and $30 after that. They’ve now upped the post-first year fee to $45. I’ve just been billed my $30 fee in August, so I’m good for at least a year. And I don’t yet know whether existing cardmembers are being grandfathered in at the old amount or will be pushed up to $45 with their next renewal. (My guess is the latter, I just haven’t checked yet.) Still, the annual fee is lower than most reasonable points-earning cards, which frequently range from $60 – $85. So this is hardly reason to cancel. Presumably Amex realizes this. Meanwhile the Starwood American Express small business card is still first-year free and $30 thereafter. While this too may go up, perhaps they’ve left the…
Soon to be the best hotel in LA?
Kitty Bean Yancey reports that Ali Kasikci — who created an avalanche of rumors when he announced his departure as General Manager of the Peninsula Beverly Hills — will become the General Manager at the new Montage Beverly Hills (scheduled to open Fall 2008, my hunch is it’ll be a bit later). The Montage in Laguna Beach is already arguably the best resort in California, even the United States. So the company knows what it’s doing. And Kasikci ran the best hotel in Los Angeles for year. With a clean design slate there’s a tremendous potential here. There may be some opening jitters, of course, but this is a man and a company that I’d bet on.
Why don’t airports offer better amenities?
Tyler Cowen wants to know why airports don’t offer showers and other amenities (presumably for a fee) to ease the travel experience. He links to Megan McArdle’s answer (high cost of space) and offers his own (“Airports will sell goods which are complements” the attention of the wealty, “which is otherwise so hard to get.” although why isn’t advertising on planes even more prevalent such as on overhead bins?). Some of Tyler’s commenters have already pointed out, though, that desireable facilities often do exist. Take showers, for instance. Many airport lounges around the world provide them, as a benefit for very frequent flying or with paid membership. Several of these lounges also allow access by the day. The facilities offered, however, are not standard and airlines don’t do a particularly good job differentiating their product…
Securing Premium Class Awards with Star Alliance
For all the complaints about award travel, and this is something I’ve written about before (and by no means to brag), I really don’t have too much trouble finding award seats. That’s partly because I have a critical mass account balance with several different airlines and major alliances, so when I go to redeem if there isn’t availability with one I simply query another. But it’s also because I redeem nmostly for premium class international travel, and while those tickets aren’t always available on all routes by any means, I’ve often seen the biggest complaints – with a few notable exceptions – to be about the old fashioned 25,000 mile domestic awards. And those are hardly the best value anyway. I’d just assume pay my $250 – $400 for a flight between DC and California,…
Starwood’s Major Cash & Points Benefit Enhancement
I’ve give Starwood a hard time lately, because their points devaluation was a pretty big deal. But they’ve taken a step to give back a lot of value to members with changes to the Cash & Points program. One of the better features of the program over the years has been the ability to combine points and cash at a pretty favorable rate towards award nights. So instead of spending, for instance, 10,000 points on a category 4 hotel you could spend just 4,000 points + $60. This was a better option because you were basically ‘buying’ the difference in points at just 1 cent apiece. However, only some hotels would participate each quarter. Starwood would have to solicit them to do so, and most would opt out except for in their slowest seasons. As…
Starwood’s Major Cash & Points Benefit Enhancement
I’ve give Starwood a hard time lately, because their points devaluation was a pretty big deal. But they’ve taken a step to give back a lot of value to members with changes to the Cash & Points program. One of the better features of the program over the years has been the ability to combine points and cash at a pretty favorable rate towards award nights. So instead of spending, for instance, 10,000 points on a category 4 hotel you could spend just 4,000 points + $60. This was a better option because you were basically ‘buying’ the difference in points at just 1 cent apiece. However, only some hotels would participate each quarter. Starwood would have to solicit them to do so, and most would opt out except for in their slowest seasons. As…
