Category Archives for General.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
A week ago I wrote about my problem transferring points from Starwood to Aeroplan. I had transferred 1 Starpoint in order to keep my Aeroplan account active. You need some account activity every 12 months, and I had about half a million Aeroplan points at stake.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Through January 10 if you use the Marriott Mobile app and make a request within your reservation you’ll be entered to win a trip to the Superbowl. You can enter one time per reservation each day.
I think every day you need to separately ask for extra towels, maybe extra coffee, a tootbrush, or some more shampoo.
Striking about the whole incident of course is Ivanka flying JetBlue from New York JFK — rather than Delta from JFK (offering a first class cabin) or even from New York LaGuardia or for that matter United out of Newark.
While some might expect their family to be flying private, I’d rather expect them to fly commercial on two-cabin aircraft so that she could put her upgrade advice to the test.
In the race to develop new ancillary fees, the airline that wins is going to be the one that’s first to charge you for your emotional baggage. So Funny or Die revives a fictional Western Airlines (no, not the Western that Delta Air Lines acquired in late 1986) and they’re sharing with you what you can expect this holiday season. You are a cog in the modern transportation machine and we will burn your a– up like jet fuel. You are nothing to us. Nothing. You have no choice in air travel. You have no one to turn to if we wrong you. You are the dirty water we make coffee with. You are the flavorless peanuts we shove down your throats to keep you quiet for an extra minute. So this holiday season we…
Citibank ThankYou points transfer partner and SkyTeam member Garuda Indonesia just introduced online award booking last month. Until then you had to ticket in person at a sales office (there are only four in the U.S.).
I have a ton of Citibank points as a result of spending over the past year or so earning triple points on air and hotel and double points on restaurants and entertainment with my Citi Prestige Card — and I’m really tempted to use them on this new offer.
United used to offer discount Twitter fares available nowhere else (called ‘TWARES’). Those ended because they ran afoul of United’s contractual obligations to offer their best fares to everyone.
15 years ago most US airlines offered email specials. They’d be valid for the coming weekend, dumping unsold inventory, and ensuring that the allowable travel dates didn’t coincide with business travel times. United had them. So did American. So did US Airways. Continental used to refer to them as CO.O.L. Travel specials (COOL stood for Continental On Line). We don’t see those anymore.
With Starwood points transfers at 1:1 probably too good a deal to begin with — other currencies transferring to Virgin America usually offered just half the value at 2:1 — and with Alaska Airlines’ acquisition of Virgin America which has already led to the announced end to Citibank transfers to the Elevate program, it sure raised alarm bells when Virgin America transfers disappeared from the Starwood website.
Starwood points have transferred 1:1 into Virgin America. 20,000 Starwood points yield 25,000 Virgin America points. And a 30% conversion bonus, given Alaska’s purchase of Virgin America, will mean 32,500 Alaska miles.
That was the theory anyway, and it was an opportunity which was available briefly.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
