While guest-blogging at Marginal Revolution I posted about a rate glitch at Expedia where the Hilton Tokyo and Hilton Osaka were selling rooms for about $3 a night. I personally booked a week next year at the Tokyo property in an Executive-level room. Expedia charged my card in full for the stay and confirmed over email that in spite of the rate error that they were going to honor the booking. Indeed, one member of Flyertalk.com has already successfully checked in at this rate. However, USA Today covered the rate glitch and quoted an Expedia spokesman as saying “If a booking was made for the month of November, Hilton will honor the reservation at the quoted price. But if a booking was made for December or beyond, it will be cancelled – unless it is…
Uncategorized
Category Archives for Uncategorized.
Starwood’s Online Booking Bonus is Back… for 11 days
Starwood is offering 500 bonus points for reservations booked online between November 7 and November 18 (with travel complete by March 31, 2006). Fully combinable with the current triple points promo as well…
Gambling to Replace Ticket Prices at Ryanair?
If network television can be unpriced to the consumer, financed by advertising, why can’t airline travel be financed by ancillary revenue as well? Ryanair believes revenue from inflight gaming and gambling could eventually replace the need to charge air fares, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said on Wednesday. Ryanair gave away about a quarter of its seats last year and that figure could rise to between 50 and 100 percent depending on how ancillary revenues grow, O’Leary said. “Ultimately entertainment will be where the money is,” he told reporters, while answering questions about his plans to introduce gaming and gambling onboard, probably in 2007. “It would transform ancillary revenues and profits,” he said. “We’ll probably announce a gambling partner (company) in the next 2-3 months.” I’m not sure I believe this will become their business model,…
Triple Starwood Points on Hotel Stays
Starwood is offering triple points on hotel stays between November 28 and December 21. While Starwood is famous for doing only targeted promos, for once it appears as though this is open to everyone. Registration is required. And speaking of targeted promos, some holders of the Starwood American Express card are in the middle of a 50% bonus on all spending (Oct 1 – Nov 30). I wasn’t targeted. I wasn’t targeted last summer for double points on all spending above a certain threshold last year either. Apparently I use the card too much, they don’t feel the need to incentivize me further. I wrote to American Express last year to express my displeasure, their executive offices called me and they dropped a large number of points (likely more than I’d have earned from the…
See me here, see me there
Starting tomorrow I’ll be guest-blogging over at Marginal Revolution for five or six days. Check out my postings over there.
Unlikely auction
An entire airline is for sale on eBay.
SoHo Grand Hotel Report
HotelChatter offers some suggestions for Manhattan’s Soho Grand Hotel to help make it worth the $400 per night price tag. Key items are to update the rooms (flat screen tvs would help) and to get the free wireless working better. Note that language in the link isn’t 100% family friendly..
Wall Street Journal: Mouthpiece for Labor?
As part of Northwest’s bankruptcy, they’re trying to reduce labor costs. This creates strained relations with their unions. So far, so good. But to borrow Brad DeLong’s phrase, “why oh why can’t we have a better press corp?” This Susan Carey piece (originally in the Wall Street Journal offers a rather odd definition of outsourcing: Those intra-Asia flights are mostly staffed by nearly 700 Asian attendants from bases in Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines and other countries. They operate under different pay and work rules but have language skills for Asian destinations as well as English. The current union contract allows this limited but longstanding outsourcing. (Emphasis mine.) According to Susan Carey (and the PR voice of the Northwest flight attendants union), staffing planes flying within Asia with flight attendants from Asia is outsourcing?…
Sheraton Bellevue.. not luxury, but as value for money it does the trick
I spent a single night last week in Seattle, before heading out of SeaTac on a 6am flight. Normally that would call for a night at an airport hotel, which in Seattle often means a $35 three-star bid on Priceline. That wasn’t going to work for me on this trip, and since I had my little dog with me I went looking for a Starwood hotel — domestically they’re incredibly pet friendly. The Seattle Sheraton and Westin properties were sold out. Bummer, I’d have booked the Sheraton on a cash & points rate if it was available ($45 + 2800 points). The W wanted about $300 a night, and unlike the Sheraton and Westin they charge a $100 pet fee and an additional $25 a night on top of that. I love the W Seattle,…
Update on Free Electronics Offers
My free digital camera takes some outstanding pictures, I’ve been using it to take photos of all the hotel rooms I’ve stayed in over the past six months or so. A couple posts below you can see the view from my deck at Bora Bora Nui. I’m still working on the free Xbox 360 though. As long-time readers of this site know, I spent a lot of time figuring out the best ways to go about getting these offers. In general, you have to complete a marketing offer and get several friends (3 to 10, depending on the electronic item you seek) to do the same. If you wait long enough, easy offers will show up — offers that are free or free for a trial period long enough to cancel without getting charged. Customer…
