Dec 22 2016

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.

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Dec 22 2016

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.

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Dec 22 2016

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.

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Dec 21 2016

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.

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Dec 21 2016

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.

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Dec 21 2016

La Quinta Returns has a new feature that lets you use your points to buy pretty much anything at retail. And they’ll give you points for signing up for the feature, which amounts to free money.

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Dec 21 2016

Flyertalk member rwoman reported being on the flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK that self-described ‘professional idiot’ Adam Saleh claimed he was kicked off of for speaking Arabic. And she disputes his version of events.

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Dec 21 2016

Effective January 1 IHG Rewards Club says they’re introducing a late check-out benefit for all elites (Gold and higher).

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Dec 21 2016

This morning a man named Adam Saleh was about to fly Delta but was kicked off the plane, allegedly because he spoke Arabic on the phone and also to a traveling companion. He filmed the incident, and it’s going viral (over 50,000 shares in the first 2 hours). He mentions on the video that he’s even a SkyMiles member.

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Dec 20 2016

Back in 2013 Hilton substantially raised points prices and changed the way they price within categories.

They no longer shift hotels across categories once a year, either. Instead they make the changes quarterly and they would just post them on a web page. (Savvy members can create a change detection for the page (like I do).)

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