News and notes from around the interweb: This month you’ll receive a 20% bonus when converting Marriott points to both American miles and to US Airways miles. Marriott transfers to miles only make sense as part of a travel package. They make more sense when there’s a bonus. But you need to be able to use the reward nights. Online Serve reloads still appear to be posting as purchsaes and not cash advances despite earlier concerns about certain Chase products. Air India’s constipated 787Classic Saturday Night Live: You Might Be the Ebola Virus If… Why do some hotels choose not to have a 13th floor? And would you stay on the 13th floor if they did? You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive…
American Responds: Bringing Back Some Meals and Improving Snacks
On September 1 American aligned its domestic first class meal service with US Airways. Back in April US Airways got more meals. And then in September American got fewer meals. Effectively the two airlines met in the middle — US Airways had been serving meals on flights of 3.5 hours or longer, and American on flights of 2 hours or longer (more or less). Now they both serve meals on flights of roughly 2 hours 45 minutes. That’s left out some markets where meals made real sense – not just because of flight length, but also because of premium traffic and competition. Indeed, just before American puts its new meal standards in place United announced they were adding meals to flights. In general American customers have been unhappy with the changes. Rather than the changes…
New Link Found for 90,000 Mile Bonus Virgin Atlantic Card
A little over a month ago an offer came out promising up to 90,000 miles for the Virgin Atlantic co-brand credit card. Now, these are Virgin Atlantic miles which aren’t the most valuable. And the offer required a whole bunch of spend. So it’s wasn’t the greatest card offer out there. In fact, I view the card as 82,500 miles for $15,000 spend and wouldn’t take it all the way to capture the full offer on the table. But it was from an issuer without too many co-brand cards (my only current Bank of America card is an Alaska Visa), and it’s potentially a lot of miles. The link for the offer appeared to die, so it seemed like the chance for this was gone. But it turns out that another link still works. This…
Mileage-earning Opportunity Begins to Slam Shut, Plus Crabs on a Plane and Donating to US Customs
News and notes from around the interweb: US Customs and Border Patrol accepts donations. (I’d definitely rather tip housekeeping at Marriotts) A US Airways flight was delayed because a box of live crabs spilled out in the cargo hold during flight. Some Chase cards treating online Serve reloads as cash advances. They’re not wrong… The Forward Cabin likes the American Airlines buy-on-board Chicken Cobb sandwich. So do I. Scott Mayerowitz covers the fascinating case of Marriott’s big fine over blocking guests use of their own wifi. This was at the Gaylord Opryland, and convention exhibitors there pay hundreds of dollars for wifi so the hotel didn’t want them using their own. The actual FCC order is here. The ultimate teenage girl travel accessory (HT: Alan H.) Also from Alan, an excellent blow by blow account…
Are Airlines Becoming Less Dependent On — and Even Giving the Finger to – Their Bank Partners?
When economic times were tough for the airlines, really from 2001 through 2011-2012 or thereabouts, the airlines relied on the banks and the sale of miles to keep them going. There’s long been speculation about the spinoff of frequent flyer programs like United MileagePlus (which had long ago been formed as a separate entity, UAL Loyalty Services), since the program was deemed to be worth more than the airline itself at one point.. largely because of the ability to sell miles, and no one is a bigger buyer of miles than credit card issuers providing rewards to customers. But as the economy has gotten better for the airlines, as planes are flying full and yet they’ve managed to maintain capacity discipline so they’re enjoying higher fares, the airlines don’t seem willing to be so subservient…
Easy IHG Rewards Club Free Nights Via Best Rate Guarantee: Now Must Claim More Than 24 Hours Out
Last month I wrote a guide to getting free one-night stays at IHG Rewards Club properrties. No points required. IHG Rewards Club (the program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and related brands) will give you the first night of your stay for free if you make a successful best rate guarantee claim. If you make one-night stays, then you’re really looking at staying in hotels for free. They’ve updated the Best Price Guarantee terms and conditions to require that you submit claims at least 24 hours prior to the hotel’s check-in time for your reservation. Reporting to IHG of a Claim. You must contact us using the online claim form within twenty-four (24) hours after completing your valid room booking on any IHG website to make a claim under the Best Price Guarantee. In…
Questions That Are Rarely Asked
Reader J.J. wonders, How come flight attendants have to pick up the cups they serve drinks in prior to takeoff, but they let me keep the Starbucks coffee I brought on board myself? Sort of like Gallagher… If 7-11’s are open 24 hours a day, why do they have locks on the doors? You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Earn 1000 (Stackable) Bonus Hyatt Points for Each Stay Through the End of the Year
Hyatt is running a targeted 50,000 point promotion through the end of November. I wasn’t targeted, but fortunately it was still possible to sign up. That period is shaping up to be super generous because it will stack with the 1000 bonus points per stay they’ll give you through the end of the year for booking with their mobile app or mobile website. I shrugged my shoulders at Hilton over 1000 HHonors points but do see value in 1000 Hyatt points. That’s the thing about hotel programs, they’re all on different point ‘scales’. A top tier Hyatt will cost about a third as many points as the top-end Hilton. The trick here is that the stay has to be booked and consumed between October 1 and December 31. Annoying, I may have to cancel and…
Business Travelers: Unchain Yourself From Your Expense Reporting Tool
In one of my least-read posts of the month, I wrote about business booking and travel expense management company Concur working to allow consumers to book travel on airline websites while still leveraging negotiated corporate discounts, and handling expense tracking. Gee, I wonder why that wasn’t sexy? (This post was read fewer times, even, than the one about my regulatory comment filed with the Department of Transportation about new proposed transparency rules for ancillary fees. Now that means it was unpopular. Egads.) Still, it’s sort of important. I don’t think anyone actually likes Concur, but it’s a giant. They’ve been acquired by SAP. And Concur users, you have an ‘out’. An expense reporting tool that I actually find to be innovative — Expensify, whose motto is “Expense Reports That Don’t Suck” — has an offer…
American Announces 4 New Cities Served from Miami: What it Tells Us About Their Strategy
American has announced a flight expansion from Miami. They’re adding once-daily service starting March 5 to: Austin Kansas City Salt Lake City San Antonio All will be operated by Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and will bring the total of cities served from Miami to over 130. Each of the flight pairs is an early morning (or in the case of Salt Lake City, redeye) departure for Miami and an evening (7:50pm or 7:55pm) return. That means they’re looking at these flights as bringing passengers to Miami rather than serving the local Miami market. These flights also work well to take passengers from these cities through Miami to some of their Latin American destinations, and are good for returning from those destinations that have daytime service to Miami. It’s interesting to see American building up Miami. It’s…
