It’s been a tough 18 months in the frequent flyer world. It’s easier than ever to earn points, but the cost of awards has gone up, up, up. Miles and points have been very good to me, and I do my best to give back where I can. I don’t make a public show of my charity, but I do my best to give the best advice I can and to offer giveaways when things are offered to me. And when I have gift cards, I can either turn them into money orders or do various frequent flyer experiments, or I can give them away. So here, I thought I would give away $400. And what better way to give them away than to my readers who comment on this post?
Introducing My Next Trip Report, Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost
I’m recently back from a trip to the Maldives and Malaysia. I used American miles for the air, Hyatt points for the hotel in Maldives and to upgrade a paid stay in Kuala Lumpur (one of my favorite world food cities, along with Singapore). The trip was prompted by an opportunity to meet friends in the Maldives, and celebrate a 40th birthday (fortunately not yet mine!). As an introduction to the report, I wanted to lay out what I booked, how I booked it, and what each part of the trip cost. I think the most valuable thing I can do in a trip report is explain my thinking and logic, because that can help others – agree or disagree – in thinking about points and making use of them.
Earn 750 Miles Per Award Stay, 100% Bonus Extended, and 5 Points Per 1 Cent Purchase (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 26, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Is today’s IHG Rewards Club discounted points purchase ‘daily deal’ worth it? You can buy a whole bunch of points at a deep discount, but I’d rather wait until I need them and buy the points for only $0.001 per point more. This is the most appealing American Express – US Travel Association Daily Deal yet this year.. but I’m giving it a miss. 300 free La Quinta points for watching videos is back. (It’s been offered here, here, here, here, here, and here.) Incidentally, my entire mental model of La Quinta was blown this weekend when I saw a La Quinta across the street from — rather than next to — Denny’s. Air Canada’s Aeroplan is offering 750 bonus miles when you redeem miles between June 1…
The W Austin Upped Their Game… But Was it Because They Knew I’m a Blogger?
Last month I wrote a generally positive review of the W Austin hotel. It wasn’t a perfect hotel, but on the whole the hotel works for me — because it is in a great location (downtown but not on 6th by the bars, with a view of the lake) and the staff are friendly. And it’s just around the corner from the world’s best barbecue restaurant that offers sit down service, online reservations, and a bar. I noted a few minor gripes — housekeeping not especially thorough, toileteries go unreplaced, and room service trays littering the halls much of the time. And requests for chocolate cake (on the menu) and a yoga mat went unfulfilled by “Whatever/Whenever.” I like the hotel though, and on balance I found it worth returning to (although readers made a…
Which Hotel Chain Should You Give Your Business To?
Each hotel chain, and associated loyalty program, has its strengths and weaknesses. It’s important to know which one fits you best. So I’ve provided a rundown of the key elements of each one, pluses and minuses, and The smaller hotel programs tend to be the most rewarding. Not all small programs provide above average value, but the progams that do provide outsized value tend to be small. My working theory is that it’s easy to be loyal to Marriott. Marriotts are everywhere. There are 4000 of them. When I hear people talk about how much they like Marriott the argument is usually that there are Marriotts everywhere “so I can always earn my points” and also that they can have the same consistent hotel experience everywhere they go (some people don’t consider that a positive,…
How Big a Deal Are United’s New Changes to Award Rules?
This morning I wrote about United publishing new, highly restrictive rules for how you can put together awards on flights to several destinations. One of the most generous things about United has been its routing rules, taken from the old Continental system. You could pretty much get between any two cities any way you wished, combining most flights on most airlines and crossing most regions. It’s “whatever the computer would price” and the computer’s pricing algorithms have been very messy. Sometimes it wouldn’t let you do something you thought you should. But those instances were rare. More often you could get a whole lot more than was reasonable. The pricing system always seemed to be hacked together, with workarounds. It used to be that if you booked an international business class award with a domestic…
United May Be Making Another Huge STEALTH Devaluation: What You Need to Know
United already massively increased the number of points required for awards, especially premium cabin awards and especially on partner airlines, back in February. But the usefulness of miles is a function of: The cost of an award (award chart pricing) Availability Routing rules (what available flights can you take advantage of to get where you’re going) And United appears to be in the midst of a major stealth devaluation without any notice in the form of significantly restricting its routing rules.
How Do You Track and Follow Up on Missing Miles?
A month ago hotel program Club Carlson offered 1000 free points for filling out a form with your email address, account number and twitter handle and following Club Carlson on twitter. I admit I had forgotten about the points until this morning when I updated all of my points balances (as I do first thing each morning via AwardWallet). I saw that 1000 points posted, logged into my account to see what it was. And I immediately remembered! It struck me though that I had never added this 1000 points to my spreadsheet of outstanding points due to me. There was a time that I added every 100 point item. Next to each I noted when the points were promised to post. And I followed up on each and every one that did not post…
The Greatest Onboard Safety Demonstrations. Ever.
This safety announcement caught on video is hilarious. It’s been making the rounds, it must have been posted to blogs and on forums, and yet somehow I haven’t seen it. It’s been viewed on Youtube over 12 million times. Definitely worth watching. It didn’t get nearly the play but I actually prefer the rapping Southwest flight attendant. But that may just harken back to my memories of when rap involved beat boxing. Of course, this safety video might be even better. And I’m not sure anything will ever beat Deltalina‘s safety video (or for that matter, meeting Deltalina in person). The first great safety announcement I ever heard in person was about 15 years ago, flying on December 23 (not 24th), a riff on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. But the best live demonstration I’ve…
It’s Still Possible to Ask American AAdvantage for Award Space That Doesn’t Show As Available
Several programs make expanded award availability possible for their top tier elite members. Usually that means being logged into the program’s website, if you have the relevant status, in order to see the extra availability. With American AAdvantage, you have to call. But that’s not the point of this post. American — alone amongst airlines that I’m aware of — has had a process by which you could actually ask for seats to be made available even if there wasn’t any award space open on them. It’s been reported that this option has been eliminated, but it has not been.
