News and notes from around the interweb: Etihad is excited about Lucky’s kickstarter project. Silvercar, which makes it possible to make money on your first rental of an Audi, is opening a location in Phoenix. Uber is now offering UBERFAMILY… UberX with car seats in New York. Meanwhile data suggests DUI rates decline when Uber enters a city. Not surprising – convenient and reasonably priced on-demand transportation reduces incidences of drunk driving. Virgin America jumped the gun a bit on selling tickets from Dallas’ Love Field but it appears they’ve managed to secure gates there, after all. Generating free credit card spending through beer. 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…
I Was Actually Impressed By.. A Marriott.. at the Seattle Airport No Less!
For the first time in my life late last month I spent five night at an airport hotel. In a row. I flew out to Seattle for three back-to-back events. Global Flight’s loyalty industry conference The Freddie Awards Frequent Traveler University I had agreed to emcee a panel at the industry event, which included the head of a hotel loyalty program, the head of partnerships for an airline program, a data guy, and an IT solutions provider. The topic was on creating a program beloved by members. I had to come in on a Tuesday night because my panel was at 9am on Wednesday. The Freddie Awards would be the next day at the nearby Museum of Flight, and I was the emcee. And then I would be giving four or five talks and spending…
“Plus Points” 2000 Free Marriott Rewards Points Each Month
Marriott Rewards will now give you up to 2000 points per month for social media activities. Step 1: Connect your social profiles to your Marriott Rewards account, starting with Facebook. Step 2: Follow the social profiles of participating Marriott brands and properties on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare. Step 3: Earn Marriott Rewards points by: Sharing or retweeting our posts to your Facebook or Twitter feeds each day Checking into properties on Facebook or Foursquare every day you visit Posting a photo each day to Instagram and tagging it with a property’s location Using #LoveMarriottRewards, #RenHotels or #Autograph in your daily Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts Liking and following select brands and properties in Facebook or Twitter Sign up by giving them your Marriott Rewards number and linking it to a social media profile. I began with Facebook, which passes information to them but doesn’t allow them…
How to Book the Etihad A380 Residences With Miles
Etihad’s big announcement about the most luxurious travel product in commercial aviation has been all the rage. I’d love to fly it, but the truth is I’m not going to. It’s way too pricey for me and at this point there’s no reasonable way to access it with miles. And goodness can striving to book it generate controversy! It isn’t just ~ $20,000 one-way. It’s also bookable with miles. Just a lot of them. Note that the Residences are a separate booking class from first class. The new A380 has a first class (“Apartments”). And it also has a single Residence for up to 2 people. There are no saver first class awards (“Guest First”) that I’ve seen yet for the Apartments. Each day I’ve searched it shows as unavailable. However — eventually — and…
Don’t Be Fooled by the New Fatally Flawed Study on Award Availability
Each year, for five years now, IdeaWorks has published a study (.pdf) on which airlines offer the best award availability and each year Scott McCartney picks it up approvingly in the Wall Street Journal without a recognition of its flaws. Roughly speaking this year’s piece finds that: Overall airline award availability is getting better despite an improving economy (more seats sold). Low cost carriers are better for flyers looking for award seats than legacy airlines. International airlines are better at offering award seats than US ones. But the only way it reaches these conclusions is by assuming away virtually everything we know about how these programs actually work. Nowhere in the study do they account for the value or quality of what the low cost carriers like Southwest Airlines are getting you for your miles.…
Two Tools for Generating Spend, Getting More Compensation from Airlines, and Some Mileage Bonuses (Bits ‘n Pieces for May 8, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: The Suntrust Delta debit card has been a strong part of my mileage-earning portfolio. Unfortunately you can no longer obtain one online or even in many cases in-branch. However some people are still getting Suntrust to agree to issue them a card when requesting one via online chat. Outsource your claim for compensation from an airline (HT: Reid) Up to 2000 free points for joining SAS EuroBonus New benefits for SAS EuroBonus Diamond members. Something we usually see when a new airline joins the oneworld alliance — earn double American AAdvantage miles when flying new oneworld carrier SriLankan Using Paypal loadable cards and the Paypal debit card to generate spending. This is one many steer away from because Paypal does shut down accounts, and can hold onto money…
US Airways Has Started Adding Fuel Surcharges Onto Award Tickets (Sometimes)
On April 29th I wrote that US Airways wasn’t adding fuel surcharges to British Airways awards. I said to ‘Act Now’ because since the news was ‘out’ the situation wasn’t likely to last. And indeed, US Airways has sent a memo to agents telling them about the fuel surcharges. Auto-pricing may not include the charge, but tickets that go to the rate desk will certainly have fuel surcharges included. Most US Airways award tickets which include travel on British Airways now include fuel surcharges, which can be as much as $900 on a roundtrip transatlantic award and $1500 on a roundtrip US – Africa award. US Airways was supposed to add fuel surcharges to these tickets from the get go, as soon as they entered the oneworld alliance on March 31. But as with many…
American Spokesperson Blasts BoardingArea Blogger, Throws Partner Airline Under Bus
Etihad’s big announcement about the most luxurious travel product in commercial aviation has been all the rage. I’d love to fly it, but the truth is I’m not going to. It’s way too pricey for me and at this point there’s no reasonable way to access it with miles. I’m not going to tell you ‘get this and that credit card and you’ll be 3% of the way there.’ No, it’s just out of reach of most of us. Sure you could manufacture $1 million of spend on a 2% cash back card.. but even then there are things most of us would do with that $20,000 other than fly a single 7 hour flight from London to Abu Dhabi. But Lucky who writes the One Mile at a Time blog wants to make a…
1000 Bonus US Airways Miles Per Roundtrip on New New York Flights
US Airways Dividend Miles is offering 1000 bonus miles for each American Eagle roundtrip between New York LaGaurdia and 10 cities through June 30. Registration required. Charlottesville Albemarle, VA (CHO) Louisville, KY (SDF) Dayton, OH (DAY) Norfolk, VA (ORF) Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, NC (GSO) Richmond, VA (RIC) Knoxville, TN (TYS) Roanoke, VA (ROA) Little Rock, AR (LIT) Wilmington, NC (ILM) You can earn the bonus an unlimited number of times, and one-way travel earns 500 miles (so roundtrips aren’t required). US Airways-coded flights earn the bonus as well. 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…
Etihad Unveils Luxurious New 9 Bedroom Villa on Select Aircraft
The Etihad 3-bedroom first class Residence was apparently just a trial balloon. Word has leaked from the Pan Arabia Enquirer about the new 9-bedroom villa: Passengers flying with Etihad Airways soon won’t have to worry about baggage allowance – they’ll have an entire house to fill thanks to the Abu Dhabi-based airline’s luxurious new first class offering. Located on the upper deck of Etihad’s newest fleet of planes, The Villa comprises a double bed, en-suite shower and nine-bedroom villa with living room, kitchen, study, maids room and infinity pool with Jacuzzi. This 3000 square meter villa also features a 24-seat private cinema and “underground parking facility with space for up to 10 cars.” This puts Meridien Airlines’ first class hot tub to shame. Let’s see what Emirates announces today in response! (And whether the Dubai-based…
