LifeMiles Offering Up to 120% Bonus on Purchased Miles

by Gary Leff

May 06 2015

Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a purchased miles bonus through May 29 — a minimum of 100% bonus for everyone, but 120% for residents of certain countries. If your account is registered outside of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States it’s a 120% bonus instead. That would bring down the cost from 1.65 cents per mile to 1.5 cents per mile. The 20% discount doesn’t materially change the value proposition. It can be a good deal with a specific use in mind for the miles, and you can buy up to 75,000 miles (plus bonus — so receiving 150,000 for US residents). I don’t like investing in LifeMiles speculatively though. In the past they’ve tweaked some award prices without notice. When Avianca joined…

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Starwood Offering ‘Faster Free Nights’ and Other Targeted Offers

by Gary Leff

May 05 2015

Starwood appears to be getting aggressive with targeted offers. For instance, they’ve got a double elite credit offer out there currently.

This morning I received an email offering me a targeted promotion. The email didn’t tell me what I would get.

It’s interesting they’re imploring me to ‘come back’. I haven’t stayed with Starwood in a month.

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Club Carlson Offers a New Elites-Only Bonus to Help Offset Their Devaluations

by Gary Leff

May 05 2015

When Club Carlson announced that their co-brand Visa will stop giving second night free on award stays, they offered something of a sweetener to make the news go down more easily. They announced 30,000 bonus points on your next stay paid with the card by August 31. It turns out that any room charge even on an award stay is enough to trigger this bonus. Now Club Carlson is changing the points prices of a number of their hotels, and net net not for the better, I suppose it should be seen as part and parcel of their approach that they are offering elites 5000 bonus points per stay in June and July that’s booked this month. (HT: Flyertalk) I do expect the changes and this promotion are related — to get elites to continue…

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Etihad A380 First Apartment Award Space Wide Open to/from New York!

by Gary Leff

May 04 2015

Via One Mile at a Time it appears that award space is wide open for two passengers to fly Etihad’s first ‘apartment’ onboard their A380 between New York JFK and Abu Dhabi. This is the single most aspirational award product in the sky. The upper deck of the Etihad A380 has just a single aisle. There’s a shower onboard. There’s no product with as much personal space. You can find the availability yourself on the Etihad Guest website, you are looking for ‘Guest First’ availability. Or just call. But as of now most flights most days have the space open. American, for instance, charges 90,000 miles each way for first class between the US and Middle East or Indian Subcontinent. That means flying Los Angeles – New York JFK – Abu Dhabi in first class…

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Denver Airport Was Invaded by Storm Troopers on Star Wars Day

by Gary Leff

May 04 2015

It was a sort of clever idea at first, “May the 4th be with you!” But brands spend a lot of money on consultants and ad firms to try to graft onto internet members. And so brands can’t stop tweeting about Star Wars Day. Denver international Airport got into the meme (though I sure hope they didn’t spend a lot of money doing it, they need all the reserves they can get to deal with continued baggage system problems). A full set of photos are available on the Denver airport’s Facebook page. Check them out. Really. Here’s a taste: I’m left with several questions. No doubt you can add your own. Denver is a United hub. Is that Jeff Smisek guiding in the plane? What does it say about TSA that Darth Vader brought to…

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