Hyatt Gold Passport has a really cool Facebook game promoting Hyatt’s bonus points or free nights offer that runs through April 30. Here’s how to strategically game the signup process. Just like the Gold passport promotion asks you to choose between earning free nights or bonus points, Hyatt’s Facebook app asks you to choose ‘which one would you prefer’ with some options between two really good things… and some decisions that more closely resemble Sophie’s Choice. Would you rather book the same vacation as your ex or your boss? I was surprised to learn that more Hyatt Gold Passport members would rather be rescued in minutes than stuck overnight on a ski lift with a supermodel. But I guess it’s cold, the choice wasn’t being rescued or stuck in the ski lodge. Hyatt execs really…
So a Man Walks Into the Wheel Well Of a Plane . . .
A tragedy on Saturday, a man’s body was found inside a South African Airways plane that had landed at Washington Dulles. A man’s body was found Saturday afternoon inside the landing-gear wheel well of a plane that had landed at a suburban Washington airport, authorities said. Ground crew assigned to the aircraft — an Airbus A340 operated by South African Airways — discovered the body around 1:30 p.m. in a remote parking area of Dulles International Airport, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement. Airport police, fire and other personnel went to the scene, joined by FBI agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. The location of the flight’s origin was not immediately known. Obviously the overriding reaction, even without knowing any more of the circumstances, is that this is sad and…
Upgrades on LAN Just for Being a LANPASS Credit Card Holder
South American oneworld airline LAN has a distance-based award chart, no fuel surcharges, and Starwood points transfer at 1 to 1.5 (40,000 Starpoints yield 75,000 LAN points). That’s all interesting as far as it goes. And U.S. Bank issues the LANPASS Visa Signature® Card here in the U.S. It comes with 20,000 bonus points with first purchase ($0 introductory annual fee the first year, $75 thereafter) and 4000 points each year with card renewal. What struck me as interesting is that they’ve added a new benefit to the card: 20% discount on LAN purchase (up to $1,000) 1 time per year 25% flight miles bonus 3 one-way upgrade coupons per year These would seem to make it a really strong card for actually flying on LAN (and not just redeeming miles for short-distance oneworld airline…
Voting for the Best Airline and Hotel Loyalty Programs is Now Open!
Voting for the Freddie Awards is Now Open! Since 1988 the Freddie Awards have been recognizing the best in travel loyalty programs. What’s unique is that the best of the best are voted on by members. You’ll be able to express your opinion on which programs are delivering the most value to you in several categories: Best Promotion Best Customer Service Best Redemption Ability Best Loyalty Credit Card Best Elite Program Program of the Year You can vote in one region or in each of the three regions of the world, whichever you wish. And as a truly global awards program, balloting is available in several languages. This is the largest awards program, and one respected by the industry. The awards ceremony will be held at Boeing’s Museum of Flight in Seattle at the end…
Here’s My Strategy for Keeping Elite Status With American
My paid travel has been relatively light so far this year, I’ve flown far more award miles so far than paid miles. Of course we’re only six weeks into the year, and that balance is about to change. But I care a great deal about my American Airlines Executive Platinum (100,000 mile flyer) status. So to make sure I’m in a position to keep it I’m doing all I can — and I don’t really mileage run, the cost of my time is just too high independent of the cost of tickets. I prefer to mileage run from home. With credit cards. My US Airways MasterCard gives 10,000 elite qualifying miles after spending $25,000 in a year. I’ve done that, and my 10,000 status miles have already posted. So now I am working on earning…
Redeem 100,000 Miles for a Real Flight Simulator Experience
I’ll admit I have accumulated more miles than I am comfortable with. I believe that miles are never going to be as valuable tomorrow as they are today, miles should be used in the near-term for travel and then more miles earned going forward for future travel. In that way you’re earning and redeeming miles based on the same rates and charts, and aren’t really affected by inflation. But I continue to earn more miles than I redeem even with four multi-person international premium cabin redemptions on the books for 2014. And while I tend to think that non-air travel redemptions usually don’t provide very good value (LCD toasters, anyone?), there can be some unique experience redemptions that make the cut — largely because you get access to the kinds of things you couldn’t do…
Another Devaluation — This Time It’s Airport Parking
We’ve seen devaluations in airline mileage programs, such as United and Delta. We’ve seen devaluations in hotel loyalty programs, such as Hilton; Starwood; Wyndham; Marriott; Hyatt; and IHG Rewards. And we’ve even seen devaluations of rental car and online travel agency programs. But here’s a new one. Reader Steve J. passes along the devaluation of an airport parking program: Park ‘N Fly had a “frequent parker” program that allowed members to accrue a free day of parking for every eight days your car spent on the lot. A member could then spend all days earned in one free stay or pay only for those above their available free days. I myself had earned 7 days over the course of several years flying out of [Minneapolis]. That’s over 56 days at about $12 a day. Recently,…
Elite Status Signup Offer, Save 5% on Hotel Taxes, and Uber Skywriting Offer (Bits ‘n Pieces for February 14, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Etihad Guest Silver status and GHA Discovery Platinum status for joining a travel club Uber is offering on-demand skywriting in New York City today for $500. Answering ‘business or pleasure?’ correctly saves you 5% on your hotel room in Berlin. Two of the TSA’s panic buttons weren’t working at LAX the day of the shooting there at the beginning of November. But no one tried to use them anyway. Which is sort of like how the Emergency Broadcast System wasn’t activated on 9/11. You can join the 30,000+ 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…
How Airline Auto-Rebooking During Major Weather Events Makes Travel Worse Not Better
More flights have been cancelled this year than at any time since DOT cancellation statistics began 25 years ago. Many travelers aren’t aware that they can get a full refund when they cancel, one of the more common questions I get is “if the trip I’m getting rebooked on doesn’t work for me, am I just flushing this ticket down the toilet?” No, you’re not, if your flight doesn’t operate you can get all of your money back. Airlines aren’t always clear on this point. But rebooking options don’t always work for passengers. Planes run much closer to capacity these days, which means there isn’t a lot of slack in the system to re-accommodate folks whose flights have been cnacelled. It’s tough to get through to airlines to sort things out. You’d expect websites to…
You Know There’s Bad Weather and Flight Disruptions When…
I suppose this is why Google is such a great tool for understanding the world, what’s collectively on people’s minds. Here are the top search terms that brought people to my blog yesterday: There were about a thousand views of this post. Sometimes the shelf life of content can be rather long. Interestingly as well, search terms exhibit a pretty long tail, there were only 3 queries for “corportion of hilton said i didnt cash my check” (yes, with that spelling). You can join the 30,000+ 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!
