Via canucklehead in the Milepoint thread discussing Frequent Traveler University, Marriott is back with its MegaBonus promotion — one free night (at a category 1-4 property) after two stays, and you can earn the bonus twice. Registation is required. Register by March 31, 2014 Stay between February 1 and April 30, 2014 Free night award will expire one (1) year after the date of issuance. Some members get targeted for other offers instead: Their free nights are valid for up to category 5 instead of category 4. Additional 1,000 bonus points per stay for up to 10,000 bonus points on top of the free nights (capped at category 4). Bonus points instead of free nights (40,000 – 55,000 for as many as 45 nights during the promotion period). Marriott has, in the psat, been willing…
25% Off Virgin America For a Refundable $5 Buy-In (Strange, But True!)
Amazon Local will sell you a coupon you can use right away for up to 25% off on Virgin America. If you don’t use the coupon you can have your $5 back. You can only book roundtrip coach. There are blackout dates. And you have to book 21 days in advance of travel. Travel on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday receives the full 25% off. Travel on other days of the week yields just a 15% discount. Book by January 15 for travel between January 8 and March 6. If you don’t your $5 is automatically refunded. In order to receive the full value, travel must be booked by 11:59 P.M. PT on January 15, 2014 and travel must be completed between January 8, 2014 and March 6, 2014. If travel is not booked by January…
United Decides Not to Let Members See Singapore Airlines Award Space Online, Misleads Members About It
In recent times airlines have worked to improve the ability to find partner award seats on their website. That saves on call center time, and helps members fulfill their searches with less frustration. United’s website has gotten pretty good at this. They don’t have all of their airline partners like Brussels Airlines online (and it isn’t always obvious to members that typing in where you want to go doesn’t show all of the options to get there) but they have most. American and Delta have a few partners online. Alaska has the bulk of theirs. Among major US programs, only US Airways Dividend Miles fails to show any partner airline availability at all. Against this trend, last week United removed the ability to search and book awards on Singapore Airlines from its website. United claimed…
50% Bonus on PointsHound Hotel Bookings Made By End of Year (Plus 1000 Miles)
PointsHound awards you frequent flyer miles when booking hotel rooms. Hotels noted as “DoubleUp” let you earn miles through PointsHound in addition to the points you normally earn from the hotel for the stay (along with elite status credit and benefits). PointsHound usually offers 250 miles extra for your first booking when you’re referred by an existing member. But through the end of the year my link gets you 1000 miles as the first time bonus. Usually I invite folks to post their own referral link, but in this case mine provides a 4x better bonus. In addition, PointsHound is also awarding an extra 50% more miles on bookings made by January 1. Always price compare, there are certainly some folks that have reported some times where PointsHound has shown higher prices than booking direct…
A Sneak Peak Inside American’s New Premium A321 Aircraft
Yesterday I had a chance to get onboard American’s new A321T (the “T” stands for ‘transcon’) which will be flying New York JFK – Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s a new narrowbody plane configured with tons of updated premium seats. Its inaugural flight in commercial service will be January 7. (Disclosure: I bought my own tickets to get to and from New York to see the plane, but did eat three pieces at sushi at the event.) There are (10) first class seats, (20) business class seats, (36) main cabin extra (coach with ~ 4 inches of extra legroom), and (36) standard economy seats. That’s a cabin that’s mostly premium, and an A321 (the ‘stretch’ version of the A320) with only 102 seats. A Very Competitive Business Class Product The point of thee planes…
The Next Frequent Traveler University is Coming – And Seats Are Limited
The next Frequent Traveler University event is now a reality! It will be held in Seattle, starting the evening of Friday April 25th and running through the afternoon of Sunday, April 27th. Tickets are on sale Hotel is available for booking Here’s where to discuss the event with fellow attendees I’m just starting to put together the program, but you’ll be able to meet and hear from folks like Ben from One Mile at a Time, Greg from Frequent Miler, and Summer from Mommy Points. I’ll be sharing the rest of the speakers and schedule in the weeks and months to come. April’s event outside Washington, DC was the largest gathering of frequent flyers in history, with well over 600 people in attendance. It sold out months in advance. That actually seemed too big, and…
50% Off W Hotel Store Mattresses and Sheets
It’s a year-end sale so the discount code N3G7K through January 7. You can get a plush top Queen with box spring for $689.50 and free shipping. I recommend that bed and adding a feather bed to go on top (as opposed to the pillow top mattress, since the featherbed can be changed out). They ran a 50% off sale in October that was limited to beds and bedding. I purchased a W Hotels bed in March 2007 using a 40% off code, so back before the May 2010 price increase on beds. My cost then was about what’s being offered with this sale. I don’t recall ever seeing lower pricing than this, though. W Hotel Store purchases post as double points earning when paying with a Starwood Preferred Guest American Express. You can join…
The Latest Evidence That The Double Miles Award Will Now Cost Triple Miles
American announced the introduction of Dallas – Hong Kong service back in October. Schedules are now loaded, and the flight is bookable. The schedule is: 12:40pm Depart Dallas Fort Worth – -Arrive Hong Kong 6:00pm +1 1:30pm Depart Hong Kong – Arrive Dallas Fort Worth 4:30pm It’s operated by their new premium product onboard a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. I flew the product back in March and found business class to be outstanding. Unfortunately, as of now, there is literally no business or first class saver award space and also no confirmable upgrade space. That’s not surprising — getting into premium cabins on the new 777-300ER aircraft far in advance without paying full boat has been tough, and this is by far American’s longest flight. At the very least they’re going to want to see whether…
Free Miles, Credit Cards With Built-in Navigation, and More! (Bits ‘n Pieces for December 18, 2013)
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: 1000 miles for joining Air India’s frequent flyer program. Reacting to American’s offer of up to 7500 miles per New York JFK – Los Angeles flight segment, United is offering a similar bonus for travel during the first quarter. Here in the US our credit cards can offer 5 points per dollar. But in the rest of the world they get really creative. In Germany you can have the Karl Marx MasterCard (“There are some things money can’t buy. Especially if you abolish all private property.”). And in Turkey your credit card can come with a compass built-in so you always know which direction Mecca is. Registration for Starwood’s first quarter promotion (“Bring on the Nights”) is now open. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these…
Free Miles for Impersonating an Officer, United Hates Kids, Delta Awards to Indonesia, and More! (Bits ‘n Pieces for Dec. 17, 2013)
News and notes from around the interweb: United will no longer accept unaccompanied minors on connecting flights. Staffing connections is hard and they’ve only had a few decades of practice to get it right. #Ages5-11Unfriendly Garuda Indonesia will join Skyteam March 5. I look forward to redeeming Korean Air Skypass miles (transferred in from Chase Ultimate Rewards) for their first class suites! They fly their new product Jakarta – Sydney. Virgin Australia flies Bali – Sydney. Seems like I could put together a pretty good “Australia via Asia” business class award with Delta miles, too. US Airways will still partner with several Star Alliance airlines after they exit the alliance March 30th. Odds on it will still be possible to redeem US Airways miles for travel on Aegean, Air China, Air New Zealand, Avianca, Ethiopian…
