Reader Jack reminds me that I promised details on whether American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts bookings at MGM’s M Life properties in Las Vegas would earn points and stay credit in the Hyatt Gold Passport program. Traditionally when making bookings through the Amex program (or through similar programs which confer additional benefits like late checkout, an upgrade upon availability, and breakfast) at a Hyatt property, Gold Passport confers credits. It’s an exception to the general approach that points and stay credits only accrue when booking through a chain directly. And in Las Vegas I was specifically interested in the point, because while there will be elite status matching between Hyatt Gold Passport and M Life beginning next month, Hyatt Diamond members won’t be getting free breakfast at MGM properties as breakfast isn’t a benefit…
Bits ‘n Pieces for July 4, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Earlier in the week I wrote about a blogger declining a pilot’s offer to join the mile high club. Now one accidentally joins? Free $45 on-demand car service credit. That’s more than a free ride for most trips, and may be as much as three free rides depending on distance. Turns out the promotion does indeed run through July 7 (at least as long as the $25 Amazon Local component doesn’t get pulled first). On the subject of car service discounts, Online Travel Review says Groundlink will give you 15% off with promo code BLOG15. Garuda Indonesia is slated to join Skyteam and now will be adding a first class product with ‘chef on board’ service. Should be an interesting option for redeeming Chase points transferred to Korean…
Free Marriott Platinum Status and the Trip of a Lifetime
November’s Star MegaDO was the charter of United’s first 787. Frequent flyers got to experience it in a fantastic party atmosphere, and it was covered by the Economist, by the New York Times, by the Wall Street Journal and by… the Wall Street Journal. This year’s Star MegaDO, scheduled for October 22-25, was supposed to go on sale in May. It did. Kind of. The booking engine didn’t work properly, folks that tried to get tickets were eventually processed (many manually), and the sales were suspended. Most seats for the event were sold, but the process was broken. It’s ready to re-open for sales, though, on July 10 at Noon Mountain time. The six weeks that have passed gave the organizers time for vacation (hah) but also to put together more details surrounding the trip…
1500 Free Air Berlin Miles for Joining, and Why You May Care About AIr Berlin
Wandering Aramean reports that Air Berlin will give you 1500 points for signing up. Register until 31th July 2013 (‘promotion period’) for topbonus, airberlin’s award-winning frequent flyer program and look forward to the following benefits: 1,000 award miles as a welcome gift Up to 500 additional award miles for selecting “email” as the form of communication and registering for the topbonus communication. So… why might you care about Air Berlin’s miles? Because Air Berlin is one of the few international airlines which regularly offers to match status you may have on another carrier. There are plenty of successful status match reports. Requests for status match go to service@topbonus.de with a copy of existing elite status credentials (eg elite member card and printout of online activity) And since airberlin is a member of oneworld, their Gold…
TSA Has Gone to the Dogs
Current TSA’s PreCheck lets passengers that have had information turned over in advance by airlines (in most cases, elite frequent flyers) go through security ‘as it used to be’ with freedom baggie left inside a carryon, laptop inside laptop case, and shoes left on. Now the TSA is testing turning the decision on expedited screening eligibility over to dogs. The Transportation Security Administration is now using dogs to prescreen passengers, sniffing for explosives before they get to the metal detectors and X-ray machines. The good news for passengers is that this kind of passive screening — stand and be sniffed — can alleviate the need for more cumbersome procedures at the TSA checkpoint, like removing shoes and taking laptops and bagged liquids out of luggage. The science on dogs is really bad, and generally deference…
EVA Airways Award Space Now Available at United.com
I’ve been writing a ton about new Star Alliance airline EVA Airways over the past two weeks. I noted briefly just how amazing their award availability is back on June 19. Taipei-based EVA Airways has joined the Star Alliance and is a truly awesome ‘get’ — business class award availability is really, really good and thy fly to Toronto, Vancouver, New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Another great way to get between North America and Asia and with a really stellar inflight product. I’ve found the Aeroplan website good for searching space, along with the ANA website. I was unsuccessful pulling up available space at United.com yesterday. I shared some of my frustrations with United’s call centers getting EVA Airways awards booked, since the flights couldn’t be found at United.com. Nonetheless, it’s…
This New Service from Uber is Beyond My Means
Scott Mayerowitz passes along a new service from Uber. This is a new service in New York for getting out to the Hamptons. $3000 buys a helicopter ride and SUV rides on each end for up to 5 people. Now, I love Uber. I think the concept is great from a consumer standpoint (car shows up with a couple of taps on your phone, you can even watch it as it approaches you, and there’s no cash transaction at the end of the ride). I think it’s a great concept from an entrepreneurial standpoint as well (utilizing down time from existing car services). But I admit that UberChopper is going to be beyond my means — I’ve never even flown in a helicopter. Continental used to offer a 10,000 mile add-on to transatlantic business class…
Marriott Introduces Mobile Check-in, When the Real Value is in Mobile Check-out
Marriott’s Marriott Hotels brand has rolled out a mobile check-in app at 31 hotels so far, and will be extending it to 325 Marriott-branded properties in the US and Canada. All Marriott Rewards members can check-in after 4 pm the day before their arrival and will receive an automatic notification when their room is ready. Because credit card information is stored within their Marriott Rewards profiles, members simply walk up to the expedited mobile check-in desk where their pre-programmed key card will be waiting for them. The mobile check-in feature is part of the free Marriott mobile app available in the Apple iTunes Store and Google Play. While I really like electronic check-out, at the end of most of my Hyatt stays I get a link in an email and can designate my checkout time.…
Finnair Joins British Airways, American, and Iberia in Joint Business Venture Across the Atlantic… No Upgrade for You!
Finnair, the Helsinki-based oneworld airline, joins American, British Airways and Iberia in their joint business venture across the Atlantic tomorrow. Finnair also intends to join the Japan Airlines-British Airways joint venture between Japan and Europe. This is a business play for the airlines involved, and while companies will talk about better coordination of schedules and seamless transfers (and it is the case that they tend to be better at interlining during irregular operations as a result) this really isn’t something that affects customers in a way that most will pay attention to or care about. When American, Iberia, and British Airways formed their joint venture, it became possible to use miles from any of those airlines to upgrade on any of the other carriers. Of course space had to be available, and there were specific…
Bits ‘n Pieces for July 1, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: The mile high club is an unpublished elite benefit. (Worth the read.) India’s GoAir will hire only female flight attendants… to save fuel. The verdict on Spirit’s “wine in a can” Points, Miles & Martinis is giving away a Briggs & Riley @work bag Tyler Cowen’s ethnic dining guide concurs with me about just how good the new dishes are at Elephant Jumps in Northern Virginia. Membership Rewards 20% transfer bonus to Hawaiian Airlines extended through tomorrow. (Meh.) 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. Don’t miss out!
