At first I thought the toughest questions came from Erich in my request for requests post. 1. Write a post in praise of Tyler Cowen (or another non-points inspiration who made you see things differently) 2. Give a Hansonian take on why Travel is not about vacation 3. How has your hobby modified your job or vice versa? 4. Write a post about how you think a smart but not involved person sees the points game (status chasing all the way down? Coupon clipping dressed in beach vacation dreams?) 5. Write a post on what the credit card game looks like 3 years from now. Don’t post it, but send it to a third party for a scheduled release 3 years hence 6. What are your best travel tips for introverts? 7. Invent a cynical…
ASIA
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United and Marriott Offer New Reciprocal Benefits – RewardsPlus Gives United Gold Elites Marriott Gold!
United and Marriott today launched a partnership called RewardsPlus. In some ways similar to Starwood and Delta’s Crossover Rewards announced in February, the program adds status recognition and some stepped up points benefits for elites in both programs. But unlike Starwood-Delta, points-earning has not been boosted under this new offering. United’s Gold elites and higher get Gold status in the Marriott Rewards program. That’s actually a pretty strong benefit (albeit one you can get by signin up for the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa) in that it usually takes 50 nights with Marriott to qualify. All Marriott Platinum and Platinum Premier members get United silver status. United elites will be able to convert miles into Marriott points at a 1:1 ratio, although this represents a poor transfer value (since a United mile is generally worth more than…
I Can’t Warn You Enough: Make Absolutely Positively Sure United Actually Issues Your Award Tickets
I’ve put out the clarion call several times in the past. But it bears repeating often. And every time this happens to me, even I remain surprised. A year ago I wrote about United award tickets on Asiana cancelling themselves. United’s system doesn’t always pass ticket numbers through to some partners and when the partner you have redeemed your miles on sees an ‘unticketed’ reservation, they may go ahead and cancel. United blames the partner, but United’s system is the only one that regularly does this. Solution: When you issue award tickets, call up the airlines that are operating your flights. Make sure they see the ticket numbers and confirm you are ready to travel. If there are changes to your flights that require re-issuance of tickets, repeat this step. I also wrote about the…
How Will I Be Able to Talk Miles and Points in 20 Minutes… TODAY?
This will be short because I have nothing unique to add to the conversation. I’m about to give a talk at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit on travel, and I don’t really want to. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great group of people, and it’s a talk that I love — but with the news of the Asiana crash in San Francisco it’s a little bit difficult to focus on my usual pedantic concerns of points, miles, first class cabins. And yet I won’t be posting much on the subject of the crash because I don’t have special knowledge from being on the scene, or special expertise other than as an observer of travel about crash investigations. I’ve just been following twitter for my updates. And I know to discount much of what’s reported…
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…
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.…
Lots of Good Hotel Values Announced for July/August 5000 Point PointBreaks
Via Mommy Points, Priority Club has announced the hotels that will be offering discounted award nights (“PointBreaks”) for just 5000 points per night for stays between July 1 and August 31. What seems to happen with each set of hotels is that a bunch are announced, then the good ones get pounced on, and then those hotels worth redeeming for get removed within a day or several days. By the end of the PointBreaks period very few hotels that anyone would want are left. Nonetheless, award nights at just 5000 points (as opposed to, say, 25,000 or 30,000 points) is a great deal. And the nights are generally cancellable. So if you think you even might need one of these award nights, it’s worth locking in. And you can use the cash and points trick…
Aeroplan Award Price Increases, Better Expiration Rules, and New Bonuses
Air Canada’s Aeroplan came out with announcements of several changes to its program this morning. They’re improving points expiration rules, going revenue-based for awards that don’t have the same capacity controls as ‘classic’ (and partner) awards do, increasing the price of premium cabin international awards to several destinations, and introducing a new status program for points earning members (in contrast to the airline elite status program based on flying). Overall I like the changes to expiration, the status benefits for mileage earning seems an interesting concept though isn’t especially rewarding, and I view the award chart changes as a significant negative. Elimination of Seven Year Expiration Rule You need activity in your Aeroplan account each year to keep miles active. But regardless of activity, any miles unused seven years from the time they were accumulated…
When You’re Tempted Not to Hang Up, Call Back… Hang Up Call Back Anyway
Hang up, call back. The four most important words in travel. For some, perhaps, the four most important words in life. I know this lesson. I share this lesson. But I don’t always practice it. And I know better. Call center agents vary tremendously in quality. The airline computer systems they are working with vary tremendously in quality. When things aren’t going smoothly — when they are taking longer than they should, when an agent isn’t understanding your request, when they are not coming back with the correct answers right away, hang up and call back. Sometimes it’s tempting to ignore the rule. You’ve been on hold for awhile, you don’t want to do it again. Surely your request is straightforward and for something you’re entitled to. It has to be better just to keep…
When Is It a Good Idea to Redeem Your Miles for Merchandise?
USA Today‘s Charisse Jones has a piece on the things you can do with your miles besides taking flights. There are the obligatory examples of using miles to purchase “Tumi luggage and MacBook Pro computers” as well as spending them at auction for experiences like Rod Stewart concerts. The piece offered two of my thoughts. “More options are good for frequent fliers,” says Gary Leff, co-founder of the frequent-flier community Milepoint.com, who’s noticed the trend building over the past three or four years. “Not everyone wants to fly throughout the year for business and be rewarded with another flight. Sometimes they’d just like to stay home and use their miles for a retail treat.” … Unique experiences, however, could be perceived as a better deal, Leff says. “When you’re leveraging the connections, the sponsorship, or…
