Kimpton Karma Rewards: I haven’t written a lot about Kimpton Hotels. They’ve had one of the most rewarding loyalty programs. My theory has long been that the smallest chains are most likely to be rewarding because they need to incentivize customers — staying at a Hyatt rather than a Marriott or Hilton is a conscious choice. It doesn’t happen by default. Marriott and Hilton are everywhere, you can just show up in a city and there will be one. You go out of your way to stay loyal to one of the smaller chains, and it’s no accident that the better loyalty programs belong the chains with a smaller footprint. I have limited personal experience with Kimpton, I’ve eaten in restaurants or frequented bars at their hotels more often than I’ve stayed with them. And…
Get These 50 Free Miles, and Save Hundreds of Dollars
Fuel surcharges can be astronomical when redeeming British Airways points. Transatlantic award flights can set you back over $600 in fees on top of the mileage cost of your tickets and on top of the usual airport and international taxes. British Airways points are fantastic for short, non-stop domestic flights. And also for short non-stop flights between the US and South America: no fuel surcharges. It’s somewhat ironic that flying to Europe on this flagship European airline is so costly. But there are three primary ways to avoid big fuel surcharges when using British Airways points to fly across the Atlantic:
Giving Away 75,000 Hyatt Points to Celebrate Hyatt-MGM in Las Vegas
Here’s the scoop: The Hyatt Gold Passport – MGM M Life partnership is the richest in Las Vegas. It lets you earn and redeem points across both programs, and get status recognition too. You can get Hyatt Platinum status just for having the Hyatt Visa. And Hyatt Platinum gets you Gold status and recognition at 12 resorts in Las Vegas – upgrades, priority checkin, buffet line passes, VIP night club access. Hyatt Diamonds get even more (I love skipping the taxi queue). There’s a new website for this relationship that features free room, points, and experience giveaways. I’m giving away 75,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points to a reader drawn at random from those leaving comments on this blog post, continue reading to learn more.
New Air Conditioning Tax, another Marriott Devaluation, and Get Your Hyatt Status Now!!
News and notes from around the interweb: My post yesterday which revealed President Obama’s choice in credit cards drew this reaction on twitter: Pro tip: Don’t pose with your credit card when standing in front of photographers. The replies are worth the read. Two months ago I explained that you can have top tier Diamond status from Hyatt with very little effort. And while we know that Diamond trials will not be going away, Running with Miles speculates that they could be changing. Perhaps trial Diamonds members won’t get confirmed suite upgrades in the future until they’ve completed their challenge? The Marriott Plus Points program (up to 2000 free points per month), which was just introduced in May, has been gutted already. Etihad is launching San Francisco – Abu Dhabi service in November. That flight…
Africa Business Class Fares at Over Two-Thirds Off!
Several airlines are offering business class fares between Canada (mostly Toronto, but also Calgary and Edmonton) and both Capetown and Johannesburg, South Africa for $1362 plus taxes and fees, roundtrip.
Is the 100,000 Mile Opportunity Closing, or Closed?
I remember staying up late with friends 23 years ago to watch the excellent Kenneth Branagh / Emma Thompson film Dead Again. It was probably my favorite film that year (although in some ways I think that Point Break has endured better). Spoiler alert.
The Qatar Airways CEO’s Truth Problem
Earlier today Lucky wrote that despite Qatar announcing A380 service would commence first in June 2014 but then pushing it back weeks at a time, it has now refused delivery of the aircraft. Qatar’s CEO His Excellency Akbar Al Baker won’t say what’s wrong with the planes or why the order was rejected. This isn’t the first time he’s been cagey with suppliers and partners. Back in November at the Dubai Airshow, Qatar Airways, in a joint conference with Emirates, announced orders for fifty 777X aircraft of their own. CEO Al Baker noted that despite telling reporters Qatar would not purchase the airplane, he decided to order them anyway. However, CEO Al Baker, told Reuters that the airline is not ready to finalize an order for 50 Boeing 777X aircraft. Of course, Al Baker emphatically…
The Cheapest Business Class Fares From Each Airline
FlightFox put together a list of the least expensive routes for the best airline business class products. Did you know you could fly Swiss business class for just $187? Try Muscat to Dubai. Or that you could outright buy a seat in business class on a United 787 Dreamliner for under $400? Houston – Denver. It’s a pretty short flight, but Cathay Pacific operates their new long haul business class product — one of the very best in the world — from Hong Kong to Taipei (making it ~ $600). Of course an even better deal would be to redeem just 9000 Avios. They’ve got the cheapest flights each of 31 airlines offers for their premier business class products, so read the whole thing. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and…
My Mid-Year Elite Status Update: Am I Walking the Talk?
I share my thoughts and advice on loyalty programs all of the time, I thought it would be useful to also share what I do and let you evaluate whether I practice my own advice. At the same time, where I focus my own stays (and how much I’m traveling) may be illuminating and sharing this gives me an opportunity to articulate some of my own thinking. Of course, in revealing what status I currently have and where I am mid-year in requalifying, it doesn’t actually include all of my travels. I’ve done two major Asia trips on points this year already, and have more award travel coming up. There will be 60,000 or 80,000 flown butt in seat miles that don’t get included in my flight totals. I’ve also been flying a bunch of…
What Credit Card Does Obama Use? And What Mistake is He Making?
As part of the UK Daily Mail‘s coverage of President Obama cutting the line at the extremely popular Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas, they carried a photo of him paying for the order of the father and daughter who were first in line ahead of him. And this photo reveals Obama’s credit card of choice. He’s carrying a JP Morgan Select card. You cannot apply directly for this card any longer. When it was available it was basically a Chase Sapphire Preferred card without double miles on dining, or a signup bonus, but (based on a comparison I did for Wendy Perrin at Conde Nast Traveler a couple of years ago) with: An EMV chip (chip and signature), before Sapphire Preferred offered this. 25,000 bonus points after $100,000 spend each year. Primary collision damage waiver…
