As part of putting together these trips, sponsors will take a few seats on the charter. Hyatt and United will be coming along. United also arranged to have a seat that they could give away in a contest, and the contest has been announced. What’s interesting, in addition to giving away a seat (plus positioning flights and hotel nights) is that it looks like they’ve been willing to share details of the trip that had otherwise been held close to the vest by event organizers — such as United CEO Jeff Smisek’s participation. ..starts with an evening reception in San Francisco. Right after breakfast the next morning, we’ll take everyone to the maintenance facility at our San Francisco hub to take part in events hosted by Star Alliance™ network. Next up is a charter flight…
5000 United Miles for Spending $1000 on MileagePlus Visa
If you had a United Visa on August 1, then all you need do to earn 5000 United miles is spend $1000 on that card between August 1 and October 31 and register here. The unusual thing is that spending prior to registration counts. So you didn’t need to know about the promotion, and I’m not entirely sure how I didn’t know about the promotion (fortunately someone on Milepoint did). You just have to have spent the $1000 during the promotion period and register by October 31.
New Bigger 1000 Point Signup Bonus for Southwest Rapid Rewards
Early in the week when I wrote about all of the various bonuses you could quadruple or quintuple dip with on Marriott stays over the next few months, I highlighted an offer of a ton of Southwest Rapid Rewards points for buying Marriott gift cards. In that post I noted that if you aren’t already a Southwest Rapid Rewards member, you could join with a 750 point bonus. It seems there is now a 1000 point bonus — 500 for enrolling and 250 for each of two e-mail signups. As it happens, and while I’m a member of perhaps 80 different loyalty programs, I’m not a member of Southwest Rapid Rewards. So I’m perhaps more interested in a signup bonus for a new account than the median reader might be.
Monday’s Big oneworld Announcement and the Future of the Alliance
A couple of days ago I received an email from the Weber Shadwick PR folks about oneworld’s announcement on Monday in New York. The briefing will be at 2pm with oneworld’s Chairman, Willie Walsh of British Airways and Iberia, and oneworld’s CEO. On Monday we’ll find out what the oneworld announcement really is, there has been tons of reporting and denials amidst claims of leaked documents. The smart money has been on Qatar, either joining oneworld outright or creating some sort of alliance with part of oneworld rather than full integration (the recent Qantas-Emirates alliance, and termination of partnership with Qantas and other oneworld carriers on Australia – Europe routes, makes it tough for Qantas to also partner with Qatar). Although it’s conceivable that it’s something more mundane, full integration for Malaysia Airlines or formal…
Last Chance to Get Hyatt Visa’s 2 Free Nights With No Minimum Spending Requirement
Hyatt Visa: 2 free nights at any Hyatt property, no minimum spending requirement. Chase is introducing a $1000 minimum spend requirement (within first three months) to earn the signup bonus on their Hyatt Visa. That new requirement is already reflected on the Chase website. But my link — which offers referral credit to me if you choose to use it — still allows you to get the card and free nights with no minimum spend required. I understand that even my link will no longer be offering that effective on Tuesday morning or earlier. As far as spending requirements go, the new one will be modest. But if you’ve been considering the card, it will be a whole lot more convenient not to have to put $1000 on it before receiving your free nights. I…
How to Get Turkish Airlines to Match Your Elite Status (or “Free United and US Airways Lounge Access”)
Back in June I was given mid-tier elite status by Turkish Airlines, Gold in their Miles & Smiles program, as a result of my british midland Gold status. The bmi program was winding down as a result of the airline being acquired by British Airways, and Turkish was making a play to acquire their customers. What that meant to me is that I would continue to have lounge access with United and US Airways whenever flying either airline, even domestically. Because “Star Alliance Gold”-level frequent flyers with non-U.S. frequent flyer programs are entitled to that access. (Of course I already get US Airways lounge access from my American Express Platinum card. So for me this was about free United access.) Here’s what’s interesting, though. It wasn’t just a limited-time offer to pick up British Midland’s…
Bits ‘n Pieces for October 5, 2012
News and notes from around the interweb: The subscription-based ExpertFlyer.com website now lets you search award availability across the full Star Alliance. There’s not really information here that isn’t available for free on websites like United.com and Aeroplan. But ExpertFlyer lets you set up email alerts so that you are notified when the award space you want opens up, which is huge. (I outlined Expertflyer and its benefits back in June.) Hilton’s 4th quarter promotion is out and available for registration: 1000 bonus points per night for every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday night you stay between November 1 and December 31. So everything is bonused except for Tuesday and Wednesday nights, though 1000 points is a pretty modest offer (worth about $5 in my view). There’s also a pretty extensive list (.pdf) of…
500 Free Hilton HHonors Points for Syncing with TopGuest
Turning the mic to Frugal Asian Man: Hilton DoubleTree is running a special promotion with Topguest where if you sync your Hilton HHonors number on their page at http://doubletree.topguest.com, you will receive 500 Hilton HHonors points for free. This offer is available to only the first 40,000 Hilton HHonors users who sync. From my understanding, you do not need to be a member/user of Topguest to use this promo. However, it does seem that if you have had your Topguest account suspended before (and you had synced your Hilton HHonors #), you will not be able to participate in this promotion.
Swiss Cancelling Myanmar First Class Mistake Fare Tickets
Last week I posted about a fare from Yangon, Myanmar to Eastern Canada … less than $600 for international three-cabin first class. The example of the fare that I gave was flying to Tokyo then Zurich then New York and on to Montreal, with Tokyo – Zurich – New York in Swiss First Class. The fare went viral, my post began a thread at Flyertalk (it was already being discussed on Milepoint). The morning after I posted this, I got an email from an executive at Swiss… May we ask you please where you received this information on behalf of SWISS from? A full week later, Swiss is cancelling folks who are flying that airline under the fare and whose tickets were issued as Swiss tickets (first 3 numbers of the tickets are “724”). Subject:…
I Used to Love this Joke When I Was in High School (Unsurprisingly, Spirit Airlines Edition)
Apparently the winner of last night’s debates wasn’t Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. It was… Spirit Airlines. They’ve been “winning the debate between high fares and low fares for years.” They are… Here’s their entire thirteen year old boy marketing copy (emphasis mine): We’ve been winning the debate between high fares and low fares for years – you could even say we are master debaters in this area. You see, high fares really rub us the wrong way, so we continue to fight to lower your fares every day. So stop getting jerked around, and enjoy these fares from only $29.80* when you travel from October 11, 2012 through November 15, 2012. All flights must be booked by 11:59 PM ET on October 5, 2012. Hurry, these fares are limited in availability! This was a…
