News and notes from around the interweb: In Lucky‘s Fly & Dine interview he endorses the Andaz 5th Avenue’s lemon poppyseed pancakes. MileNerd shares the math on how Rocketmiles can be a good deal… even compared to Priceline. Free 26 weeks of the Wall Street Journal for taking a survey. That was fast: 99% of the tickets for Frequent Traveler University Advanced sold overnight. Why the TSA thinks you have no right to leave the screening area without its permission Safeway-owned stores enforcing cash only for Reloadit cards 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. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t…
AMAZING DEAL: US Airways 100% Bonus on Shared Miles Back This Week Only
US Airways is back with a 100% bonus on shared miles through April 13. Limited time offer: Give up to a 100% bonus when you Share Miles! Share miles from April 7th until April 13th 2014 and your friend or family member will get up to 100% MORE in bonus miles – up to 50,000 miles. The bonus is actually tiered, you need to share at least 30,000 miles to get that bonus. Lower amounts receive a lesser bonus according to the following schedule: This is effectively buying US Airways miles for 1.1 cents apiece. You transfer 50,000 points from account A to account B at a cost of $567.50. Account B receives 100,000 miles. If you have a spouse or significant other, transfer 50,000 points to them and they receive 100,000 miles; then they…
Frequent Traveler University Advanced is Here – And Spots Are Limited
Here’s the booking link. One of the most requested things we’ve gotten for future Frequent Traveler University events is a different program — while each one has several different topics and speakers, they’ve also had many similar program components, and a large group of people of very mixed experience levels. We’ve listened and have begun to put together a more intimate event called FTU Advanced that will be held at the Chicago Marriott O’Hare July 18-20. Smaller, more intimate, for greater in-depth discussion More advanced. FTU events welcome everyone, at all experience levels, and of course everyone is welcome. But the program will feature a more focused conversation geared to people that have spent more time with the activity. A different program. We’ll be able to go more in-depth, and we’ll be able to go more hands-on. There will…
American to Unveil its New Boeing 777-200 Business Class Seat This Week
American is finally nearing the roll out of the last of its new inflight hard products that have been under development the past few years. Their 777-300ER business class seat is phenomenal. It’s what Cathay Pacific has (as well as what Delta flies across the Pacific and to Tel Aviv), and an updated version of what US Airways pioneered. American’s new domestic narrowbody product, first launched with their new Airbus A319s and now also available on some 737s. The new Airbus A321 product dedicated to New York JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco. (I flew the inaugural in business class and was very jealous of the 1-1 seating in first.) The new 767 business class looks like it will be outstanding, competitive with what Delta and many European airlines offer, and as good a…
Always Check the Details of Your Hotel Bill!
I recently stayed again at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables. I’ve written about the property here, here, and here. While ‘just’ a city Hyatt Regency the staff is friendly, the rooms large (or at least I always get nice enough complimentary upgrades), and Hyatt Diamond free breakfast can be taken through room service. It’s a good hotel for the price in a location I frequently seem to find myself. On my most recent visit I was paying out of pocket. Several area hotels were sold out. And rather than finding a sub-$150 rate, the hotel was getting ~ $289. Gulp. Fortunately Hyatt Gold Passport has added cash and points awards that accrue stay credit and count towards promotional bonuses. That meant, as a category 3 property, I’d be paying $75 and 6000 points for the…
Are Priority Security Lines Unfair and Undemocratic?
Law Professor David Post gets a bit unhinged over airport priority security lines. (Line breaks added for readaibility.) Traveling down here from DC, I had my usual angry reaction, when standing on the TSA security checkpoint line at Reagan-National airport, at what has become the norm: special treatment for First Class and other “priority” travelers. You don’t have to be an Occupy Wall Street-er to find this entirely outrageous. I get it that money can buy many things, and that that’s not an inherently bad thing – but one thing it should not be able to buy is improved government service. We have a word for that: ”bribery.” If passengers could pass $100 bill to the TSA agent on duty in order to get moved to the fast lane, we’d all condemn that heartily. Why…
Aircraft Blankets: Clean or Not? (aka “What’s Grosser Than Gross?”)
The following question about aircraft blankets was tweeted at me a few days ago: So I asked American Airlines what their procedure is. Here’s what they said: We have verified that AA does not ever fold a blanket, and we do not ever place used blankets or pillows back into a sealed wrapper. We have procedures to replace these used items with fresh ones throughout our system and throughout the course of an aircraft’s flying day. For example, here at DFW such used items are pulled from an aircraft by our contractors and sent to an industrial cleaning facility in South Arlington. They in turn launder these, seal and re-supply our inventory. This is all contractual and there is oversight to ensure procedures are adhered to. (Emphasis mine.) It’s a disgusting story. And we all…
40,000 US Airways Miles for $89 And How Long You Have Time to Act
There have been so many offers for the US Airways MasterCard, each slightly different, and often disappearing that I realize I’ve made some mistakes in my recommendations. I’ve pointed some readers to a 35,000 mile signup bonus after first purchase with $89 annual fee. But I realized this morning while writing about getting priority boarding on US Airways that there’s an offer for 40,000 miles after first purchase with that same $89 annual fee. It’s the best offer for the card that I know of. The card is marketing as ‘up to 50,000 bonus miles’ but 40,000 come after first purchase, the other 10,000 are generated by a costly balance transfer that you don’t want to take advantage of. I think this card is a great idea. There’s likely only about a year left to…
The Most Important Tip to Improve Your Rental Car Experience
This is so simple I’m almost embarrassed to lead with it, but it’s really important: Join a rental car company’s frequent renter program. I’m not going to tell you that it will get you Porsches or Lamborghinis. It will get you out of the lot faster. And it will help ensure you actually have a vehicle. You won’t have paperwork to do There will likely be a car pre-assigned to you, certainly ahead of those that aren’t part of the program I’m so spoiled by this, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to rent without a frequent renter number attached. I’ve rented mostly from Avis for years, and more recently from National. That means getting in a car and driving away, stopping only to verify your license (or, frustratingly with National, your credit card each time…
8 Things a United Elite Can Do Now That US Airways Is No Longer a Partner
A well-known DC-based reader asks what to do when flying US Airways now that his lifetime United status won’t get him elite privileges. My wife and I are United Premier Gold (for life via my [Million-miler status]) but we frequently fly from DCA to Sarasota on US Airways. She by herself more than I. Now that USAirways is no longer Star Alliance, we have lost our early boarding privileges, which are so valuable to avoid [gate] checking bags… Is there a credit card option that enhances boarding for her, me and us together when used to buy tickets? Any other ways to gain earlier boarding? (We are both Global Entry so we don’t need any privileges for security.) My recommendation is for you each to separately sign up for a US Airways MasterCard, the bonus…
