In yesterday’s post on United’s new 787 serving Denver – Tokyo, I noted that the schedule was live and thus a 787 seatmap was online that you could access when making a (dummy) booking. But the seatmap looked odd, since it had more seats available than the announced configuration of the aircraft was supposed to hold, and the seatmap didn’t specifically flag economy plus. Seth notes in the comments on that post that overnight United has updated the seatmap, and these problems appear fixed. Here’s the new seatmap: (Click on the seatmap above to enlarge) It’s interesting that there’s no center section of seats in row 16, but that the center section of row 23 is economy plus (while the right and left sides are not), and that the row 27 exit seats are considered…
Feecation.com: Get Up to $1250/year in Reimbursements for $14.97/month Membership
One of the banks I do business with gives away as a premium for opening a checking account a benefit where they’ll rebate you $10 per quarter in exchange for submitting grocery or gas receipts. People usually think this is a way for a marketing company to understand your buying habits. The bank does nothing to dissuade that belief. But that’s not the idea at all. You have to remember to request rebate forms, they don’t automatically send you more. You have to save your original receipts and mail them in. And then you have to hope they actually process it and mail you the check. In other words, they get a top line benefit to market that they’re giving you $40. But most people never get anything, or if they do they get $10…
Up to 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for Transferring in Points from Other Programs
Via Notiflyer, between May 21 and June 18 Aeroplan is offering up to 40,000 bonus miles for transferring points in from other programs (excluding the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program). The bonus isn’t per transaction or per partner, it’s cumulative — the more points you transfer in from various sources, the more total bonus points you earn. Eligible partners are: Credit card programs: CIBC Aventura World MasterCard Card, CIBC Aventura Gold Visa, CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite, CIBC Aventura MasterCard Card, American Express Membership Rewards – Canada, BankAmericard Power Rewards credit card, Diners Club Club Rewards Hotel programs: Starwood Preferred Guest, Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, Wyndham Rewards, Best Western Rewards, Choice Privileges, Coast Rewards, Club Carlson, Le Club Accorhotels, Shangri-La Golden Circle Award Car rental: Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Other: Points.com The highest yield points…
American’s Initial Schedule for Their New Boeing 777-300s Announced
The initial schedule for American’s incoming Boeing 777-300 aircraft, featuring their new first class and new business class products, has been announced. Beginning December 13 they’ll run it Dallas – Sao Paulo, and in February it’ll start on Dallas and New York – London. Time to start looking at airfares and flights with confirmable upgrade space, I’d love to be among the first to fly in the new business class seats. According to Expertflyer there appears to be reasonably good confirmable upgrade space on the 777-300 for Dallas – Sao Paulo service. Executive Platinum eVIP upgrades are valid from any fare and book into C inventory. I just got back from Sao Paulo on Sunday but this is tempting… (HT: AAdvantageGeek)
New Online Shopping Portal with the Biggest Cash Rebates
Whenever I’m doing any sort of online shopping, I search EV Reward to find the best deal. Most online shopping sites offer some sort of rebates, for instance if I’m going to buy something at Target.com I search Target.com at EV Reward and find that I can get 3% cash back through Ebates (which offers a $5 bonus after your first purchase), 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar, 3 American miles per dollar, or several other options. Given this information, I’d probably choose 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar at Target.com. EV Reward is a useful tool, but it isn’t updated in real time and offers from the various cash back and mileage sites change all the time. So what they list as currently-available offers may vary from the offer you see when…
United’s 787 Seat Map
Now that United has loaded its first 787 into the schedule, Denver-Tokyo beginning March 31, you can see the seatmap for the aircraft by walking through a dummy booking on the website: There are 36 business class seats, 63 economy plus seats (presumably rows 16-22, not highlighted on the seatmap), coach has been announced as 120 seats though the seatmap would appear to show 135 seats — presumably some of the blocked/unavailable seats aren’t. They clearly haven’t put the finishing touches on the seatmap since economy plus isn’t so-flagged. Nine across in coach seems tight to me, considering that All Nippon and Japan Airlines are doing eight across with their 787s. It’s notable that Denver – Tokyo is announced as the first 787 route for United, they had previously indicated they’d inaugurate the 787 on…
New Priority Club PointBreaks (Discounted 5000 Point Reward Nights) Hotels Available Through July 31
Priority Club’s new PointBreaks list is out. This is the deepest discount in award travel across any hotel brand, a handful of properties are offered at any given time for just 5000 Priority Club points per night, even properties that may cost 40,000 points per night normally. I usually look for Intercontinental properties, which offer the steepest discounts when they’re participating, but there are other interesting options as well such as the Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown and the Hotel Indigo Shanghai on the Bund. Intercontinentals participating this summer are Cleveland, Houston-Galleria, Cyprus, Bucharest, Mauritius, Cairo, Nairobi, Lusaka, Fiji, Wuxi, Kuala Lumpur, Puebla, Buenos Aires, Tegucigalpa. That’s a more extensive, richer list than I’ve seen in a long time. (HT: Milepoint)
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 22, 2012
Lots of Loose Ends and Little Things: Is Hilton playing games with the cash portion of their cash and points awards? Loyalty Lobby details AviancaTaca’s 100% bonus on purchased miles which is running through the end of the month. If you don’t already have a LifeMiles account you won’t be able to take advantage of it this time around, but may want to open for the next go-round of the offer which seems to come around with some frequency. The airline is expected to join Star Alliance this year, making the miles potentially more useful. Accor is selling Motel 6 to Blackstone. I’m guessing not, but it would be interesting to see whether that portfolio is added to the Hilton HHonors program. For a limited time last year, Accor’s A|Club (now Le Club Accorhotels) allowed…
Weekend at the Falls: American Business Class, Gol Domestic, and the Sheraton Iguazú Resort: Sheraton Iguazú Falls Resort & Spa
American to Miami in First, then Business Class to Sao Paulo Gol Smiles VIP Lounge and Domestic Service to Foz de Iguassu Sheraton Iguazú Falls Resort The Wonder of the Falls Gol Domestic Back to Sao Paulo and the Admiral’s Club Sao Paolo American’s Business Class to Miami and on to DC With just a weekend in South America, and a goal of visiting one of the places I’ve wanted to see for years, I decided on convenience and time savings — I picked the Sheraton because it’s actually in the National Park, on the Argentina side. The Sheraton is on the pricey side, rooms were over $250++ and suites around $575++ during my stay. It’s a Starwood category 5 — so delivers a bit over 2 cents a point without any high season points…
Registration for Park Inn 44,000 Club Carlson Point Bonus Now Live
Last week, Club Carlson’s giant promotion launched for two of its brands, where you effectively can buy a cheap hotel night and earn enough points for a stay at any of their hotels in the world. The most famous and historically lucrative hotel promotion has been Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights, every two stays is a free night, and you could do a couple of cheap airport stays and redeem for, say, the Park Hyatts in Paris or Tokyo. (We haven’t seen that offer in a couple of years and it is missed by many.) This takes things a step further, it’s effectively buy one get one free but since it’s points you don’t have a short timeframe within which you have to redeem your stay (as long as you keep your account active) and you…
