News and Notes from Around the Interweb: 1000 miles for joining Air India’s frequent flyer program. Reacting to American’s offer of up to 7500 miles per New York JFK – Los Angeles flight segment, United is offering a similar bonus for travel during the first quarter. Here in the US our credit cards can offer 5 points per dollar. But in the rest of the world they get really creative. In Germany you can have the Karl Marx MasterCard (“There are some things money can’t buy. Especially if you abolish all private property.”). And in Turkey your credit card can come with a compass built-in so you always know which direction Mecca is. Registration for Starwood’s first quarter promotion (“Bring on the Nights”) is now open. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these…
Free Miles for Impersonating an Officer, United Hates Kids, Delta Awards to Indonesia, and More! (Bits ‘n Pieces for Dec. 17, 2013)
News and notes from around the interweb: United will no longer accept unaccompanied minors on connecting flights. Staffing connections is hard and they’ve only had a few decades of practice to get it right. #Ages5-11Unfriendly Garuda Indonesia will join Skyteam March 5. I look forward to redeeming Korean Air Skypass miles (transferred in from Chase Ultimate Rewards) for their first class suites! They fly their new product Jakarta – Sydney. Virgin Australia flies Bali – Sydney. Seems like I could put together a pretty good “Australia via Asia” business class award with Delta miles, too. US Airways will still partner with several Star Alliance airlines after they exit the alliance March 30th. Odds on it will still be possible to redeem US Airways miles for travel on Aegean, Air China, Air New Zealand, Avianca, Ethiopian…
The Value of the Turkish Airlines MIleage Program and Current 50% Redeemable Miles Bonus Plus 25% Award Discount
How and Why to Status Match to Turkish Airlines I’ve written in the past about getting complimentary elite status on Turkish Airlines by having them match elite status you already have. The status lasts two years and they’ve even been willing to match United MileagePlus status even though Turkish and United are Star Alliance partners. Having the status, of course, gets you access to United’s club lounges when flying United same-day even domestically. You used to be able to request the status match via email but they started accepting requests via online contact form only (and it can take a couple of months for them to get back to you — be patient). As a result of these posts many readers have Turkish Airlines elite status. I’d bet most just use the status for club…
United-Marriott “RewardsPlus” Tie-Up Extended for 2014
Back in February Starwood and Delta introduced ‘Crossover Rewards’, points-earning and effectively bottom-tier elite treatment for the top customers of the other brand. In September they added space available upgrades at the gate for Starwood Platinums. A few months later — in July — United and Marriott followed with ‘RewardsPlus’, the biggest features of which are United Silver status for Marriott Platinums, and Marriott Gold status for United Golds and above. With reciprocal status set to expire in early 2014, United announced that the relationship will continue. Effectively, ‘if you like your reciprocal status you can keep your reciprocal status.’ That shouldn’t really come as a surprise, the only thing surprising is that it took this long to get the word out (which suggests that it took this long to get the deal done). I…
For the First Quarter of 2014, Free Nights Are Back at Hyatt!
Hyatt’s promotions don’t run on a strictly quarter-by-quarter basis, and the next Hyatt Gold Passport promotion is no exception — this one will run January 15 through April 30th. And it offers a choice between bonus points and free nights. In both cases you will earn rewards for every 5 nights you stay during the promotion period, for each 5 night increment up to 20 nights (the promotion is capped at 20 nights, which strikes me as fairly low for a promotion that lasts 3 1/2 months). Here’s the bonus earning table if you choose to earn points: At the upper end of 20 nights that’s 2500 points per night, which is pretty strong for the current environment. If you choose to earn free nights you will earn one that can redeemed for any Hyatt…
Details of the New Starwood-CaesarsPartnership: Limited Elite Earning and No Elite Recognition for SPG Members
When I wrote about the new Starwood-Caesars relationship earlier this morning few details were available yet. The award price — how many points it will take to redeem for which properties — isn’t yet available. However, both the Starwood and Caesars pages for the partnership are now up and running, and reveal the basics of how the program will work — both for earning and redemption and for elite status. Here are the key elements of the partnership: Earning and redemption begins January 9. Members earn 2 Starpoints per dollar in addition to Caesars Total Rewards credit. Points-earning at Caesars is capped at 100,000 per year. Earning elite status with Starwood through Caesars stays: You earn nights only, not stay credit. You are capped at 10 nights per year. These nights will only count up…
US Airways Extending 2013 Elite Status Through March 2014
Blog reader Mark S. who is a US Airways Platinum member as an American Express Centurion (“Black Card”) cardholder passes along the following email that he received: I guess they do not want to send out new membership cards with the Star Alliance logo on it, only to turn around and incur the expense of cards with a oneworld logo. However, since they’re not sending out new membership cards until early April that likely means a gap (of several days or a little over a week) where US Airways elites flying internationally may not be able to access partner airline lounges as lounges generally require showing the elite status membership card for access. The US Airways relationship with American Express ends March 22. American Express Platinum and Centurion cards will no longer receive American and…
Starwood and Caesars Hotels Partner: Redeem Starpoints and Earn Elite Stay Credits At 15 New Hotels
Historically the major chains have had a limited presence in Las Vegas, the biggest hotel market in the world. Planet Hollywood used to be a Sheraton, there’s a fairly mediocre Westin that isn’t on ‘the Strip’. IHG managed to link up with the Venetian as an Intercontinental hotel, and Mariott nabbed Cosmopolitan. The big breakthrough came for Hyatt over the summer when it inked a deal with MGM M Life. You can now earn and redeem Hyatt Gold Passport points and get reciprocal elite status recognition at participating MGM M Life properties. That was a huge coup that brought in properties like Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay along with several more. In a copycat industry (Starwood introduced Crossover Rewards with Delta, then Marriott introduced RewardsPlus with United), now as announced on Milepoint this morning,…
American Airlines Employees Will Vote on the Aircraft Paint Job (Or At Least the Tail)
American Airlines Group CEO Doug Parker told employees of both American Airlines and US Airways that they would get to vote on the tail of American Airlines planes. If they prefer, the airline will go with the old tail icon that had been in place since 1968. If they like the new tail, they can keep it. But the decision needs to be made quickly so they can start painting US Airways planes. Personally the new paint job has really grown on me since it was unveiled. I don’t really like the tail, though… still, the old one seems dated especially after they’ve painted so many planes with an updated one. Tail and body of an American Airbus A319 Ultimately Doug Parker’s letter — and even this blog post — is spending too much time…
Would You Change Your Name to Schmuck for Miles and Elite Status?
Lufthansa is facing quite a bit of competition on the Stockholm-Berlin route. As the German national airline they clearly favor the Berlin side of the equation, and their marketing gurus are going to tell those Swedes how much better it is to be a Berliner! Or something. Lufthansa ran a contest with a grand prize of: [A] free one-way ticket to the German capital and a prepaid apartment for a year on the border of the city’s trendy Kreuzberg and Neukolln neighborhoods. Did I mention that the furnished, sparkling white, 750-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment comes with a balcony, a fully equipped kitchen, and a custom-painted bike with your (new) name on it? Or that the jackpot also includes German lessons and two free flights to Frankfurt and Munich? Everyone else entering receives Frequent Traveler status and…
