Via Lucky United is running a sale through 11:59pm Central time to purchase miles at 40% off. That link is for their Facebook fans, though you don’t need to be one in order to use it. They’re promoting the same discount for their Twitter followers. The offer brings the price down to 2.1 cents a point plus 7.5% tax. That’s above the point where I buy them on the if-come, but it’s a good offer to top off an account towards a specific award.
American Offering TARGETED Elite Fast Track and Double Miles
American is running a targeted offer of an elite fast track that makes even Executive Platinum somewhat easy to obtain along with double miles. I don’t know how broadly targeted it is, the person who received this is an occasional American flyer — three or four trips a year — and was once an AAdvantage Gold. Registration is open through May 11. Offer terms and conditions are here. Elite status earned under the promotion is valid through February, 2013 — not through February 2014 which is what you’d get flying the normal required miles during calendar 2012. Interesting that the elite fast track is based on miles rather than the tougher qualifying points (which penalize cheaper fares and bonus premium cabin fares). This is a targeted promotion though of course you may well have been…
Bits ‘n Pieces for Tuesday, April 24
Advice on Choosing a Good Travel Partner, a weekend trip is a different animal than a two week adventure in Asia! Groundlink has a new promotional video for their car service and mobile app. Password-protected, the password is groundlink (If your company name is groundlink, then that’s “the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard of in my life! …the kinda thing an idiot would have on his luggage!”) (Update: new non-password protected link provided) Cute video, though. I’ve used Groundlink several times, on the whole quite positive, and after booking they promote promo code RIDE2 for 10% off. Starwood expects their summer promo to drive 2.9 million incremental room nights to their properties. They’re avoiding having any hotels opt out by picking up the tab for the promo themselves, according to internal documents. I outlined the…
Up to 40% Off and a $15 Credit on a New Tumi Bag
One King’s Lane is offering up to 40% off on Tumi luggage through April 26th, and they have a variety of popular styles available. The site also gives you a $15 credit towards your first purchase when signing up and the person who refers you gets a $15 credit when you make that purchase as well. This is my referral link which anyone can use to get that $15 credit. But you’re also welcome to leave your own link in the comments that others might use. These are some of the best prices on Tumi that I’ve seen. You can save more than a couple hundred dollars on a Tumi rollaboard. And get $15 towards the purchase as a first-time customer of the site. (Although they do charge shipping, but on the other hand don’t…
Week 5 of Amex Daily Getaways Posted – Time to Stock Up on Points!
I wrote previously about the US Travel Association/American Express Daily Getaway Groupon-style offers here and here. A limited number of discounted travel packages go on sale, and most of them go quickly. Some go on sale an hour early to folks with a special code on the travel provider’s Facebook page. Pay with an American Express for a 10% discount. Most of the offers weren’t great, today’s Wyndham Rewards offer was outstanding. And they’ve just posted the week 5 deals for May 7 – May 11. Monday, May 7 – 10,000 Best Western Rewards points for ~ $60, there’s 825 of these packages available with 160 going on pre-sale. I might pick one up to transfer points to US Airways for a Grand Slam hit, since I presume the airline will bring back that promotion…
Texting Pilot Forgot to Lower Landing Gear
A Jetstar pilot forgot to lower the landing gear on descent into Singapore because he was texting. That’s the conclusion of a report on the May 27, 2010 Darwin to Singapore flight. The pilot’s story was that he forgot to turn off his phone prior to takeoff, and he was just trying to turn it off because it was beeping from incoming texts. Priorities, anyone? Just ignore the beeps if you need to, landing is more important. But what about the co-pilot? At 1000 feet, the co-pilot scanned the instruments and felt “something was not quite right” but could not spot what it was. At this stage the captain still did not realise the landing gear had not been lowered, and neither pilot went through their landing checklist. At 720 feet, a cockpit alert flashed…
A US Airways Acquisition of American May Not Be as Good — or as Imminent — As it Seems
Lots of folks seem to think that a US Airways acquisition of American is a done deal, going to happen, here’s one example of a guess that it’s even announced today. Allow me to offer a contrary view. I believe that US Airways wants to acquire American. They want it too badly that they’ll overpay to accomplish it. But the best scenario for US Airways is to attempt to acquire American and fail, because they’ll hobble American in the process. And the dance with US Airways benefits the unions, and American’s competitors, because it prevents American from achieving the cost savings they’re looking for. First, a US Airways acquisition will not come today. American currently has the exclusive right to reorganize through September 28. The Unsecured Creditors Committee can ask the bankruptcy court to terminate…
Getting the Best Value out of Southwest-Airtran Transfer Options
Now that Southwest and Airtran let you link accounts, Milevalue has a a rundown of when it makes sense to use your points to redeem through Southwest and when it makes sense to redeem through Airtran. Roughly speaking, cheap tickets redeem Southwest Rapid Rewards points, expensive tickets redeem credits. 19,200 Rapid Rewards points are worth $324, so if you can find two oneways on either airline that cost more than that, you can profit from transferring. In today’s environment of sky high fares, finding a roundtrip or two oneways that cost more than that is pretty easy, especially since Airtran flies internationally to Mexico and the Caribbean. Let’s go through some examples to show how to determine whether you can exploit the transfer options. LAX-MDW-LAX for the dates I want costs $408, and I value…
American Adds Booking of British Airways and Hawaiian Airlines Partner Awards to Website
Via Milepoint, in addition to already adding online searches of Alaska Airlines award space, the American AAdvantage website has also added the ability to search British Airways and Hawaiian as well. Here’s a search of first class awards from Washington Dulles to London, one-way, which shows space on BA pretty much every day. DC isn’t a huge premium market, I see Air France as “O9” many days of the week (wide open business class awards, great for redeeming Delta miles). BA awards are pretty wide open as well. The key here of course is the taxes and fees, British Airways fuel surcharges are a killer, the website shows taxes and fees available for different itineraries as being between $2.50 and $700, the former being an American Airlines redemption and the latter being about what you’ll…
An Abject Lesson in Crisis PR: Spirit No Refunds Means No Refunds!
This story is so compelling you’d almost think it was made up. Jerry Meekins will die soon of esophageal cancer, and he can’t fly because of his compromised immune system. But Spirit Airlines considers his condition insufficiently grave to grant him a refund for a flight to Atlantic City next month. But if he actually dies before his flight, Spirit would be happy to give him some money back. …Meekins, 76, bought the ticket last month. His daughter is having surgery in May, and he wants to be there to take her home from the hospital and care for her while she recovers. He has been battling cancer for about two years. But it was not until shortly after he bought the ticket that doctors told him there was no more they can do. He…
