I spent part of my honeymoon on Bora Bora and loved it. I stayed at Bora Bora Nui, which was then a Starwood property, in an overwater bungalow facing Mt. Otemanu for 5 nights at a cost of 186,000 Starpoints. That was before SPG had ‘category 7’. The hotel became a fantastic value for a standard villa when it transitioned to Hilton, just 50,000 points per night (and eligible for elite multi-night discounts). Now the property can be about 90% more points. Not a bad value, by any means. But also still just for a basic room .. .not an overwater bungalow. The Intercontinental Thalasso Bora Bora used to put guests staying on points in a ‘Garden Villa’. You could pay cash to upgrade, starting at ~ $200 per night for the lowest overwater bungalow.…
40,000 Mile Signup Bonus Back for US Airways MasterCard
On Monday I wrote that we don’t know when the US Airways MasterCard product will go away. American and US Airways are merging, there will eventually just be an American Airlines co-brand card. My guess is that the two airlines combine into a single entity at the end of February or beginning of March 2015, but even that doesn’t tell us with certainty when it becomes no longer possible to apply for the current US Airways card issued by Barclays. MileValue and I debated this on Twitter, since he had contended on his blog that the card would disappear in ‘a few weeks’ and I disagree. In my post I pointed out that there’s a 35,000 mile signup bonus (after first purchase) with a $0 fee the first year. Now it appears there is also…
Registration for Hyatt’s New Free NIghts or Points Promotion Starts Today
Basic principle: sign up for promotions whenever you know about them, even if you do not think you’re going to take advantage of them. Plans change. You get rebooked or have to book a room elsewhere. A trip comes up. Odds of remembering that there’s a promotion to take advantage of at the time you’re changing your plans? Very slim. Registration is quick and easy, so just do it. With that in mind, registration for Hyatt’s new promotion starts today. Stays between January 15 through April 30th offer you 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. Here’s the bonus earning table if you choose to earn points: At…
American’s Inaugural Airbus A321 Flight – A Fantastic Product Coast-to-Coast
On Tuesday I flew American Airlines’ inaugural Airbus A321 flight from Los Angeles to New York JFK. That’s their new plane with their new premium product for New York – Los Angeles and San Francisco flights. And it was great. I paid for the tickets myself and upgraded to business class. I flew to Los Angeles the night before — hotels near the airport were exceptionally pricey, with the Sheraton going for over $300 and no standard rooms available for redemption. The Hilton LAX was $209, I thought about burning 30,000 HHonors points but… I blew through all of those due to last year’s devaluation, and I have only 24,000. The Hyatt Place offered only Diamond Guaranteed Availability for $229, I thought about the Crowne Plaza LAX for 25,000 points but I really didn’t want…
What Are Your Hotel Must-Haves?
Tyler Cowen writes about what he looks for in a hotel. 1. Very flat pillows so the head can lie almost flat. 2. No fawning from service people. 3. Numerous ready to access electrical outlets, including a laptop outlet right next to the bed so I can lean up against the pillow while blogging. 4. A non-ventilated bathroom which allows you to steam clothes into submission, and clothes hangars which support the same. 6. NBA-relevant channels on the TV and an easy to operate remote control system which does not trap said user in irrelevant menus. 7. Good breakfast choices which do not have an excess of carbohydrates. On number 1, I suspect he doesn’t ask the hotels he stays in for the pillows he wants. Quite often they can accommodate, and not just when…
Buy Your Airline and Hotel Elite Status and Drink Free Coffee (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 8, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: You can buy up additional US Airways elite qualifying miles that you flew in 2013 for 2014 through the end of May and indeed can choose now whether you’re buying 2013 or 2014 qualifying miles. Caribou Coffee will give you a free medium drink for joining their loyalty program. (HT: pf digest) What is Hyatt Diamond Premier status? (You can have this if you own a Hyatt hotel.) Nok Air didn’t use real flight attendants for their calendar, they collaborated with Playboy Thailand instead. 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…
How Should I Handle Screaming Kids Inflight .. Who Just Won’t Stop?
What started out as a fantastic, albeit early (3:30am alarm!) travel day yesterday turned sour in the afternoon. A three and a half hour delay for my connecting flight, with very little information forthcoming, had me worn out. Finally taxiing out I was looking forward to just closing my eyes when… .. the child seated behind me started kicking my seat. And didn’t stop. His younger sibling started screaming. Then they both started screaming. At first the parents did nothing. Then the father reached across the aisle to stop the kid from kicking me, and his wife scolded him for it. They started fighting. And it got worse from there. It turns out that despite advances in technology, there’s no such thing as “Screaming Children Immediately Behind You Cancelling Headsets.” And there’s also no such…
Hyatt’s New Discounted Rates for Elite Members Offer Great Value
Shortly after Hyatt annoucned the devaluation of some of their top end awards, they also announced new features of the program. Yesterday 20% off rates for Gold Passport elite members went into effect. They call it “My Elite Rate” and there is no special offer code, you just have to be a Platinum or Diamond Gold Passport elite member (Platinum is the level you get just for having their credit card) and search for rates on the Hyatt website. These rates are 20% off the Hyatt Daily Rate and cancallable (not prepaid). They are capacity-controlled, so not always available, but so far availability is looking quite good. Normally on domestic reservations if I’m not booking a corporate rate, I’ll book AAA which is cancellable and gets me 10% off. (There’s also this 15% off code…
Hyatt’s New Cash & Points Award Nights Are Live – And They’re Great!
Shortly after Hyatt annoucned the devaluation of some of their top end awards, they also announced new features of the program. Today cash and points awards went into effect. Here’s the cash and points award chart — you pay half the usual number of points and a cash co-pay. I’ve included with the chart the price at which you are ‘buying’ the difference in points. For categories 2 through 6 this is an exceptional value, and one I would take advantage of every time compared to spending points for the room (although there will be times when paid rates are low enough that spending any points at all, even cash and points, won’t make sense). Even at two cents a point this is a discount relative to what Hyatt suually sells points for, but higher…
The Mileage Devaluations Are Almost Over — And We’re Still Better Off Than We Used to Be
Scott Mayerowitz is considering walking away from points-earning credit cards because awards have gotten more expensive and harder to redeem (“[T]he mileage credit card frenzy? It isn’t worth it anymore.”). I think he’s making some analytical mistakes and losing perspective. Here’s his argument: The price of awards is going up. There are too many miles chasing too few seats (and rooms). The economy is getting better, so there’s no reason to be as generous. Getting awards is tougher than it used to be. There’s some truth here, but the claim that things are worse than they used to be isn’t right (or at least depends on the time horizon you’re considering) and the conclusion doesn’t follow that you’re better off with a cash back card. 2013 Was a Bad Year for Mileage Devaluations United devalued…
